Growing in Downturns

By Tim J. Smith, PhD | June 26, 2002

“If the GDP declines but there are no economists reporting it, do we still have a recession?” —- It is no secret that the tech sector is still in a funk in many dimensions. Book-to-order numbers in the semiconductor industry arestill depressed, the telecom sector continues to report poor earnings, and software firms are itching…

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First Tuesday’s ‘Next Big Thing’: Exploration vs Hunting

By Tim J. Smith, PhD | June 19, 2002

Those of us in attendance at the First Tuesday event held on the 11th of June had the opportunity to learn about fascinating developments in high-tech while being reminded of the gap in thinking between research engineering academia and the high-tech business community. Prof. Joe McGeehan of the University of Bristol highlighted much of the…

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CSA Explains: Wireless

By Tim J. Smith, PhD | June 17, 2002

On Friday morning, 14 June, I had the pleasure of attending the “CSA Explains: Wireless” event at the Lewis Center of De Paul University. This was one of the best technology and business seminars I had yet attended. Each speaker provided clear insight into the technological developments associated with Wireless and their perceived opportunities to…

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B2B Marketing?

By Tim J. Smith, PhD | June 13, 2002

According to Randy Kobat, Director of Strategic Planning of ADP, in Business-to-Business (B2B) industries, marketing is an important driver of success. For people like him, B2B is believed to be the next big thing in the marketing field. Yet, when I speak to VPs of Sales & Marketing, they often reply that marketing is less…

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Market Segmentation: Tom Hoffman of SymplicIT

By Tim J. Smith, PhD | June 6, 2002

We all understand that new ventures proposing to enter mature markets with a me-too strategy are doomed to struggle. In dominant texts on high-tech marketing, authors deride new ventures that attempt to enter mature markets. They note that the growth rates are declining, new customers are harder to serve, and that industry consolidation becomes the…

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Addressing Investor Concerns

By Tim J. Smith, PhD | June 5, 2002

There are three legs to a new venture. Venture capitalists evaluate a firm according to two of the legs: Can they build it? If they build it, will the market buy it? A business manager has to ask the third leg: Can it get funded? To help business managers address this third leg with the…

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