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This used to be true for the old line of tech companies. The new tech behemoths have learned that lesson well. Their senior management and boards are paranoid a

This used to be true for the old line of tech companies. The new tech behemoths have learned that lesson well. Their senior management and boards are paranoid about disruption. They are extremely agile with new opportunities. See Alphabet's range of investments, ditto Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook and Apple. In many cases, the founders separate themselves from the day-to-day management and short term revenue pressures that Wall imposes. This allows them to focus on new areas of growth. The share structure, allows this to happen -- class B stock give the founders the ability to ignore short term revenue pressure to some extent. This generation of tech companies are different beasts.

bluGill 7y ago
Everybody thinks they are different until proven otherwise. This generation is risking that there won't be a next big thing, and so someone smaller but more focused comes from behind and slowly takes over while they are focusing too much energy on looking for a next big thing that never happens. A more focused organization would better look after the core business and not be disrupted by someone who does their core business just a little better. I can't tell you which answer is right (ask me in 30 years), but I can see possibilities.
- sumanthvepa 7y ago
  True. I agree, and indeed hope that today's giants will be disrupted. The only thing worse than a monopoly is an eternal one. My point was more of a warning to startup founders and investors. They should not assume that Google and the others will be too slow to respond to a competitive threat that a startup poses or a big opportunity that a startup creates. They will pounce aggressively, and either acquire or kill the startup. Complacency about FAANG is very very dangerous to the health of a startup.
simonh 7y ago
And yet Google was completely blindsided by Facebook. Google even had social network apps, and the whole time Facebook was rising they tried to compete with it. The same goes for messaging and WhatsApp. Google had competing messaging products the whole time.

bluGill 7y ago

Everybody thinks they are different until proven otherwise. This generation is risking that there won't be a next big thing, and so someone smaller but more focused comes from behind and slowly takes over while they are focusing too much energy on looking for a next big thing that never happens. A more focused organization would better look after the core business and not be disrupted by someone who does their core business just a little better. I can't tell you which answer is right (ask me in 30 years), but I can see possibilities.

sumanthvepa 7y ago
True. I agree, and indeed hope that today's giants will be disrupted. The only thing worse than a monopoly is an eternal one. My point was more of a warning to startup founders and investors. They should not assume that Google and the others will be too slow to respond to a competitive threat that a startup poses or a big opportunity that a startup creates. They will pounce aggressively, and either acquire or kill the startup. Complacency about FAANG is very very dangerous to the health of a startup.

simonh 7y ago

And yet Google was completely blindsided by Facebook. Google even had social network apps, and the whole time Facebook was rising they tried to compete with it. The same goes for messaging and WhatsApp. Google had competing messaging products the whole time.