Re: Pinkerton On Hawking

simberg.interglobal@xxxxxxxxx (Rand Simberg) wrote:

On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 21:26:18 GMT, in a place far, far away,
fairwater@xxxxxxxxx (Derek Lyons) made the phosphor on my monitor glow
in such a way as to indicate that:

Whatever one may think of Richard Branson's antics, it's hard to deny
that he's a very successful business man. He thinks he's got a viable
business model for suborbital tourism; in fact he's sufficiently sure of
it as to invest large sums of money in just such a venture. Anyone is
free to disagree, of course, but who has more successful business
experience?

Note that Jeff Bezos is starting such a venture as well. I don't
think that many would dispute his business credentials.

No, though of the two, I'd trust Branson more. One could argue that
Bezos got lucky, with basically one right idea at the right time. But
Branson, if he's gotten lucky, has done so again and again for decades.

Thank you - I had a gut feeling there was a big difference between the
two, but couldn't put my finger on it. It was thinking along the
lines of your reply, but couldn't put it so succinctly- which lead me
to suspect it.

Nope. As I said, Branson has had successes and failures. If you're
going to criticize Bezos because he's only had a single success, you
might as well say that Fred Smith is a lousy businessman. Or Bill
Gates...

Utter bull***. Having Bezos come off poorly in a comparison to
Branson states nothing about Smith or Gates, except as a typical
Simbergian red herring.

Of course, the point with all three is that they didn't just come up
with a good idea, they came up with funding, implemented it, and
adapted it to changing markets and competition over decades, while
managing phenomenal growth of their companies and never being replaced
by "managers."

Which Branson has done, and Bezos (arguably) has not.

Bezos hasn't had as much time to prove himself as the latter two, but
it's silly to write him off as a one-hit wonder, when one looks at how
many things Amazon is now selling on line, with a healthy profit.

Now matter how many products he sells - it's the same business model.

D.
--
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.

-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL
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