Pig in a poke

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Also known as “putting lipstick on a pig”, this is the process of creating a situation where others believe the toxic asset has long term value and disposing of it through sale before the toxicity reveals itself.

From chapter 11 in the book:


A mechanism of dressing up a liability as some form of future business before divesting to a third party.[1]



Key Elements

1. an asset that you can see does not have a future

2. a story about why that asset is valuable (perhaps you bundle it with something else to make it seem even more so)

3. one or more potential buyers that will believe your story

Context

This is likely a component on the map that you can see will not progress to a more mature stage. This can happen between any two stages, and may be a result of a new technology that makes yours obsolete, or possibly some industry action, like a vendor releasing a component as open source.

A common context for this is transitioning between the Product and Commodity categories, as the vendors selling a product are rarely able to reframe their operations to deliver a commodity. In this situation, the product vendor decides that this portion of their business has no future, but could be sold for value right now. If they wait too long, though, everyone will realize the future direction of the market and the true value of the asset.

Examples

Counter Plays

The counter play would be for either a potential buyer, who might be misled about the value or perhaps by third-party industry observers who might draw the wrong conclusion from the transaction.

In both cases, the cure would be situational awareness (so you can recognize a dead-end technology) and due diligence (so that you can understand the core elements of the business being sold).

See Also

Gameplay Patterns

References