How younger, more nimble companies threaten the more established
It’s an occurence we see almost every year. A company that is small, nimble, and revolutionary can take on the ‘old’ guard and turn it on its head. While I would hardly consider Google part of the ‘old’ guard, it does appear to be starting to take on the characteristics the larger ship that becomes harder to steer as it takes on passengers. At first, GOOG’s premise was simple – they did ‘search’ better than anyone. They still do, for now, but they also have sprouted many branches from the original tree. This leaves their core discipline exposed to companies that are more nimble and more wholey focused on one objective. Chris O’Brien spells out the story here. I love this quote in the article…it’s so true: “Typically, when such goliaths are slain, it’s because they failed to recognize the threat and make the necessary changes until it was too late.“