Some factors that indicate a product or organisation is peaking
Some organisations become a victim of their own success and size. As their success grows, so does the size of the organisation, and the thinking evolves from innovation to protecting the successful product, services, etc. The organisations become, at best, maintainers rather than innovators.This is more obvious in industries with rapidly changing technology. Some examples include the watch industry in Switzerland not taking up the digital technology, IBM and Dell in computers, Yahoo as a search engine, smart phones with Nokia, Zynga in mobile games, etc. Are Microsoft, Apple, Facebook & Google next?
For example, Dell initially disrupted the PC industry when it introduced build-to-order and direct online sales; over the years it became the industry leader. But the industry landscape changed, eg mobile phones becoming minicomputers, etc and they remained stuck within a commoditised PC market.
One firm that has used digital technology to change the way it does business is Disney, ie its clients are no longer BBC or RTZ but iTunes, Google, PlayStation and Microsoft. There was a proliferation of channels/platforms/devices, etc wanting to deliver Disney's content and this put Disney in a position of power. The new technologies opened up commercial opportunities and new revenue streams, eg
"...you could look at the way in which programs were sold; they could be sold to one person for one platform for one experience and later to somebody else for a different experience......Disney was the first company to put long form episodes on the iPod......technology defines how content is created, how it is distributed and how it is consumed...... if you have a platform that can't respond to the sort of digital expectations of the consumer, you are in trouble..."
Catherine Powell as quoted by Joanne Gray, 2016a
It is about connecting all the lines of Disney's business that go under the one brand like stage shows, retail and licensing products, release of films, programming and distributing TV channels, theme parks, etc
NB
"...The essence of innovation is also obsolescence..."
Allan Gray as quoted by Vesna Poljak, 2013
In addition to becoming maintainers rather than innovators, other indicators of being victims of their own success and size are increase focus on
- incremental improvement of current products rather than creative destruction or disruption, eg making cosmetic changes like colour/size of product, rather than technological
- bureaucracy, ie less flexible with more hierarchical, process-focussed, rules & regulations orientated, etc
- silo performance, ie organisation becomes more specialised, segmented, departmentalised, etc with focus on groups rather than whole organisation's performance
- abuse of market power to protect the status quo, eg monopolistic activities, anti-trust charges, etc, Some examples include
i) Microsoft has paid US $3.4 b. in fines to European courts over a decade
ii) Intel is appealing its anti-trust case that started around 2000
iii) Google is fighting the EU anti-trust regulator's claim it has illegally abused its market dominance (2015)