Before dwelling deep into the gist of it, let us understand the context with few relevant examples. Great companies which lasted over multiple decades and still giving the best industry returns for all key stakeholders involved, have one thing in common. (Not to generalize but to highlight few visible commonalities)
If we observe the trajectory of an iconic technological company whose products cut across categories viz. smartphones, music devices, tablets etc., the main pillar of its strength lies in innovation. With its Customer-centric Design as core, this company has beaten our traditional product-life-cycle theories with dedicated customer-fan base ready to lap-up any of its' new offering in no-time.
Similarly, if we observe the journey of another tech-biggie known for its search engine coupled with single-login driven features viz. e-mail, storage, maps etc., high-performance driven web-products remained the cornerstone of its every offering. Obviously, this company has taken great pains to ensure fast, hassle-free customer experience with services finding great relevance in modern day work environment. It pioneered this performance philosophy to an extent that internet has become synonymous with its home-site.
Extending the above line of thought, many successful companies have created an inimitable niche for themselves by solely working on their core strengths at the expense of every other line of thought. In this way, superior distribution network, same store experience anywhere in the globe, fastest delivery, best-in-class technology and many more have become the taglines for few reputed and highly successful global majors operating in a range of sectors.
In addition to the above list, SAP, with its wide-offerings, stands as one towering example of a player working on its core strength and being stupendously successful in the same. Though not easy to capture the whole-gamut of things possible with this ERP giant in few sentences or more, in essence, SAP has maintained sustainable leadership through business-enabling functionalities covering wide range of industries.
In my opinion, its customer-oriented understanding and business assimilation approach stood as the bedrock for many successful ERP innovations SAP pioneered like HANA, mobility solutions etc.
To sum it up, it was proven time and again, cutting periphery to retain core had yielded tremendous success and mileage to many organizations. So, the only learning from outstanding companies detailed above can be, we, as individuals, too can get exponential results if we choose to focus on what we do best based on our core strengths.
