[Leica] OT! Economics 101

["Roger Beamon" <roger@beamon.org>]

> >Exactly. Rule number one for a small business: Don't attack the big
> >players in their core business, for you will lose.

Though this may hold more often than not, it is not, by any means 
axiomatic. There are enough exceptions to this "rule" that it very 
nearly fails as a rule. If it weren't the case, the whole system of 
free enterprise and laissez faire economics would fail. Of course, 
it is not nearly as pure as it once was, due to our willingness to 
accept intervention as the price of stability and charity.

> Another local company, Corel, tried to take on Micro$oft in the word
> processor market using Word Perfect.  Plucky little guys only win in
> the movies.

Before Corel came into the picture, Word Perfect *was* the 
standard word processor used by US business. Word for Windows 
evolved faster, became richer in features, and finally, integrated 
better into their office suite. Business migrated to it in preference 
to WP. Yep, there's still a lot of really good secretaries out there 
who mourn the loss of the keyboard controls that were so intuitive 
to a good typist, but they lost their battle. It's life! 

> Pick your markets and products carefully, and don't pick fights 
you > can't win... > 

Only a fool picks a fight they can't win. The point is that the 
participant thinks they *can* win the fight that they choose. It's 
called judgment and ability or the lack thereof. Insulate against 
failure and you will limit the degree of success that can be 
achieved. Sadly, this is where we are headed.

- --
Roger
mailto:roger@beamon.org

   Thought for the day:
         Work is accomplished by those who have
         yet to reach their level of incompetence.