Innovation
When we started this business back in 2003, we were on the rebound of all this high tech stuff that we had done out in Silicon Valley. We wanted to go into a business that had relatively low technology risk. We wanted something simple. Heck, even our tagline “It’s a box… you put stuff in it!” has an air of simplicity. Portable storage seemed like a safe place and Falcon Storage could be a simple little business. I’d go to cocktail parties and see Venture Capitalists wondering “Falcon Storage… is that gigabyte or terabyte technology?” Right…
Fast forward five years and we’ve built our business around technology. But, before we rest too much on our laurels, check out the innovation that is happening on the fringes. Those are some phenomenal innovations of people truly thinking “outside the box”. Or rather, they are thinking “inside the box”. I never would have imagined that shipping containers would evolve into these modern, contemporary structures. Dare I say, they are beautiful!
The question is did we misjudge the portable storage business? Did we not see the potential of the shipping container? After some introspection, I think that it wasn’t that we misjudged our industry. We misjudged human nature. I think one of the most amazing pieces of human nature is the ability to innovate. It’s been around all through history, not just during the last 100 years. That innovation takes the basic elements of what “is” and takes it to a whole new level. Even if what is before us is a rectangular box, human nature looks at that and imagines what it could be.
All this to say is that there is no industry “safe” from the winds of technology because innovation is hard wired into what it means to be human. It gives a whole new perspective on “innovate or die”, doesn’t it?