Focusing on Excellence ⇥ hodinkee.com

Jack Forster of Hodinkee interviewed Thierry Stern, CEO of Patek Philippe:

Some brands have experimented with connected watches. Patek has not. Why?

It’s not our field. Can you imagine? Am I going to fight against Apple, which has nearly the same budget as I do in R&D, except they have five more zeros at the end of it? I can’t compete with that. It’s another way to fabricate watches. We have always been dedicated to mechanical watches, this is what we know and what we enjoy. Working on something electronic may be fun, but it’s not my business. You have to give it to the pro, and I’m not a pro in this type of technology.

Via Om Malik, who writes:

[…] I like that he knows the reason why they are who they are. That understanding has allowed them to grow and be able to create value and desire for their products. I really wish more companies were as focused on their own excellence rather than chasing growth for the sake of growth.

The tech world is full of examples of companies experimenting and trying new things — and that is certainly one way to run a business. But I think there is something more interesting about companies that have a single product or service that they are relentlessly attempting to improve. Patek is an extreme example, but I wish there were more of those.