The New Business Mantra: Everyone Has To Do Everything

The term “Jack of all trades” gained great prominence once. Then came the era of specialisation where you had to be “Master at just one thing”. Many companies adopted that mantra and did just one thing. We had Big Oil, Big Tech and Big Finance. Just stick to your own field of expertise, be good at it and reach the top. But now in business we are entering a stage where you have to be a “Master of all trades”

- Sunil Rajguru

APPLE

Just look at the top companies by market capitalization. There is only one that has reached a valuation of $3 trillion: Apple. What is Apple? What is its specialisation? It used to make desktops. Then it used to make laptops. But now it is the premium smartphone company of the world. Along the way it also made MP3 players and ruled the world with it. It is a hardware company, selling its own devices. It has become a chipmaker. It is a software company that powers its own desktops, laptops and smartphones. Lest we forget, it is a services company. iTunes saved the music industry and now that model is followed by all music and film companies.

ALPHABET

On to the $2 trillion valuation club. What is Alphabet? Google is not only the No. 1 search engine but a monopoly. So is youTube in the combined long-form and short form video. It is only recently that TikTok has emerged as the world’s top short video maker. Gmail is a monopoly and could cross 2 billion users in the next year or so (youTube has already crossed that number). Android is the Number 1 Mobile OS in the world. Google Earth and Google Maps are other top brands. Quantum computing. Cloud computing. Biotech. Autonomous cars. AI… Don’t ask what Alphabet is doing. Ask: What is it not doing?

MICROSOFT