4 ms·

If you're in the business of wheels, or if it is a hobby, make wheels. If you are in the business of carts, buy wheels. If you are in the business of transpor

If you're in the business of wheels, or if it is a hobby, make wheels. If you are in the business of carts, buy wheels. If you are in the business of transportation, buy carts.

doublerabbit 3y ago
> If you are in the business of carts, buy wheels. I just don't agree with that logic. If you make your own carts, innovating your own wheels will yield cheaper costs in the long run. You have a new design and it could be something better. In conjunction you can than produce your own cart to that better design. Sure your not a wheel business, so you don't sell your wheels as that's not your specialty but you can now provide your own wheels for your own carts. Otherwise your vendor-locked to that manufacturer. And what then if they decide to stop selling the wheels or carts that you rely on, or increase the prices? You don't have Amazon (Cart) selling Google's Infrastructure (Wheels).
- lwhi 3y ago
  It's not easy to do everything well .. and each stage of the process requires expertise. It's fairly good logic.
  - doublerabbit 3y ago
    Who says? Its flawed logic that for example makes the internet or any product cheap and stale. This era of mobile phones is a good example, when providers created their own device before selling out to Android, it was a fantastical place. Now when choosing a phone all you have is a different same rectangle with the same OS. If you hire the expertise, you add that in to cost factor of your company. Or you set a budget and in creating your own variant while you sell your first. I open a cookie shop. I sell pre-made cookies that taste amazing and make customers happy. You hire the kitchen staff to make your own cookies, not as good and they don't sell as well. You keep going and keep growing the quality as you slow down selling the amazing cookies. Because as an scenario, say the company who's providing you with amazing cookie changes their recipe for budget cuts and now they're now not selling as good as before, bland and sickly. You lose sales and by not reinventing the cookie you lose quality, rep and profits. I'm just amazed no one can give me a good case to why not. Innovation is what's missing from this world.
    - lwhi 3y ago
      Standardisation is not a bad thing. I think your analogy is flawed.
    - vore 3y ago
      If you’re selling cookies, are you going to be milling your own flour from self-grown wheat? The original post was just saying at some point you are drawing a line between what you consider to be your competency versus what is not.
      - doublerabbit 3y ago
        Regardless to how stubborn it makes to the comment, Yes. I don't see why not. There is no versus to be had. We are always competing, it doesn't have too. As in the end all that really matters is making the consumer,customer, end result happy. By milling the raw grain, you can then make your own machine. With that machine reduces the production costs. It's not a task that can happen overnight. But to own a piece of land and to make raw produce from that isn't trivial.
        vore 3y ago
        I agree that you can always own more of the vertical to potentially make the customer happier, but you will always reach the point of diminishing returns. How much happier will your customer be with your homegrown flour versus King Arthur flour you picked up at the store? Is the cost (money and time) worth the possible marginal increase in happiness? If you manufacture your own machine, does the capital expenditure of doing so even offset operational expenditure over how long you even plan to be making cookies? Running a business is not about innovating at all costs at all times, it's about using what time and money you have on hand to optimize customer satisfaction. Whether it's off-the-shelf wheels for carts or grinding your own flour, you have to draw the line somewhere otherwise you are just optimizing for some theoretical optimum. Maybe when you have some more slack in the budget it's time to think about reinventing the wheel, but doing so at the get-go is already losing sight of the customer.
        3y ago
- dahdum 3y ago
  Innovating your own wheels to sell carts requires capital investment, time, effort, and risk. The saying is a rehash of common advice to focus on core competencies and not overextend. If I sold, or even manufactured carts, I would not be eager to enter the enormous, competitive, highly commoditized, and mature wheel market. It sounds like a real battle to get production costs even on par with wholesale, lacking all the economies of scale, experience, and supply chain agreements the major manufacturers have.
  - doublerabbit 3y ago
    Cause and effect. Due to of the rehash and sell-out as by not re-inventing the wheel; in return has caused the effect as you've mentioned above. Where many had the opportunity to take the risk, didn't. So now we live in the world where it's either A or B. And I'm fed up to the point where my business, self-funded is re-inventing the wheel regardless of the risks. Besides the point, innovation has been stifled because of no reinvention.
    - dahdum 3y ago
      > Besides the point, innovation has been stifled because of no reinvention. Yes, because the advice is meant to improve business survival, not societal innovation. If optimizing for survival isn’t your primary goal, it just doesn’t apply to you. It’s still great advice. The 100x-or-nothing game has different rules.

If you're in the business of wheels, or if it is a hobby, make wheels. If you are in the business of carts, buy wheels. If you are in the business of transportation, buy carts.

doublerabbit 3y ago

> If you are in the business of carts, buy wheels. I just don't agree with that logic. If you make your own carts, innovating your own wheels will yield cheaper costs in the long run. You have a new design and it could be something better. In conjunction you can than produce your own cart to that better design. Sure your not a wheel business, so you don't sell your wheels as that's not your specialty but you can now provide your own wheels for your own carts. Otherwise your vendor-locked to that manufacturer. And what then if they decide to stop selling the wheels or carts that you rely on, or increase the prices? You don't have Amazon (Cart) selling Google's Infrastructure (Wheels).

lwhi 3y ago
It's not easy to do everything well .. and each stage of the process requires expertise. It's fairly good logic.
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  Who says? Its flawed logic that for example makes the internet or any product cheap and stale. This era of mobile phones is a good example, when providers created their own device before selling out to Android, it was a fantastical place. Now when choosing a phone all you have is a different same rectangle with the same OS. If you hire the expertise, you add that in to cost factor of your company. Or you set a budget and in creating your own variant while you sell your first. I open a cookie shop. I sell pre-made cookies that taste amazing and make customers happy. You hire the kitchen staff to make your own cookies, not as good and they don't sell as well. You keep going and keep growing the quality as you slow down selling the amazing cookies. Because as an scenario, say the company who's providing you with amazing cookie changes their recipe for budget cuts and now they're now not selling as good as before, bland and sickly. You lose sales and by not reinventing the cookie you lose quality, rep and profits. I'm just amazed no one can give me a good case to why not. Innovation is what's missing from this world.
  - lwhi 3y ago
    Standardisation is not a bad thing. I think your analogy is flawed.
  - vore 3y ago
    If you’re selling cookies, are you going to be milling your own flour from self-grown wheat? The original post was just saying at some point you are drawing a line between what you consider to be your competency versus what is not.
    - doublerabbit 3y ago
      Regardless to how stubborn it makes to the comment, Yes. I don't see why not. There is no versus to be had. We are always competing, it doesn't have too. As in the end all that really matters is making the consumer,customer, end result happy. By milling the raw grain, you can then make your own machine. With that machine reduces the production costs. It's not a task that can happen overnight. But to own a piece of land and to make raw produce from that isn't trivial.
      - vore 3y ago
        I agree that you can always own more of the vertical to potentially make the customer happier, but you will always reach the point of diminishing returns. How much happier will your customer be with your homegrown flour versus King Arthur flour you picked up at the store? Is the cost (money and time) worth the possible marginal increase in happiness? If you manufacture your own machine, does the capital expenditure of doing so even offset operational expenditure over how long you even plan to be making cookies? Running a business is not about innovating at all costs at all times, it's about using what time and money you have on hand to optimize customer satisfaction. Whether it's off-the-shelf wheels for carts or grinding your own flour, you have to draw the line somewhere otherwise you are just optimizing for some theoretical optimum. Maybe when you have some more slack in the budget it's time to think about reinventing the wheel, but doing so at the get-go is already losing sight of the customer.
        3y ago
dahdum 3y ago
Innovating your own wheels to sell carts requires capital investment, time, effort, and risk. The saying is a rehash of common advice to focus on core competencies and not overextend. If I sold, or even manufactured carts, I would not be eager to enter the enormous, competitive, highly commoditized, and mature wheel market. It sounds like a real battle to get production costs even on par with wholesale, lacking all the economies of scale, experience, and supply chain agreements the major manufacturers have.
- doublerabbit 3y ago
  Cause and effect. Due to of the rehash and sell-out as by not re-inventing the wheel; in return has caused the effect as you've mentioned above. Where many had the opportunity to take the risk, didn't. So now we live in the world where it's either A or B. And I'm fed up to the point where my business, self-funded is re-inventing the wheel regardless of the risks. Besides the point, innovation has been stifled because of no reinvention.
  - dahdum 3y ago
    > Besides the point, innovation has been stifled because of no reinvention. Yes, because the advice is meant to improve business survival, not societal innovation. If optimizing for survival isn’t your primary goal, it just doesn’t apply to you. It’s still great advice. The 100x-or-nothing game has different rules.