Microsoft Vision of a Fast Follower
July 1, 2009
I wondered how a once-nimble company like Microsoft would find a way to make lemonade from the lemons in its financial and product orchard. I learned a bit about how Microsoft will spin its corporate story as it tries to move its shareprice from value stock land to the country club that Wall Street desperately needs.
You can get some insight by reading Don Dodge’s “Why Do Fast Followers Often Beat the First Mover Innovators?” on Microsoft’s Start Up Zone blog for entrepreneurs. I don’t know information worker productivity person Don Dodge, but he provides some info about his background. He workd at Digital Equipment Corp. and five start ups over the “next 12 years”. Experience is definitely good as long as the same errors are not repeated each year.
The part of the write up that interested me was the use of Alta Vista as the first mover and Google as the fast follower. Not only do I think that this example (which is only one of 12 in the write up, I think it underscores what search is so confusing and ultimately dissatisfying for most users.
First, Alta Vista was not a first mover. The notion of Web search stretches back to approaches either forgotton (Aliweb, JumpStation) or repositioned before Google rolled out (Northern Light) or drifted into oblivion (Inktomi, Excite). If we set aside Web search, anyone remember STAIRS and InQuire with its famous forward truncation? Verona or Very Easy Rodent Oreiented Netwide Index to Computer Archives or something along those lines. Alta Vista was important but it was a demo, and its real contribution was to provide Google with a gaggle of wizards who arrived with years of research into the special problems high volume indexing via Internet. I am not sure AltaVista.com is a precursor to Google. In my research, I think of Google hiring AltaVista.com wizards and just doing what AltaVista.com had started but without the craziness of the DEC sale to Compaq, the HP buy out of Compaq, and the orphaning of a demo for the Alpha chip. AltaVista.com was more like a roll up of other search engines’ ideas and Google just pumped in more dough and included the PageRank gizmo.
Second, implicit in “fast follower” is the idea of standing on the shoulders of giants or what I call “me too” invention. By making incremental improvements, a company can find a way to use modest technology enhancements and Grand Canyon marketing to make sales. The notion that marketing is more important than technology applies to many “fast follower” products. In short, marketers can’t invent much, but they can sell candy to moms who want their kids to stop whining. Does this sound like the addled goose is disenchanted with 21st centruy marketing? It should. Marketing for the purpose of inventing a needing and pumping up a fuzzy idea like value has made some remarkable contributions to US economic life. Bernie Madoff is an example of influence marketing in a “fast follower” setting. Come to think of it the police action underway in Norway concerns Fast Search & Transfer falls into a similar category. “Me too” leads to some interesting business actions it seems.
Third, the “fast follower” notion is not innovation in the scheme of Harrod’s Creek and the goose pond. Incremental improvements are essential, but anyone who looks at how American icon Tom Edison worked comes away with a sense that judgment, business ethics, and integrity can become road kill on this path. Are not the ideas of Friedrich Hayek and his pals exciting?
For me the most interesting information in the write up was a series of five dot points. I can’t reproduce each of these but I can comment on one dot point and urge you to read and reflect on the other four. Dot point three underscores the fallacy of the “fast follower” approach to business success. The bullet said:
Value sales and marketing talent as much as technical talent.
That is the mantra of modern business and innovation today. The user car salesman and the technical expert. Which is able to deliver more value? Which benefits society more? Technology can only be managed with more technology. Sales begets a need for more sales.
In short, the “fast follower” method adds another burden of meaning to the fictional Willy Loman. “Low man” – get it. How low. Read Gawker’s take.
Stephen Arnold, June 30, 2009
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One Response to “Microsoft Vision of a Fast Follower”
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What do “the ideas of Hayek and his “pals” “have to do with your snark about Edison?
Could it be … nothing?