If you had asked a carriage driver in the late 19th century what he needed most, he almost certainly would have answered: I need a faster horse. He would never have requested an internal combustion engine.
In a recent thought-provoking analysis, Tianqiao Chen, founder of Shanda Group and the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute (TCCI), uses this classic metaphor to diagnose a critical error in modern corporate strategy. He argues that today's business leaders are trapped in a "skeuomorphic pitfall," mimicking the shapes of the old world rather than leveraging AI to create something genuinely new.
