We are going through a value shift, where companies can find
that their core assets are less profitable or less well positioned for
the future than what surrounds and supplements the actual product. This shift can affect just about any product, from hard to soft
goods. An obvious example is real-time stock quotes. They used
to be available only to brokers charged a large fee by the New York
Stock Exchange. For consumers, the standard monthly fee used to
be $29.95 for information that is now free. Likewise, real estate
listings used to be available only through a broker; now they’re
available on the Net. Service contracts at Circuit City account for
all of its operating profit, and almost half at BestBuy. In these cases,
the core assets—electronics—are less valuable to the bottom line
of the organization than are the service contracts, which surround
those products.