

How the Mighty Fall: A Primer on the Warning Signs - agrinshtein
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/09_21/b4132026786379.htm

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10ren
Reminds me of _The Innovator's Dilemma_ , but I think that applies only to
specific product categories. The fortunes of many companies are tied to a
family of products (e.g. Digital), and so the decline of that product category
can cause the fall of the company.

The article is talking about companies that are so large that they become more
like investors, whose job it is to allocate capital across different product
categories. A skillful investor can then offset the tired against the vigorous
to ride out the changes. But it seems to me that a company still needs to have
some kind of mission and special expertise. This is why focusing on an abiding
customer need appeals to me, instead of a specific technology or market. The
need will always be there; if you keep on finding new and improved ways to
solve, it you will always be providing something worthwhile. That is, if you
organize yourself around _finding_ and _improving_ , not around a particular
technology or market.

For example, Google's mission, to "organize the world's information and make
it universally accessible and useful" isn't tied to PageRank or even the
internet. Whether this mission is more than PR, and whether they could make
the leap in practice, hasn't yet been tested - though WolframAlpha might give
them a workout.

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ojbyrne
I often ask the question - what's the difference between Detroit in 1972 and
Silicon Valley now? None!

