| 669523 - Web Finalist
First let me express my admiration on the great achievement the Motley Fool
has made in the last three years. In term of your strategic position and
future prospect, I see an analogy between today’s Motley Fool in business
media industry and the Microsoft in personal computer industry in 1977. You
have the potential to surpass Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune etc.,
just like MSFT did to IBM, DEC, and become a dominant force in media industry
sometime in the next millennium. Congratulations! And Happy Anniversary!
I think the most important thing the Fool should do in the next three years
is to enhance your competitive position.
1. Be much more aggressive in promoting your brand identity. Firmly establish
your position as the ultimate online place for individual investing and personal
finance. I propose that you should not just attract advertising but spend
heavily on advertising yourself as well. If capital is a constraint, seriously
consider giving up some equity to take in venture capital.
2. Repackage your image. I feel there is an urgency to be a little bit
'unFoolish' now, to reposition and repackage yourself to cater a more
diverse audience. Borrowing the term from retailing, 'upgrade your image'
to become mainstream institution in media industry.
3. Broaden your product offering. Consider other personal finance issues
such as financial planning, retirement planning, tax, purchasing a car, travel,
etc.---at least create a message board for those audience.
4. Extend your product line. Branch out to new territories such as asset
management, education seminars, conventions, maybe even consider offering
Fool credit card.
5. Taylor your products to serve different market segments like kids and
younger generation, women and older people, not just for beginners but for
more sophisticated investors as well.
6. Expand globally. Like Yahoo!, establish a global brand.
I know this doesn’t sound very Foolish but to be the next Microsoft
does demand some serious strategic planning. If in real estate industry,
three most important words are 'Loca--tion, Loca--tion, Loca--tion'. In an
emerging industry such as this online interactive media, they should be
'Posi--tion, Posi--tion, Posi--tion'. Talking about Microsoft again, had
IBM not be so dumb and give away its IBM PC standard, today’s Microsoft
might be just a tiny division of IBM. Had Steve Jobs not be that greedy and
keep its Mac OS proprietary , there may not be a Microsoft today at all.
I feel Fool has done an excellent job in attracting a critical mass. But
not good enough in consolidating your position and crushing your competition.
For instance, the Silicon Investor created by another brothers named Dryer
from California came later in the game but seem to erode your leadership
position in an alarming speed. This is also something we should learn from
Bill Gates, his takes on Netscape that destroying your competition at any
cost. Or his takes on Intuit, if you can’t destroy your competition
at any cost, then try to buy it at any cost. I think the Fool should be more
alert to any strategic threat. A threat that has any remote possibility of
overtaking your position should be dealt with immediate response.
Louis Yu
[email protected] |