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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Intel’s Branding Strate ...

One of the most important Maxims of Hi-Tech is to never confuse customers with names. This is something Intel regularly does with its open code naming of technologies, obtuse names like Montevina. It is intenti ... See more

How the U.S. beat Japan ...

17 Aug 2012

The source of Japan’s failure to move forward is mostly about the failure of their Theory Z management style and an unwillingness to change. Back in the eighties, I did a lot of strategic work in how to turn th ... See more

Pricing is a function o ...

Pricing of undeveloped products is one of the biggest issues for companies in high technology. They typically revolve around should one price to cost or value, which is really a marketing question which assume ... 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

Strategic versus tactic ...

Confusing the two is a dangerous mistake. Not understanding the difference typically leads to tactics with no strategy. Tactics will then often conflict with the implicit strategy. Yet, these are very common ... See more

Customers are not visio ...

It is a common mistake to attempt entrepreneurial market development using classic business school practices of surveying customers, sizing the market, planning development costs, and figuring out the ROI. It i ... See more

Align your core strengt ...

Align your core strengths, manufacturing, product portfolio, message, and targeting carefully ... See more

More on principles and ...

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

The two reasons to adve ...

The two reasons to advertise: Brand Building and Lead Generation ... See more

Risk versus Uncertainty ...

Risk is when an outcome’s probability is known. Uncertainty is when an outcome’s probability is unknown. Know which is which before you weigh your decisions ... See more