High-Tech Case Studies Archives
Here you’ll find a collection of blog entries published under the High-Tech Case Studies category.
Week in Review: Spotlight on Key Ideas
By Nilofer Merchant on November 11, 2007
Staying on top of some latest news, moves, thinking. Things worth paying attention to including FaceBook, Google, Landor Brand Study, & Amazon’s Strategy.
Okay, here’s a Statistic
By Nilofer Merchant on November 4, 2007
So Bain has done a growth survey that shows “senior managers spend less than 3% of their time on the long term view of the future.” In comparison, the same study shows, they “spend 40% of their time focused on the things that go on in the 4 walls of the company”.
Marvel Story
By Nilofer Merchant on November 2, 2007
Marvel Comics used to sell comic books. That was their business. They created comics, they sold them in the form of books. Then, one day, they realize that the real asset isn’t the publishing business. Which is what they had directly built. What they had indirectly built is characters that had stories. And those were assets.
In a bar fight, what are you prepared to do?
By Nilofer Merchant on August 3, 2007
Competition in the tech industry is a fundamental. Without it, we would never have seen the innovations and incredibly cool stuff that have informed, transformed, and improved our daily lives. Think about search and how much we use it to…
The boxing match begins: Amazon, Google, and Paypal
By Nilofer Merchant on August 3, 2007
This is one getting seats for: Reported here, but summarized with this starting point: Amazon, in its bid to become the underlying utility of the new web world, today confirmed what had been rumored earlier: a payment service that will…
CMOs: Align Yourself to the C-suite
By Nilofer Merchant on August 2, 2007
Is Marketing considered a a Corporate Performance Contributor? From conversations I’m having around the Valley, I’ve come to realize that marketing and its relevancy to the C-Suite is (in cleaned up language) not-so-good. Marketing is no longer considered contributing to…
RIM’s Blackberry Campaign Commentary
By Nilofer Merchant on July 11, 2007
Blackberry’s been running a great campaign. It started with a banner ad. The banner asked you to share with Blackberry “why you loved it”. From there, you could read other stories of why people loved their blackberry. There are lots…
CMOs: Lead a Revolution!
By Nilofer Merchant on July 9, 2007
A CEO I was working with at a Fortune 500 asked if I could leave my company and join his exec team as their (latest) CMO. I loved the company, its customers, and the team so I was seriously tempted….
Some good reads …
By Nilofer Merchant on July 8, 2007
I’d like to simply point you to some good articles with little commentary that I think are worth noting. Here, a great visual of every product Apple ever made since 1976. I became a customer in 1984, worked there from…
Execute revenue growth, or not
By Nilofer Merchant on March 12, 2007
I was just reading Double Digit Growth by Michael Treacy. Yes, during work hours. Call it my version of eating bon-bons. I needed a break. And his book is one of many in my recent pile of acquisitions. Recent being…
Mobile Users non Loyal … Explained
By Nilofer Merchant on March 2, 2007
Is anyone surprised by this content: Loyalty To Wireless Carriers Is Hard To Come By. By Antone Gonsalves TechWeb.com Two-thirds of U.S. adult mobile phone users comparison shop for wireless carriers, with more than two out of five doing so…
The Holy Grail of the SMB Market
By Nilofer Merchant on February 28, 2007
I’ve been working with many a new client who wants to reach the SMB market. These are traditional enterprise companies who want to expand. And they the SMB market as a viable one to pursue for growth. But this market…
Dinosaur Defense Strategy / Consumer Software Companies
By Nilofer Merchant on February 11, 2007
A colleague who works within one of my company’s clients writes this email to me about a month ago: “I still find myself scratching my head at how to apply this line of advice (referring to a white paper…
Symbiotic Relationships in Play
By Nilofer Merchant on November 30, 2006
One of the fundamental truths about the high technology market today, is that consumers have tremendous power. Market power used to be much like a big castle surrounded by high walls and a moat to control access — Dell, Intel,…
Technorati: Measuring Volume not Value
By Nilofer Merchant on November 22, 2006
Technorati recently published a state of the blogosphere about 2 weeks ago. And I’ve wanted to write on it ever since as an example of being clear on what you are intending to measure and what you are actually measuring….
Here’s a tip on Silicon Valley insults
By Nilofer Merchant on November 10, 2006
I didn’t know I could go to a technology conference and see an insult on stage. But only if you knew the background would you feel a gasp welling inside you. Here’s a tip you won’t find inside the bathroom…
Where does this leave Palm?
By Nilofer Merchant on November 10, 2006
So Moto bought Good. While the press release says Good will continue to develop multi-platform solutions, I can’t imagine how Palm can ultimately create a truly differentiated strategy. Maybe Palm’s business is in harvest mode? There’s a strong enough installed…
Product Management are really Super Heros in Disguise!
By Nilofer Merchant on September 26, 2006
In my opinion, there are two really hard jobs inside a company. One is being a CEO, and the other being a product manager. A few reasons why I believe this. Both the CEO and Product Managers are expected to…
What is it you believe?
By Nilofer Merchant on September 14, 2006
As great leaders, we all need to know what we believe and hold true. Because before we really can lead, we need to be able to connect our beliefs with our actions, and those actions with results. By asking people…
Churn and Burn or Ways to Go?
By Nilofer Merchant on August 25, 2006
It is true that, over time, strong technology consumer companies will win market share from weak companies. However, there’s one nearly surefire way to make sure you don’t fail. Focus. You got know enough to know if you’re going to…
Go-to-market Mix in the Web 2.0 Era
By Nilofer Merchant on August 24, 2006
It’s been 40+ years since E. Jerome McCarthy published Basic Marketing, the business book that introduced the “4 Ps” (product, price, place/distribution and promotion) to the world. While the categories still hold true, what was once considered the leading edge…
Do you know what drives purchase?
By Nilofer Merchant on August 17, 2006
Consumer goods like P&G have always invested in knowing how their sales and marketing activities drive purchase. See this article from July 10th, by Ellen Byron featuring James Stengel who is the Global Marketing Officer for P&G. In it, Mr….
Developer Programs Key to Upward Cycle
By Nilofer Merchant on August 16, 2006
In grade school, one of the key determinants of popularity on the playground was how quickly you were selected when the time came to choose up sides for basketball, baseball or soccer. In the same way, the developing business model…
Scandals rock the Valley; need for an ethical check up
By Nilofer Merchant on August 14, 2006
Just when we thought the technology “depression” was over, we face another scandal that, if I’m right, will rock the general investor confidence in technology investments. You know what I’m talking about. Options backdating. This is a time for an ethical check up and discernment training.
Basic Marketing 101: Don’t make the customer mad
By Nilofer Merchant on June 7, 2006
I couldn’t believe this story ; I thought for sure it had to be a hoax. After all, Microsoft has the economics, savvy, and operating experience to do marketing right. But apparently not. Here’s what happened: Microsoft wanted to raise…
Strategic Defense Moves: Get Closer to your Customer
By Nilofer Merchant on June 5, 2006
You know the best way to build a competitive position? By knowing your customer face-to-face, voice-to-voice. Not some abstract idea of who your customer is, but being able to interchange ideas with them. In a career that seems a lifetime…
Hype vs. Real Emerging Models for High-Tech Industry
By Nilofer Merchant on June 3, 2006
I’ve been home sick a lot lately. First a cold that needed steroids to knock out, later a stomach flu which the whole family bonded over, and now a fever my son and I are sharing. (Let that explain…
Is Adobe going to get crushed by the Big Guy?
By Nilofer Merchant on June 2, 2006
The Journal reported today that talks between MSFT and Adobe broke down earlier this week. The issue is whether PDF will become a built-in feature of Microsoft’s office.
This is not a one way assault on Adobe, but a fundamental tension on who will innovate the platform and UI of the industry. Adobe has plans of it’s own that will make Microsoft the equivalent of plumbing. Needed but not discussed.
HP redefines their value proposition for PCs!
By Nilofer Merchant on May 5, 2006
Do you know what you are selling to the user? Is it a thing (a unit, a box, a software package) or does that thing get associated with a solution, or feeling or a belief? In this day and age…
Fighting with 4 Swords: The Art of Competitive Play
By Nilofer Merchant on April 10, 2006
Rubicon has a defense practice, which we would love to call “Fighting With 4 Swords: The Art of Competitive Play”. Unfortunately, that’s too long to put on our business card along with our other 3 practices (define, design, optimize). So…
Sales model is critical go-to-market piece
By Nilofer Merchant on April 2, 2006
Getting caught up on reading as I nurse a cold today. An article worth highlighting. On page B10 of this (3/28/06) Tuesday’s WSJ, there was an article on marketing strategy that made loads of sense. Two audiences might want to…
What makes a good Sales Comp Plan?
By Nilofer Merchant on March 29, 2006
Last week, I worked with a CEO on designing / redesigning his comp plan. He has a set up where the business sells subscriptions and the sales rep gets paid a flat % for first year, as well as a…
Sweat the small stuff, sweat it all
By Nilofer Merchant on March 28, 2006
Last week, I attended a roundtable of CEOs. And one CEO of a well-known and privately held firm provided a showcase of his upcoming rebranding effort. Interestingly, the consumer company had done focus groups and figured out what they needed…
Community is what we all seek
By Nilofer Merchant on March 25, 2006
Just finished a book, Plainsong, that my stepdaughter lent me. It’s an interesting story of 2 brother farmers, a pregnant high-schooler, two young boys deserted by their mother, and so on. Good book and well written. The richness of the…
Hey what’s that in the corner?
By Nilofer Merchant on March 25, 2006
I had another late night meeting last week, where my firm was involved in helping a company evaluate a decision to an upcoming product launch. Sorry for not being able to provide details; maybe one day. While we presented…
Cinching creates more value
By Nilofer Merchant on March 20, 2006
I’m always worried about the Valley companies that have too much funding, too much venture capital, too much valuation. In this day of American ‘more is better’ philosophy, you might think me contra-culture (or, worse, old-school) to even mention it….