If you haven’t read The Deployment Age (and its follow on post), you should go read it right now.
The premise is that we’re entering a technology super cycle with the Internet and PC where the technology will become far more integrated and invisible and the chief means of financing will be internal company resources. The focus will be on existing markets, not creating new ones, and refinement rather than innovation.
If you work in technology and are interested in the big picture, it is worth a read:
Some things we’ve learned over the past 30 years–that novelty is more important than quality; that if you’re not disrupting yourself someone else will disrupt you; that entering new markets is more important than expanding existing markets; that technology has to be evangelized, not asked for by your customers–may no longer be true. Almost every company will continue to be managed as if these things were true, probably right up until they manage themselves out of business. There’s an old saying that generals are always fighting the last war, it’s not just generals, it’s everyone’s natural inclination.
Go read it: The Deployment Age.