Why a successful company fails for entrepreneurs who are passionate about products. Detect when the flight of innovation is blinding you.
How many entrepreneurs have businesses based on exceptional, unique product ideas born from their inspiration?
Edwin Land was one of them. He invented an iconic product destined to change the world forever, the Polaroid, with the famous SX-70 camera.
It all stems from Edwin Land’s original invention, polarization, which is the basis of most of the innovations that Land left to humankind:
- Sunglasses with polarized lenses
- 3D aerial maps
- Polarized photographs to represent the sculptures in 3D
- 3D cinema
- Instant photo
- Automatic exposure
- Autofocus
Fun fact: the industry launched by Edwin Land has also fueled the sharing of “private” photos. Until then, couples must ask photographers to develop their intimate photos.
Why did Polaroid fail?
Edwin Land has turned the carousel of success one too many times
He invested everything in Polavision, the instant film development system, a revolutionary product, almost all unsold due to its excessive cost.
Don’t do anything someone else can do. Do not undertake a project unless it is manifestly important and nearly impossible.
Edwin Land.
3 signs that anticipate the failure of successful companies based on product technology.
- The momentum of the virtuous circle. Everyone desires to feed the flywheel of success more and more quickly. This blinds people to danger, but people are thrilled with the progress.
- Paying attention only to inventions that power the wheel. All other innovations, including those of business model, become uninteresting if they don’t allow you to feed the rotation speed.
- The entrepreneur only focuses on incredible inventions. In companies focused on the product, the entrepreneur often willingly concentrates his effort on an increasingly beautiful product, centralizing decisions.
If you see these signs, stop and think about what risks you run into.
This post was created with Typeshare
