from The Seed of Apple's Innovation, Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek, And that's what happened at Apple, as well. Look at Microsoft - who's running Microsoft? (interviewer: Steve Ballmer.) Right, the sales guy. And so the company goes through this tumultuous time, and it either survives or it doesn't. But by then the best product people have left, or they're no longer listened to.
Then one day, the monopoly expires for whatever reason. John Akers at IBM is the consummate example. And who usually ends up running the show? The sales guy. Because what's the point of focusing on making the product even better when the only company you can take business from is yourself? So a different group of people start to move up. It's the marketing guys or the ones who expand the business into Latin America or whatever. But after that, the product people aren't the ones that drive the company forward anymore.
Some very good product people invent some very good products, and the company achieves a monopoly. And how are monopolies lost? Think about it.