I make a habit of reading the Wall Street Journal nearly every morning. And, almost every morning I read about some marketing exec or CEO making a grand announcement that the company is making a bold move into the future. They painted the picture of a vision that is optimistic, visionary and one that will bring grand ROI to the stockholders. Good Lord!
This morning’s headline was about Cisco. They have awoken from a deep slumber to determine that their technology could be marketable in the in home entertainment market. No kidding?
I am no rocket scientist, but I do recall some eight years ago, in a small company I built in Kansas… installing a Cisco router myself. Yes, I was head of the company and the IT guy as well as wearing many other hats. I was amazed at the elegance and cleverness of the installation and configuration process. The quality of the router was on par with what seemed a huge investment for our little company. I also remember thinking that these guys are going to be huge when high-speed networking merges with entertainment (music and video) in the home. Never really gave that much more thought until today.
My current employer is another example. Who was driving AOL for the last 10 years? The company was asleep while the market shifted. This, the company that invented chat, , that set the standard for online forums and made online advertisement tolerable. This company has done amazing things, yet is now a follower.
So what is my point? Companies that lose track of the market (what customers will want) and that do not aggressively invest in R&D are destined to fail – or at least fall into a long expensive slumber. How many times must we watch this corporate stupor unfold?
