The Advantage of Being Unburdened
Think about it. Why do giants fall? It’s rarely because they are incompetent. It’s because they become prisoners of their own success. A massive car manufacturer, for instance, has spent a century perfecting the internal combustion engine. Its factories, its supply chains, its entire identity is built around it. Then along comes a company like Tesla, with no such baggage, and decides to bet the farm on batteries and software. The old guard hesitates, caught between protecting their existing profits and embracing a future that would render their current business obsolete. By the time they finally pivot, the upstart has already captured the narrative and a legion of fans.
The same story played out with Netflix. While its rivals were clinging to cable packages and advertising revenue, Netflix was busy making its own DVD business redundant with streaming. It was a bold, almost reckless move, but it showed a willingness to cannibalise the present to own the future. This is a luxury that large, publicly traded incumbents, with their quarterly earnings calls and nervous shareholders, simply cannot afford.
