Smart Products, Smarter Services: Strategies for Embedded Control

Description

We are surrounded by products that have minds of their own. Computing power, in the form of microcontrollers, microprocessors, sensors, and data storage chips, has become so cheap that manufacturers are building connectivity and embedded intelligence into all types of consumer goods. These 'smart products' are fundamentally changing both the competitive landscape for business and the daily lives of consumers. This book analyzes the evolution of smart products to help managers understand the impact of embedded product intelligence on corporate strategy, consumer value, and industry competition. It describes four different ecosystem strategies for designing and launching smart products: the control-focused Hegemon, the standards-focused Federator, the high growth and brand-focused Charismatic Leader, and the disruptive industry Transformer. This ecosystem model is then applied to smart products in the automotive, wireless, energy, residential, and health industries. The book concludes with recommendations for successfully managing smart products and services.

Mary J. Cronin is Professor of Management in the Information Systems Department at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College. Her research analyzes the intersection of business strategy and technology, with a focus on industry transformation from technology triggers such as the internet, wireless networking, and embedded product intelligence. She is the author of numerous books, including Doing Business on the Internet (1994) and Unchained Value (1999).

'Smart Products, Smarter Services is a book whose time has come. After years of theorizing about adding connections to the things in our lives, we're finally doing it. Smarter devices are at the core of the emergence of ubiquitous connectivity, which will revolutionize business and consumer experiences alike. Read Mary Cronin's smart book to learn about device ecosystems, the application of smarter devices across many industries, and the best strategies to make them happen.' Emily Nagle Green, President and CEO of Yankee Group and author of Anywhere: How Global Connectivity is Revolutionizing the Way We Do Business (2010) 'The message from Smart Products, Smarter Services is clear. We are on the cusp of another technology revolution which will pose new business and privacy challenges. To meet these challenges, firms will need to develop smart strategies for deploying these smart devices. This important book deserves to be widely read by managers, policy makers and academics.' Mary J. Culnan, Slade Professor of Management and IT, Bentley University 'Over 14 billion embedded micro-controllers were shipped in the first half of 2010, and that's without Professor Cronin's smart book! But I say better late than never. She lays it all out, how to make the most of smart products. Embedded networking, for example. Imagine what we'll be able to do when we get all these smart products networked and multiplying one another according to Metcalfe's Law!' Bob Metcalfe, Ethernet Inventor and 3Com Founder