如何寻找超级成长股？世界首富24封股东信“吐露天机”：现金流比利润更重要(28)

寻求即时满足或者缥缈承诺，你会发现在你所寻找的机会前面，已经一堆人等在你前面了。长期思考与满足客户需求互相促进。如果你能识别客户的需求，并且能够进一步确认客户的这一需求是长期和有意义的，我们的策略是让我们耐心地用很多年去寻找一个解决方法。从客户的需求出发与从公司已有技能出发去寻找商业机遇是形成鲜明对比的。技术推进路径认为，“我们已经擅长做X，我们可以用X来做点其他的？”技术推进路径是有用的和可以带来回报的方法。然而，如果技术路径一直使用到尽头时，公司没有办法驱动自己形成新的技术。最终，已有的技术会过时。回到客户需求的工作方法则需要我们经常形成新的能力和锻炼我们的新肌肉，无论最初的几步是多么不舒服和尴尬。
Seek instant gratification – or the elusive promise of it – and chances are you‘ll find a crowd there ahead of you。 Long-term orientation interacts well with customer obsession。 If we can identify a customer need and if we can further develop conviction that that need is meaningful and durable， our approach permits us to work patiently for multiple years to deliver a solution。
“Working backwards” from customer needs can be contrasted with a “skills-forward” approach where existing skills and competencies are used to drive business opportunities。 The skills-forward approach says， “We are really good at X。 What else can we do with X？” That’s a useful and rewarding business approach。 However， if used exclusively， the company employing it will never be driven to develop fresh skills。