3 ms·
What started out as an idea to extend only Amazon's core capabilities as a service to other retailers transformed into a challenge to extend even the core of th
by nashashmi 10y ago
What started out as an idea to extend only Amazon's core capabilities as a service to other retailers transformed into a challenge to extend even the core of the core, which was the digital backbone infrastructure. Maybe this can be a tl;dr of the whole article.
Such business philosophies require companies to unselfishly give up developed competitive advantages and provide that as a service to the entire industry. Imagine if this same philosophy was implemented at other companies: the past-time heavyweights would be serving a far higher calling today. And entire industries of innovations of would have picked up and developed on where the old left off.
Examples like Intel offering the capabilities of its foundries or Kodak offering its patents to filmmaking or Microsoft offering others to build on its Office Doc format would have prevented both their fall and promoted the industries to greater heights.
- mtrn 10y agoThis reminds me of some open source angle on business: try to provide more value than you capture. I believe this to be a healthy attitude, hopefully more companies and entities can live up to this challenge.
- petra 10y agoYou forget the it's implicit in Amazon's service(at least in the early ears) that no major competitor will use their services out of care for data privacy, reliability, etc. So Amazon gets the best of both worlds:leading eCommerce and leading cloud(while "hurting" other cloud platforms who might help competitors). Such strategy could also work well for others - if Intel offers fab services but doesn't sell to pc/server competitors ?
- rpgmaker 10y ago> the past-time heavyweights would be serving a far higher calling today Higher calling? It's a business dude, plain and simple.
- nashashmi 10y agoBusiness doesn't last long if the only goal is profit and money. There has to be a meaning that transcends the financials. In terms of the businesses, the end goal was progress in the science and engineering these companies pioneered.
- quesera 10y agoThat sounds nice, but it's empirically untrue.