There are literally billions of dollars of corporate excess to be trimmed from our economy. Entrepreneurial start-up companies force established firms to continually re-evaluate both operations and product offerings. Sometimes though, the pressure comes less from competitors than from technology.

An article in the Marketplace section of the Wall Street Journal on 11/29/06 titled The Internet Allows Consumers to Trim Wasteful Purchases, elaborates on an unintended effect of digital cameras. Kodak and Fuji expected them to reduce demand for film. What caught them off guard was the huge reduction in printing on photo paper. In addition to allowing users to edit to just the handful of meaningful photos in a three dozen batch, users are distributing them via email or web photo sharing sites. Gone are the double-prints from Walgreens of mostly bad shots.

There are other similar fat-trimming trends. Music buyers are able to purchase just the prime one or two songs from an album, rather than the other ten tracks. Instead of buying $12 worth of music from a band, the user may pay just $.99 for the hit.

Regarding the huge drop off of traditional advertising media, the same article in WSJ quotes 19th century magnate John Wannamaker’s famous line “I know half of my advertising money is wasted, but I don’t know which half”. On the web, advertisers know immediately what works and what doesn’t, and you can bet that they eliminate the ineffective strategy very quickly.

The trend here is that technology is allowing users to cut the fat and choose just the products that give them the most value. Companies that want to do business with those users will need to cut the fat or they will be the fat. Less is more.