The hit show “House of Cards” highlights a remarkable journey for its owner Netflix. The company that once desperately offered itself to the now-bankrupt Blockbuster Video for $50 million—and was rejected—is now a profitable $5 billion company growing at about 20 percent per year. Few would have imagined that a company built around the distribution of CDs by mail could, in just a few years, migrate its business model to streaming content on the Internet and eventually to producing its own content, moving Netflix towards being the next-generation equivalent of a television station. By the same token, who would have imagined that Amazon would enter the storage and IT services business with great success? And who would have expected to see Apple in the phone—and now luxury wearables—business?
The New Rules for Growing Outside Your Core Business
The key is developing the right capabilities.
May 04, 2015
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Accelerate your career with Harvard ManageMentor®. HBR Learning’s online leadership training helps you hone your skills with courses like Strategy Planning and Execution. Earn badges to share on LinkedIn and your resume. Access more than 40 courses trusted by Fortune 500 companies.
How to develop a winning strategy—and put it to work.