Mohan - I was lucky to work at Cisco when I saw this theory play out first hand - as Cisco accrued value that once belonged to ATT, NTT, etc. (Cisco became the world’s most valuable company for a period of time.)
Among many insightful ideas in your article is the never-ending cycle of value migration. Not long after Cisco’s peak, the network switch arrived and soon the end points of the network had all the value.
Bravo - this article essentially sums up modern capitalism.
Hi Mohan, thanks so much for sharing this article. It really resonate with me, particularly the idea that value increasingly migrates upward from execution toward abstraction, orchestration, and outcome ownership as technology commoditizes lower-level work.
It strongly resonated with some of the work I’ve been doing around the BPO/CX industry and what I describe as the “pricing-to-value asymmetry.” My core argument is that customer operations increasingly influence enterprise value drivers such as retention, trust, CLV, and governance outcomes, yet the industry still monetizes itself largely through labor-based/FTE pricing models.
In many ways, AI is not destroying value in the sector — it is exposing that value has already migrated away from raw execution toward higher-order orchestration, relationship management, governance, and operational system design. The commercial model simply hasn’t caught up yet.
Your article gave me a useful broader conceptual lens for thinking about that transition. I think there’s a very interesting overlap between abstraction theory and how operational industries like BPO are evolving in the AI era.
Hi Mohan, it has been a long time! Your value abstraction model equally applies to a previous iteration: Mainframe hardware (IBM) to decentralize layer ( DEC) to Individualized PC ( Apple, IBM, Dell), migration to software, operating system ( Microsoft), application software (Lotus), packaged software ( numerous MRP, Financial), Enterprise ( SAP, Oracle, Salesforce) etc.
What your framework demonstrates is a durable structure underneath a technological revolution. It is important for the enterprise leadership to be not dazzled by the current state but take a longview to bet strategically.
Mohan, this is one of your best and most thought provoking articles. Reframed my perspective!
Thank you.
Sorry for how long it is but it needed space to breathe!
It’s worth the read.
Mohan - I was lucky to work at Cisco when I saw this theory play out first hand - as Cisco accrued value that once belonged to ATT, NTT, etc. (Cisco became the world’s most valuable company for a period of time.)
Among many insightful ideas in your article is the never-ending cycle of value migration. Not long after Cisco’s peak, the network switch arrived and soon the end points of the network had all the value.
Bravo - this article essentially sums up modern capitalism.
Thank you for the validation!
Hi Mohan, thanks so much for sharing this article. It really resonate with me, particularly the idea that value increasingly migrates upward from execution toward abstraction, orchestration, and outcome ownership as technology commoditizes lower-level work.
It strongly resonated with some of the work I’ve been doing around the BPO/CX industry and what I describe as the “pricing-to-value asymmetry.” My core argument is that customer operations increasingly influence enterprise value drivers such as retention, trust, CLV, and governance outcomes, yet the industry still monetizes itself largely through labor-based/FTE pricing models.
In many ways, AI is not destroying value in the sector — it is exposing that value has already migrated away from raw execution toward higher-order orchestration, relationship management, governance, and operational system design. The commercial model simply hasn’t caught up yet.
Your article gave me a useful broader conceptual lens for thinking about that transition. I think there’s a very interesting overlap between abstraction theory and how operational industries like BPO are evolving in the AI era.
Really thought-provoking piece.
Jens
Hi Mohan, it has been a long time! Your value abstraction model equally applies to a previous iteration: Mainframe hardware (IBM) to decentralize layer ( DEC) to Individualized PC ( Apple, IBM, Dell), migration to software, operating system ( Microsoft), application software (Lotus), packaged software ( numerous MRP, Financial), Enterprise ( SAP, Oracle, Salesforce) etc.
What your framework demonstrates is a durable structure underneath a technological revolution. It is important for the enterprise leadership to be not dazzled by the current state but take a longview to bet strategically.
Well done!
Excellent additional scenarios. Thank you