In 1975, Sony launched Betamax.
A small cassette with a sharp picture. One tape held about an hour.
Sony had assumed that was enough.
The following year, JVC arrived with VHS. A bigger cassette, a slightly poorer picture. But two hours per tape.
A feature film runs about two hours. The family who wanted to record tonight’s film had only one question:
Will it fit?
Sony had built for a question they had asked themselves. Customers asked a different one.
Sony later tried to solve the problem with a slower recording mode that gave two hours.
But that cost some of the picture quality that was Betamax’s strength.
In 1988, Sony started making VHS.
Sony didn’t lose on a worse product. They lost on the criterion.
Criteria are never neutral. They are someone’s description of the problem, set out as bullet points.
Whoever defines the problem decides which strengths count. If someone else has defined the problem, you can be the better option and still look like the worse one.
And trying to adapt afterwards often costs you the very strength you wanted to win on.
Look at your latest tender. Which of your strengths are in the criteria? And which are missing?
If they’re missing, you have a choice. Adapt to the criteria, as Sony did. Or influence what the deal is judged on.
The second is what we call Upstream Selling.
