Technology Strategy Frameworks

A note by Sam Mishra, MBA (MIT Sloan)

Technology is fast moving. Competion in both the high-tech and bio-tech industries are based on network effects, standards wars, adapting to disruptions by newer technologies, patent protection and extension mechanisms, and numerous other factors. Consequently, frameworks used to map technology strategies of companies tend to be complex, and take into account multi-dimensional factors. Further, utilization of these frameworks can enhance your business communication and value proposition skills. I provide the following real-life scenario as an example.

I had used the S-curves framework to address a key corporate strategy bottleneck that Sun Microsystems was suffering from in the aftermath of the technology meltdown in Silicon Valley. After his 2002 LinuxWorld keynote, Mr. Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun, was presiding over a Q&A session.

In this session, I got a chance to draw out the above picture on the whiteboard, which caused some embarrassment to the other Sun executives in the panel. But the executives were silent, since the question was addressed to Mr. McNealy, the big boss. Based on the above depiction of a fermenting Linux underneath a stagnating Solaris, I asked Mr. McNealy this question:

“Mr. McNealy! When a disrupting technology ferments underneath a mature one, the mature and established technology igonres the disruption, because the disrupting technology is behind in terms of technology adoption. However, as time progresses, the nascent technology takes off where as the older one stagnates. Linux is disrupting Solaris as we speak. Soon Linux will take off, and Solaris will stagnate and die. Should not Sun change its one chip (SPARC) – one o/s (Solaris) strategy and embrace Linux with open arms?”

However, Mr. McNealy disagreed that Solaris was sitting on the top of the S-curve, and that Linux was disrupting his business model. He maintained that Solaris was still taking off, and not stagnating. Nevertheless, in his keynote an hour back, Mr. McNealy, to Sun’s credit, had showcased an appliance which could run both Linux and Solaris. But this was not on any of their core product lines (Sun Fire servers). So, Sun was embracing Linux, but hesitatingly. 

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The above example shows the proper utilization of the S-curves framework in a strategic contect. We will keep adding more and more frameworks to this section from time to time, so please bookmark this page for future use. Please use these frameworks in your job interviews, and to outwit those numb-nuts executives while you climb the corporate ladder.