Strategic Computing and Communications Technolgy

1. Strategic Computing and Communications Technolgy • See bspace.berkeley.edu • Has syllabus, lectures, news items, etc. • Requirements • Individuals • Submit 4 news items + 2 or 3 paragraph analysis of each over semester • Participate in class discussions • Group projects • We appoint mixed groups • Technology assessment in middle • Policy debate at end SIMS

2. Strategy Overview Hal R. Varian SIMS

3. What is strategy? • Definitions • “A course of action to achieve targets” • “A plan or method employed in order to achieve a goal or objective • In practice: often a checklist of things to pay attention to and watch out for • External and internal SIMS

4. 3 approaches to business strategy • Education • Michael Porter, Competitive Strategy • Executive • Jack Welch, Winning • Economics • Shapiro and Varian, Information Rules • Brandenberger and Nalebuff, Co-opetition • Jeff Rohlfs, Bandwagon Effects SIMS

5. Michael Porter’s Five Forces Porter, Michael E., Competitive Strategy, Free Press, 1998 SIMS

6. Supplier power • Importance of costs  • Impact of inputs on your product cost or design • Competitive environment • Supplier concentration, bargaining power • Presence of substitute inputs • Importance of volume to supplier • Switching costs of suppliers • Threat of forward integration SIMS

7. Barriers to entry • Costs • Absolute cost advantages • Economies of scale • Capital requirements • Scarcity • Access to distribution • Proprietary learning curve • Access to inputs (IP) • Proprietary products • Brand identity • Other • Customer switching costs • Expected retaliation (I.e., capacity threat) • Government policy SIMS

8. Buyer power • Competitive environment • Buyer concentration • Bargaining power • Substitutes available • Product differentiation • Price sensitivity • Buyers' switching costs • Brand identity • Buyer volume • Threat of backward integration SIMS

9. Threat of substitutes • Customer switching costs • Buyer inclination to substitute • Price-performance trade-off of substitutes SIMS

10. Internal rivalry • Economic factors • Industry concentration • Fixed costs, scale requirements • Exit barriers • Intermittent overcapacity • Industry growth • Customer perceptions • Product differences • Switching costs • Brand identity • Diversity of rivals SIMS

11. Critique of Porter • Product of its times (1980s) • Relatively stable environment • Not a very clear taxonomy • Competitors, actual and potential? • Substitutes, internal or external? • Not much emphasis on technology and innovation SIMS

12. Jack Welch (CEO of GE) • Winning, Harper Business 2005 • Three steps • Find a smart, realistic, fast way to gain substantial competitive advantage • Put the right people in the right place to drive this forward • Seek out best practices, adapt them, and continue to improve them • GE initiative: “Be No 1 or No 2 in each market and fix, sell, or close deal to be there.” • 5 Slides SIMS

13. 1. What playing field looks like • Who are your competitors? • What has what share globally and in each market? • Is your business commodity or high value, long cycle or short, where on growth curve? What are drivers of profitability? • What are strengths and weaknesses of each competitor? How good are its products? How much does each one spend on R&D? How big is its sales force? • Who are your customers and how do they buy? SIMS

14. 2. What the competition is doing? • What has each competitor done in past year to change the playing field? • Has anyone introduced game-changing new products, technologies, or new channel? • Are there new entrants, and what have they been doing? SIMS

15. 3. What have you been doing? • What have you done to change the playing field? • Have you bought a company, introduced a new product, taken a competitor’s salesperson, licensed a new technology? • Have you lost competitive advantages you once had: a salesperson, special product, proprietary technology? SIMS

16. 4. What’s around the corner? • What scares you the most in the year ahead? What could a competitor do to nail you? • What new products or technologies could your competitor launch that might change the game? • What mergers/acquisitions would knock you off your feet? SIMS

17. 5. What is your winning move? • What can you do now to change the playing field? New acquisition, new product, new market? • What can you do to make customers stick to you? SIMS

18. Critique of Welch • Very action oriented, not so analytic • Good for CEO, not for industry analyst • Strategy and tactics intermingled • Doesn’t emphasize specific industry forces • Good meeting agenda, not necessarily something to study… SIMS

19. Brandenberger and Nalebuff Value Net Customers Actual and potential companies and products Competitors Company Complementors Suppliers What’s this? SIMS

20. Co-opetition and complements • Customers value entire system • Hardware+software, DVD player+disks • Sometimes you compete, sometimes you co-operate • Think of Intel and Microsoft, IBM and Oracle • Not a zero sum game! • Complementors can be critical to your business, particularly in technology SIMS

21. Shapiro and Varian • Forces important for info tech industries • Differentiation of products and prices • Intellectual property • Switching costs and lock-in • Network effects • Standards and interconnection • Systems effects and complementors SIMS

22. Example: Apple Ipod story • Price of songs (differentiation of prices) • Competition (free songs) • Systems effects (players + content) • Channel conflict (online + offline) • Standardization (interoperability) • Entrants (mobile phones) SIMS