Can a company have more than one game changing moment?
I was reading a post by Paul Buchheit (late of Friendfeed fame) earlier today where he was talking – tongue in cheek I think – about predictions he might have made back in 2000 to be looked back on in ten years.
As humorous as his post was there was one specific line that got me to thinking:
Microsoft made itself irrelevant — they still make a lot of money, but they are no longer changing the world.
At first I just sloughed off his remark but I couldn’t help coming back to it but from a larger perspective. The idea is that companies, and people, are often at the center of events that forever change our society. In the case of Microsoft, Paul seems to be suggesting that no matter the amount of money it is making its game changing days are gone.
Thinking that over I wondered how many other companies have had a societal game changing moment and what they would have been, and more importantly could they have another one.
Microsoft
There is no denying that Microsoft changed the computing world as we know it. Prior to Microsoft computers were for a large part the realm of companies, large ones, and the rarefied world of technology administrators. What Microsoft did with the combination of DOS and Windows was to enable computers to be manufactured and used on a personal level.
Windows from its debut transformed the using of computers from one of having to remembering esoteric commandline instructions to one of point and click graphics. That was the game changing moment for Microsoft and unfortunately I find myself agreeing with Paul on this one. I think the chances of Microsoft having another game changing moment would be extremely unlikely.
It would take a radical departure from their Windows mentality and I don’t see that happening any time soon – if ever.
Some have argued that Google really hasn’t changed any games since much of what they have done in the area of search; which is suppose to be their primary claim to fame, and advertising has only built on what companies that came before them did.
My argument against that is that Google has changed our entire world because of their stated mission – to index all the world’s information.
It is this one simple thing; while overshadowed by everything else they might be doing, that has changed our world. Whether we like it or not that genie is out of the bottle and it isn’t going back.
As to whether Google has anymore game changing moments hidden up its sleeve is doubtful. I know myself and other had hoped that its entry into the smartphone business might have been one of those moments events are proving otherwise.
Even though compared to other technology companies Twitter is still pretty much a babe in the woods it has in its young age jumped into the top ranks of game changing companies. Totally by accident Twitter has brought a whole new model of communication to the web and done it at a speed never seen before.
The only problem is that Twitter is, and always will be, a one trick pony. I just don’t see Twitter having anymore game changing moments up its sleeve.
Apple
This is a company of contradictions. Once written off to the trash heap of technology it was brought back from the virtual morgue by Steve Jobs an unlike other companies has up until now had several game changing moments.
The first most obviously has to be the iPod, and its derivatives, and its effect on how we listen to our music. In addition it also had a profound effect on the music industry as a whole and a change that the music industry is still trying to recover from.
For its second, and some would suggest the biggest game changer we have seen since … well … Microsoft and Windows … is the iPhone. With one simple device Jobs has totally transformed not only how we use mobile devices but our very perception of what a mobile device is suppose to be.
There are some who are dreamily suggesting that Apple’s upcoming announcement at the end of January will be another of those game changing moments. This is of course when Jobs is suppose to appear before the faithful and hand them t he Apple vision of what a tablet computer is suppose to look and behave like. I personally don’t see it as being a game changing moment and I’m not really sure that Jobs has another of those moments left in him or the company.
In the end
As important as game changing moments can be I honestly don’t think that a company can have more than one. The reason is that once they have that moment, once that have caused that major shift that is what they become identified with and in turn find themselves locked into improving on that change which leaves them no time or energy to take the risks needed to find and develop that next great game changing ‘thing’.
