Here’s this week’s 200 word idea from The Everything Store by Brad Stone and Steve Jobs by Walter Isaacson.
When Barnes & Noble decided it was time to wake up to the threat of Amazon.com in 1997, they created their own website, secured investment and spun it off as a private company. However, Barnes & Noble did not put their best employees in the new company as they didn’t want it to cannibalize their existing 2 Billion dollar business. We know who won that battle…
Amazon, on the other hand, cannibalized themselves many times over – a notable example was when they added “Mom & Pop” sellers selling 2nd hand books to their book catalogue, thus placing them in direct competition with the big distributors selling new books. This upset many people, internally and externally, since new books made more money. But, it was completely aligned with their principle of helping customers make better purchases.
Apple, too, under Steve jobs actively cannibalized their own business. When Apple insiders pointed out that the iPhone would eat into the sales of the iPod, Jobs was vocal in that it is better for Apple to cannibalize its sales than a competitor.
So, how do you go about cannibalizing your own business? Coming up next week..
Source and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com
‘If you don’t cannibalize yourself, someone else will.’ | Steve Jobs
A Learning a Day 