The Hindu Business Line : Mobilise

And that's how Nokia executives called the project when they were still grappling with its innards. Fascinating, but it was also a lot of work, as the new book, billed as "the first comprehensive account of the explosion of the mobile services", traces.

The introduction begins with waves of innovation in the mobile technology - wireless telegraphy in the 1890s, pre-cellular mobile services in the 1920s, analog cellular in the 1980s, Digital cellular in the 1990s, and multimedia cellular in the current century - all depicted on a chart, with successive waves characterised by discontinuities between the curves.

Another interesting graph studies market waves in terms of penetration and usage. Thus, maritime markets were served in the 1890s, followed by emergency, industrial, business and consumer services.

The current wave is one of `global mass markets'. When companies that were successful in market development failed in technology development, old offerings were provided to new and changing markets, points out the author, citing the example of Motorola which in the 1990s "delayed digital transition so long that it fell behind rivals and had to spend years in a futile catch-up game."

Ideally, the next big markets should have a large population, rising per capita income, and relatively low penetration, writes Steinbock.

"Both China and India have more than 1 billion inhabitants, while per capita income is relatively high in advanced urban centres. In comparison with China and India, the potential next `next big markets' are not quite as impressive, despite explosive growth. No other nation can boast comparable scale," he adds.

Therefore, it is no wonder that Nokia introduced `clamshell phones' in china. "The 6108 came with a stylus and touch pad to make it easier for consumers to write text messages in Chinese characters."

More than the chronicling of the mobile era, the author excels at his insightful analysis of key concepts through crisp visuals.

For instance, a chart on new service development puts `newness to company' on the x-axis and `newness to market' on y-axis. The movement from generic product to the potential is shown as a travel on the risk-return continuum. Another graphic is a grid explaining how communication and IT needs vary by industry characteristics.

There are a few things a Japanese teenage girl doesn't leave home without, said a Business Week report in 2000.

It listed the i-mode phone, along with six-inch platform shoes and touch-up toner for hair colour of the day. "With i-mode, users are always connected - as long as they can receive a signal and their batteries are charged."

The first year of the i-mode service was more about information content and testing, narrates Steinbock. Thereafter entertainment providers began to offer customised content for the mobile, and by the third year, free Internet content began to gain ground.

A chapter on service innovation speaks of an `enticing but treacherous business terrain', viz. mobile sex. "In March 2001, half of the most trafficked mobile websites, as monitored by Alloutwap.com, were sex sites. Yet, as a medium, the PC provides a large form factor and greater sense of `realism', reasons the author, on how sex has been the loser in the mobile terrain, with the user consuming porn in the privacy of home.

"When one is in a hurry, texting beats sexing," making SMS unexpectedly triumphant.

Given the lure of mobility, it will be hard for firms not to mobilise. "But only a few know how to mobilise strategically," is a caveat from Steinbock.

Switch off your mobile for an uninterrupted reading of the book!

Successful business models

THE essence of business model innovation is finding a better and more profitable way of creating value for customers, writes A.V. Vedpuriswar in Business Innovation Lessons from Great Companies, from Vision Books (www.visionbooksindia.com) .

In the preface, the author shares the credit with N.J. Yasaswy for coining the phrase `business model innovation' to describe innovations that have "a much grater impact compared to product and process innovations".

Perhaps, the 2001 book Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation edited by Yogesh Malhotra, that shows as the first find in a simple Google search, is about something else.

"This book is about companies which have successfully changed the rules of the game," writes Vedpuriswar. "These are companies which have come up with a new kind of business model that competitors have found difficult to replicate."

Business models fail when companies do not have a comprehensive understanding of where the scope lies to create value in the industry, writes the author, citing the example of IBM.

"Gerstner correctly understood that in the emerging networked environment, services would play a crucial role. IBM Global Services played a pivotal role in IBM's turnaround."

eBay is another case that is discussed at length in the book. The company's main challenge was to ensure the resiliency of its database, after it suffered a disquieting outage in 1999.

There were more than three million items appearing concurrently on its Web site, and even a minor correction could knock out the entire network. How dangerous!

Then, it was decided to create separate databases for different auction categories, apparently more as a fire-fighting afterthought than as any innovative measure.

A chapter on `business model innovation in action' discusses the success of Cognizant Technology Solutions. "Unlike most Indian software companies, Cognizant has positioned itself as a US company with offshore development centres in India," notes the book.

On Infosys, Vedpuriswar writes that the company is exceptionally good at managing its finances. Its conservative approach "gives its balance sheet an element of solidity that many Indian companies lack," he comments, posing a challenging benchmark for accountants. Dell is dealt with exhaustively in a separate chapter.

The toughest thing about success is that you've got to keep on being a success, is a quote of Irving Berlin that's true for companies that are chosen as models to draw lessons from.

One wonders though if success is a science. Academic discussions such as of Vedpuriswar may affirm - that if you have the conditions, you get the result, as Oscar Wilde said.

Yet, for businessmen, Al Bernstein may sound more practical - "Success is often the result of taking a misstep in the right direction."

Useful compendium.

Tailpiece

"He is so sycophantic that he has the boss's photo... "

"In his wallet?"

"Plus, as the desktop wallpaper!"

Books2Byte@TheHindu.co.in

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