Just 7 years ago, Motorola introduced the first thin cell phone to rave reviews and industry dominance. Yet, in a flash, it faced a flood of lower cost Asian knock-offs then lost its position to smart phones only to be bought by Google. Motorola’s engineering skills, supply chain excellence, and brand name strength were of little use in a massive industry upheaval enabled by new information technology. Google, meanwhile, moves from a once-distant competitor to posing a huge threat to Apple, RIM and Microsoft Windows. Google built mobile operating system leadership by acquiring and freely distributing Android. With its acquisition of Motorola, Google will likely become a device leader. No wonder Samsung’s reducing its reliance on Google’s Android system. In the Motorola story is the story of how the information age is making it harder and harder to win at business in the…
5 open-market trends fueling business model innovation and disruption
Imagine being a 4h grade teacher with a class of 25 students with widely different levels of math aptitude and competency. How do you challenge the most adept students? How do you help the laggards without boring the stars to tears? The only practical option seems to be to teach to the middle. That it, unless you and your principal are lucky enough to have discovered Kahn Academy, which is in the process of disrupting the long-staid textbook publishers market and K-12 education. Kahn Academy is a stellar example of how any business today can thrive by capitalizing on open-market trends that are melting barriers to entry in most markets. Kahn Academy was started by a Salman Kahn, a hedge fund manager and brilliant communicator, an educator with a passion for teaching math and other lessons to kids. He developed effective on-line math…