The Old King on a Wobbly Throne
Let’s talk about Alphabet, the company formerly known as Google. For two decades, it has been the undisputed king of search, a position that has made it fabulously wealthy. Now, it finds itself in the awkward position of having to disrupt its own cash cow. It’s a classic innovator’s dilemma. Do you risk cannibalising your incredibly profitable advertising model to embrace a new technology that might not be as lucrative, at least not initially?
Google has the money, the data, and the brains to pull it off, of course. But large organisations, like large ships, are notoriously slow to turn. The pressure to protect its existing empire could be the very thing that makes it vulnerable. To me, it looks less like a guaranteed win and more like a high stakes defensive manoeuvre.