The Technology Leaders

"Companies in technology-intensive industries continuously reevaluate their core technologies. This process has led to dramatic growth in strategic alliances."

"Successful high-tech companies follow five principles of leadership: three "soft" principles that differ from low-tech companies and two "hard" principles that are the same."

"Top technology companies create cultures that attract the best people and motivate them to produce products that win in the marketplace."

"CEOs of top technology companies use recruiting as a way to replicate themselves."

"Decentralized units have more direct control of all the resources required to compete effectively."

"The personal satisfaction of working on products that make a difference to society, the intellectual stimulation of working with people that they respect."

"The theoretical basis for the valuation of core technologies is the net present value of the cash flows generated by the products that the technologies spawn."

"By being perceived as the industry leader in a specific leverage-point technology, a company can offer third parties the security that the system in which they are investing resources has the greatest potential to become the industry standard."

"One of the most common sources of corporate failure is the inability to adapt to a new technological paradigm."

"Companies that pursue this 'not invented here' approach arrive too late to market with a technology that does not meet a real customer need."

"Having reviewed the practices of technology leaders for managing core technologies, what should CEOs do to adopt them?"

"Technology leaders have made noncore technology deals so frequently that the ability to make these deals has become a source of competitive advantage."

"Technology leaders may learn about a new technology or a new business process that could be valuable to its customers."

"In order for a partnership to be successful, participants must share common objectives."

"The cross-functional team approach strives to integrate functions."

"Technology leaders want project plans to provide structure without constraining creativity."

"Early adopters often drive the purchase decisions of mass-market "pragmatists" who seek the advice of the early adopters regarding which vendor makes the best product in the category."

"Technology leaders get specific feedback on prototypes from early adopters before too much money has been spent and revise the prototypes based on this feedback."

"Many technology companies fail precisely because they spend too much time on the technology and not enough on creating a product that customers are eager to buy."

"The seven-step methodology provides technology leaders with six powerful advantages over their peers."

"The business landscape will become more efficient as technology leaders continue to make the world a better place, finding new ways to create greater customer value at a low cost."