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Clarity and Chaos

A B2B marketing newsletter on positioning and market reality.

Clarity and Chaos is a B2B marketing newsletter for leaders who already know the playbook but want better judgment. Each issue examines real companies, real decisions, and the moments when positioning stopped being optional.

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Editorial diagram showing how Red Hat transformed open-source Linux into a paid enterprise offering through tested software, ongoing maintenance, technical support and certified compatibility, connecting freely available technology to enterprise business
Featured Post

When Free Software Became a Paid Business

Issue #39 When Free Software Became a Paid Business View in Browser How Red Hat built an enterprise business around software that customers could access without buying a proprietary licence. In May 2002, Red Hat introduced Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS, an operating system designed for business customers. It was an important step in the company's move away from selling packaged Linux software and toward annual enterprise subscriptions. There was an unusual challenge behind that decision. Linux...

3 days ago • 6 min read
Editorial diagram showing TSMC's semiconductor manufacturing facility connected to chip design tools, IP libraries, specialist engineering services and manufacturing processes, with pathways converging on a finished microchip.

Issue #38 When the Ecosystem Becomes Part of the Product View in Browser How TSMC made advanced chip manufacturing easier to use by coordinating the companies around it. In 2008, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) introduced something that had little to do with building another semiconductor factory. It called it the Open Innovation Platform. TSMC manufactured chips for other companies. Its customers designed semiconductors, and TSMC provided the technology and facilities...

11 days ago • 6 min read
Editorial diagram showing Hilti’s shift from customers buying and managing individual tools to a managed fleet model covering repairs, replacement, tracking, maintenance and predictable costs.

Issue #37 When the Customer Stops Buying the Product View in Browser How Hilti made the power tool only part of what the customer was buying Twenty-five years ago, one of Hilti’s customers asked a question that sounded simple: could Hilti take care of its entire tool park? The customer, Bati Group, had more than 1,000 tools. The challenge was not simply finding another drill, breaker or saw. Hundreds of tools could move between sites. They had to be available when needed, tracked, repaired...

19 days ago • 6 min read
Editorial diagram showing Corning as the material supplier, Gorilla Glass moving to a device manufacturer for smartphone production, and the finished device reaching the end customer who recognizes the Gorilla Glass name.

Issue #36 When the Customer's Customer Starts Mattering View in Browser In 2007, Corning had a product that most of the people who would eventually use it could never buy from Corning. Gorilla Glass was made for device manufacturers. Corning supplied the glass, manufacturers built it into phones and other devices, and consumers bought the finished product. The commercial relationship was B2B. But Gorilla Glass did not remain an invisible component buried inside someone else's product. It...

26 days ago • 6 min read
Landscape illustration showing Atlassian’s B2B growth model. On the left, a traditional enterprise software sales process includes prospecting, demos, negotiations and long sales cycles. A bridge shows customers progressing from one team to more users, te

Issue #34 When the Product Starts Doing the Selling View in Browser In 2015, Atlassian was preparing to go public. It had more than 51,000 customers across more than 160 countries. Its software was already being used by 79 of the Fortune 100 and 273 of the Fortune 500. For an enterprise software company, those numbers were impressive. But another number made the story much more interesting. More than 98% of Atlassian's transactions were happening through its website. Atlassian had built a...

about 1 month ago • 5 min read
Editorial diagram for “When Differentiation Starts Existing Only Inside the Company,” showing Oracle’s extensive internal innovation contrasted with a market where buyers see similar enterprise technology choices.

Issue #34 When Differentiation Starts Existing Only Inside the Company The Company Never Stopped Improving For decades, Oracle built its reputation on technical depth. The company dominated databases. It expanded into enterprise applications. It invested heavily in infrastructure, cloud services, enterprise resource planning, and business systems that sat at the center of some of the world's largest organizations. Few companies possessed Oracle's scale, technical expertise, or enterprise...

about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Adobe Creative Suite and historical performance data sit on one side of a divide, while Creative Cloud represents the future, illustrating the difficult shift from proven past performance to an uncertain subscription model.

Issue #33 When Past Data Starts Dominating Future Decisions The Numbers Were Telling Adobe To Stay Exactly Where It Was By the early 2010s, Adobe had one of the most successful software businesses in the world. Products such as Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, and the broader Creative Suite had become industry standards across design, publishing, marketing, advertising, and creative production. Millions of professionals relied on Adobe software every day. The company had built a powerful...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Editorial illustration showing a business leader at a forked road between BlackBerry’s traditional strengths, including security, email efficiency, battery life and reliability, and the smartphone market’s shift toward apps, user experience, platform flex

Issue #32 When Teams Start Solving the Wrong Problem The Company Was Solving Problems Better Than Almost Anyone Else In the mid-2000s, BlackBerry was one of the most important technology companies in the world. Its devices were everywhere that mattered. Government officials used them. CEOs carried them. Financial institutions relied on them. Enterprise IT departments trusted them. For many professionals, the BlackBerry was not simply a phone. It was a productivity tool, a communication...

about 2 months ago • 4 min read
Editorial infographic showing the gap between a company’s new positioning and its old operating system, illustrating how lasting transformation requires internal systems and behaviors to catch up with the story.

Issue #31 When Repositioning Happens Without Structural Change The Story Changed Before the Company Did By the early 2010s, Microsoft knew it needed a different future. The technology industry that had made Microsoft one of the most powerful companies in the world was evolving rapidly. Cloud computing was becoming mainstream. Mobile devices were reshaping how people interacted with software. Subscription models were changing how businesses purchased technology. New competitors were building...

2 months ago • 4 min read
Editorial illustration showing a speeding car approaching a widening gap between decision speed and depth of understanding, with visual markers for market shifts, pressure, action, interpretation, and strategic clarity.

Issue #30 When Decision Speed Starts Outrunning Understanding The Pressure to Move Faster Felt Completely Rational By the early 2010s, SAP was facing a challenge familiar to many established enterprise technology companies. The market was not standing still. Cloud computing was changing how software was delivered. Subscription models were changing how software was purchased. Customers increasingly expected faster deployment, faster implementation, and faster time-to-value. New competitors...

2 months ago • 4 min read