Rich, (01)
I accidentally hit SEND before finishing. (02)
For every simple solution, you can find a long string of
counterexamples: (03)
> the little startup firms, nipping the buds of the
> colossus fruit, find the little missing niche products and
> services that colossus has no time to pursue because the profit
> margin is lower than their current fruit market margin. (04)
That's often true. But note that the big corporate research
centers -- such as IBM, AT&T Bell Labs, and Xerox PARC -- had
discovered many niches that they filled with successful products. (05)
There are also some large corporations, such as Samsung, which
took over the TV market from other large corporations. For their
success story, see the article about "Heidegger's Marketing Secrets":
http://www.businessweek.com/printer/articles/185129-heideggers-marketing-secrets-what-german-philosophers-know-about-selling-tvs (06)
> For example, telephone over telegraph (telegraph management had
> not a clue), TV over radio, transistors over tubes, whatever new
> innovation takes over the old. (07)
But many do. Note that the old radio networks became the new
TV networks: CBS, NBC, ABC. Dumont was the pioneer in TV in
the US, and they started a network of TV stations. But they
didn't know how to sustain their growth. Guess who bought them?
Clue: Who owns the most Channel 2 TV stations? (08)
> The winners have been the companies that specialize in one highly
> focused area. (09)
Warren Buffett's conglomerate of companies ranging Dairy Queen
to railroads to Dairy Queen has been one of the most successful
long-term investments for many years. His insight is to buy
undervalued firms whose technology is simple enough to understand
*and* run them as autonomous businesses within the conglomerate.
Buffett is the de facto chairman of every board, but each business
has its own CEO. (010)
And Steve Jobs had consistently discovered new areas in which
he led Apple (a large corporation that kept becoming bigger)
in a wide range of areas: grow the PC business much faster
than Microsoft; develop the iPod to beat Sony's dominance
with the Walkman; develop the iPhone to beat Nokia, Blackberry,
etc.; develop the iPad to succeed in areas where other groups
had tried and failed repeatedly. (011)
A longer explanation that is more complex than a one-line slogan: (012)
The person in charge of technology must have the insight to learn
from the competition, the technical smarts to recognize a good design,
the executive power to make the technical design into a product, and
the knowledge of how to sell the product. (013)
Steve J. had that combination. Warren B. found a good way to
manage a conglomerate of semi-autonomous companies. (014)
John (015)
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