maybe not netscape?
The Barksdale view
What do you worry about at night? What keeps you up?
I don't. I get a good night's sleep.
Have you been working harder since Microsoft got
serious about the Net? Are you putting in longer hours?
Not really. We always assumed that it was going to
get serious about the Net. We've been dead
serious about what we needed to do from day one.
We're very focused around here. I have cautioned
our guys to not get so focused on any one
competitive thing. Probably the biggest competitor
we're going to have five years from now is some
company that you and I have never heard of that
came up out of some garage around here, like all of
these things do.
Is there a Barksdale's Law?
Keep the main thing the main thing. Stay focused
on creating and keeping customers. As long as we
do that, we'll do fine. If we get distracted and start
worrying too much about looking over our
shoulder, I think it would be bad for us. But I think
we would be naive and foolish if we didn't stay
constantly alert to all the forces around us.
Doesn't that mean that you would to expand in other
areas, like Microsoft getting into publishing or Intel
getting into all these other side ventures?
I don't think so, not for a long time. I also don't
want to compete with my customers. I learned that
a long time ago that you can get very distracted
trying to pick up these niche markets when you've
got this huge thing, unless you just stay focused
right on it. It's got all the business we could possibly
hope for. Now, there are certainly branches and
things you can add to, but they're part of the main
thing.
That's my whole point: Risk a little company and it
gets a reputation like ours, and boom! It runs over
here, tries to do this, and wants to be all things to
all people. The next thing you know, it's spread its
resources so thin that it can't stay focused on the
main thing. You and I know a lot of companies that
that's happened to. It's not good when you don't
have a lot of resources. Now, when you've got a
huge amount of resources like Microsoft, it can go
get into the TV business with NBC and it can get in
the movie business, etc., and still stay very
resource-intensive on something like ours. Quite
frankly, I think those things are mistakes and
distractions, but I'm not here to worry about its
strategy.
If you're going to be in the publishing business...
[Say] you're Microsoft, and you're going to be
Cityscape. Now, what do all the newspapers do?
They come to me, right? Then you're going to be in
the TV business. What happens to the other
networks? They want to talk to me. When you get
those kind of things, you create new competitors
against your main product. That just argues that
you'd better be successful in those other
businesses. I don't know of any business that's got
enough really focused savvy and strategy and brand
and marketing throwaway to be successful in that
many different kinds of businesses, and I just find
that a lot of times those things become distractions
and mistakes. But that's their business to worry
about. I don't know where Microsoft's going with
its business; maybe its going to become a media
company. Then fine, go that way and leave me
alone! |
