What's so unusual about the current shakeout occurring among dot.com organizations? It's business as usual, a combination of both chess and roulette (perhaps following a round of "pin the tail on the donkey") offering the kind of opportunity that accompanies major change of any kind. That's the consensus among those responding to my recent questions concerning the future of the best and brightest of the Internet entrepreneurs still in business who have yet to achieve cash flow breakeven.
As Yung-Hi Lim put it, "It's all about risk; it's all about profit and loss; it's all about timing; it's all about wit and hard work; it's neither business disaster nor business opportunity BUT just plain business; it's the same ol' stories that span centuries of commerce."
Wilson Kimutai commented that those who figure out what customers want and charge for it would indeed surviveas always. In his words, "Out of every disaster, you can create an opportunity. The shake-up is realignment in the offing, the Internet still provides a window of opportunity. The only problem is that to remain competitive in this cut-throat business, one has to create value for his customers, who determine your success in the marketplace."
The consensus was, business as usual or not, the shakeout represents a big opportunity, albeit one requiring an unusual amount of due-diligencean ingredient lacking in many of the original dot.com investments. Typical of these comments was that of T. N. Rao: "There is an immense business opportunity now for all the investing companies to pick up some very good dot.coms that have very sound business models. It is just that the principles of assessing the health of the dot.coms, like fiscal prudence, robustness of the business model, clientele, client perception, and overall market share must be more than thorough."
It may be small consolation to those dot.com entrepreneurs struggling to keep their heads above water, but there appears to be a sense that those who are still alive may have a growing likelihood of survival. The question is whether the form of survival will meet even their modified expectations. What do you think?