Product Strategy for High Technology Companies

by Michael E. McGrath and Michael McGrath

Book Overview

One of the key determinants of success for today's high-technology companies is product strategy-and this guide continues to be the only book on product strategy written specifically for the 21st century high-tech industry. More than 250 examples from technological leaders including IBM, Compaq, and Apple-plus a new focus on growth strategies and on Internet businesses-define how high-tech companies can use product strategy and product platform...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071362460
• ISBN13: 9780071362467
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Best Strategic Toolkit Ever Written

There are countless strategy books out there. Each one has an overriding framework that the entire book is based on, that often warrants only a 15-page article. This book is loaded with practical frameworks that together provide a thinking and creativity-channeling approach. Better yet, every framework has been proven in practice at dozens of companies by the author's implementation-based consulting firm. Each chapter is filled with examples from a broad range of technology-based companies. When applying these frameworks outside of technology-based industries and large companies just use common sense to strip them down to their essence and don't worry about the fancy techno-speak. You can also use most chapters as stand-alone strategy tools. I personally like "vectors of differentiation" and wonder how so many companies blow it when it seems like common sense. But then again if common sense were common, books like this wouldn't be needed. And then there's the issue of actually implementing what you come up with...

Don't Just Read It, Do it!

After founding a leading market research firm and teaching New Product Development at Harvard, I found this book so compelling that our firm has completed a review of our entire new web research product strategy, and come to some startling and highly productive insights on how to proceed and succeed. It is by far the most practical, in-depth guide to achieving competitive new product development strategies I have ever read.The book shows clearly how to answer the critical questions: 1) Where do we want to go, 2) How will we get there, and 3) Why will we be successful. It shows how to create a Core Strategic Vision that is the foundation for new product success. And it shows how to use that vision to create highly competitive and profitable product lines, particularly in high technology.Having tested new product ideas for hundreds of companies over the last 25 years, it is difficult to think of more than a handful who couldn't have benefited from not only reading this book, but doing what it recommends.

Great book

The idea of Product Platform or Product Architecture as being the basis for longer term success hadn't been something that I had taken into consideration in any depth before I read this book. Certainly being able to work with code and making sure it was "maintainable", and free of spagetti, was not new, but this book helped clarify for me the details of why it's imporant to plan out the product platform, and how a smartly based strategy that focuses the team on the platform first and the emd-user feature set in view of that, really improves the stability and performance of the product. The team at Ernst and Young in Seattle that I worked with used this book as a reference as we built new web-based technologies. Thank you Michael McGrath!I see there's a new version just released this month, and I will be purchasing it.

Product Strategy for High-Technology Companies

There is a good and generic template or framework for corporate management in US for senior managers in every company of every industry for them to be able to review their leadership, their strategy, and operation of organizations with respect to satisfaction of all the stake holders and business performance. That is Baldridge National Qaulity Award Program. This book is supplying us with very specific suggestions how the contents should be, what specific options are to respond to Criteria for Performance Excellence in crucial categories of National Quality Award. I believe this book enables every senior managers to be able to posiotion their practices in management with respect to the plentiful examples of ideas as a measure so that they will be able to find or identify his strength or weakness in every important aspects of corporte management of high-tech companies. Take a look at this book. Then you will find your own idea for improvement. When someone is there who says "I find nothing interest in this book" then he or she will be a great manager in some company achieving extraordinary and sustainable success in industry.

Great book for any product marketing manager

This is not a 10 minutes guide for a great product. This is really a great place to learn how to better understand product strategy. The book covers crucial issues such as the importance of good platform strategy, differentiation and others. The text is clear and full of real life examples.Marketing managers and product managers will appreciate this excellent book.