No Mercy No Malice
Scott Galloway’s 7 Business Predictions for 2021
Why Airbnb, Robinhood, and Walmart will be the most important companies to watch this year
“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” President Dwight D. Eisenhower tweeted that in 1957 (it was a speech, Ed). The value of a prediction is not accuracy (though it is better to be right than wrong), but the reasoning and conversation that the prediction catalyzes. Predictions can also be self-fulfilling prophecies, as the best way to predict the future is to make it… and predictions can make it (the future). After last year’s predictions, seven Fortune 100 CEOs came to me for advice. Or maybe they thought if I saw what great guys they were, I’d be less critical of them or their firm… but I digress.
We have been predicting/evangelizing/pimping big investments in recurring revenue businesses — what I call “rundles.” A great rundle (e.g., Amazon Prime) requires multiple product lines, robust tech infrastructure, and the stomach/capital to endure staggering losses in EBITDA and be recast as a subscription-based firm valued at a multiple of revenues. The path to a rundle is a useful lens through which to evaluate a firm’s product strategy, upgrade cycle, churn, pricing, value drivers, etc. I understand Apple, AT&T/CNN…
