Gorillas enjoy a very special status that rewards the investor with wonderful returns. We may not see another Microsoft any time soon, but we can certainly look for the comparable returns of a Cisco or an Oracle or an Intel. The gorilla game follows specific rules with a clear goal in mind. The goal is not to find just any good investment in technology. Kings can produce fine returns for those who hold their stock, yet gorillas storm past them.
Gorillas are the large firms that have a deathgrip on hypergrowth markets.
This proprietary and open architecture offers a discontinuous innovation in the marketplace and so creates a new value chain. Once the company has established its gorilla position, these factors product high switching costs. High switching costs combined with the numerous other advantages enjoyed by the gorilla produce outsize earnings and stock performance. Following behind the gorilla are the chimps and monkeys. They live or die based solely on execution.