TightWind is written by Kyle Baxter. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Ben Horowitz:

The technology business is fundamentally the innovation business. Etymologically, the word technology means “a better way of doing things.” As a result, innovation is the core competency for technology companies. Technology companies are born because they create a better way of doing things. Eventually, someone else will come up with a better way. Therefore, if a technology company ceases to innovate, it will die.

These innovations are product cycles. Professional CEOs are effective at maximizing, but not finding, product cycles. Conversely, founding CEOs are excellent at finding, but not maximizing, product cycles. Our experience shows—and the data supports—that teaching a founding CEO how to maximize the product cycle is easier than teaching the professional CEO how to find the new product cycle.

All businesses follow the same path: there is the startup phase, growth phase, and finally the maturation phase, where he market is saturated and growth levels off. One of management’s key tasks is to either ensure they never enter the maturation phase, or find a new business to grow.

That’s the most difficult, and integral, part of business. Preferring founders to professionals makes great sense.