Indistinguishable from magic? No, it's a platform.

I have been thinking about Oracle Team USA, and what they did this week, and the old quote "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic".

Emirates Team New Zealand built a great boat. They sailed it extremely well. They learned and improved. But their opponents had a completely different approach. Oracle built a boat, sure, but they created much more: a platform.

And the platform was modified based on data. The platform included the engineers, designers, sailors, and computation. In 19 races they turned a mediocre boat and average Americas Cup crew into winners.

Yes, there were lucky breaks from rules created 2 years ago. Yes there were innovations in the ways that they monitored and controlled their foils.

In the end, it was the platform approach that won...and we see it all the time in business: are you listening Nokia?

It's not enough to build a great boat...even if it is one of the fastest upwind boats of all time...if your opponent has a platform and you need one more win.