Nabisco Computers
"The real dummies are the people who, though
technically expert, couldn't design hardware and software that's
usable by normal consumers if their lives depended upon it" ¹
TechXNY recently
convened here in New York City. A couple years ago the PC Expo
component of TechXNY alone would have fully occupied two floors of
the Jacob Javitz Convention Center--this year they occupied a small
part of one. The Information Technology spending mania of the past
two decades is but a memory. I.T. markets now more closely resemble
traditional markets--where low cost, high value producers of
consumer-friendly products are the ONLY winners/ survivors.
Going forward,
successful products/ services must exhibit obvious and dramatic
productivity/ cost benefits over the existing solution, and the
organizational (or individual) disruption for said "NEW benefit"
must be nominal. Bad products that replace other bad products
will no longer find willing buyers/ victims. Excellence in service
and usable designs will become a force that makes--or
breaks--companies, as is the case with more mature products like
television.
Recently, we purchased
two packs of Oreo cookies for a company luncheon. A colleague opened
one and didn't like the crunch, so she called the 800 number clearly
noted on the package. After one ring, and a very short and friendly
conversation, the Nabisco representative said she was issuing two
replacement coupons. The experience was expeditious, pleasant, and
three days later we had coupons for two free Nabisco items of our
choice. That is an example of a consumer product company! The
Information Technology industry has few comparables. Well-managed
I.T. companies will realize the markets have inexorably changed, and
they will embrace the Nabisco approach--or they will die. Nabisco
knows how to sell consumer products: The consumer, not the cookie,
is king!
Gone are the days of
half-baked PCs flying off the shelves (along with all the related
buggy paraphernalia). That phenomenon resulted from an explosive and
disruptive technological change that provided a far superior
solution, one that everybody wanted "in" on. Such dramatic shifts
happen a few times a century (e.g., steam engines, railroads,
electricity, etc.). PCs and their cousins, PDAs etc., are now basic
appliances--like microwave ovens.
The microwave once
revolutionized meal preparation, but a few years later it became a
commonplace, simple appliance. We don't view the microwave as
"exciting cooking technology"; we view it as a way to get a fast hot
meal. Most technologies quickly become commodities that provide
certain characteristic benefits, e.g., fast hot food. To quote Barry
M. Schuler, former CEO of America Online Inc. "Normal people don't
lust after technology," he says. "They want whatever it's supposed
to do." ² Should a company want to be the vendor of this fast hot food
benefit, then they need render that benefit quickly, easily, and
reliably, and do so at an attractive price.
At TechXNY, EZ Rated
was the guest company on a radio show covering technology. At the
break, before the final show segment, the producer, who had been
listening intently, said, "It is as if we just lived through the
I.T. 'robber Baron' phase."
Indeed!
¹ Wall
Street Journal, Microsoft Will Offer Options For Upgrading to
Windows XP, Walter S. Mossberg, June 28,
2001
² BusinessWeek, AOL's Point Man In
The Web War
How CEO Barry Schuler Plans To Leave
Microsoft In The Dust, Amy Borrus, July 2,
2001