Tag: Adaptation

Learnings

How to think of an hostile acquisition

Chris Labs

Back in the days, Felix Dennis was offered to sell his business to Ziff Publishing and to, together conquer, the European Market. Felix declined the offer, teamed up with VNU to fight Ziff back, it took them everything, 2 years of profit were burned in making sure Ziff’s venture was a failure. Ziff finally gave up after losing millions of dollars. Looking back, does Felix thinks it was worth it? No. Absolutely not. It was stupid. Glorious, but stupid. I would have listened more closely to Phil and Bill. I would have negotiated my balss off. I would have become … Continue reading How to think of an hostile acquisition

Learnings

Strangling your own baby, in order to grow, is far more common than you might think.

Chris Labs

Ex: If you have a successful monthly magazine, for instance, and then launch a weekly in the same category, you will inevitably weaken sales of your original title. So should you launch the weekly? YES! A thousand times yes! Why? Because if you don’t launch the weekly, your rivals will do it for you. You will be left with a damaged monthly and no weekly. -How to get rich, p.124 Continue reading Strangling your own baby, in order to grow, is far more common than you might think.

Happiness

The key to experience pleasure

Chris Labs

When we consume, we experience pleasure. As long as the things we consume are novel. But as we adapt, the novelty wears off and pleasure becomes comfort. This is called the hedonic treadmill or satisfaction treadmill. It’s a thrill to drive your new car for the first few weeks; after that, it’s just comfortable. It sure beats the old car, but it isn’t much of a kick. Faced with this inevitable disappointment, we can either be driven to pursue novelty. These new commodities will give us pleasure until repeated exposure. Expectations of having something new are not matched by reality, … Continue reading The key to experience pleasure