Embracing a business model that prioritizes long-term customer value over short-term revenue is not easy.

And that’s a model that can work, as Steve Jobs once explained:

If you keep your eye on the profit, you’re going to skimp on the product. But if you focus on making really great products, then the profits will follow.

The easiest way to spot a problematic business model is to look for a divergence between a company’s mission statement — its explanation for why it exists and what its overall goal is — and its core product(s).

So, you have to ask yourself — why is it that smart, disciplined people who seem genuinely committed to a customer-centric mission make product decisions that they know are going to be bad for the long-term health of their business and counterproductive to their mission?

The answer is simple — it’s a business model problem.

Again, it’s important to emphasize that a.) Google understands better than anyone how important its search product is, strategically, to its business, and b.) Google employs a massive number of brilliant, dedicated, customer-obsessed employees that are focused on upholding and improving the quality of its search engine.

And yet, again, it’s