Category Archives: Management

Observations on managing of technology companies

ARMing Markets

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You have to admire AMD. They know when and how to be agile, mainly when decks are stacked against them. AMD recently announced they are teaming with a different chip designer – ARM, the current darling of mobile and energy efficient processors – to make ARM’s products 64-bit. Those with good memories will recall that AMD practically invented the modern 64-bit processor industry when they released their Opteron chip and caught Intel sitting on their laurels (which must have been uncomfortable). This eventually forced Intel to license AMD’s 64-bit instruction set (which must have been uncomfortable). I was leading SuSE Linux’s North American strategy at the time and saw Intel staff faces wince when SuSE and Microsoft took the stage at the Opteron release event (which was obviously uncomfortable). AMD didn’t keep their momentum and have had a number of setbacks. With desktops dwindling in numbers as consumers buy slabs … Continue reading →

Mystique Mistakes

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An ounce of image is worth a pound of performance. This is sadly true, and for marketing mavens it is a cursed blessing. The fact is that people buy image. This occurs in faddish B2C markets and function-driven B2B sectors. Image is often the single most motivating factor in a purchase decision. From Louis Vuitton to Barack Obama to IBM, sales are made on the strength of image. Craft a certain image and people will lob lucre at you or elect you to high office. Fail that image and disaster is almost certain. Reliance on mystique is both the essence and the failure of branding. Mystique is defined as “an aura of mystical power … a framework of beliefs constructed around a person or object, endowing the person or object with enhanced value or profound meaning.” In no sense of the word does mystique equate with reality. Many Hollywood stars … Continue reading →

Growing Up

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As many Americans prove daily, it is easier to grow wider than it is taller. Silicon Strategies Marketing is currently consulting with a company that has a fairly wide reach in their market, which is the foundational side of their industry. They serve companies at the middleman and retail level, and on a regional basis are fairly dominant, though they have both room for improvement and the option of growing geographically. Their other option is to go vertical, to begin competing with their existing customers and earn money they otherwise help their customers earn. The trade-off for companies in such positions is complex. To grow, a company needs to provide new value and by doing so attract new customers. Or they need to gather more customers of the type they currently serve, which typically involves taking them from competitors. The last option is to find ways of making money by … Continue reading →

Support Acrobatics

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“Its [sic] not necessary to upgrade Acrobat 7 to Acrobat 10. The other option is to downgrade the Windows [sic] to Windows XP.” I’ll assume for the moment that narcotics are provided free to Adobe’s technical support teams. The terminal quote above ended a support dialogue, initiated when an Adobe product commenced aborting after a laptop was upgraded from XP to Vista. Leave it to say that the support technician did not fully comprehend the complexity involved in reverting any operating system much less rolling back a laptop to a 10 year old OS. He also likely does not comprehend breakfast, water or autonomic breathing. When anyone buys anything, they have a set of expected outcomes. A collection of such expected outcomes is a whole product definition. When a single expectation is not met, a customer is dissatisfied. When two or more expectations are unmet, customers begin looking for alternatives. … Continue reading →

Psycho Marketing

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When it comes to marketing, is your company a guru, sportsman or warrior? This may not be an exhaustive list of psychologies, but these three traits cover most go-to-market plans and mentalities I have encountered in B2B marketing. They can be as individual as the CMO or corporate-wide traits. Each has its own operational MO and they apply well to different markets. Pitted against one another, any can win depending on the market they seek to exploit. With some overlap, market dominating mutts can be whelped. Gurus: Passive marketing, which these days is largely typified by social media marketing, is nearly spiritual. It seeks to affectionately coax buyers to come forward — encouraging, not pushing. Gurus play the long game and seek actual relationships with customers, and are willing to take time, invest effort and wait for returns. Sportsmen: These are people who keep score. Market share, quarterly revenues, and … Continue reading →

Marketing Band-aid

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Performing in a band might be fun if one didn’t have to work with musicians. Bands provide a serviceable metaphor for marketing, which is all too often viewed as one or another marketing function and not the tightly coordinated combination of each function/instrument and performer. Take any piece out of a band or marketing department, and you no longer have a professional outfit. I was recently reminded of a time long ago when I was young (during the Taft administration) and the bass player in my garage band quit, yet our front man wanted to do a signed gig without any bass. The audience was not impressed. Let’s stretch this metaphor some more and match aspects of running a marketing department with assembling a group of musicians into a working band. Start by depriving the members of each group of alcohol, then begin. Mapping: A band has several instruments, and … Continue reading →

Leading Tech

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You can lead a company to market, but you can’t always make it think. Founder and CEO leadership are hot topics this month as we see Steve Jobs stepping down as Apple’s CEO and HP appointing their CEO of the week. It is arguable that Jobs resurrected Apple from failed leadership and that HP lost its Way due to the same disease. Leadership — be it the valiant general in combat or a CEO on the battle field of the technology markets — is a very real substance and one unevenly distributed. All organizations are groups of people who either run in random directions and thus impede progress, or who head in one direction and cause change to occur. Leadership is pointing everybody in the same direction. However, the degree of leadership required and the goals set by CEOs varies wildly from industry to industry. The CEO of an iron … Continue reading →