"You have to figure out the new rules, and you have to figure out what works under the new rules."
Andy Grove's comment above was made when he was asked about how he was responding to retirement from Intel (INTC). His answer though, gives some tremendous insight into business, and life in general.
The most important thing to me, is how much regular life mimics business. Or rather, how much business mimics regular life. It underscores the importance of looking for that which is normal to regular people, and turning that into products and services they want to interact with and buy.
One important thing to embrace is in understanding there are always rule changes going on, and we must pursue the understanding of those rules if we want to successfully navigate our businesses through them.
Even when we figure out the new rules, it's not enough to stop there, then we must search for what works in our existing businesses under those new rules.
The music industry is a good case study in not how to do it. They not only were in denial of the new rules that were upon them, but to this day they can't figure out what works with them. The stubbornly refuse to change their business model even as money continues to leave the industry in torrents.
They have wrongly assumed that the new rules were fads, rather than definite trends that were going to be around for a long time. So instead of agressively going after the new market, and trying a number of things they could use as measuring sticks, they just continue to plod along.
Their attitude is to neglect the new business model because it doesn't make as much money as the old: yet! So they continue to hemmorage money, while generally rejecting where the industry is going.
All this comes from refusing to accept there are new rules. When they rejected that, they of course rejected trying new things that would reflect those new rules. All of that is another word for denial.
They are still in the place of pretending that the game hasn't changed, while helplessly floundering around while the business goes on without them.
Other Andy Grove Resources:
Andy Grove's Rational Exuberance
The Digital Age . . . driven by the passion of Intel's Andrew Grove
The History and Influence of Andy Grove
Andy Grove enters new post-Intel role as activist capitalist
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