科技巨头希柏陨落启示录

    那么，如今在市场上拼杀的企业能从这个历史教训中学到什么呢？

    1.商业模式是一种顽固不化的东西。一个公司的“DNA”——商业模式——一旦确定，那就很难改变了。现在那些靠永久许可证“自助式”模式的软件企业就得强打精神和软件即服务这一模式展开竞争。

    2.始终都要随机应变。不管你的公司现在有多成功，都应该时刻保持对市场和对手的应变能力，哪怕它们现在看来还不成气候或是显得微不足道。一旦你听到某个高管站到台上或是在会议上这么表态：“我们将赢得这个市场，因为我们比任何人都聪明、规模都大，”那你就该感到紧张了，非常紧张才行！

    3.差异化是最佳的生存之道。公司不要太久依赖于某一个产品或某一个市场，这一点非常重要。今天让你大获成功的东西可能正是将来让你一败涂地的根源。

    4.架构很关键。现在你的产品架构可能会让你在市场上参与竞争并获得成功，但它以后肯定会变成拖业务后腿的东西。能看出这种情况何时出现，并能及时采取应对措施将是决定你公司生死存亡的关键。

    5.对现状保持警惕。大企业总是安于现状，同时会努力扼杀任何可能对自己构成威胁的事物。对现状来说，新产品、新商业模式、新员工和新流程都是令人讨厌的东西。大企业和华尔街总是对有把握和可靠的事物犒赏有加，他们厌恶不确定性和不稳定性，而这两者恰恰是创新必然催生的东西。这也就是为什么在目前那些成功的大企业中，“创新”一方面难觅踪影，另一方面又难以存活的根本原因。现在有一种做法开始流行，就是任命一个首席创新官来推动公司内部开展创新——对股东来说，这种做法在年报里会看起来很不错。不过，除非这些公司能在企业现有的法律、技术和业务限制之外开展创新，同时允许员工创建那种能反过来吞噬或毁灭母公司现有业务的业务，否则，这些出发点良好的做法必败无疑。

    作为“大卫”的Salesforce杀掉作为“巨人歌利亚”的希柏这一笼罩着神秘色彩的故事已在业内口口相传多年，但它也可能在Salesforce公司内部或其他各种行业报道中重演，不过事情的真相却要平淡得多。

    本来这两家公司最后免不了来一场正面交锋。但是希柏却早在这一史诗般的大战开始之前就败在了一个更大的难题——全球性的经济衰退手下。而当希柏被收购后，推动这家公司获得成功的人只有少数留在了甲骨文。

    我不知道今后十年里MBA的学生还会在课堂上研究探讨那些公司。Salesforce近期能成功完成转型吗，或者是不是又会涌现出一家拥有新技术——也许是新商业模式——的创业企业，颠覆这家无懈可击的CRM领军企业呢？（财富中文网）

    布鲁斯•克利夫兰2006年加盟InterWest的IT团队，主要从事软件和服务业投资，重点关注手机、云计算和分析应用领域。

    译者：清远

    So, what can companies competing in the market today learn from this history lesson?

    1. Business models are stubborn creatures. Once the "DNA" of a company -- the business model -- is set, it is very difficult to modify. Today, software companies that rely upon a perpetual license "do it yourself" model struggle to compete against the software as a service business model.

    2. Always be adapting. No matter how successful your company currently is, you should always be willing to adapt to the market and competitors, despite how small or seemingly inconsequential they may appear. The moment you hear a senior executive stand up on stage or in a meeting and say something like, "We will win this market because we are smarter and bigger than everyone else," it is time to get nervous. Very nervous.

    3. Diversity is your best shot at survival. It is critical that your company not rely on any one product or any one market for too long. The very thing that drives your success today may be your undoing in the future.

    4. Architecture is critical. Today, your product architecture may enable you to compete and win in the market but it will surely be a drag on your business in the future. Your ability to recognize when that is happening and to actually do something about it in time will determine whether your company survives.

    5. Beware of the status quo. Large organizations thrive on status quo and attempt to kill anything that appears as though it may upset it. New products, new business models, new employees, new processes are all anathema to the status quo. Large organizations and Wall Street reward predictability and reliability; they abhor uncertainty and instability, the very things that innovation foments. This is why true "innovation" is seldom found nor survives inside the four walls of a large and successful incumbent. Today, it is becoming popular to create a chief innovation officer to foster internal innovation -- this reads well in annual reports to shareholders. But unless companies move innovation outside the legal, technical, and business constraints of the existing company and allow people to build businesses that may cannibalize and destroy the existing business of the parent company, these well-meaning efforts are doomed to failure.

    The mythical story of "the David" Salesforce slaying "the Goliath" Siebel that has been propagated over the years may play well inside the halls of Salesforce or in various industry reports, but the truth is far more pedestrian.

    Both companies were headed toward an eventual collision. But Siebel succumbed well before such an epic battle occurred, to a much bigger problem -- a global recession. And once Siebel was acquired, few of the people who made the company successful stayed at Oracle.

    In another 10 years, I wonder which companies MBA students will be studying and discussing in their classes. Will Salesforce survive an impending transformation or will a new startup emerge with a new technology -- and perhaps a new business model -- that upends the unassailable CRM leader?

    Bruce Cleveland has been part of InterWest's IT team since 2006, focusing on investments in the software and services sector with an emphasis on mobile, cloud computing, and analytic applications.