TMT Strategies LLC is a strategic research company focused on the impact of digital technology on the economy and society. The company was formed in 2010 and has four principals: Mark D. Stahlman, Amy Wohl, Douglas Rushkoff and David Farber. Among us we have over 100 years experience at the highest levels in the technology industry. 

Our motto is THINKING DIGITAL and our emblem is +1D, which underscores our belief that adding the digital dimension fundamentally changes our understanding of the world we live in and its new digital economy.

TMT Strategies has launched its tmtCLOUDstrategies and tmtCHINAstrategies services (please go to our Projects page for more details) and is growing into a leading provider of subscription research dealing with the strategic implications of digital technology. This technology has become the fundamental driver of economic growth, as well as a crucial component of national strategies. Indeed, these new technologies are already dramatically reshaping cultures in ways that we haven't experienced in 100+ years or more. As a result, thinking through the 5-10 year and even longer-term impact of new technologies has become imperative for governments as well as major corporations and many investors.

We believe that the far-reaching impact of these digital technologies is nothing less than the equivalent of the atom bomb in the 1950s.  Reflecting this fact, Mark Stahlman and Amy Wohl are writing a book called "The Digital Bomb."  Just as the atom bomb forced a fundamental rethinking of military strategy and gave rise to new institutions made up of people freed from the burdens of older approaches (e.g. the Rand Corporation, where TMT principal David Farber worked), we believe that TMT Strategies can fill a role organizing the "best-and-brightest" minds of our time to anticipate the future of our shared civilizations.

Why Now?

We believe there is a significant market opening for tech-focused strategic research. One reason for this is that the technology business has generally bypassed strategic thinking in favor of more near-term goals, often under the pressure of deadlines and nonstop competition. Traditional strategy consulting firms tend to not understand the dynamics of the technology industry, while market research firms tend to aim at the tactical decisions required by their myriad customers. We believe there is an important opportunity for TMT Strategies to address these unmet needs for a select group of clients.

The company's name, TMT, stands for Technology, Media and Telecommunications -- a shorthand which became widely used by the investment community in the 1990s to inclusively describe all of the businesses that depend on digital technology. For investors, TMT includes Google, Apple, Amazon, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Microsoft, Intel, Oracle and hundreds of others, but also includes telecommunications service companies like Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and their peers as well as telecommunications equipment providers like Cisco, Juniper, et al, along with media companies like Time Warner, Viacom and others, as well.

Media Changes Cultures

Media -- in its widest meaning — is particularly important for TMT Strategies. Mark Stahlman coined the term "New Media" in 1989 to refer to the rise of the Internet which he expected to boom throughout the 1990s. We believe that the latest phase of new media, what many call "social media," is often misunderstood -- both by underestimating its far-reaching cultural impact and overestimating its ability to become a new word-of-mouth sales channel. Our third principal, Douglas Rushkoff, has built an impressive career as one of world's most prescient commentators on the disruptive impact of new media technologies. Eric McLuhan, Marshall McLuhan's son and a significant media analyst in his own right, is an important member of our advisory board.

TMT Strategies has been established as an international business from the beginning -- with a particular emphasis on Asia and a concentration on China -- through our partnership with IHS International, a leading China-focused strategic advisory. We believe that the Internet has dramatically changed global business, shifting it away from what has been called "globalism" for decades towards activities that are far more local and, contrary to many globalist viewpoints, development that is dependent on national identities and real differences between national economies and political systems. The "anti-global" and "pro-local" bias of Internet-based technologies has caught many off guard -- leading to many bad decisions and stranded investments.

Techno-Economic Cycles

We embrace the notion that the world economy moves in 60-year cycles, driven by new Techno-Economic Paradigms (TEP), as detailed by world-leading economic historian Carlota Perez, who is also an important member of our advisory board. The global economy is currently in the middle of the semiconductor-based digital long-cycle, with another 20+ years to go. This cycle follows the previous oil-based TEP (circa 1910-1970) and will be followed by another cycle which we believe will be based on "molecular manufacturing" (circa 2030-2090?) Perez identifies the rest of the current TEP cycle as the crucial period for worldwide deployment of the technologies on which TMT Strategies focuses, which are already re-shaping economies everywhere.