The rise and fall of the dinosaurs
Many people talk about the demise of dinosaurs, and rarely talk about how dinosaurs arose, just like many people talk about the career of emperors and successful people, and few people are willing to talk about a loser, even if he has been brilliant. Dinosaurs, as the last losers, even if they once ruled the earth for hundreds of millions of years. Without discussing how dinosaurs arose, it's hard to really understand why other creatures of the same era survived and dinosaurs didn't. Before the rise of dinosaurs, because of the sudden increase in oxygen content in the air, the earth's organisms suffered a mass extinction, and dinosaurs survived because of their particularly small lung capacity, and became their genetic advantage. Dinosaurs dominated the earth for about a million years, because an asteroid hit the earth, resulting in a large number of volcanic eruptions, a large number of vegetation because of the smoke from the volcano eruption, covering the sun for two to three years, vegetation rapidly died out, herbivorous dinosaurs died quickly because there were no plants, carnivorous dinosaurs died quickly because there was no herbivorous dinosaur as food, vegetation death caused a large amount of carbon dioxide from the volcano eruption could not be consumed, resulting in a rapid decline in oxygen concentration in the atmosphere. Dinosaurs died and were injured in the case of food cut off, and the fatal blow to the dinosaurs was due to the decline in oxygen concentration, and the small lungs that had become the advantage suddenly became the last blow to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Dinosaurs survived the first mass extinction because of their small lung capacity, and also died out in the second mass extinction because of their small lung capacity.
Wings of Icarus
Icarus was the son of Daedalus, a famous Greek artist, sculptor and inventor who invented many instruments and mechanisms at that time, so he was famous all over the world and caused trouble. Daedalus deceived the bull by helping the queen design a mechanism, causing the queen to give birth to minos, who was half cattle and half human, and the king was humiliated and angry. A labyrinth was built for Minos and imprisoned for life, trapping Daedalus and his son Icarus on a tower with only some bread to fill their hunger and candles. The celestial daedalus used breadcrumbs to lure the migratory birds that flew by, observed the flight posture of the migratory birds, collected the feathers dropped by the migratory birds, and made two teams of flying wings out of dripping wax. On the day the wings were completed, Daedalus warned his young son, Icarus, not to fly too low, beware of the sea water wetting your wings, do not fly too high, because the sun will melt wax to make wings, preferably flying between the sun and sea level. The two men flew out of the prison tower and went all the way, and the young Icarus, because of the pleasure of flying, gradually made him forget his father's advice, and kept waving his wings, flying higher and higher, and the temperature of the sun gradually melted Icarus's wings until he began to fall, engulfed by the ocean.
Daedalus, who rose to fame for his talent, was also imprisoned in the Tower of Iron Because of his talent.
Icarus, who took off from the wings, also fell because of the wings.
The Kodak Empire collapsed
Kodak invented the first non-professional camera, once unparalleled in film imaging technology, the company's global turnover in 2002 reached 12.8 billion US dollars, Kodak's global total of about 70,000 employees, once the university empire did not keep up with the wave of digital technology, declared bankruptcy in 2012. Many people know, there are many people do not know that digital camera technology is also invented by the Kodak Group, but due to its monopoly position in the film industry, the high profits brought by film make the top level stick to film technology, the cost is lower, the technology iteration is faster, and the digital technology with better prospects is snubbed aside by the group, resulting in the collapse of the Kodak Empire.
The Kodak Empire arose with the invention of film technology, and many years later it collapsed due to its adherence to film technology.
Philosophy has clouds: where it arises, it will fall.
The Bible has a cloud: he who kills will die under the knife.
The Tao Te Ching has clouds: if things are strong, they are old, and they are not tao.
The following paragraph has little to do with this article, and the core idea comes from Jobs's famous work, Christensen's "The Innovator's Dilemma".
Why did Kodak's turn to digital technology be so difficult? Are you unaware of the promise of digital technology? I don't think so, but there are the following difficulties that make Kodak rush into the abyss without hesitation:
1, the senior management pursues the stability of corporate profits, stock prices rise, because these and their long-term incentives are linked, and the CEO term is time-limited, so investing in digital technology with good prospects but slow results is a bit similar to the predecessors planting trees, and the posterity is cool, which is tantamount to making a wedding dress for others. It is better to concentrate on doing familiar and stable business, which not only ensures year-end dividends, but also ensures the maximization of visible financial incentives during the term.
2. A large part of the KPI assessment of front-line managers is the return on investment, that is, how much profit is earned back at how low the cost? It is clear that digital technology has high initial investment costs, low returns and strong uncertainties, so it is not in the interests of front-line managers.
3, front-line employees are the most motivated to promote digital technology, if the new technology is carried out smoothly can enter the rapid upward channel, but in the process of project upward reporting, because it is not in the interests of front-line managers, basically at this level will die.