Drone economics are classically disruptive. Already drones can accomplish tasks in some hours that take people days. They can provide deeply detailed visual data for a tiny fraction of the cost of acquiring the same data by other means. They’re becoming crucial in workplace safety, removing people from precarious processes such as cell-tower inspection. And they offer, literally, a new view into business: Their low-overhead perspective is bringing new insights and capabilities to fields and factories alike. The drone economy is real, and you need a strategy for exploiting it. Here’s how to think about what’s happening — and what’s going to happen. 1) Capturing reality for the cost of a nice lunch 2) Rising from the ground to fill the missing middle 3) Autonomous, small and countless 4) The rise of cloud robotics 5) Cool is not enough. Drones as ubiquitous as sprinklers: We’ve come a long way from weapons, sci-fi movies, and headlines. But in the prosaic applications of advanced technologies lie their real impact. Read more at: https://hbr.org/cover-story/2017/05/drones-go-to-work