Last week the technology giant Cisco announced it was shutting its Flip video division, home to the popular Flipcam pocket video cameras. The Drum magazine asked me to write a column commenting on it. Here’s what I said.
So the blogosphere’s gone crazy with news that Cisco is canning the popular Flip video camera. The Flipcam has been rightly revered for its so-simple-a-child-could-operate-it usability. Who would have thought an unashamed low-end camera with such basic functionality would have acquired so many followers? The Flip was developed by Pure Digital and bought by the networking giant Cisco in 2009 for $590m as part of an entree into the consumer electronics market.
Now Cisco have changed their minds about the consumer video marketplace, and in contrast to all those voices bemoaning the demise, I get their decision. Because whilst I love the Flipcam and think it’s a great case study in product innovation, it’s also important for a corporation to refocus and stick to what it knows.
Back in February, The Economist was asking “is the world’s biggest maker of networking gear spreading itself too thinly?” Then came last week’s news when CEO John Chambers announced that Cisco was exiting aspects of its consumer businesses to “realign remaining interests to support its key company priorities”.
There are numerous blog posts speculating on what went wrong and why. But ultimately it’s not that Flip wasn’t a good product, it’s that Cisco wasn’t the right corporation to develop it. There’s a lot to be said to sticking to what you know best. Lots of companies and brands have learnt this lesson over the years with acquisitions that have not added sufficient value or produced required synergies.
In the tech market specialism is critical. It’s why we’ve built an agency based on living and breathing tech. That’s what we do and that’s what we do best. Could we come up with a campaign for a FMCG brand? Absolutely. But right now, like Cisco, we’re sticking to what we know. So whatever the disappointment from the Flipophiles, remember that sharpening focus is a good thing.
This column originally featured on The Drum online.
