Relevancy

(Publishing note – there will be no issue Thursday due to the Thanksgiving holiday.)

Microsoft and Relevancy

If I were building a business again, I would spend most of my days thinking about customer relevancy. What are our customers thinking about, what questions are they asking, what help do they need, what products will just fit naturally into their existing workflows? I don't think I paid enough attention to this in past adventures.

I've written about Microsoft and relevancy in the past – Microsoft, in the last 10 years, has really outperformed the market in terms of customer relevancy. Steven Levy recently posted his take on this – it is impressive that, at 50 years old, the company is more relevant than ever. DEC, Compaq didn't survive. Most of the PC software makers didn't survive. Intel is in deep yogurt.

Meanwhile, in the past 10-15 years, Microsoft went from

Microsoft’s focus remained largely on milking its cash cows, Windows and Office.

Just a decade ago, pundits had declared the company brain-dead.

“No one’s afraid of them,”

to

“People look at Microsoft and think it is cool again.”

In January 2024, Microsoft snuck past Apple to become the most valuable company in the world.

The article title nails it, leading with "Relevance! Relevance! Relevance!" The obsessive focus on relevance is what has allowed the company to turn it around. (And I love the throwback to Steve Ballmer – Steve knew how to focus and to be focused.)

The Raspberry Pi and relevancy

There is a new Raspberry Pi Pico.  It looks great.  The Raspberry Pi has been around for 12+ years now, I missed the 10 year anniversary. 

I love these devices (and the Arduino before them).  They are just amazing for hobbyists and prototyping.  The hobbyist ecosystem around them and similar boards is amazing, there are so many sensors and add-ons that work with them.   One of the startups I was part of worked a lot with RPIs, we really believed that some small form factor device would be the basis for a large business.

But our startup never quite got there, and the RPI, as great as it is, has never really broken out of the hobbyist and prototyping segment.  The PC was originally a hobbyist device as well, but a couple of developments allowed the PC to go mainstream.  The first was productivity applications.   Wiht Visicalc and word processors, the PC was an excellent tool for business productivity; within a short time everyone was using them.   The second was PC gaming — the PC became a great entertainment device, and still is to this day.

Success in those two sectors drove the PC onto every desk and into every home.   And once there were enough PCs, things like email and the internet became viable.

The RPI has never broken into these sectors.  It is not a productivity aid, there is nothing about having a swarm of small inexpensive devices that aids business productivity.  And there is no entertainment scenario that has been invented to use these cheap devices.   RPIs remain great hobbyist and prototyping devices, which is a fine outcome, but they probably aren't breaking out beyond that role.

Relevance on a global scale

Relevancy isn't just a business strategy issue.

Consider an article in the WSJ about China's ascendancy in Latin America – "South of the border, China is ascendant." China has displaced the US as the dominant trading partner for most of the region; Xi has visited the region more than Trump or Biden. China is focused on trade and investment, while US policy is focused on unwanted immigration and narcotics.

The US has a deep relevancy issue. Our recent election has demonstrated how important pocketbook issues are to US voters; it is no surprise that this is true throughout the hemisphere. China focuses primarily on economic development in the region, while the US focuses on issues that don't add to wealth. The article notes that the US looks at the region "as a problem, not an opportunity."

What a tragic self-own on our part. These countries are all biased to like the US – "the U.S. has a higher favorability rating than China in the economies of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Peru." We share elements of history. We have tremendous communities of US citizens from these countries. There is enormous economic opportunity.

Economic development in this region is a big part of the answer to immigration and narcotics issues – economics is a large driver of these problems. We will regret not doing more to build bonds with these countries.

Shorts

"Bitterness is like a cancer that enters the soul." – Terry Waite, hat tip to Big Optimism

Stretchable Displays! That is pretty science fictiony.

Resetting your tool stack. Such a good idea; I accumulate a lot of software cruft, it is valuable to reset back to first principles regularly.

"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky it will probably slap another two years probation on Cleveland State." – Jerry Tarkanian or Abe Lemons. Our country is so mad at China imports that we are going to slap tariffs on Canada and Mexico.