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by idoby 2198 days ago
It's not either/or. Good luck building the next FB/Google/MS/Amazon/Apple without exceptional tech and exceptional tech people. All of those companies had breakthrough tech combined with breakthrough business ideas.

Assuming that everything is just about UX, PM and bizdev nets you the kind of mediocrity the OP is talking about. Sometimes what looks like over-engineering to the mediocre actually enables breaking new grounds in the hands of the excellent.
2 comments
slavoingilizov 2198 days ago
I agree. I'm not suggesting tech isn't important at all. I'm just trying to provide a counter point to the OP, whose argument sounds very one-sided.

You can't build the next FB and Amazon without great tech. But they are not in the tech industry. Tech is the key ingredient (out of many)

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idoby 2198 days ago
They're not in the tech industry, but they are tech companies. Tech companies are companies who believe that in tech innovation is not only possible, but necessary to drive exceptional business success. Those are indeed few and far between.
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rafiki6 2198 days ago
That's a very interesting definition of a tech company and I think I have to agree with it, although I've always been very much "tech companies build tech".

The reality is the companies at the top right now all have EXCELLENT tech cultures, including one's you wouldn't have considered tech companies. An excellent tech culture is a form of operational excellence, which is how companies succeed. That's why all these companies are at the top and some big brand names in tech aren't necessarily at the top.

I know market cap is a very poor measure, but here:https://www.dogsofthedow.com/largest-companies-by-market-cap...

Who are the top companies? Each one of these not only understands their industry extremely well, but they generally speaking, having spectacular operational excellence.

IBM was a top company before. What happened? Why did it fall from grace? It's because they lost that motivation to maintain operational excellence. They just couldn't compete with the new companies who did pursue the better ways of doing things.

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rat9988 2198 days ago
FB didn't have a breakthrough tech at their beginning.
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idoby 2198 days ago
Maybe not at the dorm room phase but pretty early on after that
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