Robert Scoble does a better job than most explaining why big companies miss the cluetrain:
Which would you rather have? $100,000 today or a penny doubled every day for a month? Well, the penny doubled will be a lot more money. But, if your cash runs out before the 20th of the month you would have been better off taking the $100,000. Markets build by doubling. That’s why big companies miss important things when they are small (they only see things after the metaphorical 20th day when the numbers start to get really interesting). But keeping your company going until that metaphorical 20th day is a terrifying game of chicken between your cash going down and waiting for that doubling effect to really kick in (and that’s assuming you have a product or service that’ll keep doubling — like blogging turned out to be).
They take the $100,000 and run.
[tags] scoble, innovator’s dilemma, scobleizer, john koetsier [/tags]
Actually, I found that they answer “show me the business value” until the 23rd day, when it’s already obvious to everyone what’s going on. By then it’s too late to beat the competition and you have to pay $4 billion for Skype. 🙂
LOL. We all have 20-20 hindsight, don’t we.