By now, it’s evident that the speed of business is heading inexorably toward “real time,” and that means that industry by industry, a specialized infrastructure is emerging to support disruptive forms of business that has the net effect of driving higher yields for an entire ecosystem. Most of this happens quietly in the background, but without latency-reducing direct interconnections, the recent transformations of financial trading and online advertising would have been impossible. Since many more industries will follow finance and advertising, it is imperative for leaders to understand how to make an industry operate in real time.