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When Growth Stalls: A Case Study of the iPhone

November 13, 2020 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

If you got an iPhone in the last few years, you don’t really need to rush to replace it with the new iPhone 12.

In a sense, Apple is relying on other businesses to make this new lineup a success. Despite Apple’s assertions that the new iPhone 12 supports fast 5G cellular networks, the prevailing 5G networks in America just aren’t fast enough yet.

Feature Stagnation

Arguably, there’s not much further for the iPhone to go. It’s been improved through numerous versions since 2007, and there simply isn’t much left to do. The entire experience is probably as good as it ever needs to be.

Beyond better power, speed, design, battery, cameras, and display, Apple faces the horizon of what’s expectable from a smartphone. After a decade of relentless growth and absolute dominance, innovation has exhausted. Progress will become increasingly inconsequential. Through it all, Apple has successfully sustained premium-position captivity and thrived even as new, low-cost competitors are emerging worldwide.

When Growth Stalls

Apple’s growth trajectory is likely to look different in the future. The bulk of Apple’s future growth prospects will come from existing customers and not new smartphone adopters. Apple has been focusing on newer software and services to expand the user experience and retain customers.

Apple’s core product is ex-growth. In that sense, Apple is now like Microsoft and Alphabet. Faced with product stagnation, both Microsoft and Alphabet responded by pushing into entirely new areas to spawn growth, but with patchy successes. When it’s dominant Windows and Office franchises were stalling, Microsoft pivoted and had big hits with the Xbox and enterprise software but failed with MSN, Bing, and mobile. Google diversified with Android and Apps but repeatedly missed on social.

Idea for Impact: No one, no matter how historically innovative and powerful, is guaranteed immortality

Successful companies—and people—must evolve their competence or risk becoming marginalized. The roots of sustained success lie in being aware, innovative, and adaptable. Don’t become too focused on taking care of today and forget preparing for tomorrow. Your business model could be fragile.

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Filed Under: Business Stories, Leadership Tagged With: Apple, Change Management, Google, Microsoft, Strategy

Wife asks “When is it going to be time? Our time? My time?” and Google CFO chooses to retire

March 11, 2015 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

To supplement yesterday’s article, “When Can Your Loved One Become an Important Client?” on making time for ourselves and our loved ones, here’s a memo published yesterday by Google CFO Patrick Pichette announcing his retirement after a 30-year career that he deemed left him with too little time to pursue anything else.

Google CEO Larry Page called the memo “a most unconventional leaving notice … Well worth reading—it will warm your heart.”

A trip to Africa in September 2014 was the genesis of Pichette’s choice to retire at age 52. One morning, Pichette and wife Tamar were watching the sunrise from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and appreciating the expanse of the Serengeti Park beneath. Then,

And Tamar out of the blue said “Hey, why don’t we just keep on going”. Let’s explore Africa, and then turn east to make our way to India, it’s just next door, and we’re here already. Then, we keep going; the Himalayas, Everest, go to Bali, the Great Barrier Reef… Antarctica, let’s go see Antarctica!?” Little did she know, she was tempting fate.

… then she asked the killer question: So when is it going to be time? Our time? My time? The questions just hung there in the cold morning African air.

A few weeks later, I was happy back at work, but could not shake away THE question: When is it time for us to just keep going? And so began a reflection on my/our life.

… I am completing this summer 25-30 years of nearly non-stop work (depending on how you wish to cut the data). And being member of FWIO, the noble Fraternity of Worldwide Insecure Over-achievers, it has been a whirlwind of truly amazing experiences. But as I count it now, it has also been a frenetic pace for about 1500 weeks now. Always on – even when I was not supposed to be. Especially when I was not supposed to be. And am guilty as charged – I love my job (still do), my colleagues, my friends, the opportunities to lead and change the world.

Third, this summer, Tamar and I will be celebrating our 25th anniversary. When our kids are asked by their friends about the success of the longevity of our marriage, they simply joke that Tamar and I have spent so little time together that “it’s really too early to tell” if our marriage will in fact succeed.

If they could only know how many great memories we already have together. How many will you say? How long do you have? But one thing is for sure, I want more. And she deserves more. Lots more.

Allow me to spare you the rest of the truths. But the short answer is simply that I could not find a good argument to tell Tamar we should wait any longer for us to grab our backpacks and hit the road – celebrate our last 25 years together by turning the page and enjoy a perfectly fine mid life crisis full of bliss and beauty, and leave the door open to serendipity for our next leadership opportunities, once our long list of travels and adventures is exhausted.

… In the end, life is wonderful, but nonetheless a series of trade offs, especially between business/professional endeavours and family/community. And thankfully, I feel I’m at a point in my life where I no longer have to have to make such tough choices anymore. And for that I am truly grateful. Carpe Diem.

Pichette has sounded affable when I’ve heard him lead recent Google corporate earnings calls. CEO Larry Page hasn’t been talking at events since 2013 because of vocal cord troubles; Pichette has been the one to answer for Google’s large spending and disappointing earnings numbers. He has persistently defended Google’s moonshot projects and speculative investments in many new products and acquisitions that haven’t made money for stockholders.

Pichette’s memo is perhaps the finest “spend more time with family” message ever written in announcing a retirement (or resignation.) Although it’s “carpe diem” for the immediate future, he’s left the door open for more opportunities “once our long list of travels and adventures is exhausted.”

Idea for Impact: Get Your Priorities Right

Undeniably, Pichette’s decision to retire and my own ‘retirement’ for identical reasons (my decision came about on a trip to Alaska in March 2009) are outside the realm of possibility for 99% of people. Yet, this inspiring memo serves as a reminder to us to invest more time on our loved ones and on ourselves. We don’t need to constantly succumb to the demands of the world at the expense of the needs of our loved ones and our own deep-held aspirations.

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Filed Under: Living the Good Life, Sharpening Your Skills Tagged With: Balance, Google, Leadership Lessons, Time Management

Google Romance: Beyond All Fools’ Day

April 3, 2006 By Nagesh Belludi Leave a Comment

On All Fools’ Day, Google [GOOG] announced, as a joke, work on its Google Romance online matchmaker service. Isn’t the company serious about opportunities the ‘contextual dating‘ service presents?

What would attract users to migrate from Yahoo! Personals or Match.com or the other dating websites? The search technology used to match profiles is probably mature: profiles are searched by matching well-defined fields and by searching profile descriptions. Google could supplement this matching mechanism by incorporating tags or by allowing users to rank or provide feedback on profiles they view based on whatever criteria.

Building a large user base will be critical. Three of my colleagues consider the $25-$35 monthly fees they pay for the above services an overcharge. A free service or low fees can attract a significant user base to Google Romance. The popularity of the search engine, any unique features, and clever marketing (allowing users join by invitation only, as with Gmail) can help too.

Clearly, Google Romance presents an enhanced opportunity for Google’s AdSense program. With personal details of a user and profiles of potential partners a user is looking at, it could target more specific, more meaningful ads based on age, gender, diet preferences, likes, location, etc. Further, the service could easily be integrated with Talk, Gmail, maps, local search, etc. and keep users engaged within the Google grid of services.

It is hard to imagine Google not being serious about this potential revenue stream.

Filed Under: News Analysis Tagged With: Google

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About: Nagesh Belludi [hire] is a St. Petersburg, Florida-based freethinker, investor, and leadership coach. He specializes in helping executives and companies ensure that the overall quality of their decision-making benefits isn’t compromised by a lack of a big-picture understanding.

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Unless otherwise stated in the individual document, the works above are © Nagesh Belludi under a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license. You may quote, copy and share them freely, as long as you link back to RightAttitudes.com, don't make money with them, and don't modify the content. Enjoy!