2. Businesses Exist to Fulfill Human Desires

Human desires—security, status, health, connection, convenience—change far more slowly than the tools used to satisfy them. New markets may look novel, but their demand usually traces back to an old desire being served faster, cheaper, better, or with less effort. Capitalism advances by finding better expressions of these persistent wants.

Describe your company without mentioning its technology. Name the enduring desire it fulfills, the substitute customers use today, and the dimension on which you can make progress. Build strategy around what will remain true for years, not around whatever implementation happens to be fashionable now.

Original sketch and model by Paras Chopra. Read the source chapter.