Mayo615's French Odyssey Week 10 Report
Channel: Mayo615
Date: 2019-06-04

Hello! 
…and welcome to the Week 10 Update of Mayo615’s Odyssey to France, and how to transform Big Ideas into Big Realities. 
This week I want to discuss the importance of strategic focus, while still being open to possible opportunities, sometimes called corporate “nimbleness,” which may seem like a contradiction. I am a strong believer in strategic focus, however, I have also personally experienced a case where an “openness” to opportunity transformed the enterprise from a pedestrian company into a Silicon Valley legend. Ascend Communications was “focused” on ISDN based video conferencing with a modest and profitable OEM agreement with AT&T. However, AT&T came to Ascend and asked if it could solve a much bigger problem…dial-up access to the Internet over the voice switches was overloading the switches. 90 days later, Ascend delivered the solution, and the rest is Silicon Valley legend. The Ascend MAX became the global industry standard for Internet access, and the company the most successful Silicon Valley Company at that time. So it always pays to keep your eyes and ears open, as there may be an exception to the rule of strategic focus.
Remember that my website, mayo615.com has over 400 posts on a wide range of management and technology topics.
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