When I read about Line working on grocery deliveries. Or wechat shutting out alibaba apps, I am constantly dismayed with how Yahoo had an amazing assortment of platforms – payments, games, content, locals and chat, that it could have used together to form a new platform.
I guess innovation like this is too hard to manage from the inside but someone, someday will write about the dominance of chat as a platform and how Yahoo choked on the enormous opportunity.
Dreampipe's Blog 
but what do you really think, Smitty?
I think it’s the innovator’s dilemma. Lots of companies had permission (assets, cash, talent) to seek the next big thing, but instead focused on short term. Interesting to see how much care Google (and to a lesser extent, Facebook) put into making bets on the next big thing. Not forcing them to integrate/ monetize. Just funding growth and discovery.
Who are the titans of today who are making the same mistake as yahoo. They’re out there. Let’s discuss over a beer.
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It is classic innovator’s dilemma.
No doubt and others are going the same path as we speak.
What bothers me though is that it was being worked on but not setup the right way so politics killed it. I guess more ammo for innovators’s dilemma in that the skunk works project should have been set up to be protected from politics.
Clearly the execs in charge didn’t read the book.
Beer indeed!
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Interesting to see Microsoft’s new CEO sort of breaking out of that innovator’s dilemma stance, making some bolder moves. But yahoo, classic textbook case I think. Also spread thin, unfocused (see peanut butter).
Ok– you free tomorrow after work for a facetime beer? I guess one of us will have to bite the bullet and drink a beer in the morning local time.
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ha. that will be funny
agreed. I am loving the new outlook app! I can’t lie
Apart from Flickr I use nothing from Yahoo. Nothing.
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