While Big Companies Deliberate, Small Companies Obliterate

I have a bunch of friends who work in big media companies. Many of them are well aware of the changes afoot resulting from digital media, internet delivery, user generated content, disintermediation, etc.

Many of them have shown me presentations they've made to their bosses suggesting direct assaults on the business models adopted by some of the emerging internet media juggernauts.

I give them my feedback and encouragement on their presentations.

Then a couple weeks later, when I ask them how it went, I always hear the same thing:

We are still trying to get a consensus internally around the idea and to get support from the key constituents

And my response is always the same:

While big companies deliberate, small companies obliterate.

Comments

[Chris Neumann]

I love that these guys know that they're about to get totally distintermediated and yet can't bring themselves to deal with it. Even their consultants have told them so - IBM and PWC have both released detailed market reports over the past couple months talking all about how it's going to happen. Given that, their best defense is probably to just buy up small companies before they get too big/threatening, which seems to be what is happening...

[Brad Feld]

This is so consistently true. It's one of the beautiful things about entrepreneurship and the business that we are in. Nicely stated!

[David]

the big is blunt.

[Daniel Nerezov]

That's a great line!

The interesting (and worrying) thing I've found in Bill Burnham's related post is that players like Google aren't letting them selves be disrupted by up and coming start ups.

It seems that someone has read what Clay Christensen has been saying and now....well, I'm not sure.

This whole idea of intrapreneurship is a bit unsettling. Everything works so nicely when large companies fail to innovate.

Link: http://billburnham.blogs.com/burnhamsbeat/2006/04/real_estate_car.html

[The Technologist]

Well I have been reading the posts here for a few days. I had found an article from last year in Business 2.0 that gave me this URL. I think it is great that you guys have a place to come share your ideas about new ventures and new technologies that around the bend. You seem to have the right ideas for the most part about what to expect out of the Internet, technology, marketing, and digital or portable media. The only problem everyone seems to be missing is that though the Internet is alluring to many people there are a growing number of people, companies and organizations who are pulling people off the Internet to help protect against identity theft, spy-ware, ad-ware, viruses, bla bla bla.

Today end users are running 3 to 4 programs to help protect there systems from the pitfalls of the Internet. They have to keep them updated and running on their systems, taking up hard drive space, processor time and bandwidth. Not to mention there are many of those programs that install the spy-ware or ad-ware on your system while they help "Protect" you from the Internet pitfalls. The DA of NY is now filing a case against a company for the deceptive practices they have implemented to install spy-ware on a users computer without the users knowledge. Now this is a great step forward but you will only be able to get the companies that are built around collecting data and selling it to other companies, people and organizations. The unfortunate part of all this is that the ones you have to really be concerned about are the ones who are not organized companies. They work out of their home writing scripts, websites, viruses, spy-ware and more and trick people in to activating them by providing jokes in emails, or e-cards that are sent from relative to relative.

The funny thing is that when I moved from Keypunch to a computer we started to see these things pop up called viruses. Man was it a pain in the butt, if you got a virus you had to format the entire cassette tape just to be safe. Yes cassette tape. There was nothing called a floppy, we saved our data on the same tapes we listened to music on. Funny thing is that the virus protection programs that we have been purchasing for years are still being sold to us. You would think that after so many years we would have found a better solution to help protect people against viruses rather than charging the end user year after year. Oh, then that would not be a profitable business, so it is not really about fixing the problem, it’s more like the medical community that works on treating the symptoms and not addressing the issue.

Lets look at email, no longer a truly viable form of reliable communication. People are getting scammed every day by emails that say “Your Account Is Suspended” but if you will provide your account information we can get it taken care of. Or even better, the organizations that “help” fight spam. These are great, some company has a big old database that holds IP address and sells that list to “customers” as a service to help reduce spam. Well much like a caller ID box that will allow me to type in the phone number and name I want to show up on your phone when I call you, these guys can do that with IP addresses. The result is some unsuspecting new business owner who gets a static IP address is now at risk of never being able to use that for mail. Once your IP gets caught up in the system you can have issues for years. (this is personal experience so don’t even try to tell me I am wrong or that is not how it works)

How about the new laws passed by HIPAA that prevent any office in the medial community from allowing their employees to browse the internet for any personal reason. This includes dentist offices, doctors offices and even insurance agencies.

So you guys can talk about how these new Internet opportunities are about to explode but until you look at what the Internet does, how it works and what the issues are with it, then, look at ways of utilizing and accessing the data on the Internet other than a web browser where anything can happen to anyone, none of these ventures will have longevity. We will not even go in to what the big Tel. Co.’s are attempting to do to the Internet right now that is going to take some of these business structures and destroy them with the new laws they are attempting to have passed.

Well since I am not they type of person who will criticize without offering a better solution, here it goes. What is needed is…

A technology that will allow someone to view Internet content but restructures the way the content is accessed providing more safety and faster data access.

A way to help protect usurer from the pitfalls of the Internet without installing or updating anything on the users computer.

A technology that allows you to update the information in real time no matter how long the media has been in the field.

The ability to change the features and functionality at will to fit the needs of your company as it grows and changes.

A way to provide the data to the consumers in a portable format so that it can be taken anywhere they want to go.

The ability to manage a sales force or distributors and track the amount of material that is seen and who distributed it.

The ability to increase sales force efficiency by 50% or more simply by reducing the amount of time they spend following up on leads who are not interested in the products and services.

The ability to implement third party applications or custom applications in existing media that is already in the field.

The ability to update the media’s functions and features even if that function or feature was not available when the media was purchased and no matter how long it has been in the field and do so in real time.

These are some good starters and all possible through a technology we have developed.

Keep in mind that I had approached several VCs at one time and though they had an interest in the technology we had developed they all felt that the money they had was more important than the technology itself and wanted large portions of the company or the rights to the technology. One guy even told me that we would never make it to market without him. Well I guess the last interview we had with Mike Shiloh from 97.5 News Radio where he praised our technology up and down, or the article we were mentioned that Growth Magazine published entitled “Technologies That Work” would give anyone a different perspective. And it doesn’t hurt that we now have billion dollar companies approaching us about the technology. Why have you not heard about this technology yet, we don’t have the marketing money to get it out there right now. Do I need a VC? No but I would like one and there is enough money to go around for everyone. So if there is some brave VC in NY that has more of a brain than the VC’s here in Texas I would love to hear from you. You will not get part of my company, you will not get any right to the US or International patents. You will get a fair opportunity to earn money from an investment that will net more money than any other technology venture you will find today. In fact if you are really serious about wanting to invest, (serious = you come to me, I am tired of running all over the country to talk with some guy who feels he is doing me a favor, I am a business man just like anyone VC out there and at this point this is not a need, it is a want.) call me 832-797-7984.

[howard Lindzon]

i hope they stay sleeping in our golf space.

[Alex Bellinger]

What a great quote of the day! Definitely one for the archives. I moderated a panel at a UK conference on blogging 4 business the other day and one such obliterating small media company is Agora Vox. Very interesting times.

[dick]

This is such a great line, I already stole it.
More reasons big companies can't attack new ideas: their lawyers pontificate, managers ask teams to elaborate, resources bifurcate, the accountants try to substantiate, and competing agendas expropriate. This all frequently causes the frustrated CEO to look around and yell: "Procreate!" ....or words to that effect.