When “Good Enough” Wins: The Quiet Collapse of Market Leaders

Before my role as Executive Director of Esteemed, I served as CEO of gap intelligence, a competitive intelligence firm focused on the global electronics industry. My job was not to predict the future with bold proclamations. It was far more granular than that. I tracked thousands of small, daily decisions made by manufacturers and translated those seemingly minor moves into a coherent strategic narrative. Strategy, after all, rarely fails in one dramatic moment. It erodes quietly, one overlooked decision at a time.

Recently, something significant happened in the consumer electronics world that illustrates this truth with uncomfortable clarity.

Sony announced that it has sold a controlling 51 percent stake in its television business to TCL, a Chinese manufacturer once considered firmly “entry level.” This is not a licensing agreement or a minor partnership. This is a transfer of control.

This is Sony.

For decades, Sony was synonymous with television. It defined premium. It set the bar for picture quality, brand aspiration, and engineering excellence. For a Japanese icon like Sony to relinquish control of its flagship product line to a former low-cost rival is not just a business transaction. It is a strategic concession.

The question worth asking is not how this happened. The question is why it was allowed to happen.

The Trap of Disruptive Innovation

Clayton Christensen famously described disruptive innovation as the process by which “good enough” products steadily improve, move upmarket, and ultimately displace established leaders. The pattern is well documented.

Incumbents dominate the high end. They enjoy strong margins, brand loyalty, and scale. In doing so, they dismiss lower-priced competitors as inferior, unprofitable, or not worth attention. Those competitors, however, do not stay still. They improve. They learn. They climb.

Sony followed this pattern precisely.

For years, Sony focused on premium televisions with premium margins, leaning heavily on brand strength rather than sustained innovation velocity. Meanwhile, companies like TCL aggressively targeted the entry-level market, where Sony refused to compete. These lower price points were dismissed internally as margin-dilutive and operationally burdensome. That decision felt rational in the moment. It was catastrophic in the long run.

Low-end competitors do not stay low-end. They use volume to refine manufacturing, sharpen supply chains, improve marketing, and gradually close the quality gap. Eventually, they offer products that are “good enough” at price points incumbents cannot match. Once that happens, brand alone is no longer sufficient.

TCL did not leapfrog Sony overnight. It climbed patiently, one segment at a time.

Innovation Is Not Optional and Neither Is Cannibalization

Sony’s challenge was not limited to televisions. Across categories, the company repeatedly failed to capitalize on its own inventions or adapt to changing consumer behavior.

The company that invented the Walkman failed to define the digital music era. The company with deep expertise in imaging, audio, and home entertainment ceded ground to companies willing to cannibalize their own products in pursuit of future growth.

Contrast this with Apple.

When Apple launched the iPhone, it knowingly disrupted its own wildly successful iPod business. This was not an accident. It was a deliberate act of strategic self-cannibalization in service of a larger opportunity. Strong companies are willing to replace themselves. Weak ones wait to be replaced.

Esteemed leaders should internalize this lesson. Growth rarely comes from protecting today’s revenue streams. It comes from creating new ones, even when doing so feels uncomfortable.

The Cost of Slow Decisions

There is a second, equally important lesson here: speed matters.

While there is much to admire about Japanese manufacturing discipline and long-term thinking, large organizations can become paralyzed by bureaucracy, consensus-building, and risk aversion. Decisions that should take weeks stretch into quarters. Quarters stretch into years.

Markets do not wait. When a company plateaus, competitors do not pause out of respect. They accelerate. Over time, execution speed becomes strategy. The fastest learners win.

Sony’s longtime tagline was “Imagine.” It is a powerful word. But imagination without decisive execution is insufficient. Vision must be paired with movement, and movement must happen before someone else acts on the same idea.

What This Means for Esteemed Leaders

There are three takeaways worth sitting with:

1. Your competitors are actively trying to put you out of business.
   Especially the ones you dismiss as “too small,” “too cheap,” or “not serious.”

2. You must continuously create new arcs of growth.
   Even when those arcs threaten existing revenue streams.

3. Decision velocity is a competitive advantage.
   Slow, cautious consensus feels safe. It is often fatal.

Be Esteemed.