Sometimes it pays to not be too ambitious.
Take
Intuit . The Mountain View, Calif.-based maker
of financial software for consumers and small businesses was poised in the mid-1990s to be a revolutionary force in the electronic banking world.
Back then, many believed that with the Internet about to change the way people managed their money, Intuit was uniquely positioned to become the standard interface for millions of consumers, investors and business owners.
It got to the point where
Microsoft was jonesing to buy
Intuit -- Bill Gates reportedly said at a meeting, "Get me into that, and ... we'll make so much money."
Things turned out differently. The Internet did change the way people
handle their finances. Gates made his money, but without any help from Intuit.
And Intuit never became the threat to old-fashioned banking that many
expected it to be. Instead, it trod the straight and narrow, doing what
it did best, which was make financial software programs.
If that sounds a little gutless, know that Intuit investors haven't
complained too much. While other Internet companies that set up big,
hairy goals and put everything into pursuing them have seen their stocks
rise, fall, rise and fall again, Intuit has for years steadily pushed
higher.
True, Intuit did see volatility in early 2000, like nearly every
Silicon Valley stock, but it recovered more quickly. And comparing its
stock performance over the past five years with that of its onetime wooer,
Microsoft, gives you the impression this is a company that has chosen a
modest task for itself, and chosen to perform it well.
Kevin Kelleher
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