What do Clorox, Twitter, Equifax, Macy’s, ViacomCBS, Nordstrom, and Southwest Airlines have in common? All of them, at one time or another, dropped out of the Standard & Poor’s 500 index.

A common misconception that plagues the entrepreneurial world is that the only metric of success that should matter to us is a quick and painless rise to the top. The contradiction in question, however, is that we all know that today’s largest corporations are not the same as yesterday’s, and will not be tomorrow’s: staying on top, so to speak, is arguably just as important. how to get.

A 2019 McKinsey study found that the lifespans of companies at the top of their game are rapidly diminishing at lightning speeds. In 1958, organizations listed on the S&P 500 had been on the list for an average of 61 years, but that number dropped to 35 years in the late 1970s and is now just 18 years. “The speed of disruption is accelerating,” reports McKinsey, adding to its grim prediction that by 2027, 75% of the companies currently listed on the S&P 500 will be gone.

This is because organic growth “continues to elude long-established companies,” and younger companies are outperforming their more established counterparts. Look at the fact that “S&P Global 1200 companies that were founded in the last 30 years generated four times more shareholder value than older companies,” and the picture becomes much clearer.

A key factor affecting the stunted growth of the companies we know and love today is their inability to renew themselves and withstand pressure from younger, more innovative challengers. These are digital natives, disruptive powerhouses, fast-moving unicorns, and tech-enabled startups with no shortage of creative inspiration.

If the trend continues on its current trajectory, many of the world’s largest companies will collapse unless they embrace innovative technologies; right now, those related to web3 are in the spotlight.

Web3 technologies, such as decentralized blockchains, provide new business opportunities, improve transparency and security where data is not centralized, and allow companies to take advantage of the future of tokenization. Worth an estimated $13 trillion and with up to five billion users by 2030, the metaverse is part of an innovative vision for a web3 future powered by a mix of AI, VR, machine learning, blockchain, 5G, and much more: Business opportunities, should large corporations wish to use them to their advantage rather than ignore them, abound all around us.

Companies can use this technology to take advantage of new decentralized trading models and platforms, along with financial models such as tokenized asset classes. It can seem quite overwhelming, at least at first, but it is essential for companies to understand what web3 is all about, as them they should be the ones to guide the way to it. Currently one of the biggest names publicly exploring the potential of web3 technologies, Google’s Alphabet is a prime example of who is breaking new ground, alongside Amazon, Netflix, Meta and Meta’s Instagram, Apple, Sony and many more.

If the big corporations don’t join the web3 revolution, they will likely end up being overtaken by their tech-savvy competitors, whom the D-gen (decentralized generation) will be more than happy to turn to. The question is, why not prevent that from happening in the first place? Why not at least try to get closer to web3 technology and make use of it while the playing field is still somewhat level?

To anyone who is “waiting for the perfect moment” to jump on the web3 bandwagon, I will just say this: if you wait for everyone else to go first, you will always be last. And if you still think there’s a perfect moment, you may have already missed it.

By Lone Fønss Schrøder, CEO of Concordium