Re: old design was oilheads-digest V 1 #47

[Steve Makohin <wateredg@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 1/7/04 3:54 PM, BAnder6125@xxxxxxx BAnder6125@xxxxxxx wrote:

>In a message dated 1/7/04 11:23:31 AM, gregt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx writes:
>
>> 'yah know, apple inc. and bmw moto both think they are really 'cool' and
>> above the fray.  that's why neither one of them will ever be major players
>> in their respective industries.
>
>That captures it. I think it's a case of corporate 'sour grapes'.
>Any company that does not have increased market share as a corporate goal
>will sooner or later fail....

You'll need some proof to back up your claim, or we can file it along 
with a host of other beliefs that are firmly based on, well, other 
beliefs :-)  Most businesses do not aim at "market share," but rather, 
they aim to increase sales at a targeted rate (a very different thing 
than market share). There are business reasons for that, and in many 
cases, it makes sense.

Using Apple as an example, we need to remind ourselves that people have 
been forecasting Apple's demise for close to two decades now (WOW!). This 
includes experts and industry analysts. Yet Apple's PC market share 
hovers around a dismal 3%, but their sales continue to keep the company 
profitable and "growing."

The "sour grapes" _I_ see are not on the side of BMW or Apple, but on the 
side of some of the _consumers_ of those company's products. It pains 
them to know that others may think of them as "niche" consumers, and it 
pains them that the makers of the products they choose to own may have 
corporate objectives that are not consistent with their own.

PC users in general do not view Apple as a company that thinks they are 
"way cool" and have "sour grapes" because they have a dismal market 
share. Instead, they think nothing more of Apple than a company that 
makes an arguably irrelevant line of computers that have limited market 
appeal, and who have recently diversified into lifestyle consumer 
electronics. (FYI, this email was written on one of the first Next 
Generation flat panel iMacs in the country. No bias here.)



>I worked for GE (remember Jack Welch?) and if your
>business wasn't #1 or #2 or didn't have a plan to get there, it was 'bye. My
>employer, medical systems, went from a has been to #1 world market share with
>$9 billion a year in sales.

You're mixing unrelated "data points" in attempt to support your 
position. Firstly, in some markets, if you're #1, you are King Of The 
Hill, while #2 and the rest are fighting for the scraps. An example of 
this is the Personal Computer operating system market where Microsoft 
accounts for approximately 93% (depending on whose data you use, and for 
what period), and ALL the rest account for the remaining 7%. And then 
there are markets where #1 and #2 are in a head to head battle for the 
coveted #1 spot which is attained by a shift of a handful of point of 
market share. Example: Coke and Pepsi. So your blanket statement about 
"#1 or #2" can be met with a resounding, "yeah, maybe, in some cases," 
but it definitely cannot be taken at face value.

Similarly, your second "data point" about your "medical systems" employer 
is irrelevant. It only demonstrates that if you have lots more sales, you 
end up with lots more sales, and you MAY end up in the #1 slot. A book 
could be written on why that happened in your employer's specific case. 
Otherwise we're speculating on "why" Joe won the lottery and what it 
"means".




>Don't think for a second that BMW wouldn't emulate that if they could. Honda
>is getting it right.

So according to your thinking, every company should aim for market 
domination or they have "failed". And if they don't aim at attaining a 
bigger market share, it's because the have "sour grapes." A sad state of 
affairs that is. Imagine a world with one "Honda," a half dozen Honda 
wanna bees, and not a single Ducati, BMW, Benelli, Aprilia, Moto Guzzi, 
Mercedes, Jaguar, Porsche, well, you get the picture.

The reality is that the world functions in a manner that is inconsistent 
with the portrait you paint. In your world, BMW is a failure because they 
are not a Honda. In reality, and in pure business terms, a great many 
manufacturers do not aim at market share. They aim at maintaining healthy 
sales and profit which are sufficient to let them meet their goals. In 
the case of motorcycles, manufacturers differentiate themselves in some 
way, try to appeal to a target audience, and work on keeping their sales 
at a target level. Porsche, Mercedes, BMW (automotive) all have a tiny 
market share, and none have the objective to displace General Motors.

To those who understand business, the day's business has nothing to do 
with sour grapes.

- -Steve

 Oakville, Ontario, Canada
 2000 R1100S/ABS, Mandarin

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