More tv-channels, more websites, faster internet access, more varieties of ice cream. More, more, more. The fact is we are getting more of everything with each day that goes by. The only thing that stays the same is time. Only 24 four hours per day and that is it.

People only have a limited amount of time on their hands, so it should become even more valuable as we get more of everything else.

The way I see it, companies are either in the business of saving or consuming the time of their customers. Those that are in the saving time business should focus their efforts on maximizing the time they can save. And businesses that consume time should maximize the value their customer gets when giving up his or her precious time.

The interesting part is jumping from one business to the other.

YouTube did it. Watching videos, tv or movies used to be a time consuming activity. They turned the whole thing around, now watching videos is a time saving activity.  Three minutes and you are done.

I think there is a lot of room for innovation in this area. Maybe some online newspaper could stop trying to compete in speed. Focusing instead on consuming their customers time by providing the most in depth news coverage available. Creating a relationship with people that do not just want to scratch the surface and giving them lots of value for their time.