Ed Zander: Innovation in a Changing World

Motorola’s CEO stresses the importance of innovation and the future of mobile computing.

By Maryann Jones Thompson, Sand Hill Group

Taking the stage at Software 2007 in May, Motorola CEO Ed Zander had just emerged victorious from a battle with shareholder activist, Carl Icahn, and would soon debut a set of five new products aimed at taking the company in a new direction.

California felt good to Zander. Prior to taking the top spot at Motorola in 2004, he had spent many years in the Silicon Valley as managing director with private equity firm, Silver Lake Partners, and president and COO of Sun Microsystems.

Zander’s keynote address reminded attendees of the rapidly-approaching mobile future and shared insight on the challenges and opportunities associated with innovation in a large company.

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A Power Struggle in Enterprise Software

Software 2007 offered a rare opportunity to hear leaders with competing visions for the future take the stage and present their perspective. Judith Hurwitz of Hurwitz & Associates says Microsoft, SAP and Salesforce.com are all pursuing a position of dominance which leaves them all vulnerable. Read her analysis in this week’s post to the SandHill.com Blog, “Insight from Software 2007.”

Look Beyond the Market Next Door

Moving into adjacent markets used to be a tried-and-true growth strategy for technology companies. Jon Klein of Topline Strategy Group says those days may be behind us. Read about the growth strategies vendors are pursuing in today’s market in this post to the SandHill.com Blog on Growth Strategies.

Publish Your Perspective!

The SandHill.com Blog wants your opinions. Send your thoughts on the enterprise software industry to editor@sandhill.com and we’ll publish them in our blog.

Is Your Company the “Next Big Thing”?

Enterprise 2007, the tenth anniversary, invitation-only gathering of software CEOs will take place in July at Pebble Beach, Calif. The “Next Big Thing” session at Enterprise 2007 will showcase a hand-picked group of five up-and-coming software companies. The session has become one of the most successful at the conference – seven former “Next Big Thing” companies have been acquired for $2.5 billion. Click here to nominate a company to be one of 2007’s Next Big Thing companies.

On the Radar: Spiceworks

The ad-supported software business model has become a reality. Spiceworks has broken new ground with its IT management application for small businesses – and company is set to become the “poster child” of ad-supported software. SandHill.com interviewed CEO Scott Abel about what sets Spiceworks apart, why the ad-based model makes sense and what advice he has for other software entrepreneurs considering the leap to an ad-supported model.

News Update: The Heat is On

Software vendors are ensnared in options scandals, blame games and fraud investigations; plus, Jobs equates Windows to hell, one startup bails out of India, Novell shows its Linux contract and Google barrels on. Read these stories and more software news of the week in the latest SandHill.com Software News Summary.

Applying “Lean” to App Development

Lean techniques, originally developed to reduce waste in manufacturing, are boosting performance in application development and maintenance. Read how in this article from The McKinsey Quarterly.

Poll: Mobile’s Real Impact?

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Last week, readers gave their opinions on what impact Microsoft’s threat of patent infringement would have on the open source market.
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More at SandHill.com:

Open source is a $1.8 billion market according to IDC.
Read the most important enterprise software industry news of the week >>

Greentech Media receives $1 million.
Monitor the latest software venture capital deals >>

BMC buys Proactivenet.
Size up last week's software M&A deals >>

VeriSign names Willam Roper as president and CEO.
See who’s made it to the top in our list of recent software executive appointments.

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Parting Thought

“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”
–Rupert Murdoch

Courtesy of Malcolm Kusher, The Kushner Group