You may be correct about the scalability.
However, or in addition, I believe that players with their own very large technology staffs will not use an ASP.
To the extent that that is true, it is not about not being up to snuff.
If I understand what is going on, then the following is true.
Markham has developed a company that does not compete, in the traditional sense--as Apple does not compete, but Dell does.
The company is technologically very advanced, with services that anyone might want, but few can afford to pay for.
It is a company that will rely on sales to orgs that need a whole solution, but that do not have large tech depts that could do it themselves in a "good enough" manner.
The telcos and other companies with scads of techies in info technology can do it good enough and cheaper-why buy it at retail when you can buy the software, use the existing infrastructure and personnell and do it yourself?
GMGC was the fustest, but not the fustest with the mustess, to paraphrase some confederate general whose name escapes me--a thing that happens regularly to me now as I advance in age.
This market is developing just the opposite of the way that it usually happens, specialty first, commodity later.
In general the first one there, gets the market, and then all the me-toos come along and do it cheaper. That is what I expected to happen. I didn't think that GMGC would keep developing more expensive ways to do it and keep retreating from the playing field. Hard as I tried, I never understood what GMGC was, and neither did most people.
Two years ago if you said it was voice regognition, it was a blur--vr is vr is vr. The first one to get there wins. That is the way it usually works. And it would have if SM was a fighter.
The way it's going now, GMGC is a consulting company with a service that will not be really useful until the commodity of voice recognition is ubiquitous and all the companies that did it cheaper and faster, and presumably less well have hit the wall with the quality of the service they can provide.
GMGC has never changed their vision. believe it or not. GMGC has always been about bringing HAL to reality, in fact they will do HAL one better, we can choose between HAL, HALLEY, SHALLEY, etc.
Most companies just want to do away with having their customers get angry because they are having to waste time pressing 1, 2, 0r 3. Their question is how cheaply can we get into this, not are we providing a state of the art vr service.
We're selling a Cadillac to peole who would really be happy with a bicycle.
If we can find companies that need an ASP, if we find cos that want HAL, ff we can hold out long enough and others do hit the wall, we will be successfull.
We should be, but it's not a hobby. Apple is still a company that is run like a hobby. There is this thing about guys/gals that never really competed to win as kids--they build companies that don't compete. They develop beautiful solutions and wait for people to admire their product and buy it.
Markham doesn't compete in a grounded I win, you lose and we're going to get dirty when fighting way, as does Case, Gates, the guy that runs Oracle, etc.
We were in the winners position, but we didn't fight for it or really change when we had to...we kept changing tactics without changing strategy. Now, we're all waiting for someone else to save the company with the big sale to some one who wants HAL. It is SM's company to save. Successful companies find what the customer wants to buy and sell it to them, we are still selling what we want to sell, not what people want to buy. We are betting on what people will want, not what do they want.
I'm not saying he is fiddleing while Rome burns...someone has an interest in keeping the stock at $4.00, so something is up and he had something to do with that.
But in my profession, every day I see the difference that leaders make. They spell the difference between success and turmoil. IMO SM is a real good VP of Engeneering, nothing more....He is not a leader, spokesperson. He does not generate trust or power that others want to have a part of out of fear that they will be left behind, or greed. GM found GMGC, not teh other way around. If GMGC had known how to find GM, they would knmow how to find others like them.
If circumstances save his bacon, all the better for us. But he is not going to go grab the pig, skin it in plain view with his bare hands, thrust it into the fire, hold it there in spite of the heat, and then enjoy the first bite while we all drool. That person is what we need, right now. That's the person that finds a GM.
SM was standing in his store with the bacon beautifully prepared and wrapped, and GM came along and asked for a pound.
I gotta go, I'm going to get a BLT.
G |
