16th June, 2010

Mine is smaller than yours

Posted by Navin Harish - 1 Comment

In the ongoing soccer world cup, if you watch a match between a strong team and a weak team, you are likely to notice the stark difference between the way they play. While the stronger team is content with scoring a goal and then just waste time by denying possession of ball to the other team, the weaker team is eager to take as many shot at the goal post even if there isn’t half a chance of scoring a goal and even if it means losing possession of the ball.

The same is the case with large and small companies. While is small company has nothing but possibilities, it has no problem in being aggressive and try to capture as much of competitors’ territory as it can. The large company on the other hand has worked hard to capture a market share and is now not interested in taking any more risks. It is too busy trying to retain its market share.

Of course there are bigger companies who are still challenging others but they are the exceptions, not the rule.

If we take the biggest example of our time, Google has grown into what it is from a very small company and it has been challenging competition whether it is Yahoo or Microsoft or anyone else. What future do you see for Google in the next 5-10 years? Do you see them still creating problems for the competition or do you see then on the other side where they are getting defensive about its large market share?