Cannibalize Thyself
Microsoft was a very successful one-trick pony (Windows/Office) for decades. But being a one-trick pony is exactly what every big tech company today seeks to avoid! If you thought this just meant having multiple products/brands ( a la P&G), think again. Tech companies today almost think cannibalistically! Steve Jobs, in fact, explicitly said just that: “If you don't cannibalize yourself, someone else will.” That mindset was exactly why Apple launched the iPhone even though it would cannibalize their iPods; and why they launched the iPad even though it would cannibalize their Macs. Facebook has its Little Red Book whose mantra is: “If we don't create the thing that kills Facebook, someone else will.” Amazon operates the same way, says Arjun Sethi : “Consider the Kindle: a device that became home to the world’s biggest bookstore, and lured people away from buying physical books. If Amazon didn't do it, someone else would have.” Google has always t...