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Business Strategy for Software Executives |
August 18, 2008 |
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C.K. Prahalad on the New Age of InnovationThe convergence of four technology trends is creating a new business model and changes the nature of advantage in the competitive landscape.By Kathleen Goolsby, Sandhill.com A prominent world-class figure, Dr. C. K. Prahalad was named number one in the Thinkers50 (the most influential thinkers in management alive today) poll conducted by Suntop media and the Times of London. He is currently Distinguished Professor, Ross School of Business, University of Michigan and specializes in corporate strategy. Among the books he has written, Competing for the Future (co-authored with Gary Hamel) was named the Best Selling Business Book of the Year 1994; The Future of Competition: Co-Creating Unique Value with Customers (co-authored with Venkatram Ramaswamy in 2004) was described by Business Week as “an important book full of disruptive ideas;” and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profit was selected as one of the best books of 2004. Interop/Software 2008 was the site of the U.S. launch of his most recent book (co-authored with M. S. Krishnan). During his keynote address, Dr. Prahalad explained the concepts behind the new business model presented in the book, the role of IT in this model, and the business imperatives for succeeding in The New Age of Innovation.
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The ROI Revival: Taking SaaS to the Next Level
Realizing a 47x Return on CapitalIn 2006, Cramer Systems was purchased by Amdocs for $425 million after an initial investment of only $9 million. Javier Rojas of Kennet Partners talks to Cramer’s founder Jon Craton about how to realize a significant exit value in this post to the SandHill.com Blog, “Return Leaders.” Publish Your Perspective!SandHill.com wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to SandHill.com editor, Maryann Jones Thompson (maryann@sandhill.com) and have your opinions published on our site. Organizing for ValueThe division structure can mask big differences in the performance of smaller units. A finer-grained approach can better show where value comes from. Read more about this organizational structure in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly. News Update: Trouble in the SkiesGoogle’s outage calls the cloud into question; plus a virtualization “apocalypse” is coming, next-gen antivirus system is developed and HP’s chasing Cisco. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary. Poll: Drivers of Innovation?Which of the four technology trends will be the biggest driver in the New Age of Innovation? Last week, readers gave us their opinion on whether software startups should be more focused on growth or acquisition. More at SandHill.com:What recession? Gartner predicts IT spending growth. Clarabridge received $12 million. Return Path acquired Habeas. OpenSpan named Eric Musser CEO. Send us your feedback on this newsletter and the SandHill.com site. Parting Thought“Two things make a great futurist; a fascination and interest in change and you don’t want to get an MBA.” Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group |
THIS WEEK’S SPONSOR
For over 25 years, Acresso Software has helped software and hardware producers maximize revenue, cut costs, and eliminate manual processes. Acresso solutions, powered by FLEXnet, provide software producers with powerful licensing, updating, and delivery solutions, as well as entitlement and compliance management. Join Acresso at SoftSummit 2008 where leaders from software and hardware producers and their enterprise customers come together to discuss the business of software. SOFTWARE PULSESoftware Pulse is a publication of SandHill.com, the online resource for software business strategy. To subscribe, To unsubscribe, see the bottom of this email. Send us your feedback, SandHill.com is published by Sand Hill Group, which provides investment and management advice to emerging leaders in the $600 billion enterprise software, services and solutions market. Sand Hill Group produces the Software and the Enterprise series of conferences for industry executives, and authors research reports on cutting-edge technology topics. |
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A look at SignalDemand finds a small but high-growth SaaS provider that is breaking traditional support precedents by successfully embedding value measurement into every level of their organization. Shawn Santos of the SSPA shows how SignalDemand united their SaaS application with value-driven services and how the company is moving beyond customer satisfaction and focusing on the capability to deliver positive financial outcomes for their customers in 