Wharton on Emerging Technologies - Preface & Chapter 1

Reading Summary

“Snow melts first at the edge.” This quote, to me, sums up the key thought that was put forward in the preface and first chapter of Wharton on Emerging Technology. In order to be able to reach the mass market the manager that is working with emerging technologies must focus not on the mass market that they intend to reach, but on the users that will be the first wave of customers. These are the early adopters and those with needs that are strictly not being met with current technologies. A manager, by focusing on these customers, can learn a great deal about what is needed to push a new technology into the mass market. As was demonstrated in the PDA example the failure of the first PDA by Palm was not a problem for the company, in fact as a manager of an emerging technology one must expect to fail at times. The paradox of these technologies is that one must be a pioneer to succeed, but pioneers often fail. As Palm did the key is to minimize potential loss, and learn from that failure to ensure future success. While Palm succeeded others failed to do this, Apple’s foray into PDAs cost hundreds of millions and got them nowhere, because they approached the mass market first offering the product they believed everyone wanted, and fell right on their face.

Research Update

To delve a little deeper into the ideas and concepts that are presented in this book I have decided to take a little different route than most of you. I have a copy of The Innovators Dilemma that I picked up a few years ago and never got around to reading. I have begun to delve a little into that book as I feel that it may provide additional insight and a little different perspective on some of the topics. I know that Clayton Christenson is a well respected author on the topic of innovation. His specific focus is the idea of disruptive technologies. Which he explains are those that don’t follow the standard trend of the market, but look to meeting the needs of different users or meeting different needs for existing users. One of the major examples that Christenson gives is in the hard drive industry where traditionally the trend is for larger capacities, but disruptive technologies have come in the way of making smaller drives with lower capacities to target different customers. As I was reading Fast Company this week their list of the “Top 50 Most Innovative Companies” included Intel. While this is not a surprise, the product that they focused on most was their Atom processor. This is a great present day example of a disruptive technology. In an industry where faster and more powerful is the trend the Atom processer reduces speed and focuses on smaller, cooler, and lower power consumption. This appears to be a great opportunity for Intel as it puts them at the leading edge of a new or emerging market with netbooks and powerful mobile devices.

Analysis

As I read chapter one of Wharton on Emerging Technologies, I was torn between two competing feelings. The insight that this book provides was hinted at with the examples of the PDA market and Biotechnology; however, each time the book began to approach true insight it stepped back and said…”in chapter x we’ll discuss.” Frankly I hate preview chapters. It’s like a carrot on a stick hanging just out of reach; and it makes me want to just stop chasing. In fact after reading the preface I was more excited about the book than I was after chapter one. I expect that this will be a great book that provides a great deal of insight and some good ideas, so I’m quite glad that I will be forced to soldier on despite this frustrating start. I’m not certain that I would if I was reading this on my own as opposed to for a class.

Resources:

The Innovator’s Dilemma – Clayton Christenson
Fast Company – March 2009