Comments on: The 800 Pound Gorilla Problem

By: sikis izle

sikis izle — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 01:47:48 +0000

I guess the board meeting was the "powerpointless" one of Return Path.

By: Can you describe your category in one sentence? « Serial Trier

Can you describe your category in one sentence? « Serial Trier — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:02:34 +0000

[...] shadow of an 800 pound gorilla. Almost always you’d rather be, as Brad Feld suggested, the 12 pound gorilla of a more specific category. If your solution is both global and scalable, surprisingly narrow [...]

By: lisa

lisa — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:22:03 +0000

these cookies are GOOD!!!!

By: sikis izle

sikis izle — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 02:17:43 +0000

Thanks, http://www.xsikis.info I think I can summarize my point where I see the market as a container which you can fill up to its capacity and maybe a little beyond regardless of you capability or uniqueness. http://www.pornosikisizlet.com

By: biptube

biptube — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:50:46 +0000

Nice analogue

Of recent months I've been trying to catch myself when I'm thinking "this is the end"—or 800 pound Gorilla. Once I've caught myself I shift my thinking to "this is the beginning"—or the 12 pound Gorilla.

One end is another beginning, we just need to remember it. In recent months that's been a great motivator upon myself.

By: @TXTweetyBird

@TXTweetyBird — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 04:22:49 +0000

If you want a proven system for going from 12lb to 800lb anything, read Michael Masterson's book "Ready, Aim, Fire." He will show you the way.

By: sigmawaite

sigmawaite — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 09:40:27 +0000

Yes, you did well getting them to slow down, quit patting themselves on their backs, quit "smoking their own socks", and get back to work.

The meetings I've been in have had work quality inversely proportional to the number of people talking. Bummer.

So, with that history, I'm interested, no, concerned, that when I get a Board, how the heck to keep up the work quality?

Or, maybe we're in the high end ice cream business charging forward well according to plan, and some Board member, who actually doesn't understand or like the high end ice cream business, is suddenly all hot on our also selling jelly beans, cookies, and popsicles for which we have had no thoughts or plans at all and have no expertise, time, or resources to pursue except of course he has a 'totally available' brother in law he claims is the world's best at GD-pop-f**king-sicle-sh*t.

How to pour water on such sock smoking? Ideas?

By: Chart

Chart — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 08:15:33 +0000

OK barkeep…make it a double.

By: courtney benson

courtney benson — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 03:12:19 +0000

Good food for thought and I will use this in the future.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:14:21 +0000

You know you're expert in a domain when making land grabs and planting flags the idiom space becomes a primary concern.

By: Dudu Mimran

Dudu Mimran — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:43:17 +0000

Yes we are talking about the same thing though I do see the case of growing in your market and capturing other markets as different stories. When you grow in your own market then you have the potential of taking advantage of available buying power. This potential depends on the size of the market, for example in the cellular operator market then the overall purchasing power is big enough to grow into a big gorilla. If the market is small regardless of the reason it is small (whether it is young or just limited currently) then you will be able grow but only in a linear fashion – which means more orders from current customers and more customers but limited to the proportion of what you have now if you are the true market leader. In the case of other markets again it depends on the size.

I think I can summarize my point where I see the market as a container which you can fill up to its capacity and maybe a little beyond regardless of you capability or uniqueness. In your story you mentioned "In my world view, the market was still relatively small " and that is why I thought it contradict with just new products strategy.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:53:08 +0000

While I generally agree with you, I don’t think the two notions are inconsistent. The company is in a market that is growing. It’s going to expand its product footprint in this growing market. And it’s going to come up with new products in this same market. That’s the first set of moves. In addition, the company is expanding into adjacent markets. I think this is the same as what you are saying below.

By: Brad Feld

Brad Feld — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:46:05 +0000

Maybe we should call them “double gorillas”. Wikipedia – the source of all truth in the universe – says that occasionally we’ll see 510lb ones in the wild and 600lb obese ones in captivity. And then there is our friend Urban Dictionary – http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=80... />

By: @HPY

@HPY — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 09:23:13 +0000

Great insight into boardroom dynamics.
Analogies can be useful for simplifying a complex issue, however, as you point out they can simplify something and give it an incorrect emphasis (like the 800lb gorilla). The danger of using analogies is that they are highly persuasive and people can fall into the "anchoring trap" – over relying on their first thought, more here: http://ow.ly/gxrY
So important to have characters on a board that challenge and ensure a rigorous debate.

By: Chart

Chart — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 05:11:13 +0000

Since gorillas max out at 440 lbs., does this mean you want the company to grow up to be fiction?