British Telecom has significantly underperformed the market, while its archrival, Vodafone, grows at breakneck pace. Same markets, same products, but diametrically opposite results. When markets grow rapidly, they cover a multitude of sins. It is hard, though not impossible, for even a poorly managed company to falter. Equally, when an industry tanks, market forces are uncompromising, and everyone suffers, but not all equally.
Good companies gain market share, while failures blame the market.
Ericsson handsets may have led the world in 1996, but they failed to keep pace. On the other hand, Nokia clearly read the consumer-driven, handset trends, and its GSM phones are intuitive and appealing. Mine rarely leaves my side. At the time, Motorola was the envy of the semiconductor world, and the creator of many of today's world-class strategies. Today, STMicroelectronics calls the shots, having achieved world-class status and shaken off its domestic and political dependence.