There is hidden meaning to Silicon Strategies Marketing’s chess board metaphor. Sure, chess is a universal emblem for strategy, because you cannot win the game unless you think strategically – or unless you are IBM and build a computer that simply grinds through all possible moves in order to predict all possible outcomes of every game. The hidden aspect of chess is that it is played on a board divided into conquerable places, and the goal it to dominate space by taking it one piece at a time. In other words, segmentation. Market segmentation is like chess in that chasing the wrong segment with the wrong piece is a catastrophe in the making. Many chess strategies work like great market segmentation strategies, by taking the space/segment next to the one you already own and have well defended. Like SalesForce.com is doing. SalesForce started life with the right strategy, namely attack … Continue reading →

If you want to suffocate your competitors, wrap the market with a set of tentacles and squeeze. Like VMWare. With the introduction of vSphere, VMWare initiated a strategy for the next evolution of IT infrastructure management, namely the cloud. At product launch VMWare showed it already paid attention to a whole product strategy. By engineering APIs and other bolt-in points, partnering software vendors could complete the cloud whole product definition. For example, VMWare is not a security software vendor and never should be. But virus and intrusion protection are on ITs worry list. So VMWare had to facilitate cloud-ready options for security. They designed their product so other vendors could become part of VMWare’s whole product definition. Whole products are one aspect of dominating markets. The other essential elements to inviting FTC scrutiny include establishing partnerships with the top players in target segments and convincing the media that the race … Continue reading →