On Jun 8, 2012, at 12:08 PM, Tim McNamara wrote:
> 
> On Jun 8, 2012, at 10:25 AM, Peter Pesce <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
>> Great read. I was really struck by the herd mentality evident in the 
>> commentary - the almost palpable desperation for something, anything, "new" 
>> to sell to a saturated market, offset by the terror of being first, and 
>> maybe getting hung out to dry if you end up being the only! 
>> 
>> It is such a stark contrast to the attitude expressed by Grant, Jan et al - 
>> "we're doing "X" because nobody else is willing to do "X."
> 
> Grant and Jan and Velo Orange and Wallbike are doing what good entrepreneurs 
> do:  making the products they want to have.  Trek and Specialized and 
> Cannondale etc. do what corporate businesses do:  try to guess what the 
> "market" wants and trying to make that.  The former create markets, the 
> latter exploit markets.  The former can reinvent themselves almost at will 
> but the latter can't.  The former drive the direction of the market with much 
> more influence than the latter.
> 
> The former approach was behind the originations and resurgence of Apple.  
> When they were run from the corporate perspective by Scully and Amelio, they 
> nearly tanked several times.  Jobs- for all his personality and behavioral 
> issues- kept the central notion of "what products do I really want" as a 
> center of product design.  Their market research philosophy was basically 
> "wow, that's really f***ing cool!".  The result is the most valuable 
> corporation in the world because it is driven by product design, building the 
> products that Jobs and his desk freak thought wold be really cool to have, 
> starting with a home brew computer built in a garage and leading up to the 
> iPad I am typing this on.  

And typing somewhat erratically, I see.  The sprit of the Newton lives!

> I see the same fundamental approach at Rivendell.  Grant thought that 650B 
> was cool and decided to sell them, and here we are with a "650B revolution" 
> three or four years later.



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