To some, this may call to mind the Blockbuster ( BLOAQ) experience, where the once king of video succumbed to a rival with a different business model, Netflix ( NFLX), and technological change (electronic delivery) that seems more compatible with the way its rival does business.

FORBES: The NookColor Won't Save Barnes and Noble

Under pressure from Republican members of Congress whose states stood to gain thousands of jobs from a Northrop-Airbus victory the Air Force modified its request for proposals and its analytic model for judging the rival tankers.

FORBES: Air Force Tanker Program Flies Into New Political Storm

These were good years, during which Dell became the world's largest and most profitable computer-maker, with a supply chain that was easily the most efficient in the industry, if not the world, and a direct-sales model that seemed to keep Dell one step ahead of rival companies selling computers through old-fashioned stores.

ECONOMIST: Michael Dell returns to the helm of the company he founded

Under the shadow of its crosstown rival, the team has eschewed patient rebuilding in favor of the immediate reload, an expensive model of waving money at big-name players that began after Strawberry bolted for his hometown Los Angeles Dodgers in 1991.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Microsoft is hated chiefly because it represents the opposite model, proprietary software, and because its operating system, Windows, is the main rival to Linux, the best-known open-source software today.

ECONOMIST: Computer security

At the same time, another rival state-owned car-maker, Nanjing Automobile, will produce its own version of the Rover 75 sedan model, called the MG7.

BBC: Streets filled with bicycles are being replaced.....