Businesses Are Not People

GeoffreyMoore argues that at different stages in the growth of a company different strategies are appropriate.

Here is a related idea. Most people reason incorrectly about business strategy because the rules for a business are different from the rules for an individual.

Here are some examples of how businesses operate under different rules than individuals.

Release Early. Release early is an awful rule to live by in personal life. Don't release yourself before a shower, shave, and presentable clothes. But release early works stupendously well for software. This is possibly the single most important principle behind Microsoft's marketing strategy.

Self-Promotion. If you promote yourself too much or talk about what a great person you are you will lose friends and annoy people. But a well promoted product is not considered morally flawed. In fact you want to market a product as widely as possible.

Exponential Growth. It is unrealistic to expect your career growth to be exponential. And yet most businesses grow exponentially. In fact a reasonable way for your career to grow exponentially is to ride a business on its way up.

Identity. While you can't change your own identity (easily) you can change your company name as many times as you want. Products always get a second chance.

--AsimJalis

Maybe this idea needs a bit of exercise:

Release Early. It's not really fair to compare a business product with a person's hygiene. A company that sends out half-baked marketing material is just as likely to get a bad reputation as a person with poor hygiene. If we're talking about ideas, which is probably more comparable to a business product, then it is certainly better to release your ideas early so that you can get feedback on them, improve them, and put them to use. The graveyard is full of great ideas.

Release early works in particular in problem domains where there is no (or minimal) competition yet.

What is the reasoning behind this statement? Why wouldn't release early work just as well when there is a lot of competition?
It depends on what you're releasing. If your release reveals development of technology or strategies that can (relatively) easily be duplicated, your competition will do so, and thereby either gain a market advantage over you or dilute the market sufficiently that you lose your advantage.

Self-Promotion. Businesses can over-promote themselves too. A good portion of small business get into trouble because of this. On the other hand, a well-promoted person is usually very popular. People in entertainment, politics, and sales rely on this. See HowToWinFriendsAndInfluencePeople for tips on how to do this without resorting to 'morally flawed' shenanigans.

Exponential Growth. Realistically, both people and businesses experience a growth curve that is an S-shaped 'normal growth curve' that begins like an exponential curve, but tapers off as maturity sets in.

Identity. Businesses do retain a reputation. Often, it is attached to the people who make up the business. It's just as hard to shake a bad reputation in business as it is for a person. In fact, it may be harder, since a person can easily move to another city, whereas a business would likely need to leave the province, state, or even country. I don't think Enron is going to shake its reputation for at least a few years. That's comparable to how long it would take an individual.

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