Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Applied Materials -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sun Tzu who wrote (53986)	10/9/2001 12:36:07 PM
From: Jacob Snyder	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 70976

Yes, that is exactly the experience I have had. Rereading some of my posts from years ago, there are predictions where I accurately saw a trend, and accurately predicted the end result, but thought the process would be completed by now, while in fact it's still not over after years. Inertia, institutionalized patterns, a desperate attempt to survive (even, especially, in dsyfunctional organizations), stretches the process out endlessly. Which can lead to serious investing mistakes. For instance, it seems like it was clear at least 5 years ago that Dell's business model (for manufacturing and selling) was so superior, that all the other players would be quickly forced to either copy that model, or exit the business. Which implied that Dell's competitive advantage wouldn't last, for soon everybody (or at least all the survivors) would be doing it the same way. This was my rationale for never investing in Dell. Yet, year after year, the other PC companies keep on making and selling PCs in ways that yield little or no profits (currently, Dell is the only company making money in PCs). And, in spite of their repeated failures to copy Dell's model, they refuse to take the obvious next step, which is to exit a business where they are (apparently permanently) unable to make profits. Just one example, there are so many others.