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He raises a good point about the law of large numbers. When your core business is doing $75b and has 95% market share, it's near impossible to find other lines
by majani 8y ago
He raises a good point about the law of large numbers. When your core business is doing $75b and has 95% market share, it's near impossible to find other lines of business to complement that core in a meaningful way. I'd go as far as to say it's illogical to expect crazy growth or innovation at such a point.
- ddebernardy 8y agoThat bit had me scratching my head. To me the law of large numbers had to do with stats. But apparently, MBAs have come up with their own completely unrelated "law".
- ghaff 8y agoI've never heard it referred to as the law of large numbers (which I also associate with stats). But I still remember a discussion I had with an exec at a large systems company a number of years back when I was a consultant. I don't remember the exact context but it was around the potential for some new initiative or other. The gist of his remark was to the effect of "If it won't be a minimum $1 billion a year business for us, it's in the noise and uninteresting."
- idontpost 8y agoI think the connection is that when you're 100% of the pie, you're, by definition, average. You cannot be exceptional when you so dominate the market segment.