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Book Reviews May
2005 It's Not About the Technology: Developing the Craft of Thinking for a High Technology Corporation is the first book by Raj Karamchedu, who was the featured speaker at SVPMA's March 2005 meeting. The author was inspired to write after a series of semiconductor startup experiences. During these periods, Mr. Karamchedu observed that great technology companies stay grounded through the mindset of a few key individuals who can resist the urge to develop technology for technology's sake and instead focus on solving the real world business problems. The book is divided into four main parts. Part I, The Thinking, immediately establishes that the most important determinant of success at high tech companies is the quality of interaction between marketing and engineering. It delves into how engineers and marketers each perceive the problem, or the "contexts" of each discipline, and how a customer selects a product. One of the main points is that customers relate (to products) before they differentiate, which the author then ties into the quality of referral. Every product refers to its own utility. But if the product does not refer to something that already has meaning to us (i.e. something to which we can relate,) we will not understand its usage. The author provides the example of a cell phone with a camera. Whether it is used for a call or to take a picture depends on the user's context or need at a particular time. Likewise, the phone might be used as a paper weight given the right conditions. Referral and context are central to achieving differentiation in the customer's mind. In Part II, The Forward Movement Latent in Execution, the author further develops the context framework, diving deeper into the marketing context and the context of execution. The marketing context covers the notions of opportunity cost, economic value, and differentiation. Execution breaks into three contexts: the customer context, the technological context, and the economic context. From this, the circle of execution emerges, which connects the three execution contexts. This circle is composed of defining the product correctly, achieving a design win, and getting the product to market on time. Part III then explores the framework of the three contexts: customer, technological, and economic, as applied to a semiconductor company. The final section, Part IV - The Craft and the Mindset, is the culmination of the previous three and especially relevant to product management. This section contains a great discussion on the difference between requirements, the what, with the specification, the how. Mr. Karamchedu also draws an important distinction between self-requiring and value-building requirements. Returning to the example of the cell phone, the minimum requirement is that the phone can connect to other phones over the air. This is the self-requiring feature. Without it, no one would purchase the device, nor could it exist in the marketplace. The built in camera, however, is a value-building feature. This feature is not necessary for the phone to make and receive calls, but does differentiate the device in the mind of the consumer. Overtime, value-building features become self-requiring, and new value-building feature must be introduced. It's not about Technology is not a typical business text. It is more of a discourse that explores the mindset that results in successful technology innovation. The author spends considerable time defining his terms and building the vocabulary of mindsets and contexts. His goal is to create a general framework that can be applied across industries. The writing is informal. Mr. Karamchedu uses "we," "us," and "our" throughout, sometimes to be inclusive of the reader ("so we have come to the final chapter of our book,") and other times exclusive "So we said . . ." or "It is our firm opinion." In the end, this book is an inquiry into the craft of thinking and a thought provoking read. |
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