RAFFIAPALM

Resources for product teams from industry experts.

If there is money to be made, new firms will enter the market, increase supply, drive prices down, and thereby eliminate the profits that attracted them in the first place. If too many firms enter the market, they’ll suffer losses, some will fold, and prices will rise back to sustainable levels. Under perfect competition, in the long run, no company makes an economic profit.

— Zero to One: Notes on Startups, or How to Build the Future by Peter Thiel, Blake Masters

Source: Amazon Kindle

Related Stories and Excerpts:

  1. In the red oceans, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, and the competitive rules of the game are known. Here, companies try to outperform their rivals to grab a greater share of existing demand. As the market space gets crowded, prospects for profits and growth are reduced. Products become commodities, and cutthroat competition turns the red ocean bloody. Blue oceans, in contrast, are defined by untapped market space, demand creation, and the opportunity for highly profitable growth. Although some blue oceans are created well beyond existing industry boundaries, most are created from within red oceans by expanding existing industry […]
  2. So, what do we call this work of “evolving” an organization to become better adapted to the world in which it finds itself? A lot of best practices for reorganization fall under the general heading of change management. But this particular evolution requires something different. I’ve struggled over the years to explain why this change in particular is so difficult, so all-consuming, that it requires a special sort of person to pull it off. It requires: Leadership skills of a most distinctive kind, since transformation pits its leader against the hostile reactions of experienced people whose lives and careers […]
  3. Alignment means that managers should explicitly seek and highlight the commonality between the company’s purpose and values and the employee’s career purpose and values. Some obvious commonality emerges naturally: both sides thrive on progress. Companies want to launch new products, grow their market share, and expand into new markets; employees want to take on new responsibilities, increase their capabilities, and yes, make more money. In other words, both company and employee want to be on a winning team. But zoom in a bit more, and differences appear. Perhaps the employee has a side interest in early childhood education, but […]
  4. In this world, design is less and less focused on the creation of a single perfect artifact and is increasingly a puzzle requiring creative problem-solving and analytical judgment about product architecture, production process technology, supply chain structure, and market strategy. — Design: Creation of Artifacts in Society by Karl Ulrich Source: Amazon Kindle […]
  5. The way you break through to the mainstream is to target a niche instead of a huge market. With a niche, you can segment off a chunk of the mainstream, and create an ideavirus so focused that it overwhelms that small slice of the market that really and truly will respond to what you sell. The early adopters in this market niche are more eager to hear what you have to say. The sneezers in this market niche are more likely to talk about your product. And best of all, the market is small enough that a few sneezers […]

In:

Topics: , , , ,