History has many examples of powerful companies that seem to be unbeatable. Then in a short time they become irrelevant due to new companies with new ideas. One of the factors in such transformation is technology. Never in history has technological change been so important in building and destroying companies. We look at few examples of successful companies that fail to address the chaning times and become disrupted. We also look at why technology emerges when it does and why some ideas can only be realised when certain conditions are met. In this first lecture we set the tone for the course and define the themes that we will be looking at.