Sunday, February 1, 2009

What business are we in?

At the most abstract level there are only a limited number of businesses.

Sex
Drugs
Rock'n'Roll
The Rag Trade
Infrastructure.

The best business for the long term is infrastructure. You collect rent.
The best business for the short term is Rock 'n Roll. Big risks, big rewards.
The best business for fast growth is the drug business.
The lowest cost of entry is the sex business.
Most people are in the rag trade.

Selling boxes is the rag trade. The right stuff for the right price at the right time. While we are now in the rag trade, we need to quickly build out infrastructure business (toner and supplies).
Google it. Find it. Xerox it. Anywhere.

Note:"Anywhere" is short for "Distribute and Print on the Xerox Print Output Network, (XPON?) anywhere." The Xerox Print Output Network is infrastructure.
To get from the rag trade to infrastructure you have to go through the drug business and the rock n roll business. The drug business is based on "try it, you'll like it. Then make it really, really hard not to keep using it. The rock n roll business is based on being the coolest kid on the block.
The Power of Print on YouTube, brought to you by Xerox.
If you're interested in the non Xerox version of this story, I posted it this morning at one of my other blogs.

No comments:

Post a Comment