Kirkpatrick makes the argument that each company that survives and thrives the current era does so because it becomes a software company, regardless of the outward appearance of its products, services, mission etc. The argument mirrors Alan Cooper's realisation that innovative products and services in the modern era are intrinsically entangled with high tech elements and as a consequence that modern products and services behave more like computers or software simply because their fabric increasingly utilises computing elements.
The argument is highly circular: innovative products/services employ computing elements, therefore the organisations that design and produce these products/services must become expert in producing software. Organisations that are adept at producing software produce even more software and make software intrinsic to more and more of the products/services that that organisation produces. The products/services produced by organisations employ more computing elements...
References
David Kirkpatrick, "Now Every Company Is A Software Company", Forbes Magazine, 2011. (link)
