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Two books deeply influenced my strategic thinking about<br />
how companies mature: The Innovator’s Dilemma, by Clayton<br />
Christensen, and Inside the Tornado, by Ge<strong>of</strong>frey Moore. You<br />
should still read them, even though I share some key lessons<br />
here.<br />
The Innovator’s Dilemma was a revelation to me because it<br />
so clearly explained strategic issues that we faced at NetApp.<br />
The book explores the observation that low-end technologies<br />
tend to move upmarket and outperform high-end technologies.<br />
Mainframes were the original high-end computer: very<br />
large, fast, and reliable, but also very expensive. At first, UNIX<br />
was for desktop workstations, but over time computers running<br />
UNIX replaced mainframes in many large companies.<br />
Then Micros<strong>of</strong>t Windows started replacing UNIX, and now<br />
Linux may replace them both. This keeps happening: small<br />
new computers replace big old computers. (In twenty years,<br />
major corporations may run their billing systems on smart<br />
phones.)<br />
The key is that technology gets better, according to Christensen,<br />
faster than customer requirements go up. In many<br />
markets, things get better and cheaper at the same time. Laptops<br />
are a great example. Ten years ago, my laptop was much<br />
slower than my desktop. Today, my laptop is so fast that I
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