AMI’s study further validates that Indian SMB sector is ripe for targeted SaaS solutions…
Archive for the 'bottom-of-the-pyramid' Category
Indian SMB Sector Ripe for New Breed of IT Solutions
Published by March 23rd, 2007 in software industry, bottom-of-the-pyramid and SaaS. 0 CommentsPaul Saffo’s Review of OLPC XO-1
Published by February 7th, 2007 in bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsI have been watching the one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) efforts that are going on. My favorite is Negoroponte’s XO-1. Now some hands-on reviews of XO-1 are trickling in. There are the usual sets of reviews where people are arguing whether the clean break from Windows GUI is good or bad. But the review that catches my eye is the one by Paul Saffo, the famous technology forecaster…
Resurgence of the Indian SMB Sector
Published by January 16th, 2007 in software industry, bottom-of-the-pyramid and SaaS. 2 CommentsBusiness World’s cover story says that the Indian SMB sector is now booming.
Bad News about TI’s LoCosto Chipset
Published by January 12th, 2007 in innovation, mobile industry and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsTI’s Locosto chipset is having technical problems because of which it might lose the early mover advantage.
Interesting cartoon on fortune at the bottom-of-the-pyramid (courtesy Zinnov)…
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An Indian Dream
Published by December 28th, 2006 in investing, entrepreneurship and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsI just got back from my short vacation, opened The Economist and was flipping the pages when a picture of Sanjeev Aggarwal caught my attention. There is a nice profile of him, called Delhi Dreams, in the Face Value section of this issue. What a pleasant surprise! For me Sanjeev represents an important new trend. I believe that we are close to a tipping point in seeing many more “India-out” ventures…
Rethinking SaaS for India
Published by December 19th, 2006 in software industry, entrepreneurship, bottom-of-the-pyramid and SaaS. 1 CommentSandHill.com has recently published “Rethinking SaaS for India”, my second article in the series India DNA Talk. I write about how SaaS can be tailored to meet the needs of a whole new segment of micro-firms in India. The addressable market opportunity is large. Like with all bottom-of-the-pyramid opportunities, this requires in-market incubation and in-market experimentation to get to the right model. I am optimistic that this will happen soon. Do you share that optimism?
Growth Anatomy Series Roundup
Published by December 18th, 2006 in innovation, software industry, entrepreneurship, mobile industry, bottom-of-the-pyramid and roundups. 0 CommentsThis series started innocently enough as a follow-up to my SandHill.com article but somehow it quietly picked-up momentum. It covers a fair amount of ground about how to go about bottom-on-the-pyramid opportunities and why doing that is important to the software industry. Below are all the articles in this series. Check them out if you have missed any.
Growth Anatomy: Call to Action
Published by December 16th, 2006 in innovation, software industry, entrepreneurship and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 1 CommentSuccess with BOP requires breakthrough product architectures, process models and/or business models. Often it also requires building new market structures and value chains. All this can only happen with in-market incubation and constraint-based management. It’s not easy, but it can be done. As we have seen, telecom, PC, semiconductor and healthcare industries are doing it. So far the enterprise software industry is watching from the sidelines. Why is this the case?
Growth Anatomy: Building a New Value Chain
Published by December 14th, 2006 in innovation, software industry and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 2 CommentsWe have looked at several bottom-of-the-pyramid examples from the IT industry so far. Airtel vs. Verizon was about breakthrough business models. X0-1 vs. Classmate laptops was about breakthrough product architectures. TI’s LoCosto cellphone chipsets was about a breakthrough process model. eChoupal and the failed GramaTeller ATM was about creating a new market structure. Today’s example is from healthcare and is about building a new value chain.
Growth Anatomy: Thinking Beyond Product and Company Architecture
Published by December 11th, 2006 in innovation, software industry and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsIn this series we have looked at two bottom-of-the-pyramid product examples so far. The first one, which was about one-laptop-per-child showed that success hinges on confronting legacy product architectures. The second example, about TI’s ultra-low-cost cellphone chipset, illustrated that sometimes breakthrough changes are needed not so much inside the product but inside the company (by changing the way of doing things significantly). But at times, the focus has to be neither inside the product nor inside the company but out in the market. Not addressing the market architecture issues can be a point of failure.
Growth Anatomy: Taking Inspiration from Ultra Low Cost Cellphone
Published by December 6th, 2006 in innovation, organizational design, mobile industry and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsWe saw from the OLPC example that radical value engineering requires confronting incumbent product architectures. This is one of the reasons why upstarts have an advantage. Another reason why this is so difficult for incumbents is because you have to confront the current way of doing things inside the firm. Occasionally market leaders succeed in doing an orbit shift in their way of doing things. Texas Instruments is an example of that in the cellphone chipset market.
Growth Anatomy: Likely Lessons of OLPC
Published by December 4th, 2006 in innovation, software industry and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsIf you are with me so far, you know that I have argued here and here that the enterprise software industry must use the emerging lean model as an invitation to develop bottom-of-the-pyramid opportunities. This calls for radically rethinking the value/price equation. A simple thumb-rule is that if the new product isn’t less that a fifth, yes that’s right, a fifth of the price, it isn’t going to unlock the market at the bottom-of-the-pyramid. Naturally this is hard to do. But it can be done. Today I look at an example from the PC industry.
Growth Anatomy: Can’t Escape In-Market Incubation Any Longer
Published by December 1st, 2006 in innovation, software industry, organizational design and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsIn my last post in this series I had suggested that the enterprise software industry is being forced to embrace the “lean” model requiring two separate strategy responses. The first is a reflexive response of consolidation and preservation. The second is a considered response of leveraging the lean model to build out a new business at the bottom-of-the-pyramid. This second strategy response is hard to do. And the IT industry is not doing it.
Growth Anatomy: Another Reason to Not Ignore Emerging Markets
Published by November 29th, 2006 in innovation, software industry, mobile industry and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 0 CommentsThe enterprise software industry cost structure is deconstructing in front of our eyes. The traditional infrastructure side is under attack by open-source and data-center virtualization; the application space is dealing with SaaS; and the traditional services model has already crumbled under the onslaught of Infosys and Wipro’s global delivery model. Yet, and I hate to say that, there is complacency in the air.
Anatomy of New Growth in India
Published by November 28th, 2006 in innovation, software industry, organizational design and bottom-of-the-pyramid. 1 CommentIn a new article, Anatomy of New Growth in India, posted at SandHill.com, I argue three things. First, take emerging markets like India seriously because they punch above their weight-class. Second, go after the bottom-of-pyramid opportunities. Third, think beyond talent/cost arbitrage and build in-market capability to incubate new products and business models. This is the first article in a series called India DNA Talk where I will discuss the burgeoning growth in India and its implications for the software industry at large.
