The New Technology Elite: How Great Companies Optimize Both Technology Consumption and Production

The New Technology Elite: How Great Companies Optimize Both Technology Consumption and Production

Released March 2012
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781118103135

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Book description

How-to guidance for optimizing incumbent technologies to deliver a better product and gain competitive advantage

Their zip codes are far from Silicon Valley. Their SIC codes show retail, automobile or banking. But industry after industry is waking up to the opportunity of "smart" products and services for their increasingly tech-savvy customers. Traditionally technology buyers, they are learning to embed technology in their products and become technology vendors. In turn, if you analyze Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Twitter and eBay, you marvel at their data centers, retail stores, application ecosystems, global supply chains, design shops. They are considered "consumer" tech but have better technology at larger scale than most enterprises. The old delineation of technology buyer and vendor is obsolete. There is a new definition for the technology elite - and you find them across industries and geographies. The 17 case studies and 4 guest columns spread through The New Technology Elite bring out the elite attributes in detail. Every organization will increasingly be benchmarked against these elite - and soon will be competing against them.

  • Contrasts the productivity that Apple, Google and others have demonstrated in the last decade to that of the average enterprise technology group

  • Reveals how to leverage what companies have learned from Google, Apple, Amazon.com, and Facebook to your company's advantage

  • Designed for business practitioners, CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, technology vendors, venture capitalists, IT consultants, marketing executives, and policy makers

  • Other titles by Vinnie Mirchandani: The New Polymath: Profiles in Compound-Technology Innovations

If you're looking to encourage technology innovation, look no further. The New Technology Elite provides the building blocks your company needs to become innovative through incumbent technologies.

Table of contents

  1. Cover Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Dedication
  5. Contents
  6. Preface
    1. Flow of the Book
  7. Acknowledgments
  8. Part I: The Convergence of Technology Production and Consumption
    1. Chapter 1: The New Monday Morning Quarterback
      1. The Monday Morning Letdown
      2. TAF—The Technologically Advanced Family
      3. BYOT—Bring Your Own Technology
      4. New Form/Factors in Every Product
      5. Not Just “Smarter” Products, also “Smarter” Services
      6. So, the Genie Grants You Your Smart Product Wish
      7. Conclusion
      8. The DIAD
      9. The Green Initiatives
      10. The UPS Store
      11. The Industry Solutions
      12. What If UPS Were a “Full Technology Company”?
    2. Chapter 2: The “Industrialization” of Technology
      1. The Apple—Physical and Digital—Supply Chain Mastery
      2. Not Just Apple
      3. Even More Examples—eBay, Facebook, and Twitter
      4. Conclusion
      5. The Short-Term Acrobatics
      6. The Long-Term Shifts
      7. The Global Dimension
      8. Sustainability
      9. “A Great Operating Engine”
    3. Chapter 3: From Amazon to Zipcar: No Industry Untouched
      1. Technology-Driven Turmoil
      2. Is Any Industry Safe?
      3. Offense, Not Defense
      4. The “Phoenix”—Technology-Driven Renewal
      5. Conclusion
      6. A Track Record of Technology Innovation
      7. Smart Parking
      8. The One Prize Competition Entry
      9. Turn a Vision into Reality
    4. Chapter 4: Australia to Zanzibar: No Country for Old Products
      1. “Globaloney”
      2. Impact on Public Policy
      3. Conclusion
    5. Chapter 5: Convergence, Crossover, and Beyond
      1. The “Buyor” Phenomenon
      2. It Helps to Start Early in Life
      3. Let's Not Underestimate—Switch-Hitting Is Not Easy
      4. The Need for a New Breed of Ambidextrous Technology Executives
      5. Another Model—Bypass IT When It Comes to Product/Growth Initiatives
      6. Enterprises Have Poor Track Record with Technology
      7. Crossover Executives
      8. Beyond Ambidexterity
      9. Conclusion
      10. Perspective 1: Tony Scott (CIO, Microsoft)
      11. Perspective 2: Vijay Ravindran (Chief Digital Officer, The Washington Post Co.)
  9. Part II: Key Attributes for the New Technology Elite: Three Es, Three Ms, Three Ps, and Three Ss
    1. Chapter 6: Elegant: In a World of Flashing 12s
      1. Human-Centered Design
      2. Google's Doodles
      3. Social Design
      4. 3D Printing and Crowdsourced Design
      5. New Interfaces for Cars and Cocktails
      6. The Most Valuable Executive at Apple?
      7. Where Do You Find the Innovators?
      8. Conclusion
      9. On-Demand in the Airline World
      10. Flying Redefined
      11. Loyalty Program 2.0
    2. Chapter 7: Exponential: Leveraging Ecosystems
      1. Ecosystems—Old and New
      2. The Apple/Android Footrace
      3. The Amazon, Microsoft, and RIM Catch Up
      4. The Love-Hate Relationship with the Developer Community
      5. Impact on the Enterprise
      6. Impact on Labor Markets
      7. App Stores Galore
      8. Conclusion
    3. Chapter 8: Efficient: Amidst Massive Technology Waste
      1. The Courage to Be More Efficient
      2. “Empty Calories” in Technology
      3. Efficiency in Government
      4. Efficiencies Even When Things Are Going Well
      5. Conclusion
      6. Efficiencies Galore
      7. The Open Compute Thinking
      8. The Green Question
    4. Chapter 9: Mobile: If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Xiamen
      1. The “BRIC Wall”
      2. Beyond BRIC
      3. The Globalization of Data Centers
      4. What Old World?
      5. Conclusion
    5. Chapter 10: Maverick: No Rules. Just Right.
      1. “40-Second Boyd”
      2. Maverick CIOs
      3. Maverick Technology Vendor Executives
      4. Maverick Technology Companies
      5. Maverick Technology Product Design
      6. Conclusion
      7. Saying No to 1,000 Things
      8. Popularizing MP3 Singles in Spite of the Music Industry
      9. An Ambitious Phone with Little Previous Phone History
      10. Signing Exclusive Multi-Year Deals with Carriers
      11. Contract Manufacturing Arrangement with Foxconn
      12. Investing in a Large Retail Operation
      13. The iPad Decision after Many Industry Tablet Failures
      14. Challenging Amazon in eBooks
      15. The Mind Games with Microsoft and Adobe
      16. Large-Scale Sourcing of Strategic Components
      17. Doubling Down on the MobileMe Failure
    6. Chapter 11: Malleable: Business Model Innovation
      1. Competing on Business Models
      2. Book Publishing
      3. The Mobile Phone Industry
      4. Business Services
      5. Analytics-Driven Business Models
      6. The Music Industry
      7. Many Technology Vendors as Laggards
      8. Conclusion
      9. The Twists and Turns
    7. Chapter 12: Physical: Why Test Driving Is Still Important Even in a Digital World
      1. Test Driving Everything
      2. When Category Killers Themselves Die
      3. The Best Buy Exception
      4. Apple as the Real Category Killer
      5. The Customer Channel: Own versus Outsource?
      6. Technology in Retail
      7. Physical Presence and Drama
      8. Conclusion
    8. Chapter 13: Paranoid: But Not Paralyzed
      1. Jailbreaks and Roots
      2. “Tarred and Feathered”
      3. Next Generation of Even More Terrifying Hacking
      4. Technology's “Area 51”
      5. Dumpster Diving in the Digital Age
      6. Conclusion
    9. Chapter 14: Pragmatic: When Attorneys Influence Technology Even More than Engineers
      1. The Kinect Legal Scenario
      2. Full Employment for Technology Lawyers?
      3. Let's Go to Marshall, Texas
      4. Why This Level of Heated Legal Activity?
      5. Time for a Technology Apalachin?
      6. Conclusion
    10. Chapter 15: Speedy: In a New Era of Perishability
      1. Time Really Hurries Faster These Days
      2. Rapid Product Iterations
      3. Rapid Change in Competitive Landscapes
      4. Volatile Demand Forecasting
      5. Moving from Physical to Digital Supply Chains
      6. Impact on Operations
      7. Conclusion
      8. Corning—An Impressive Institutional Memory
      9. The Missionary Selling and the Ramp-Up
      10. Gorilla Glass in TVs and Applications Beyond
    11. Chapter 16: Social: Amid Chatty Humans and Things
      1. Super Bowl and Social Media
      2. Swag and Social Impact
      3. Dell's “Free-Range Marketing”
      4. IT and Brand Impact
      5. “Gamification”
      6. The Digital Crowd Queuing around the Block
      7. “Things” Can Be Social, Too
      8. Conclusion
      9. The Company
      10. Printers as Maligned Devices
      11. The Genesis Design Process
      12. The SmartSolutions
      13. The Social Product Launch
    12. Chapter 17: Sustainable: Mining the Green Gold
      1. “The Greenmonk”
      2. A Tough Crowd
      3. Blood Diamonds, Conflict Minerals, and Rare Earths
      4. Packaging and Extended Supply Chains
      5. The Changing Definition of Sustainability
      6. Conclusion
      7. Google Energy LLC
      8. Investment in Other Renewables
      9. Data Center Efficiency
      10. RE<C
      11. Consumer and Other Applications
  10. Part III: Outside Influences on the Technology Elite
    1. Chapter 18: Making Regulators More Tech-Elite
      1. Regulatory Challenges Galore
      2. Not Just U.S. Regulators
      3. The Shifting Winds
      4. Conclusion
    2. Chapter 19: Society's Changing View of Technology
      1. Our Fragmented Society
      2. Our Digital Generation Gap
      3. Our Digital Addiction
      4. Our Digital Fingerprints
      5. Ethical Expectations of Technology Companies
      6. Needed: A New Generation of Professionals
      7. Conclusion
      8. Smart Products That Consumers Can Trust—A Business Opportunity
    3. Chapter 20: Market Analysts Morphing
      1. The Geeks on Wall Street
      2. Financial Analysts and Domain Knowledge
      3. The Evolving Industry Analyst
      4. Conclusion
    4. Endgame: “Welcome to the NFL”
      1. Elite Technology Teams
      2. Any Given Sunday
      3. The Coming Upheaval
      4. And a Final Word from Coach Bear Bryant
      5. Conclusion
  11. Notes
  12. About the Author
  13. Index

Product information

  • Title: The New Technology Elite: How Great Companies Optimize Both Technology Consumption and Production
  • Author(s):
  • Release date: March 2012
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781118103135