Competition never sleeps

Summary : It is a basic principle of tactical awareness that the competition never sleeps. You must assume that they are always trying to find areas of competitive advantage and working to reverse any areas of competitive disadvantage. During the eighties, the ascent of Japan's semiconductor equipment industry was accompanied by high customer satisfaction with their tools and general dissatisfaction with tools made by western suppliers...

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The 5 Business Strategi ...

There are only five business strategies: cost, quality, distribution, technology, and intellectual property (IP). All business strategies break down into these five, or some combination of them. As a general p ... See more

Winners take ownership ...

No one ever fixed a problem that wasn’t theirs. Problems are opportunities, so blaming others leaves the opportunities for others. ... See more

Needs and benefits alwa ...

15 Jun 1985

This jewel is one of the most important lessons I remember from Bob Graham. The setting was at an off-site meeting in Monterey during the mid-eighties. Applied Materials was working on its next block-buster: ... See more

High-tech business stru ...

High-tech business structure is fundamentally different from the B-School classics. The old style of business was split into three primary areas... he style for a modern Tech business splits it into four areas. ... See more

To be truly innovative, ...

While counterintuitive, the reason why big innovations are truly big is that they invariably have something stupid about them that keep less innovative people from attempting to innovate. It’s far easier and le ... See more

Elephants can innovate

Does real innovation only occur in small companies? Not true: here are some big companies that have shown how to innovate. ... See more

Budgets and risk avoida ...

If you think back to the days when today’s giants were small, the focus was not on budgets, but on growth through innovation. Risk and innovation must be managed, but don’t make the mistake of over-managing ri ... See more

Leadership Principles a ...

The underlying principles and purpose of their leaders govern the outcome of all marketing battles. ... See more

Faster learning cycles: ...

Want to improve RoR (Return on R&D)? Faster learning cycles are probably the biggest reason why the best development teams regularly out-innovate their competitors. Faster learning cycles are far more important ... See more

Operations, account man ...

15 Jun 1988

Operations, account management, corporate marketing, and product marketing & development are worthless without each other. They need the flexibility to support each other when issues arise ... See more