When Frederic Tudor, one of America's first millionaires, died in 1864, he was celebrated by media as "Boston Ice King" and even as the "Ice King of the World".

His life shows an important lesson about business change that still matters today.

The ice network

Tudor built a huge network to ship ice worldwide, solving the problem of moving frozen water to hot countries. After some early money troubles, his company became the only major player in the market.

The unexpected interruption

But the business ended when no one expected it. Carl von Linde created mechanical refrigeration, which made Tudor's ice business outdated. This new technology turned ice from an expensive product into something everyone could get. Ice production became easy and no longer dependend on cold regions of the world.

Reflection to todays AI technology

Today's business experts see similar patterns between past market changes and new technology like AI.

The basic idea is simple: successful businesses can fail when new technology makes exclusive products available to everyone. Tudor's business didn't fail because people stopped wanting ice. Instead, new technology offered better ways to make ice. The market changed form rather than disappeared.

This pattern of change is happening faster today. New technologies are becoming easier for more people to use, just like in the past. The way mechanical refrigeration made ice available to everyone is similar to how AI is making expert-level tasks available to more people.

Tasks that once needed specialists can now be done with AI tools. This change is more than just replacing human workers with technology. It's about completely changing how businesses create and deliver value.

In product development you could be affected by a big threat: new innovations that make old ways of doing things useless.

Making Tudor's ice business more efficient wouldn't have saved it. The entire business model had become outdated. Today's businesses face the same challenge - just being more efficient isn't enough when their basic business model becomes obsolete. For today's business leaders, the message is clear: the biggest threats often come not from doing things better, but from completely new ways of solving problems.

Three lessons

This history teaches us three main lessons:

• First, question your basic business assumptions. Tudor's competitors failed because they assumed natural ice would always be special.
• Second, watch for changes in related industries. Big changes often start in connected fields before spreading quickly.
• Third, focus on solving problems rather than sticking to one way of doing things. Tudor's real business was cooling things, not just delivering ice.

With AI becoming more common, today's business advantages might not last. Companies need to prepare for and adapt to market changes.

The ice trade shows us that innovation completely changes markets rather than just improving them - an important lesson for today's business strategy.