The Globe and Mail reports in its Wednesday edition that a good investment is easy to understand, but what is a good company? Guest columnist George Athanassakos writes that a company might be a winner, but it also depends on what price one pays. For example, Intel is a good company, but had you bought it in 2000, you would have overpaid terribly. In fact, you would not have made any capital gain for the next 23 years. A good company also needs a sustainable competitive advantage. BlackBerry was a company with a competitive advantage. It had good and innovative management, push e-mail and a highly secured network of servers. However, management lost focus, others replicated its push e-mail without infringing on its patents. In addition, BlackBerry was in a highly competitive industry with many barbarians at the gate waiting to take advantage of its missteps. BlackBerry's key product became less sexy to own over the years. Other competitors such as Apple came up with sexier products that consumers, particularly young people, wanted to own. Consumer tastes are fickle. In this industry, consumers will gravitate to the best product, regardless of brand. In that way, says Mr. Athanassakos, sustainability eluded BlackBerry.