---
title: "Fourth Discussion on 'Marketing in the Next Century': Individuals Over Organizations, Technology Breaks All Resource Barriers"
description: "Technology breaks all resource barriers, and individuals can surpass organizations in the internet era. This article discusses the historical recurrence of this phenomenon, the shift from individual to organizational innovation, and the need to rebuild marketing systems in response to changing cognitive and communication patterns."
author: "刘春雄"
publisher: "New Distribution"
email: "zhaobo258@gmail.com"
telephone: "+8615854817671"
published: "2025-11-08"
categories: "Brand Marketing, E-commerce & Instant Retail, Management & Methods"
language: "en"
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original_source: "https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qpacumlB-TZvXs_n8Is6fQ"
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citation: "刘春雄. “Fourth Discussion on 'Marketing in the Next Century': Individuals Over Organizations, Technology Breaks All Resource Barriers.” New Distribution, 2025-11-08. https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/fourth-discussion-on-marketing-in-the-next-century-individuals-over-orga-109c8f8c/"
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---

# Fourth Discussion on 'Marketing in the Next Century': Individuals Over Organizations, Technology Breaks All Resource Barriers

> Technology breaks all resource barriers, and individuals can surpass organizations in the internet era. This article discusses the historical recurrence of this phenomenon, the shift from individual to organizational innovation, and the need to rebuild marketing systems in response to changing cognitive and communication patterns.

### **Source** | Teacher Liu's Scenario Marketing **ID** | liuchunxiong1964 Author | Liu Chunxiong
********Technology Breaks All Resource Barriers****
Around 2010, when Taobao was gaining momentum, it was unmatched, "no rival even with a telescope," and all traditional businesses were no match. It was the only platform that could force big brands to choose between it and others.
Just when I thought the e-commerce 721 pattern (Taobao 70%, followers 20%, others 10%) was set, Pinduoduo rose. Pinduoduo leveraged WeChat's linking capability, which Taobao could not block.
Just when I thought with Pinduoduo, the platform e-commerce landscape should be settled, Douyin live-streaming e-commerce rose. Then all platform e-commerce tried live streaming, but none could beat Douyin.
Just when I thought no one could stop e-commerce, and platform e-commerce share approached 27%, the share peaked. Meanwhile, instant retail rose.
This is an era of endless new technologies; each revolutionary technology immediately renders traditional business systems built on resource barriers defenseless. Even barriers built with new technology are quickly broken by newer technology.
In the face of new technology's commercial applications, resource-based business barriers are meaningless. Because we don't know which technologies will achieve commercial breakthroughs, "better to do wrong than miss out" becomes a necessary choice in this era.
Is this phenomenon normal?
******Individuals Over Organizations**
On the evening of June 9, 2022, the previously unknown Dong Yuhui became an overnight sensation on the "East Buy" live-streaming platform, rising faster than any celebrity in any era. Initially, he coexisted peacefully with management and other streamers, but soon conflicts became irreconcilable.
A traditional organization finds it hard to accept individuals being greater than the organization. Dong Yuhui's departure to found "With Yuhui" was not surprising. Soon, "With Yuhui" surpassed "East Buy" in followers and GMV.
In the live-streaming field, the Live Streaming F4 are all "influencers greater than MCN." Whether or not F4 are founders, once they become big influencers, they inevitably become major shareholders.
Recently, in the PK between Luo Yonghao and Xibei, Xibei was not fighting alone; I observed that the catering industry largely sided with Xibei. Insiders know that although Xibei has problems, it is definitely a top player in the catering industry. But it couldn't withstand Luo's call, which gathered a crowd. In the online realm, quantity is justice.
In the financial world that emphasizes "same shares, same benefits," internet companies commonly implement an AB share structure, giving founders voting rights far exceeding their shareholding. This is an institutional guarantee for "individuals over organizations."
Individuals over organizations, a phenomenon that should not exist in traditional organizational systems, is common in the internet era. So, is this phenomenon normal?
******History Repeats**
Individuals over organizations, technology breaking all resource barriers. Similar phenomena occurred in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
As a child, I was puzzled by American inventor Edison: how could he invent so many things? He must be a god. Why are there no such people now?
In the early 20th century, America saw many kings in various fields and methods named after founders, like Ford's assembly line. These are all phenomena of individuals over organizations and technology breaking all resource barriers.
When a new era begins, such as the technological breakthroughs of the Second Industrial Revolution and now internet technology breakthroughs, advanced technology has astonishing penetration. The penetration comes not from the technology itself but from the advanced productive forces it brings. Early penetration comes from individuals who master new technology, later from organizations that master it.
When new technology emerges, some people are ahead of the curve, and individuals with new technology can dominate, while the organization and management that match the advanced productive forces have not yet formed. The Second Industrial Revolution brought increased productivity, requiring organizational and management changes, thus giving rise to modern management science. The fruits of industrialized mass production needed marketing to digest, thus giving rise to marketing.
Individuals over organizations because individuals who master advanced technological means and tools have power exceeding traditional organizations. When the Maxim machine gun was invented, a single gunner's lethality exceeded that of a sizable traditional army. Individuals over organizations because individuals are the first to master advanced technological forces and tools, enabling them to break all resource barriers.
The phenomenon that appeared over 100 years ago is repeating because the world has again entered a period of rapid technological breakthroughs that are unpredictable.
Individuals over organizations is normal in specific periods. But this normality is also time-limited.
Although influencers are powerful, few remain popular for long. The technological power attached to individuals is quickly absorbed by organizations and rapidly becomes a resource barrier.
When history repeats, it may indicate a pattern. When individuals over organizations becomes the norm, it may mean that disruptive technology has opened a new era; whoever masters new technology first has a low-threshold opportunity for entrepreneurship, as resource barriers are easily broken.
At the same time, it also means that organizational and management changes, enabling organizations to quickly absorb new technology or accommodate those who master it, become important.
******The Invention of Invention**
In the long run, individuals over organizations is abnormal.
Drucker said in "Innovation and Entrepreneurship" that past innovation was individual "flashes of inspiration," while Drucker advocated innovation as a "replicable process," finding the "source of innovation," and following the "innovation process" to replicate innovation. Thus, innovation shifted from individual to organized R&D (research/development).
When Drucker studied management, theoretical systems and management systems became important. He was not the founder of management theory but a synthesizer.
When the subject of innovation shifts from individuals to organizations, we rarely see those "innovation heroes." The shift from individual to organizational innovation indicates that a new era has moved from its early stage to maturity. So, the greatest invention of the 20th century was "the invention of invention"—organized R&D.
When technological breakthroughs enter a bottleneck, organizations and management systems adapted to new technology have formed, new social science systems have formed, and resource barriers remain strong.
******Marketing Dead, or Rebuilding Marketing?**
Dong Yuhui gained millions of followers overnight, with annual GMV exceeding 10 billion, which is the result of years of accumulation by many industry giants! In front of Dong Yuhui, traditional marketing organizational systems fail.
What to do? Transform Dong Yuhui, or transform East Buy?
Transforming Dong Yuhui is definitely wrong, and making East Buy adapt to Dong Yuhui may not be right in the long run either.
The emergence of a phenomenon will always have multiple theoretical explanations. For example, e-commerce allocates traffic, so traffic-thinking theories prevail. Many are led by the nose by traffic thinking. This explanation of phenomena is typical of mistaking effect for cause, infinitely expanding short-term phenomena.
During generational transitions, the "quick rise and fall" of influencers tells us not to infinitely expand the phenomenon of individuals over organizations; it is only a short-term phenomenon, and influencers are just passersby of the era.
But we must realize that we should bid farewell to past organizations and models, and not cling to past resource barriers. That is certain.
In marketing, heavy spending is not as effective as influencer power. Has mainstream communication shifted from mass media to influencers?
Our thinking is: it's not that marketing is dead, but that traditional marketing is dead. However, from a higher dimension, the basic logic of marketing has not changed. Of course, understanding of the marketing dimension varies greatly.
Therefore, during generational transitions, we must correctly understand what changes and what remains.
First, marketing as cognition remains, but cognitive models change.
Marketing is about changing cognition; this hasn't changed. But word-of-mouth is cognition, brand is cognition, IP is cognition. These are changing.
Second, marketing as communication remains, but communication media change.
Communication changes cognition, but media have changed from mouth to text, from text to mass media PGC, and then to internet self-media UGC.
Third, the quantity justice of communication remains, but the way quantity accumulates changes.
No matter the communication, without quantity there is no qualitative change. But the way quantity leads to qualitative change can be "public opinion melts gold," or PGC's "repeated broadcasting," or UGC fission.
Fourth, the threshold for communication quantity remains, but the touchpoints triggering communication change.
Professional creation, media dissemination. Brand formation relies on capital investment in mass media; IP formation is the result of UGC fission.
Is UGC fission controllable? Influencers think it's uncontrollable, a result of communication personification. For a time, the term "personification" was prevalent.
Our research shows that scenarios are the triggers for UGC communication fission. Therefore, intervening in scenarios, scenario interaction, user connection, UGC communication and fission, and UGC quantity justice form IP. Thus, a new marketing system is established.
Individuals over organizations, the emergence of super individuals has background inevitability and individual contingency.
Discover the inevitability of the background, use organizational power to change contingency. In this "individual over organization," opportunities for new theories emerge.
So, what is the era background? From a marketing communication perspective, due to the emergence of mobile internet, the phone has become a "sixth organ" for humans. Thus, communication has shifted from mass media that requires resources to dispersed individuals. However, human sociality determines that people have two opposite but self-consistent behaviors: both independence from the group and a desire for organizational belonging.
Independence from the group manifests in communication as self-expression and uniqueness. Organizational belonging manifests as conformity.
Marketing expert Miao Qingxian said, "Conformity" and "uniqueness"—you have to jump into one of the two pits. Actually, most people jump into both pits simultaneously without feeling incongruous.
Uniqueness produces UGC with communication value. Conformity means that when UGC fission reaches a certain quantity, it becomes a trend and forms an IP.
In this era background, what becomes the underlying logic of communication?
Scenarios. More specifically, scenario interaction.
Scenario interaction, value co-creation; scenario interaction, triggering UGC; UGC fission, forming IP.
One more point. "Individuals over organizations, technology breaks all resource barriers." I first heard this phrase from a speech by Tuobuhua, co-founder of Dedao (Logic Thinking), not my original, but I find it very vivid and often quote it. But now I can't find the video or text of her speech.


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## Citation metadata

- Publisher: New Distribution
- Author: 刘春雄
- Published: 2025-11-08
- Canonical: https://xinjignxiao.com/en/articles/fourth-discussion-on-marketing-in-the-next-century-individuals-over-orga-109c8f8c/
- Original source: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/qpacumlB-TZvXs_n8Is6fQ

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