Chapter 13

Crafting a Deployment Strategy
Promotions
To simulate purchase or trial...

Walk into any Best Buy, Target, Walmart or other chain with a large electronics department and there is a sample station for the latest gaming system. I remember as a kid waiting and watching for my turn to play, which really never came. The limitation of this type of promotion is you have to go look for it, willing going into these stores and looking for this technology.

What Xbox did in Munich was allow everyone in the vicinity to experience their new product, the Kinect, whether they were looking for it or not. Kinect is an accessory to the Xbox which allows the user to use their entire body as a remote control. In this promotion the person's shadow was projected onto a building and one of the games included bouncing balls with your shadow. This opened up product awareness to non-gamers and allowed everyone to either see the product in use or actually use the product itself.

Chapter 12

Managing New Product Development Teams
CROSS FUNCTIONAL TEAMS

Another extremely innovative organization is IDEO | A Design and Innovation Consulting Firm (Specialists in human factors, psychology, business, design, engineering and manufacturing provide full service consulting for product innovation and design.) Similar to Gore, the company works in teams and leaders are not the same person with a title of 'Boss' but rotates to whomever is most suited for the task at hand.

In the video below, IDEO's task is to innovate something as basic as a shopping cart. The team is cross-functional, including a linguist, a Harvard MBA, a psychologist a marketing expert and a biology major. The leader is thus for his people skills. During the innovation process is becomes clear that the diverse specialties communing on one goal brings together various perspectives. It also can speed the process if all review parties are involved, versus creating an idea, having another department review safety, another review legal, etc. The convergence of ideas at the inception of innovation tackles many of these fronts.

"Enlightened trial and error succeeds over the planning of the loan genius"

"Fail often in order to succeed sooner"

Chapter 11

New Product Development Process
Involving Customers

No matter what phenomenal product is made available to the market, it's up to the customers to make it a success. An old case study is that of Coca Cola in 1985, when they introduced *New Coke*. The taste testing results proved positive, everyone loved the new formula of Coke. However, when the product was launched it failed miserably. Why? To the customer it was more than just the flavor, it was the image and everything else the beverage stood for. In their marketing research, Coca Cola failed to acknowledge in their market what drives their customers to choose them over Pepsi.

Another example is briefly mentioned in the video below. Why don't corporations choose Apple computers for the organization? First reason provided: spreadsheets and printer drivers were poorly available. Apple subsequently provides the features that were lacking. Yet most companies still don't choose Apple computers. Reason? This and that and really... same reason as *New Coke*.... it's just not in the culture.

The speaker provides an alternative approach to the situation: offer something else to those who are interested. Coca Cola reinstated their formula and called it *Classic Coke* and instead introduced Cherry Coke which became a hit on its own. And we all know how Apple keeps spinning off it's own creations...

Chapter 10

Organizing for Innovation

Who's the Boss? Me, you, them, us... it depends

W.L. Gore and Associates considere themselves to have a lattice organization structure. There really is no up, no corporate ladder. Everyone is intertwined with each other, dependent on and responsible to everyone else in the organization. There are no titles, just areas of expertise and knowledge. While a decade old, this article's insider's point of view still is relavent to the company's culture today: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/11/noboss.html

In the video below, Terri Kelly, President of Gore, discusses how the unpopular structure fosters innovation. The term she uses is "on-demand hiearchy." By allowing the leadership not to be fixed, but instead to shift along with the needs of the project, the person with most appropriate knowledge can lead the group. And lets be honest, not everyone knows everything in an organization or about the products. Allowing the leader with the knowledge take over when appropriate just makes more sense.




W.L. Gore and Associates have won awards internationally for such categories such as Fortune magazine's annual list of the U.S. "100 Best Companies to Work For." Retention is high as well as employee satisfaction.

Chapter 9

Intelectual Property

The World Intellectual Property Organization’s report on launched a new database, IP Advantage, whose purpose is to provide “one-stop gateway to case studies that chronicle the intellectual property (IP) experiences of inventors, creators, entrepreneurs and researchers from across the globe. Case studies offer insights into how IP works in the real world and how its successful exploitation can contribute to development.” It goes beyond just listing world patents, the database provides a short story of including: the situation before the patent, who and how it was developed (including financing), the enforcement of the intellectual property protection and the business results.

Some of the patents highlighted on the website are for the well being of humanity, such as the medical device which transfuses the patient’s own blood in cases of internal bleeding, or the water purifier which uses UV. One would think these types of inventions should be made available to the public because they can save lives all around the world, especially in developing nations. However, in these cases, the patent was sought for fear of inferior copies which would take advantage of the working original’s reputation.

The database brings forth much more than the existence of a patent. The following through and the results are as interesting as the invention. Searching randomly through the database creates a small addiction similar to that of Wikipedia. I find one story, the struggle, the idea, the development and so on until conclusion and success.

http://www.wipo.int/ipadvantage/en/

Chapter 8

MERGERS

Mergers are business combination transactions involving the combination of two or more companies into a single entity.
Source: SEC.gov

What makes a merger successful? Can success be measured immediately or in the long run? Many factors should be considered before merging. Reviewing what each company offers, determining whether the goods are compliments, and deciding whether the expanded customer base will open upnew markets can help decide whether a merger is a good idea. Other factors, such as the two company cultures and the ability to unite, should also be considered. Sometimes mergers lead to products/services which cannibalize each other and cause direct competition with very little differentiation.

According to the CNBC slide shows in the link below, one of the best mergers was that of Disney and Pixar. With competitors of the big and small screen all using digital cartoons instead of the traditional methods of cartooning the merging of Disney storytelling with Pixar's expertise in digital cartoons allowed Disney to stay a leader in animation combining forces with another leader in digital graphics.

Alternatively, mergers could turn into disasters. For instance, the merger of TimeWarner with AOL was thought to bring the synergies of print and online world together. Unfortunately, this deal did not consider future technologies and how rapidly AOL's core, dial-up internet, would become obsolete.

Top 10 Best (and Worst) Mergers of All Time - CNBC

Chapter 7

CAPITAL RATIONING

The allocation of a finite quantity of resources over different possible uses.

“Developing innovative new products and services is a expensive and time consuming. It is also extremely risky – most studies have indicated that the vast majority of development projects fail.” This is when capital rationing is put into place. Rationalizing which projects are worth investing in and which aren’t. But what if you can almost have guaranteed results in R&D, what if an organization could hire someone who constantly provides results. What would be the return on investment in such a scenario?

Warner Babcock Institute is an “academic style laboratory but [financed] like a contract R&D business.” Within this organization every project contributes to another organization’s research and development with a high yield of results, patents and new technologies. The institute whole heartedly implements green technologies and behaviors as part of its organizational culture. Most of their work revolves around biology and chemistry, but they have inventions including a less energy intensive method of developing solar panels.

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/science/88/8840sci1.html

Chapter 5

INCUMBENT INERTIA

The tendency for incumbents to be slow to respond to changes in the industry environment due to their large size, established routines, or prior strategic commitments to existing suppliers and customers.

Even though Microsoft was not first to develop the smart phone, it seems to have suffered from some of the general disadvantages of first movers. One of the missteps, the Kin, only lasted in the market for two months before being discontinued. The new software Microsoft is developing, Windows Phone 7, is intended to compete more with the iPhone and Google’s Android; a slow but steady step toward responding to the industry environment.

While the iPhone OS is completely integrated with the hardware, Microsoft still only plans to develop a phone OS and license it out. This really seems like the old tendencies of the giant. License the software and let others worry about the hardware, reminds me of Windows and Dell. This strategy assumes the hardware developers will maximize the software capability. Unlike with computers, where the keyboard, mouse, monitor and other peripherals are fairly standard, cell phones still come in an array of styles. Placing all bets on the hardware developer knowing what’s best to meet market demands is risky, especially when the new OS intends to deliver a new user interface. Will there be synergy between software, hardware and user?

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/110914/ballmer-aims-to-overcome-mobile-missteps?mod=career-leadership

Chapter 4

INSTALLED BASE

The number of users of a particular good.

According to netmarketshare.com, Microsoft’s operating systems take over 90% of the market share. This is a substantial portion of the installed base of users. Used at home and at work, it’s hard to get away from the predominant system. There are also easily accessible add-ons and complementary goods, such as software and freeware that maintain the loyalty to Windows.

In line with the dominant operating system is the web browser. Internet explorer is pre installed on every Windows operated computer, as the graph below depicts.

However, according to other sources there has been a steady decline in IE’s use over the years. And in non software categories, such as game systems, Microsoft still has some catching up to do be considered a leader.

So is Microsoft a monopoly? Seems like MS is trying, but only succeeded for a time with operating systems. However, the rejuvenation of Apple in recent years has taken away some of the share.

The video below discusses the changing market share of Microsoft. One of the products noted in which Microsoft isn’t the leader yet is with cell phones in which Apple’s iPhone leads.

Microsoft Settles in the EU but Are They Still a Monopoly? - The funniest home videos are here

Chapter 3

DOMINANT DESIGN

After a technological innovation and a subsequent era of ferment in an industry, a basic architecture of product or process that becomes the accepted market standard

The article link below discusses dominant design and encourages developers of new technology to be a leader and consider that their design, if though through, can set the standard. First is having a strong connection to the user. This allows understanding the needs and being to make changes sooner rather than later. For instance, in the text book case with the PDA's, one of the failures was due to manufacturers not considering and hedging the concerns of the end user. Also, during product development style and appearance are equally as important as functionality. Designers should also not just focus on the current product/service being developed but should anticipate complementary goods. It many cases it is the accessories of a product that actually have the greater profit margin, such as high definition cables. During the planning of additional products/services relationships with suppliers and distributors can aid in a successful acceptance of the design. Having a partnership with a distributor such as Wal-mart can contribute to marketing as well.

Source: http://economics.about.com/library/glossary/bldef-dominant-design.htm

http://www.siliconindia.com/magazine_articles/In_Pursuit_of_Dominant_Design-GNHJ593586097.html

Chapter 2

ENTERPRISE INNOVATION

EnterpriseInnovation.net

is Asia's premier business and technology publication. Our core objective is to provide business and technology executives access to real-world expertise in the area of applying technology to drive innovation in business processes, products and services.

Source: http://www.enterpriseinnovation.net/content/about-enterprise-innovation

Organizational Creativity is facilitated through a variety of social processes and medians. Examples are Google's idea management system in which employees email their ideas which are then added to a database available to all for comments and ratings. Various over the counter software are available for companies smaller than Google to implement a more robust system of creativity and innovation than the good ol' comments box.

In the below video, Gan Boon San, President of Sun Microsystems Asia South, discusses the values Enterprise Innovation: solving problems, meeting business needs, realizing vision, saving costs, improve competitiveness and improved quality of product. He mentions the process is vital to maintain at all times, especially in bad times as well as the use of resources outside technology, including human resources, partners and customers.

It feels like enterprise innovation is not always active in company cultures. Only in hard times do companies seem to wake up to the fact they need to modify their practices and change along with the times. During this most recent economic crisis and newly elected president does the need for innovation seem to be championed. Starting with the banks and top car manufacturers; the auto industry has since been pressed to reinvent its structure, practices and products to regain industry prowess.