[.ca] Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies (ISBN 0471689394)

From Amazon.com:
"Gene therapy, electronic commerce, intelligent sensors, digital imaging, micromachines, superconductivity, and other emerging technologies have the potential to remake entire industries and obsolete established strategies," write George S. Day and Paul J.H. Schoemaker in the opening to Wharton on Managing Emerging Technologies. Their book is a comprehensive look at the high-tech future facing existing firms and the ways they must weigh and accommodate its impacts in order to compete in the future. Based on six years of research with Charles Schwab, Amazon.com, and other techno pioneers, Day and Schoemaker present "insights, tools, and frameworks" developed by Wharton's Emerging Technologies Management Research Program for managers who want guidance in this fluid, new arena. For example, in demonstrating how the upstart PalmPilot solidly captured its market despite established competition, they identify the traps that stymied rival products from Apple, IBM, Sony, and Microsoft as "delayed participation, sticking with the familiar, reluctance to fully commit, and lack of persistence." They then detail solutions that, in this case, are characterized as "widening peripheral vision, creating a learning culture, staying flexible in strategic ways, and providing organization autonomy." Other similarly specific yet universal sections address public policy, financing, and alliances. --Howard Rothman

It's a tremendous book. Very much applied to real life.:
It's a tremendous book about emerging technologies which many medium to large companies and executives have to tackle with in this new era. Although the book has been written by a group of academics it's very much applied to real life cases and companies. Even the first two chapters of the book can be sold seperate as an executive summary for the subject.Mr.Hakan Eminsoy hakan.eminsoy@fibabank.com.tr from Istanbul , Turkey

Great Stuff !:
I bought this book on the advice from a friend and was pleasantly surprised. As a founder/CEO of a rapidly growing fiber optic business (where today's Intellectual Property can become tomorrow's dogfood) , I found the book to be a great combination of well-researched information and street-smart insights. A great companion for developing pre-emptive strategies in a technology driven economy.

A "Must Have" Handbook:
This book covers all the bases including human resource planning, financing, managing markets and the all important role of assessing the technologies. A "Must Have" text for anyone chartered with the task of managing the chaotic and fast paced world of emerging technologies. This book is extreemely well organized and carries the reader through the entire management process. It reinforced and validated many aspects of managing this type of technology that were I personally had to learn by trial and error. Likewise, it provided new alternatives and other key learnings that made reading the book a worthwhile experience. It provides an alternate and improved framework for evaluating this new type of technology, while exposing the pitfalls of applying traditional evaluation techniques.