Page 109 - MS Year in Review 2020

Conclusions

As he himself recognized and stated, the leadership of Adam Osborne was totally
ineffective. Specifically, Osborne Computer went bankrupt in spite of having

achieved more than $100 million in revenues in just three years. It was the classic
entrepreneurial dream of meteoric success come true, but followed quickly by the

entrepreneurial nightmare of failure due to the Icarus Syndrome! Osborne was
totally unprepared for leadership of a rapidly growing company. He was not a
manager in any sense of that word. He knew nothing about anything relevant to the

management of his business. He failed to understand and appreciate that there are
two sides to building a business: 1) a good product and market and 2) the ability to
build, develop and manage the organization required.

THE BOTTOM-LINE IMPLICATION FOR TESLA,

ZOOM, ET. AL.

Although Tesla, Zoom, and several other recent companies have achieved dazzling
initial success, sustainable success is not guaranteed by product uniqueness,

excellence, and quality alone. All business organizations must manage both
the product and the organizational dimensions of a business in order to be
successful. Failure to do that is likely to lead to the Icarus Syndrome.

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