????那么，如今在市場上拼殺的企業能從這個歷史教訓中學到什么呢？

????1.商業模式是一種頑固不化的東西。一個公司的“DNA”——商業模式——一旦確定，那就很難改變了。現在那些靠永久許可證“自助式”模式的軟件企業就得強打精神和軟件即服務這一模式展開競爭。

????2.始終都要隨機應變。不管你的公司現在有多成功，都應該時刻保持對市場和對手的應變能力，哪怕它們現在看來還不成氣候或是顯得微不足道。一旦你聽到某個高管站到臺上或是在會議上這么表態：“我們將贏得這個市場，因為我們比任何人都聰明、規模都大，”那你就該感到緊張了，非常緊張才行！

????3.差異化是最佳的生存之道。公司不要太久依賴于某一個產品或某一個市場，這一點非常重要。今天讓你大獲成功的東西可能正是將來讓你一敗涂地的根源。

????4.架構很關鍵。現在你的產品架構可能會讓你在市場上參與競爭并獲得成功，但它以后肯定會變成拖業務后腿的東西。能看出這種情況何時出現，并能及時采取應對措施將是決定你公司生死存亡的關鍵。

????5.對現狀保持警惕。大企業總是安于現狀，同時會努力扼殺任何可能對自己構成威脅的事物。對現狀來說，新產品、新商業模式、新員工和新流程都是令人討厭的東西。大企業和華爾街總是對有把握和可靠的事物犒賞有加，他們厭惡不確定性和不穩定性，而這兩者恰恰是創新必然催生的東西。這也就是為什么在目前那些成功的大企業中，“創新”一方面難覓蹤影，另一方面又難以存活的根本原因。現在有一種做法開始流行，就是任命一個首席創新官來推動公司內部開展創新——對股東來說，這種做法在年報里會看起來很不錯。不過，除非這些公司能在企業現有的法律、技術和業務限制之外開展創新，同時允許員工創建那種能反過來吞噬或毀滅母公司現有業務的業務，否則，這些出發點良好的做法必敗無疑。

????作為“大衛”的Salesforce殺掉作為“巨人歌利亞”的希柏這一籠罩著神秘色彩的故事已在業內口口相傳多年，但它也可能在Salesforce公司內部或其他各種行業報道中重演，不過事情的真相卻要平淡得多。

????本來這兩家公司最后免不了來一場正面交鋒。但是希柏卻早在這一史詩般的大戰開始之前就敗在了一個更大的難題——全球性的經濟衰退手下。而當希柏被收購后，推動這家公司獲得成功的人只有少數留在了甲骨文。

????我不知道今后十年里MBA的學生還會在課堂上研究探討那些公司。Salesforce近期能成功完成轉型嗎，或者是不是又會涌現出一家擁有新技術——也許是新商業模式——的創業企業，顛覆這家無懈可擊的CRM領軍企業呢？（財富中文網）

????布魯斯?克利夫蘭2006年加盟InterWest的IT團隊，主要從事軟件和服務業投資，重點關注手機、云計算和分析應用領域。

????譯者：清遠

????So, what can companies competing in the market today learn from this history lesson?

????1. Business models are stubborn creatures. Once the "DNA" of a company -- the business model -- is set, it is very difficult to modify. Today, software companies that rely upon a perpetual license "do it yourself" model struggle to compete against the software as a service business model.

????2. Always be adapting. No matter how successful your company currently is, you should always be willing to adapt to the market and competitors, despite how small or seemingly inconsequential they may appear. The moment you hear a senior executive stand up on stage or in a meeting and say something like, "We will win this market because we are smarter and bigger than everyone else," it is time to get nervous. Very nervous.

????3. Diversity is your best shot at survival. It is critical that your company not rely on any one product or any one market for too long. The very thing that drives your success today may be your undoing in the future.

????4. Architecture is critical. Today, your product architecture may enable you to compete and win in the market but it will surely be a drag on your business in the future. Your ability to recognize when that is happening and to actually do something about it in time will determine whether your company survives.

????5. Beware of the status quo. Large organizations thrive on status quo and attempt to kill anything that appears as though it may upset it. New products, new business models, new employees, new processes are all anathema to the status quo. Large organizations and Wall Street reward predictability and reliability; they abhor uncertainty and instability, the very things that innovation foments. This is why true "innovation" is seldom found nor survives inside the four walls of a large and successful incumbent. Today, it is becoming popular to create a chief innovation officer to foster internal innovation -- this reads well in annual reports to shareholders. But unless companies move innovation outside the legal, technical, and business constraints of the existing company and allow people to build businesses that may cannibalize and destroy the existing business of the parent company, these well-meaning efforts are doomed to failure.

????The mythical story of "the David" Salesforce slaying "the Goliath" Siebel that has been propagated over the years may play well inside the halls of Salesforce or in various industry reports, but the truth is far more pedestrian.

????Both companies were headed toward an eventual collision. But Siebel succumbed well before such an epic battle occurred, to a much bigger problem -- a global recession. And once Siebel was acquired, few of the people who made the company successful stayed at Oracle.

????In another 10 years, I wonder which companies MBA students will be studying and discussing in their classes. Will Salesforce survive an impending transformation or will a new startup emerge with a new technology -- and perhaps a new business model -- that upends the unassailable CRM leader?

????Bruce Cleveland has been part of InterWest's IT team since 2006, focusing on investments in the software and services sector with an emphasis on mobile, cloud computing, and analytic applications.