A recent report listed the Dallas to Houston phone line route as having 1073 fibers laid and only 168 of them "lit". In other words, less than 20% of the fiber optic cables laid on that route have been turned on since the fibers were actually put in the ground. This is a clear example of companies leading the market.
Leading the market is easy to do for a technology company—and sometimes easy for non-technology companies. We come up with ideas and try to sell them to our customers only to find that the customers have no interest in what we are trying to sell. What is a person to do?
There are no simplistic answers to this question. There are those who say "Don't try," but that only dooms them to the slow death of always being second best. We have to try even when the market appears to be disappearing out from under us.
Companies that have a culture of trying, but limiting, the cost of each try, have a long history of success.
Take Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M) for example. While they have a nice line of products, they are constantly trying to come up with new products. And they have been consistently successful.
3M has been successful, not because they haven't gotten ahead of the market sometimes, but because they have made enough attempts that some are successful enough to cover for the many mistakes.
So, one strategy for success is to encourage new business ideas while limiting the cost of each attempt. If you have not worked out how to control the costs of these new attempts—especially in the terminal software or terminal host areas—give us a call and we can go over your structures and costs to show you how to control them.
Next Up, Risky Morals