Business and ideals

Sometimes it may be interesting to consider what characterizes the business ideas that work, especially in environments where there is no tradition and where the level of invention is still fundamental. And, as a result of what has been seen in the Internet world so far, I think that one of the fundamental aspects that characterizes interesting entrepreneurs and businesses is undoubtedly the balance between business and ideals. For example, behind Google, is there a willingness for business? Obviously, yes. But, as Larry and Sergey said when they collected their well-deserved MBA Honoris Causa at Instituto de Empresa, the business idea was not the center of anything. It was a possible – and desirable – consequence of an ideal, i.e. to be able to make worldwide information much more accessible. Contextual advertising as a possible way of making that ideal profitable came afterwards.

Something similar happened at Yahoo!: the original idea was more or less to help people locate sites on an increasingly larger web by developing a catalog. Pursuing that ideal made Yahoo! what it is today: a very profitable company which, in fact, has a very small catalog left. The same can be said of eBay, Skype and even Napster: the initial idea was to solve a problem, meet a need, create a platform, etc. When business came, if it did, it came afterwards. They are companies that created developments which benefited many other people and companies in their activities, businesses and pleasure – veritable creators of ecosystems generated around an ideal.
Give me a starting point, an idea and an adequate development and, with the right combination of factors, the result is the development, as an unpredictable fractal architecture, of an entire superstructure of delicate interrelations, crystals and lines of varied forms and structures, i.e. an ecosystem around an ideal. I’m not going to be as mad or as presumptuous as to compare Tractis with eBay, Google, Yahoo!, Skype or Napster, whether in terms of the type of project, the nature of the ideal and, especially, in terms of its dimension. From what I can see here, what has led me to collaborate enthusiastically is that same essence, the aroma of a project focused on ideals, but with the capacity to execute that you recognize in the people with whom you have often spoken. All you have to do is read this blog’s first post to see that this project is superb. Can a platform that generates value to many other people and businesses also be a good deal, like a fractal organized around its original crystal? If so, all the better, wonderful. Citing the ineffable Mike Wazowski, of Monsters, Inc., “apart from achieving it, we will have laughed a lot”.

Good luck!

By Enrique Dans
Saved in: Entrepreneurs, Guest Bloggers | No comments » | 22 June 2006