Reply to post: Clearly well advanced in Stage 4.

Microsoft boasted it had rebuilt Skype 'from the ground up'. Instead, it should have buried it

Jeff from California

Clearly well advanced in Stage 4.

My first civilian boss used to preach that there were five stages to business development:

1. Idea-driven;

2. Engineering-driven;

3. Sales-driven;

4. Marketing-driven;

5. Chapter 7.

Folklore reportedly had it that a sixth stage existed, between 4 and 5 on the above list, but nobody had managed to hit it yet.

There were reasons several industrial giants put valiant effort into remaining at Stage 3. When sales drives the company, you're very attentive to your actual, paying customers and what they want and think. Once you fall across the chasm into Stage 4, you become hostage to your own navel-gazing propaganda telling you what your future customers ought to want. Your existing customers; you know, the folks with money they want to give you? They're the ones who see your big ¡Sal si puedes! sign and take it to heart.

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