Future Think: How to Think Clearly in a Time of Change

Chapter 13. Right-of-Way

Some business school professors like to make the point that the railroads went into decline in the U.S. because they thought they were in the railroad business. Their error, the professors say, was not realizing that they were in the transportation business. This seemingly enlightened view is, in reality, another example of educated incapacity. The truth is that the railroads' really big mistake was not realizing that they were in the right-of-way business. When the telegraph and telephone companies and mail deliverers came along and sought to use the land alongside the tracks, the railroads, being in only the railroad business, said sure, why not? In doing so, they missed the opportunity to own and profit from the entire ...