The Technology Leaders

?Peter Cohan has managed to look beyond the trAnds and fads that steer so many consultants and business observers and capture a fundamental fact: Understanding your customers and quickly responding to their changing needs with real value is the most essential ingredient of long-term business success. Nowhere is this more evident today than among the companies that have become leaders in our most technology-intensive industries. The Technology Leaders explores the reasons these companies have risen above the crowd in the world's most intensely competitive markets.? --Michael C. Ruettgers, president and CEO, EMC Corporation ?Hey, business executives! Wake up! Stop the off-site planning meetings, tear up the strategic plan, and buy everyone in your company a copy of this book. With Cohan's crisp description of the ?success cycle' and his cold slap-in-the-face reality of ?betting under uncertainty,' you'll rethink every decision after you put down this page-turner.? --Kevin R. Compton, general partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers ?With a forceful and engaging style, Cohan describes what makes technology companies like Hewlett-Packard so successful. The book is full of practical insights illustrated with fresh examples. Any executive aspiring to market leadership should read The Technology Leaders.? --Dean O. Morton, retired executive vice president, COO and director, Hewlett Packard Company ?Peter Cohan has created a powerful tool for anyone working in the arena of creating great products from technology. By carefully dissecting the approaches taken by a wide series of strong and successful companies, he has distilled a great deal of useful wisdom. I enthusiastically recommAnd this new addition to the entrepreneurial literature.? --Robert J. Saldich, former president and CEO, Raychem Corporation ?Peter Cohan is an outstanding manager with a keen eye for value. His book gets behind the numbers of some of America's most profitable high-tech companies. With a clear and engaging style, he presents a framework that investors can use to pan for gold in today's flood of high-tech investment opportunities. If you want to pick tomorrow's winners, read this book!? --Peter S. Laino, director of development, K-III Communications Corporation

PETER S. COHAN is president of Peter S. Cohan & Associates, a management consulting firm headquartered in Marlborough, Massachusetts. Specializing in both strategy and investment consulting, his clients include global leaders in the telecommunications, on-line information services, computer networking, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and oil services industries. Cohan received his MBA degree from the Wharton School.

PrefaceThe Author 1. The Technology Leaders and Their Sources of Advantage:- The dynamics of technology-intesive industries- Implications of CEOs, chief technology officers, and others- Twenty technolgy leaders- Four sources of advantage that drive leaders' success- Linkage with return innovation 2. Entrepreneurial Leadership- Effective leadership- Winning culture- Topteam players- Decentralized decision making- Entrepreneurial incentives- CEO change agAnda 3. Open Technology I: Managing the Core- Indentify core technologies- Value core technologies- Focus on leverage-point technologies- Partner or acquire to close the capability gap- CEO change agAnda 4. Open Technology II: Syndicating the Noncore- Indentifying noncore technologies- Syndicating noncore technologies: Outplacing- Syndicating noncore technologies: Outsourcing- Managing external partnerships 5. Boundryless Product Dvelopment I: Running Fast Teams- Building cross-functional teams- Deploying project plans- Involving early adopters- Using prototypes- Product supply- CEO change AgAnda 6. Boundryless Product Development II: Creating Product Development- The value triangle- Understanding customer needs- Choosing product attributes- Managing technologies and other capabilities- Connecting the corners of the value triangle: An example from 3Com 7. Disciplined Resource Allocaton- Principles of betting on R&D- A method for managing the R&D portfolio- Capture portfolio learning- Construct portfolio grids- Develop phased project plans- Estimate cash flows- Build project decision trees- Calculate portfolio value- Manage resource allocation- Conclusion 8. The Innovation Scorecard- Return on Innovation- Leadership- Technology- Product development- Resource allocation- CEO change agAnda 9. Thoughts About the Future- General business landscape ReferencesIndex