Red Hat was actually doing something more directly based on a variety of existing Linux projects than Docker but switched to OCI/Docker when that came about--rather than jumping on the CloudFoundry bandwagon. (Which many argues was obviously the future for container orchestration.)
Kubernetes was also not the obvious winner in its time with Mesos in particular seeming like a possible alternative when it wasn't clear if orchestration and resource management weren't possibly different product categories.
I was at Red Hat at the time and my impression was they did a pretty good job of jumping onto where the community momentum at the time was--while doubtless influencing that momentum at the time.
Kubernetes was also not the obvious winner in its time with Mesos in particular seeming like a possible alternative when it wasn't clear if orchestration and resource management weren't possibly different product categories.
I was at Red Hat at the time and my impression was they did a pretty good job of jumping onto where the community momentum at the time was--while doubtless influencing that momentum at the time.