That's not necessarily true, though. There are plenty of examples where a company manages to change speciality completely, to great benefit. IBM originally produced things like meat slicers and scales. Nintendo was originally a lot of things, including a hotel chain and a taxi service. Nokia started its life as a manufacturer of paper, before expanding to rubber boots and tyres, and later... You know.
What made you famous doesn't have to become your fall, as long as you are progressive enough to reinvent yourself in the eyes of your customers. Paul Bagyenda <[email protected]> wrote: >Finally read the original article. Very interesting, thanks for >sharing. >The lessons it contains seem to me to be universal. At the risk of >(initially) sounding fatalistic, the story of Yahoo! once again >confirms that in the rise to power and fame are the seeds sown for >one's fall. I like that the author doesn't pretend that Yahoo! could >have had a different fate. No, their eventual failure came packaged >with their initial success. It's the cycle. Also of course there are >things that inevitably change with age. For instance, I don't think an >old stodgy software firm is going to keep attracting star talent. It >just doesn't happen like that. > >So, the most one can do (software company or otherwise) is try as much >as possible to check one's tendency to hubris, particularly when one is >doing well. I suspect that softens the dusk when it comes. > >P. > >On Jan 07, 2013, at 10:23, Reinier Battenberg ><[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> I think it is more interesting to talk about things we can change >(like Uganda) than to moan about the demise of a US corporation >> >> >> On Monday 07 January 2013 08:06:03 [email protected] wrote: >> An interesting comparison, Reinier. Yahoo! is a jack of all trades, >but king of none. >> >> That still leaves me with the question "why aren't they already >dead?", though. >> >> Reinier Battenberg <[email protected]> wrote: >> HI Joseph, >> >> You bring up a very interesting point, that is very valid in the >Ugandan context as well. >> >> There are a lot of FLOSS users in Uganda, especially in the website >building business: joomla, wordpress, drupal, ushahidi. A lot of people >can offer you a site for a very reasonable price because they use free >software. >> >> Unfortunately there seem to be very few people that become active >members of the community that comes with the tools they apply. >> >> I think there are 2 reasons for this: >> >> - "Why would you? It's free, I use is, and that's it." Very valid >statement, but as you wont learn more about the internals of the tool >you use, others will come on to the market and do exactly the same as >you: download and install. This will make it harder for anyone who gets >stuck at this level to compete. >> >> - Very few people tend to specialise. On the average CV that we >receive, if they were all true, most people in ICT in Uganda can do >anything: From Oracle, to PHP, from C++ to Networking all on 1 CV. If >you know so many subjects, its pretty clear you can not be extremely >good in any of them. And that is what a lot of employers are looking >for: extremely good people. >> >> So, point of the email: a lot of IT people in Uganda could compare >themselves to Yahoo. (And btw, reading John Graham's posts is a very >good idea when you are in IT.) And it would be great if in 2013 we can >see more Ugandan names pop up in the forums on drupal.org (for >example)! >> >> rgds, >> >> Reinier >> >> >> On Sunday 06 January 2013 21:37:38 Joseph Mutumi wrote: >> Hello, >> >> This is a bit off topic but wanted to share it anyway. Think about >Yahoo before you >> plan for this year. >> >> Started the year by doing an audit on some of my accumulated login >credentials. >> I realized a lot of them use my yahoo email which I noticed I >actually no longer use! >> Yahoo in the news for all the wrong reasons; layoffs, product >discontinuations, CEO >> woos etc. What happened to all those profit speculations? So what >killed Yahoo? >> >> I did a search and came across this >http://www.paulgraham.com/yahoo.html >> I think this post albeit a bit old, nails it, with one interesting >insight being: >> *Yahoo was killed because they didn't have a hacker-centric culture* >> >> Yahoo which used OSS failed to adopt OSS. OSS and the Linux stack is >more than >> downloading packages for free, its a culture. A proven successful >business model and >> work paradigm. If you believe your organization is using OSS but not >adopted it watch >> out 2013 may be just another bad year for you. >> >> That said I hope a lot of the IT corps come to their senses and start >backing community. >> I hope LUG flourishes this year. >> >> Happy New Year >> >> >> >> -- >> rgds, >> >> Reinier Battenberg >> Director >> Mountbatten Ltd. >> www.mountbatten.net >> tel: +256 758 801749 >> twitter: @batje >> >> The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug >> >> Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: >[email protected] >> Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug >> To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug >> >> The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: >http://www.infocom.co.ug/ >> >> The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them >(including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not >responsible for them in any way. >> >> >> -- >> rgds, >> >> Reinier Battenberg >> Director >> Mountbatten Ltd. >> www.mountbatten.net >> tel: +256 758 801749 >> twitter: @batje >> _______________________________________________ >> The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug >> >> Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: >[email protected] >> Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >> Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug >> To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug >> >> The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: >http://www.infocom.co.ug/ >> >> The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them >(including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not >responsible for them in any way. > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >_______________________________________________ >The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug > >Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: >[email protected] >Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ >Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug >To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug > >The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: >http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > >The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including >attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them >in any way.
_______________________________________________ The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in any way.
