What should you do when you’re No.1, you’ve discovered a new breakthrough concept, or you’ve attained top position over your competitors?
When you have a breakthrough new concept or you’re now No.1, you’re in an extremely advantageous position.
As an example, the No.1 most-read newspaper always gets the lion’s share of the ad dollars available.
So you’ll want to ensure that you remain No.1 for a long time to come.
Now you can just buy out your competitors, but this isn’t possible sometimes.
So you’ll use an alternative powerful Business In Your Pajamas concept to leave your competitors in the dust.
You simply run as fast as you can.
And to ensure that you can take a rest once in a while, you’ll add layers of complexity to your businesses so that your competitors have to go through hoops to catch up with you while you have a long, clear stretch of road ahead of you.
(But this is another story.)
Anyway, Google is in this position currently.
Apart from being the No.1 Search Engine currently (after overtaking Yahoo some time ago), noticed how it went around acquiring successful and proven businesses left, right and center?
Those businesses either complement or advance Google’s core business in some way (which is mainly selling advertising space currently).
In the meantime, Google’s engineers and software team are releasing new services and products for its users with the same purpose.
With so many things happening at the same time, Yahoo and Microsoft are left reeling…
And all they can do is to play catch up.
Unless either of them comes up with some real ground-breaking stuff, it’s Google’s game for the taking.
This is a simple concept, but it’s extremely powerful. Not many businesses recognize its power, and it’s a shame.
I have done this on many occasions myself, and am still doing it.
There is an additional layer on top of this concept in addition to the complexity layer, that when combined, makes catching up all but impossible. I’ll likely discuss that in another post soon.
Sen Ze
P.S. You can link to this post with the following URL:
http://www.SenZe.com/business-blog/business-strategy/the-business-roadrunner-concept.htm
Technorati Tags: business strategy, speed in business, Yahoo, Google, MSN, Microsoft, Search Engines