Every now and again, you see a business who is absolutely killing it. You watch as the momentum carries them into an enormous amount of success. They slowly go from David fighting against Goliath, to winning, to becoming Goliath themselves. This is a story of David becoming Goliath… and then forgetting where he came from.
David v. Goliath (who once was David)
As I was growing up, Best Buy was unquestionably a place you would beg to be dropped off while your mom visited the nearest clothing outlet or mall, as was often the case. You would spend hours walking through an endless display of mystical, amazing, and ‘necessary’ technology. Best Buy was one of these fabulous success stories eventually rising to the top of the consumer electronics industry (and for many good reasons).
They were, without a doubt, at the top of their class.
However, as I came of age there was a David in the making. By the time I was at college in 2006, there was this cool website where you could order some of that mystical technology you had put your hands on in middle school and dreamed of owning growing up… but there was a conflict of interests.
When you were younger, you always pictured yourself buying that laptop, that external hard drive, and that flash drive from Best Buy.
So naturally, you head to Best Buy. As you arrive you are greeted by some pretty un-helpful employees. You ask about the famous price match that you used to use as the reason for coming to Best Buy instead of say, Circuit City. They ask which store you found a better price, was it Circuit City? Target? Wal-Mart?
Google is a company that has rarely advertised. I’ll never forget the first Google commercial I saw, which was the one aired during the Super Bowl a few years back (found here). I was sitting at my computer after the Chicago Bulls game had ended and all of the sudden a commercial came on. Not the best ad ever, but fantastic nonetheless.
Have a great Cinco de Mayo,
Zach
In our second podcast (Leadership) we had the privilege of interviewing David Burkus. David is the leading force behind The LeaderLab, a community of resources dedicated to the advancement of leadership theory. The LeaderLab recently put out an excellent resource The Portable Guide to Leading Organizations
All you have to do for a chance to win this book for free is click the ‘tweet’ button to the left of any of our blog posts or Retweet any of our tweets that link to a blog of ours. The only stipulation is that you have to follow us on twitter @BizOverCoffee.
We have already had several people enter and will be announcing the winners later this week. If you haven’t entered yet, go find your favorite blog that we have posted and hit the tweet button! Thanks in advance for following and supporting our efforts.
Zach
