Michael A. Cusumano

Strategic maneuvering and mass-market dynamics : the triumph of VHS over Beta

This article deals with the diffusion and standardization rivalry between two similar but incompatible formats for home videocassette recorders (VCRs): the Betamax, introduced in 1975 by the Sony Corporation, and the VHS (Video Home System), introduced in 1976 by the Victor Company of Japan (Japan Victor or JVC). Despite being first to the home market, the Beta format fell behind the VHS in market share during 1978 and declined thereafter. By the end of the 1980s, Sony and its partners had ceased producing Beta models. This study analyzes the history of this rivalry and examines its context—a mass consumer market with a dynamic standardization process subject to “bandwagon” effects that took years to unfold and that were largely shaped by the strategic maneuvering of the VHS producers.

An Empirical Study of Manufacturing Flexibility in Printed Circuit Board Assembly

This paper addresses the empirical verification of hypotheses that relate to the strategic use and implementation of manufacturing flexibility. We begin with a literature review and framework for analyzing different types of flexibility in manufacturing. Next, we examine some of the propositions in the framework using data from 31 printed circuit-board plants in Europe, Japan, and the United States. Based on our analysis and findings, we then suggest several new strategic insights related to the management of flexibility and some potentially fruitful areas for further theoretical and empirical research. Our findings include: more automation is associated empirically with less flexibility, as found in other studies; nontechnology factors, such as high involvement of workers in problem-solving activities, close relationships with suppliers, and flexible wage schemes, are associated with greater mix, volume, and new-product flexibility; component reusability is significantly correlated with mix and new-product flexibility; achieving high-mix or new-product flexibility does not seem to involve a cost or quality penalty; mix and new-product flexibility are mutually reinforcing and tend to be supported by similar factors; and mix flexibility may reduce volume fluctuations, which could theoretically reduce the need for volume flexibility.

The elements of platform leadership

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Cloud computing and SaaS as new computing platforms

To become an industry platform, vendors must open their infrastructure technology to other product companies.

The Changing Software Business: Moving from Products to Services

The dramatic changes in the software business over the past few years have important implications for both users and producers of software products and services. Traditional product sales and license fees have declined, and product company revenues have shifted to services such as annual maintenance payments that entitle users to patches, minor upgrades, and often technical support. A dramatic shift is under way in the enterprise-software industry as established vendors embrace services in the wake of declining product revenues. It remains to be seen whether life-cycle dynamics or business-model choices are behind the long-term trend.

Software development on Internet time

There is probably little debate that Internet software companies must use more flexible development techniques and introduce new products faster than companies with more stable technology, established customer needs, and longer product cycles. Internet and PC software firms favor a more flexible style. The basic idea is to give programmers the autonomy to evolve designs iteratively but to force team members to synchronize their work frequently and then periodically stabilize their design changes or feature innovations. Studying two companies, the authors found that Netscape was using a version of the Microsoft-style synchronize and stabilize process for PC software, but adapting it to build Internet browser and server products. They also found that Microsofts Internet groups were modifying their standard process to increase development speed and flexibility. The goal was to balance flexibility and speed with professional engineering discipline.

Strategy, structure and performance in product development: Observations from the auto industry

Abstract This article examines recent empirical research conducted or published on product development in the automobile industry with the objective of identifying what we have learned, and what we have yet to learn, about the effective management of this activity. The basic framework used to compare the studies examines variables related to product strategy, project structure or organizaton, and project as well as product performance. The evidence to date indicates that Japanese automobile producers have demonstrated the highest levels of productivity in development as well as of overall sales growth, and have used particular structures and processes to achieve this. The evidence does not clearly indicate what the precise relationships are between development productivity and quality or economic returns. We conclude that many other specific issues remain to be studied, and that, overall, researchers need to generate more precise conceptual models as well as empirical research that more tightly connect a companys competitive positioning and product strategy with its development-organization structure, management, and support technology, and then these variables with better performance measures.

Linking international technology transfer with strategy and management: a literature commentary

Abstract This article represents an attempt to link literature from diverse but fundamentally related areas: research on international technology transfer as well as on technology strategy and management. It argues that these literatures need to be linked because both treat problems inherent to managing technology development that must succeed at the level of the firm, not the level of the nation state or government facilities. The discussion here focuses on issues that frequently appear in recent writings on international technology transfer: the relationship between international technology transfer and cultivation of indigenous capabilities within the technology recipients; organizational options and their effectiveness for international technology transfer; the influence of external factors on the outcomes of international technology transfer process for technology recipients; and policies of host-country governments concerning transfer of foreign technology. We examine these issues from the viewpoints of both international technology transfer and technology strategy and management. The objective is to identify perspectives from research on technology strategy and management that might help solve basic problems in international technology transfer.

Technology strategy and management The evolution of platform thinking

How platform adoption can be an important determinant of product and technological success.

Multiproject strategy, design transfer, and project performance: a survey of automobile development projects in the US and Japan

Large manufacturers usually need to manage multiple projects in order to leverage their financial and engineering resource investments on new technologies and designs. The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between different multiproject strategies and project performance measured by lead time and engineering hours. The multiproject strategy in this study focuses on different ways of transferring core technologies and designs from one project to another within the firm. First, this paper proposes a typology of different multiproject strategies, which categorizes new product development projects into four types: new design, rapid design transfer, sequential design transfer, and design modification. Second, using survey results on 103 different new product projects at 10 automobile firms in Japan and the US, this study concludes that projects using the rapid design transfer strategy are the most efficient in terms of engineering hours. Only through rapid design transfer can a preceding design be transferred from a base project to a new project with effective task sharing among engineers and mutual adjustments between the two projects. This paper also discusses organizational requirements for managing rapid design transfer projects. Neither a pure project-team approach nor a functional approach seem appropriate for the management of concurrent multiple projects.