Chapter 11
Appropriating the Gains from Innovation
This is the final chapter in the section for Strategy. This is a chapter that focuses on the ways a company can maximize the return on new emerging technologies. The beginning of the chapter outlines the importance of Intellectual Property and how it can help and hinder a company. Intellectual property and its focus can shift a company right out of the competition.
That being said, the chapter then goes on to state four mechanisms available and suggested to appropriate gains from a new emerging technology.
o Patents and related legal protection
o Secrecy
o Control of complementary assets
o Lead time
These four areas are important to any company and become more important as a company must deal with emerging or disruptive technologies. All of this chapter discusses how managers can protect their new ideas and generate the most revenue. The author frequently refers to the revenue and profit as being “rent”, interesting.
I find myself thinking about these ideas in the context of what has changed with regard to these four categories. In many ways nothing has changed much. Even when technology was not as significant as today, there were managers of companies who would try to patent their inventions. There were managers who would try to invent around patents. Then a smart company would move to secrecy as a means to develop new ideas. Certainly controlling important or complementary assets is valuable in all industries and nothing really new. Lead time is even more important the further you go back in history.
It could be said that these four mechanisms are more complicated in this global marketplace and with instant communication and the ‘flat world’ we live in. It seems that if a company is doing something, it is not terribly difficult to find out what they are doing and find another way of doing it, or do something different to make it better. I do like the idea of building a golden goose. This is the pinnacle idea of business, to create something that will perpetuate revenues and profits for many years.
Chapter 17
The Design of New Organizational Forms
This chapter outlines the design of new organizations. The authors speak to the disruptive qualities of technology and how new organizations are formed once technology changes. Managers are tasked with making changes to their organizational design to remain competitive. The bulk of the chapter looks at six new organizational forms.
• virtual organizations
• network organizations
• spinout organizations
• ambidextrous organizations
• front-back organizations
• sense-and-respond organizations
The discussions of these six categories and new organizational design are strikingly similar to what we looked at back in chapter 2. Many of the arguments in this chapter we have discussed before with regard to using input from customers to help drive a company to new ideas. The front-back organization puts the customers more in charge of R&D than only managers. There are problems with something like this. The sense-and-respond idea relates well to many of the strategy ideas we discussed in the last few chapters.
The design of any organization will change and evolve depending mostly on the technology that is driving the organization. Any one design will not work in all instances. Companies will be best to use some of many of the techniques in this book to work through technologies and changes as they come about. Much of these ideas are tools that managers can use to arrive at their own ideas about organizational design.
Bringing thoughts from this chapter and many of the other chapters from the book it can be said that emerging technology has changed how organizations design their strategy. Their thinking about how organizations are structured. There are new concepts and new ideas that have been in place for many years. The authors of this book now 9 years old have discussed many of the same ideas for today.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Chapter 10
Chapter 10
Scenario Planning for Disruptive Technologies
This chapter challenges managers to look at what potential disruptive technologies may change their company. In this chapter, the print news is used as an example. The print news meets the Internet and how news will be produced for customers and how those customers change. This is important to put into the context of the time the chapter was written and compared to the time the book was published and what happened now after the book has been out to see some of these scenarios play themselves out. This is indeed an interesting chapter.
The book sets the stage with the challenges of newspaper companies like Knight-Ridder, Times Mirror, Dow Jones and puts them in the real challenge of the new Internet that was really just starting to emerge in 1997. There was discussion about what managers of the newspaper companies did at that time to help plan for the next decade, from 1997 to 2007. At that time there were so many challenges and even more unanswered questions. The authors said that many different scenarios could be developed as possible for the future of newspapers.
The chapter then outlines the ten steps for constructing scenarios. This scenario development can force managers to think in much different ways than in the past. Everyone knows the steps that go into planning a climb to the top of a high mountain. There are common accepted problems to prepare for. Once you begin to plan for the variations outside of control of the common planning do you get to the root of planning for the unexpected and challenging problems of scenario planning for disruptive technologies. Scenario planning in this chapters includes “…jointly developing stories about the future, in a disciplined but imaginative way…”.
This is a difficult chapter to do in practice because it is hard to imagine all the potential scenarios. Even further than that is the difficulty in preparing to deal with each scenario in a responsible way. As is the case for Knight-Ridder all of the scenarios discussed in this book appeared to be at least a part of the future of the company. They tried to expand their presence on the Internet and generate revenues outside of the traditional trends in the newspaper business. The company was sold and broken up in 2006 and did not get through the 10 year outlook that was studied in this chapter. They did appear to work through several opportunities and challenges discussed in the scenarios.
Further research:
Today the problems facing traditional newspapers is significantly compounded by the economic crisis and the downturn in overall business. On top of the increasing amount of news from the Internet, it appears like the scenarios discussed in the chapter did not include any type of scenario like there is today.
The fundamental protection of free press outlined in the US constitution appears to be threatened even more than could be predicted in 2000. Now there are newspapers again setting up scenarios and working to identify how to generate revenue in new ways in the face of technology as well as in a down market.
In today’s meetings at the headquarters of most newspapers, there are similar planning meetings like the ones discussed in this chapter. The Idaho Statesman has been through some difficult changes in the past few months. The Internet has changed how they generate revenue. Taking some parts of the previous chapter, they have changed their asset profile with the acquisition of the printing presses in Nampa. The Idaho Press Tribune has closed its operations, but the asset was valuable to the Idaho Statesman and a combination, of sorts, between two struggling newspapers.
One small comment on newspaper and reporters, in general. There was a small article a few days ago about the meeting for the Idaho Transportation Department. There was a statement about the lack of coverage of meetings of the ITD recently. It was attributed to the fact that reporters are not able to cover each meeting like they have done in the past. Many items that are important to the public and worthy of news are being left out because the Idaho Statesman cannot keep all the reporters on staff. Granted, there may be other reasons for the lack of coverage, but it is true for sure that less staff to report on the news can affect how the public is able to gather information.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/04/20/a_hybrid_path_for_saving_newspapers/
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=Knight-ridder&n=10&prev=131&frow=141&page=15
Discussion Questions:
This current financial crisis is not something that any newspaper could have planned for. This situation falls into a crisis situation that many companies may not be able to endure. What will the next ten years have for the newspapers?
Now that the ten years predicted in the book have come to pass, what parts still hold true? I find myself wondering how instant communication has changed the idea of newspapers and even just ‘news’ for that matter. Now whenever something happens, it is rapidly spread all across the globe. How does this near-real-time-news change with the demands of customers? Are all of us customers who demand instant access to the news which is impossible for any newspaper or magazine to deliver.
Verification and authentication are common problems with this instant-news trend. What do the newspapers do to help prevent miss-information from getting in the way of their revenue generating forecasts?
Scenario Planning for Disruptive Technologies
This chapter challenges managers to look at what potential disruptive technologies may change their company. In this chapter, the print news is used as an example. The print news meets the Internet and how news will be produced for customers and how those customers change. This is important to put into the context of the time the chapter was written and compared to the time the book was published and what happened now after the book has been out to see some of these scenarios play themselves out. This is indeed an interesting chapter.
The book sets the stage with the challenges of newspaper companies like Knight-Ridder, Times Mirror, Dow Jones and puts them in the real challenge of the new Internet that was really just starting to emerge in 1997. There was discussion about what managers of the newspaper companies did at that time to help plan for the next decade, from 1997 to 2007. At that time there were so many challenges and even more unanswered questions. The authors said that many different scenarios could be developed as possible for the future of newspapers.
The chapter then outlines the ten steps for constructing scenarios. This scenario development can force managers to think in much different ways than in the past. Everyone knows the steps that go into planning a climb to the top of a high mountain. There are common accepted problems to prepare for. Once you begin to plan for the variations outside of control of the common planning do you get to the root of planning for the unexpected and challenging problems of scenario planning for disruptive technologies. Scenario planning in this chapters includes “…jointly developing stories about the future, in a disciplined but imaginative way…”.
This is a difficult chapter to do in practice because it is hard to imagine all the potential scenarios. Even further than that is the difficulty in preparing to deal with each scenario in a responsible way. As is the case for Knight-Ridder all of the scenarios discussed in this book appeared to be at least a part of the future of the company. They tried to expand their presence on the Internet and generate revenues outside of the traditional trends in the newspaper business. The company was sold and broken up in 2006 and did not get through the 10 year outlook that was studied in this chapter. They did appear to work through several opportunities and challenges discussed in the scenarios.
Further research:
Today the problems facing traditional newspapers is significantly compounded by the economic crisis and the downturn in overall business. On top of the increasing amount of news from the Internet, it appears like the scenarios discussed in the chapter did not include any type of scenario like there is today.
The fundamental protection of free press outlined in the US constitution appears to be threatened even more than could be predicted in 2000. Now there are newspapers again setting up scenarios and working to identify how to generate revenue in new ways in the face of technology as well as in a down market.
In today’s meetings at the headquarters of most newspapers, there are similar planning meetings like the ones discussed in this chapter. The Idaho Statesman has been through some difficult changes in the past few months. The Internet has changed how they generate revenue. Taking some parts of the previous chapter, they have changed their asset profile with the acquisition of the printing presses in Nampa. The Idaho Press Tribune has closed its operations, but the asset was valuable to the Idaho Statesman and a combination, of sorts, between two struggling newspapers.
One small comment on newspaper and reporters, in general. There was a small article a few days ago about the meeting for the Idaho Transportation Department. There was a statement about the lack of coverage of meetings of the ITD recently. It was attributed to the fact that reporters are not able to cover each meeting like they have done in the past. Many items that are important to the public and worthy of news are being left out because the Idaho Statesman cannot keep all the reporters on staff. Granted, there may be other reasons for the lack of coverage, but it is true for sure that less staff to report on the news can affect how the public is able to gather information.
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2009/04/20/a_hybrid_path_for_saving_newspapers/
http://query.nytimes.com/search/sitesearch?query=Knight-ridder&n=10&prev=131&frow=141&page=15
Discussion Questions:
This current financial crisis is not something that any newspaper could have planned for. This situation falls into a crisis situation that many companies may not be able to endure. What will the next ten years have for the newspapers?
Now that the ten years predicted in the book have come to pass, what parts still hold true? I find myself wondering how instant communication has changed the idea of newspapers and even just ‘news’ for that matter. Now whenever something happens, it is rapidly spread all across the globe. How does this near-real-time-news change with the demands of customers? Are all of us customers who demand instant access to the news which is impossible for any newspaper or magazine to deliver.
Verification and authentication are common problems with this instant-news trend. What do the newspapers do to help prevent miss-information from getting in the way of their revenue generating forecasts?
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Chapter 8-9
Chapter 8
Commercializing Emerging Technology
This chapter discusses the need to expand beyond the technology itself when bringing new developments to market. There is more than simply mastering the technology or new development.
The example used throughout the chapter was the printing industry and Mergenthaler’s Story.
There are three challenges of commercialization. Each of these three challenges have a variable impact on organizations depending on the technology that is evolving. Some markets and some companies will have to focus on one or all more than other evolving technologies.
Change in Complementary Assets
Change in Customers
Changes in Competition
The chapters closes with the three hurdles of emerging technologies. This section was particularly interesting because it seems to bring together the entire point of the chapter. The first hurdle is deciding whether to invest in new technology. The second hurdle deals with the organizational challenges that arise as a result of overcoming the first hurdle. Then comes the commercialization of the technology. Many companies tend to work on the first hurdle the most. Many will even move on to the second hurdle as they move from one technology to another. If they are successful in both hurdles, then many companies can fail to overcome the last hurdle and find new challenges that can lead to disaster.
Chapter 9
The first chapter of Part III of this book. Part III is entitled Making Strategy.
This first section and this chapter discusses Disciplined Imagination.
Notes about music. Strategy development in emerging technology requires creative thinking in many ways. Creative thinking is compared to the Arts and specifically music. The classical style of music is very structured and many rules to follow. If anyone were to write a new classical symphony today, it would require you to follow the rules of a classical symphony that were set in place hundreds of years ago. If a symphony is not developed using those specific classical rules of a symphony, it could still be a symphony, but not a classical one. Both developed symphonies would in essence be a ‘symphony’, but if one did not follow the rules, it would be completely different.
Maybe I will be more successful in managing new emerging technology because of my creative side that seems to get caught up with all the rules of the classical era of music! On a side note I did my undergraduate degree in music theory and composition. When dealing with business and organizational changes it would be logical to me that the rules and traditional way of doing business will change with emerging technologies. Companies that are willing to make changes in their organizational design will have a better opportunity to meet the growing demands of the changes that arise with new technology developments. Companies that rely on traditional ways of thinking and traditional forecasting for their new customers will have a more difficult time staying ahead of the needs of customers and the changes in the technology.
“…in situations of uncertainty, strategy making must be an art.” A direct quotation from the book says a lot about what is new about strategy making for many companies. Thinking about strategy must change with the new technologies that will affect all companies and all markets. A relation to the previous chapter when dealing with customers and assets and competition. All three must be thought of in new ways for companies to succeed. A developed ‘disciplined imagination’ is necessary as businesses change with emerging technology.
Further research:
http://www.exeloncorp.com/ourcompanies/peco/
PECO as an example has both electric and natural gas customers. It is difficult to use much of their information to compare to Idaho Power because IPCO only has electric customers. PECO also has millions of customers, rather than 425,000 at IPCO. They have a distinct advantage because they have many more customers to use as examples and have more ability to implement changes. In many discussion at IPCO, there are questions about what PECO has done and we look to them for potential ideas to avoid problems.
PECO has similar challenges related to rates and have designed their rates around a better price to match the kwhs to the time of day which they were used. Right now IPCO bills their customers for usage that has been used in a 30 day period. With upgrades to their billing and the metering infrastructure, it is now possible for PECO to bill a ‘time-of-use’ rate that varies based on what time of day the usage fell. To make that possible it is necessary to have more data from the meter than just a monthly reading. This required a change in their strategy and disciplined structural changes within their organization to make these things happen.
Discussion Question:
What other types of changes will PECO and IPCO face as new technologies develop?
Does the shift to a more national-wide integrated electricity grid sound like “un-deregulation”?
Commercializing Emerging Technology
This chapter discusses the need to expand beyond the technology itself when bringing new developments to market. There is more than simply mastering the technology or new development.
The example used throughout the chapter was the printing industry and Mergenthaler’s Story.
There are three challenges of commercialization. Each of these three challenges have a variable impact on organizations depending on the technology that is evolving. Some markets and some companies will have to focus on one or all more than other evolving technologies.
Change in Complementary Assets
Change in Customers
Changes in Competition
The chapters closes with the three hurdles of emerging technologies. This section was particularly interesting because it seems to bring together the entire point of the chapter. The first hurdle is deciding whether to invest in new technology. The second hurdle deals with the organizational challenges that arise as a result of overcoming the first hurdle. Then comes the commercialization of the technology. Many companies tend to work on the first hurdle the most. Many will even move on to the second hurdle as they move from one technology to another. If they are successful in both hurdles, then many companies can fail to overcome the last hurdle and find new challenges that can lead to disaster.
Chapter 9
The first chapter of Part III of this book. Part III is entitled Making Strategy.
This first section and this chapter discusses Disciplined Imagination.
Notes about music. Strategy development in emerging technology requires creative thinking in many ways. Creative thinking is compared to the Arts and specifically music. The classical style of music is very structured and many rules to follow. If anyone were to write a new classical symphony today, it would require you to follow the rules of a classical symphony that were set in place hundreds of years ago. If a symphony is not developed using those specific classical rules of a symphony, it could still be a symphony, but not a classical one. Both developed symphonies would in essence be a ‘symphony’, but if one did not follow the rules, it would be completely different.
Maybe I will be more successful in managing new emerging technology because of my creative side that seems to get caught up with all the rules of the classical era of music! On a side note I did my undergraduate degree in music theory and composition. When dealing with business and organizational changes it would be logical to me that the rules and traditional way of doing business will change with emerging technologies. Companies that are willing to make changes in their organizational design will have a better opportunity to meet the growing demands of the changes that arise with new technology developments. Companies that rely on traditional ways of thinking and traditional forecasting for their new customers will have a more difficult time staying ahead of the needs of customers and the changes in the technology.
“…in situations of uncertainty, strategy making must be an art.” A direct quotation from the book says a lot about what is new about strategy making for many companies. Thinking about strategy must change with the new technologies that will affect all companies and all markets. A relation to the previous chapter when dealing with customers and assets and competition. All three must be thought of in new ways for companies to succeed. A developed ‘disciplined imagination’ is necessary as businesses change with emerging technology.
Further research:
http://www.exeloncorp.com/ourcompanies/peco/
PECO as an example has both electric and natural gas customers. It is difficult to use much of their information to compare to Idaho Power because IPCO only has electric customers. PECO also has millions of customers, rather than 425,000 at IPCO. They have a distinct advantage because they have many more customers to use as examples and have more ability to implement changes. In many discussion at IPCO, there are questions about what PECO has done and we look to them for potential ideas to avoid problems.
PECO has similar challenges related to rates and have designed their rates around a better price to match the kwhs to the time of day which they were used. Right now IPCO bills their customers for usage that has been used in a 30 day period. With upgrades to their billing and the metering infrastructure, it is now possible for PECO to bill a ‘time-of-use’ rate that varies based on what time of day the usage fell. To make that possible it is necessary to have more data from the meter than just a monthly reading. This required a change in their strategy and disciplined structural changes within their organization to make these things happen.
Discussion Question:
What other types of changes will PECO and IPCO face as new technologies develop?
Does the shift to a more national-wide integrated electricity grid sound like “un-deregulation”?
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Summary:
Many products are designed to meet a list of criteria. Each product on the market today will meet more than one need of customers. The first part of this chapter identifies that markets are segmented and when looking at both the segment and the technology, it shows technology becoming lumpy. What one segment is looking for may not be important to another segment, but the technology is available to both.
The chapter discusses how the technology barriers can be challenged as new demands from the segments arise. The book goes to say that what one segment wants may be pushed over to another segment. One segment cannot be looked at without regard for the other technologies.
Once the customers are segmented and the technology develops, then companies can begin to look at new future technologies and see where improvements can be made for each segment. Constraints for each segment can lead to the investment options and drive the organization toward development of new technology for each segment.
Then the chapter discusses how companies can position themselves to cross over to new markets. Since the development in one area of technology may lead to developments and improvements in another market segment, then the market for the new product design may be appropriate for a larger market. There may be a barrier to creating new technology that appeals to all segments, but carefully shifting the position can lead to more opportunities.
The section on identifying scouting options was a reverse notion of identifying potential uses for a new technology. It takes the potential for new emerging technology and the backing into the market segment that may be willing to purchase a portion or a modification of the original technology. This brings to mind the developments in technology that were originally designed for one purpose, but were marketed and sold for another purpose, altogether. Many times this type of development comes accidentally, but this outlines options for creating and developing a process for enhanced technology development, rather than relying on mistakes, or happenstance.
Thoughts:
A couple quotations from the book I have thought about a lot. “Technologies per se are not what a customer will pay for.”
This suggests that maybe technology is involved in products even without customers being fully aware of what technologies are there. Customers are buying new products without a full understanding of what technology is being integrated. This may be a good thing, or a bad thing, I am not sure. What I do know from this chapter, it becomes more and more important for customers needs and wants to be fully understood as technology advances and can do more. Customers may not even know what the fully want and the technology may develop sooner, or later than customers want.
“We in no way suggest that the future applications for new technologies will ever be a predictable or orderly affair.”
This is really encouraging and somewhat exciting to me as I think about what technologies will evolve and develop over time. There are many new technologies and they are becoming more and more applicable to more people. Even people who are resistant to new technologies are using more and more of the latest technologies, sometimes without even knowing that is what they are using.
For me, it seems that these lumpy markets are everywhere and can exist in nearly all products. Cars, phones, computers, navigation systems, dvd players, televisions…it seems possible to argue that it carries over to more non-tech products like shoes, furniture, flowers, services even.
As a person who currently works in technology this means that it will never be predictable and there will always be a place for changes and improvements. Challenges will be constantly changing as new technologies develop. There will also be challenges when managers in IT try to match new technologies with customer needs and they can be lumpy in many ways.
Discussion Question:
What other examples exist for a good explanation of lumpy markets besides the laptop or PC?
Summary:
Many products are designed to meet a list of criteria. Each product on the market today will meet more than one need of customers. The first part of this chapter identifies that markets are segmented and when looking at both the segment and the technology, it shows technology becoming lumpy. What one segment is looking for may not be important to another segment, but the technology is available to both.
The chapter discusses how the technology barriers can be challenged as new demands from the segments arise. The book goes to say that what one segment wants may be pushed over to another segment. One segment cannot be looked at without regard for the other technologies.
Once the customers are segmented and the technology develops, then companies can begin to look at new future technologies and see where improvements can be made for each segment. Constraints for each segment can lead to the investment options and drive the organization toward development of new technology for each segment.
Then the chapter discusses how companies can position themselves to cross over to new markets. Since the development in one area of technology may lead to developments and improvements in another market segment, then the market for the new product design may be appropriate for a larger market. There may be a barrier to creating new technology that appeals to all segments, but carefully shifting the position can lead to more opportunities.
The section on identifying scouting options was a reverse notion of identifying potential uses for a new technology. It takes the potential for new emerging technology and the backing into the market segment that may be willing to purchase a portion or a modification of the original technology. This brings to mind the developments in technology that were originally designed for one purpose, but were marketed and sold for another purpose, altogether. Many times this type of development comes accidentally, but this outlines options for creating and developing a process for enhanced technology development, rather than relying on mistakes, or happenstance.
Thoughts:
A couple quotations from the book I have thought about a lot. “Technologies per se are not what a customer will pay for.”
This suggests that maybe technology is involved in products even without customers being fully aware of what technologies are there. Customers are buying new products without a full understanding of what technology is being integrated. This may be a good thing, or a bad thing, I am not sure. What I do know from this chapter, it becomes more and more important for customers needs and wants to be fully understood as technology advances and can do more. Customers may not even know what the fully want and the technology may develop sooner, or later than customers want.
“We in no way suggest that the future applications for new technologies will ever be a predictable or orderly affair.”
This is really encouraging and somewhat exciting to me as I think about what technologies will evolve and develop over time. There are many new technologies and they are becoming more and more applicable to more people. Even people who are resistant to new technologies are using more and more of the latest technologies, sometimes without even knowing that is what they are using.
For me, it seems that these lumpy markets are everywhere and can exist in nearly all products. Cars, phones, computers, navigation systems, dvd players, televisions…it seems possible to argue that it carries over to more non-tech products like shoes, furniture, flowers, services even.
As a person who currently works in technology this means that it will never be predictable and there will always be a place for changes and improvements. Challenges will be constantly changing as new technologies develop. There will also be challenges when managers in IT try to match new technologies with customer needs and they can be lumpy in many ways.
Discussion Question:
What other examples exist for a good explanation of lumpy markets besides the laptop or PC?
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Discussion Questions for Chapter 5
1. How will the Internet change as we move forward? Will the Internet change?
2. How will government use the internet from now on? All ready the government is using the Internet to be more transparent when setting and managing public policy.
3. In doing this, they are still excluding a large portion of the US citizens who do not have Internet access, but there is definitely a higher number than ever before.
4. Should the government provide internet access to all people with some sort of a subsidy?
5. Should the US government attempt bring high-speed broadband internet the ‘last-mile’ to the home? Some estimates to solve the ‘last-mile’ problem are only a fraction of the latest Stimulus bill.
6. How do democracies begin to take shape across the globe? Will the Internet prove to present problems, or provide solutions to many of the problems in the world today?
7. How will other emerging technologies be changed or developed by governmental intervention? This could be answered in conjunction with many technologies that are emerging right now and the potential for others to emerge in the future.
I am not sure how the evening will go on Thursday, but maybe if we have some discussion questions ahead of time, we can get some good results. Here is a partial list of mine, so far. I want to go through all the blogs as they come in to see what other questions would come up.
I am not sure if we can do one question at a time? Multiple questions may be difficult, I just really do not know. If I were to combine all the questions from all 8 of us, there may be a lengthy list of discussion questions.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. I am going to request access to B216 for Thursday night. It may help me to make sure things go well and I am less likely to be interrupted.
Thanks, Caleb
2. How will government use the internet from now on? All ready the government is using the Internet to be more transparent when setting and managing public policy.
3. In doing this, they are still excluding a large portion of the US citizens who do not have Internet access, but there is definitely a higher number than ever before.
4. Should the government provide internet access to all people with some sort of a subsidy?
5. Should the US government attempt bring high-speed broadband internet the ‘last-mile’ to the home? Some estimates to solve the ‘last-mile’ problem are only a fraction of the latest Stimulus bill.
6. How do democracies begin to take shape across the globe? Will the Internet prove to present problems, or provide solutions to many of the problems in the world today?
7. How will other emerging technologies be changed or developed by governmental intervention? This could be answered in conjunction with many technologies that are emerging right now and the potential for others to emerge in the future.
I am not sure how the evening will go on Thursday, but maybe if we have some discussion questions ahead of time, we can get some good results. Here is a partial list of mine, so far. I want to go through all the blogs as they come in to see what other questions would come up.
I am not sure if we can do one question at a time? Multiple questions may be difficult, I just really do not know. If I were to combine all the questions from all 8 of us, there may be a lengthy list of discussion questions.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome. I am going to request access to B216 for Thursday night. It may help me to make sure things go well and I am less likely to be interrupted.
Thanks, Caleb
Chapter 5 - Summary & Discussion
Lessons from the Internet
For a brief summary of the chapter I will begin with the purpose of the Internet started, as we all know, with a government interest. The Department of Defense was the first ‘investor’ in the new technology that eventually became the Internet and the WWW as we know it today.
Today there are private businesses leading the investment into the internet. Most businesses today have a portion of their revenue dependent on Internet sales, or at least Internet advertising. When I mention advertising, it would include simply verifying or validating your business. Putting a web-site to the name of the business and making it more attractive to a growing population of business. Many people will not find a business if they are not properly set-up on the Internet.
This chapter does good job of describing the options companies have to help them navigate through potential government policies and changes that will affect their business. A company can see the 10 lessons as a springboard for developing safeguards against what may, or may not happen at the government level.
The government has been involved in the Internet all along, but their influence has been changing. It appears the influence of the government will continue to change. Emerging technologies will rely, at least in part, on the Internet. The Internet has been developed by the government and exploited by businesses. It will continue to be regulated in some form by many governments.
For a brief summary of the chapter I will begin with the purpose of the Internet started, as we all know, with a government interest. The Department of Defense was the first ‘investor’ in the new technology that eventually became the Internet and the WWW as we know it today.
Today there are private businesses leading the investment into the internet. Most businesses today have a portion of their revenue dependent on Internet sales, or at least Internet advertising. When I mention advertising, it would include simply verifying or validating your business. Putting a web-site to the name of the business and making it more attractive to a growing population of business. Many people will not find a business if they are not properly set-up on the Internet.
This chapter does good job of describing the options companies have to help them navigate through potential government policies and changes that will affect their business. A company can see the 10 lessons as a springboard for developing safeguards against what may, or may not happen at the government level.
The government has been involved in the Internet all along, but their influence has been changing. It appears the influence of the government will continue to change. Emerging technologies will rely, at least in part, on the Internet. The Internet has been developed by the government and exploited by businesses. It will continue to be regulated in some form by many governments.
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Chapter 2
There are four traps that companies fall into when dealing with Emerging Technology. In chapter 2 there are solutions suggested for companies to deal with emerging technology and to help them avoid the traps.
1. Delayed Participation
2. Sticking with the Familiar
3. Reluctance to Fully Commit
4. Lack of Persistence
The solutions suggested in the chapter are listed by what they can focus on. Each of the four pitfalls can be addressed with each proposed solution. There is not one solution for each pitfall or trap.
1. Widening Peripheral Vision
2. Creating a Learning Culture
3. Staying Flexible in Strategic Ways
4. Providing Organizational Autonomy
Each of the solutions is almost a new strategy in itself. There are suggestions to address each trap contained in each solution. When a company decides to provide more organizational autonomy they are many times breaking from their main strategy to develop new ideas for development. This particular solution would include a widening of vision, creating a culture of learning (albeit in a new company or branch), and most indeed, staying flexible.
What I have been investigating and wondering about is how a company can decide what technologies to work on. There are many different types of strategies and all companies will have a different strategy to work on. Some companies will struggle to find a way to truly allow spin-offs or new companies to work freely and independent from the main company. They will always run the risk of creating a competitor that could be difficult for the larger company to deal with.
Does creating spin-offs or start-up companies under the umbrella of a larger company create more problems than solutions?
The Twitter article in the Idhao Statesman this week was interesting because it mentioned how companies use Twitter to help their business. The company that owns Twitter may not have the support to continue in business, but at this point, it seems likely they will continue, but with changes. I have spent some time looking at what current businesses are using Twitter. Not many, but there are some. According to the latest investors in Twitter, there will be more and the company is well positioned to continue growth. Southwest Airlines uses twitter. Some resorts use Twitter, like in Las Vegas and some in Mexico and such. I found that many people on Twitter try to gain insight for their upcoming travel by soliciting assistance from any of their followers.
I was not able to get into the competitors listed in the article due to time constraints. As I move through this class it may be of value to look up some of the other sites like Twitter to see how they are moving through this new technology.
Will there be an increase in the use of Twitter to the point where you could purchase Twitter IDs much like there are companies that register and sell web addresses?
– I actually found some evidence of this in the form of TweetTornado.com. This company is an advertising company that uses the Twitter tool to reach customers. Many of the comments on the site itself were not exactly positive. The service appears to be very expensive, $99 start-up with $99 monthly fees to maintain. It seems to take advantage of Twitter because Twitter does not validate e-mail addresses to start an account. This is all relatively new and it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks with TweetTornado.
I have included many of the web-sites I went to from updates posted on Twitter to a variety of users. Twitter, Obama, resorts and many other searches. I just mainly wanted to see what was happening on Twitter. It is not that I think it is THE emerging technology, but I wanted to see what use it could be to a new company, or even a company like Idaho Power. Not sure that I even answered my own questions, but found lots of other information.
Resources:
http://financialstability.gov/
http://www.recovery.gov/
http://www.ombwatch.org/
http://tweettornado.com/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2477
http://www.benchmark.com/http://www.ivp.com/
1. Delayed Participation
2. Sticking with the Familiar
3. Reluctance to Fully Commit
4. Lack of Persistence
The solutions suggested in the chapter are listed by what they can focus on. Each of the four pitfalls can be addressed with each proposed solution. There is not one solution for each pitfall or trap.
1. Widening Peripheral Vision
2. Creating a Learning Culture
3. Staying Flexible in Strategic Ways
4. Providing Organizational Autonomy
Each of the solutions is almost a new strategy in itself. There are suggestions to address each trap contained in each solution. When a company decides to provide more organizational autonomy they are many times breaking from their main strategy to develop new ideas for development. This particular solution would include a widening of vision, creating a culture of learning (albeit in a new company or branch), and most indeed, staying flexible.
What I have been investigating and wondering about is how a company can decide what technologies to work on. There are many different types of strategies and all companies will have a different strategy to work on. Some companies will struggle to find a way to truly allow spin-offs or new companies to work freely and independent from the main company. They will always run the risk of creating a competitor that could be difficult for the larger company to deal with.
Does creating spin-offs or start-up companies under the umbrella of a larger company create more problems than solutions?
The Twitter article in the Idhao Statesman this week was interesting because it mentioned how companies use Twitter to help their business. The company that owns Twitter may not have the support to continue in business, but at this point, it seems likely they will continue, but with changes. I have spent some time looking at what current businesses are using Twitter. Not many, but there are some. According to the latest investors in Twitter, there will be more and the company is well positioned to continue growth. Southwest Airlines uses twitter. Some resorts use Twitter, like in Las Vegas and some in Mexico and such. I found that many people on Twitter try to gain insight for their upcoming travel by soliciting assistance from any of their followers.
I was not able to get into the competitors listed in the article due to time constraints. As I move through this class it may be of value to look up some of the other sites like Twitter to see how they are moving through this new technology.
Will there be an increase in the use of Twitter to the point where you could purchase Twitter IDs much like there are companies that register and sell web addresses?
– I actually found some evidence of this in the form of TweetTornado.com. This company is an advertising company that uses the Twitter tool to reach customers. Many of the comments on the site itself were not exactly positive. The service appears to be very expensive, $99 start-up with $99 monthly fees to maintain. It seems to take advantage of Twitter because Twitter does not validate e-mail addresses to start an account. This is all relatively new and it will be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks with TweetTornado.
I have included many of the web-sites I went to from updates posted on Twitter to a variety of users. Twitter, Obama, resorts and many other searches. I just mainly wanted to see what was happening on Twitter. It is not that I think it is THE emerging technology, but I wanted to see what use it could be to a new company, or even a company like Idaho Power. Not sure that I even answered my own questions, but found lots of other information.
Resources:
http://financialstability.gov/
http://www.recovery.gov/
http://www.ombwatch.org/
http://tweettornado.com/
http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=2477
http://www.benchmark.com/http://www.ivp.com/
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Preface and Chapter 1
“In a sense, companies also need to develop new forms of organizations that are ambidextrous.”
Idaho Power Company falls into the category of an “established organization” discussed in this opening chapter and the Preface. I have been looking at many of the resources that were cited in the opening chapter to see what was discussed about the Emerging Technologies in 1995, for example and finding many similar things to articles that were written today. Idaho Power Company is challenged by the ‘established org’ syndrome and emerging technologies must be relatively stable, tried and true before they become adopted and put into place. Time and time again with a new development, if there are problems, the consequences are significant and are right in front of the public to see, analyze and deal with. Right now today we are rolling out an IT improvement that is nearly a year behind schedule and full of daily problems that were not considered, or not identified as the project was developed.
I work with another major IT project that will provide many enhancements to the IT aspect of the company’s structure. The AMI project is relatively small and growing each day. Many of the problems and delays have been foreseen, but there are others that are not expected and create problems as we move forward from day to day. The new technology is really not ‘emerging’, the basic fundamentals of the project have been around for decades, but the technology used is relatively new and emerging. That being said, there are many different types of technologies available that were not so attractive 5 years ago when this AMI project was developed and forecast. Since it is a regulated company and there are recommendations from many customers and legislators, Idaho Power Company can rely on tested and reliable technologies far easier than new and un-tested technologies.
I am looking forward to the rest of this book, I think there will be many new and interesting things that companies do to react to ‘emerging technologies’. Near the end of the first chapter it reads, “An important part of managing emerging technologies is the ability to live with paradox, and its associated ambiguities. Simple, absolute answers are few and far between.” I tend to agree with the paradoxes that were listed and how they can affect companies, either cutting edge and new or established as is Idaho Power. Idaho Power relies on the “Simple, absolute answers” and will be left behind emerging technologies most of the time. I will be interested to see how some of the paradoxes are explained and apply to Idaho Power.
Will Idaho Power Company always be subject to technologies after they become main-stream?
Will the organization begin to adapt more readily with a newer workforce as some of the older generation retire?
I think this book and some more research will be helpful to answer some of these questions. Someone else may have thoughts on this??
Resources:
http://www.io.com/~gibbonsb/mencken.html
Academy of Management Executive; Aug95, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p7-18, 12p, 1 chart, 3 diagrams found at http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.boisestate.edu/
Idaho Power Company falls into the category of an “established organization” discussed in this opening chapter and the Preface. I have been looking at many of the resources that were cited in the opening chapter to see what was discussed about the Emerging Technologies in 1995, for example and finding many similar things to articles that were written today. Idaho Power Company is challenged by the ‘established org’ syndrome and emerging technologies must be relatively stable, tried and true before they become adopted and put into place. Time and time again with a new development, if there are problems, the consequences are significant and are right in front of the public to see, analyze and deal with. Right now today we are rolling out an IT improvement that is nearly a year behind schedule and full of daily problems that were not considered, or not identified as the project was developed.
I work with another major IT project that will provide many enhancements to the IT aspect of the company’s structure. The AMI project is relatively small and growing each day. Many of the problems and delays have been foreseen, but there are others that are not expected and create problems as we move forward from day to day. The new technology is really not ‘emerging’, the basic fundamentals of the project have been around for decades, but the technology used is relatively new and emerging. That being said, there are many different types of technologies available that were not so attractive 5 years ago when this AMI project was developed and forecast. Since it is a regulated company and there are recommendations from many customers and legislators, Idaho Power Company can rely on tested and reliable technologies far easier than new and un-tested technologies.
I am looking forward to the rest of this book, I think there will be many new and interesting things that companies do to react to ‘emerging technologies’. Near the end of the first chapter it reads, “An important part of managing emerging technologies is the ability to live with paradox, and its associated ambiguities. Simple, absolute answers are few and far between.” I tend to agree with the paradoxes that were listed and how they can affect companies, either cutting edge and new or established as is Idaho Power. Idaho Power relies on the “Simple, absolute answers” and will be left behind emerging technologies most of the time. I will be interested to see how some of the paradoxes are explained and apply to Idaho Power.
Will Idaho Power Company always be subject to technologies after they become main-stream?
Will the organization begin to adapt more readily with a newer workforce as some of the older generation retire?
I think this book and some more research will be helpful to answer some of these questions. Someone else may have thoughts on this??
Resources:
http://www.io.com/~gibbonsb/mencken.html
Academy of Management Executive; Aug95, Vol. 9 Issue 3, p7-18, 12p, 1 chart, 3 diagrams found at http://web.ebscohost.com.libproxy.boisestate.edu/
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)