In the introduction to his book “High Output Management,” Andrew S. Grove describes how the market changed and impacted Intel’s ability to participate in it.

For Intel, adapting to that situation meant letting go of its original identity. The product the company had been founded upon wasn’t one Intel could remain competitive with. Others had found ways to be better at it.

It’s not that Intel had become less productive or less efficient. It’s much more the fact that the existing competition had become everyone. In a globalized world, many jobs found access to basically every market. It makes it hard for organizations to stay aware of the competition as it exists and thus of the motivation such competition can bring.

There is no need to search for one’s errors and mistakes when assessing the market. What remains possible is to focus on what it is that one does well and to use that strength to shift one’s activity.

It makes no sense to identify with past successes when the strength needed might be perseverance as well as agility.