Product Strategy for High Technology Companies

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 400 pages
• Published by: McGraw-Hill
• Edition: 2nd Edition October 12, 2000
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0071362460
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0071362467
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 1.6 pounds

Product Description
One of the key determinants of success for today’s high-technology companies is product strategy—and this guide continues to be the only book on product strategy written specifically for the 21st century high-tech industry. More than 250 examples from technological leaders including IBM, Compaq, and Apple—plus a new focus on growth strategies and on Internet businesses—define how high-tech companies can use product strategy and product platform strategy for competitiveness, profitability, and growth in the Internet age.

Back Cover Copy
[BACK COVER]

Product Strategy for High Technology Companies 2nd Edition Michael E. McGrath

[CATEGORY] Management

[HEAD] How Today’s High-Tech Leaders—Microsoft, Intel, Motorola, and Others—Continue their Dominance in an Increasingly Competitive Marketplace.
Companies looking to make a mark in today’s crowded high-tech battlefield need two primary elements: a distinctive product and a powerful product strategy. Without both, they simply won’t survive. Product Strategy for High Technology Companies, 2nd Edition, is today’s only book on product strategy written specifically for high-tech companies. Updated and revised to encompass everything from changing product strategies to Web-based technologies, this forward-thinking book provides page after page of market-tested strategies and techniques that include:
• An in-depth examination of the market-proven Core Strategic Vision (CSV) and Market Platform Plan (MPP) Frameworks
• Case studies looking at 14 unique differentiation strategies—what worked, what didn’t, and why
• More than 250 examples of product strategy in action, from the success of Microsoft to the equally stunning—at the time—failure of Osborne
The opportunities in today’s wide-open technology marketplace are unparalleled in history. Benchmark yourself against the high-tech leaders—and discover techniques to carve out your own area of expertise and success—with Product Strategy for High Technology Companies.

[FLAP COPY]

Product Strategy for High Technology Companies 2nd Edition Michael E. McGrath


• How did Xerox, a dominant world leader in light-lens copying, change its strategic focus in time to secure a foothold in the emerging digital technologies arena?
• Which line strategies helped Tylenol leverage its single product—acetaminophen—into a broad-based platform that has sold nearly a quarter-trillion tablets?
• What innovative strategies did Dell Computer use to become a low-price leader in the notoriously razor-thin margin world of personal computers?


Continuous technological change…Short product life cycles…Fast-moving, innovative start-up competitors…
High-technology companies face a number of unique challenges not encountered by companies in other industries. And yet some—Microsoft, IBM, Apple, and Intel, to name just a few—consistently overcome the same obstacles faced by others, and continue to strengthen their competitive positions year after year. How do they do it? Product Strategy for High Technology Companies defines how high-tech companies have used product strategy and product platform strategy to achieve competitiveness, profitability, and continued expansion in the Internet age. Product strategists in high-tech companies will get the latest information on developing successful product policies—including technological change, product differentiation, timing and contingency planning, as well as marketing and financial considerations.
And far from offering a one-sided viewpoint of the marketplace, author Michael McGrath draws on his nearly quarter-century of experience to relate how product strategy works in the real world. McGrath discusses the strategies that allowed Amazon to create and launch numerous products in record time—and their plans for continuing this cycle of innovation and growth. He looks at how companies such as Motorola were able to successfully leverage existing product lines, while others such as Wang quickly failed and disappeared.
Product Strategy for High Technology Companies is nothing less than a template for growth in the brutally competitive arena of high technology. Candid, comprehensive, and generous in its use of real-life examples to illustrate strategic realities, it shows today’s emerging technology challengers how to build a solid strategic foundation, leverage the strengths of that foundation, then build from it to assume and maintain a position of leadership—today and well into the 21st century.

About the Author Michael McGrath is a cofounder and managing director of Pittiglio Rabin Todd & McGrath (PRTM), a leader in helping technology-based companies develop agile, robust management processes and methodologies. In over two decades of management consulting, he has worked with more than 100 companies in the U.S., Europe, and Asia. McGrath initiated PACE“ (Product And Cycle-time Excellence), PRTM’s product-development consulting practice, and has directed many of PRTM’s projects in reducing time-to-market in a variety of high technology companies. He coauthored the books Product Development and Setting the PACE in Product Development, and has published numerous articles on international manufacturing, product development, and trends in the high-technology industry.

Reader Reviews
I love this book: the concept of a "vector" for product development is a terrific way to think about competition. IMHO, this book is a must-read for all product managers, product marketers and people involved in strategic decisions, i.e. all senior executives. That said, speaking as a five-time startup engineer, the advice and examples in this book seem geared towards the core product lines in larger companies, where you can credibly talk about "two years from now" as opposed to wondering if you'll even be in business, which is also the problem for new product lines at large companies. The experience for the book comes from the PRTM consulting firm, which was made famous for their work with parallel product development at Intel. We hired them in the early days at Inktomi, and found mixed success with their process because we were terrified of immediate failure, and they wanted to talk about version 3. Obviously, there's a successful middle ground because Inktomi was a huge success in the short term, but ultimately lost its strategic direction.