With the burst of the technological bubble

not necessarily have the best product, but they do have the best marketing

strategy.

With the burst of the technological bubble, the majority has been more

concerned with cost control than expansion. Successful companies know

that their future lies in the ability to create new wealth through innovation,

entrepreneurialism, and development of new markets. In order to maintain

profitability they need to have some special edge, either through significant

patents, a very fertile R&D program, or an overwhelming market posi

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tion [1]. Ultimately the key factor for achieving success is to grow and keep

a loyal base of customers through an efficient marketing strategy.

Many high-tech companies consider their technology and product to

be the absolute best around, but this is not enough to make it in the

marketplace. In order for a new technological innovation to make a signifi

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cant impact, it should identify and satisfy a specific human need in a

new and cost-effective way. According to Mario Mazzola, Cisco Systems

chief development officer: “Innovation is more than just a new idea—it is

about taking a new idea and developing it into customer value and positive

business impact” [2].

This is not a new concept. After all, Marconi invented the technology for

wireless communication, but it was in the 1920s while leading RCA that

David Sarnoff, an untaught immigrant, imagined how the new technology

could be applied to transmit news, music, and other kinds of entertainment.

However, the high-tech industry has a cemetery full of companies that

thought they could win the world with their innovations. They failed

because they did not have the marketing ability to connect their innovative

offer with the actual needs of the markets. Just consider some examples of

famous failures of high-tech firms, years before the Internet crash:

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EMI, one of Britain’s leading defense companies, discovered the com

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puter tomography technology that was the basis for a revolutionary

medical tool, the CAT scanner, but EMI failed to protect its technol

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ogy; archrival General Electric was able to produce this medical tool at

lower cost and used superior marketing to develop strong connections

with hospitals, the chief users of the technology. Between 1977 and

1979, EMI had a cumulative loss on computer tomography equip

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ment and eventually withdrew from the market, selling its CAT scan

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ner business to General Electric [3].

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In the 1980s the R&D division of Xerox invented ground-breaking

technology, such as the graphical user interface and the laser printer

[4]. However, Xerox lacked the marketing skills to make them a market

success, which Apple did with the former and Hewlett-Packard with

the latter.

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In the 1990s AMD created the K6 a faster chip than the one produced

by Intel, but failed to penetrate Intel’s market share because of being

short of marketing and manufacturing skills.