Principles for Competing on Internet Time

COMPETING ON INTERNET TIME: Lessons from Netscape and Its Battle with Microsoft

by Michael A. Cusumano and David B. Yoffie

Scaling an Organization on Internet Time

* Create a compelling, living vision of products, technologies, and markets that is tightly linked to action.
* Hire and acquire managerial experience, in addition to technical expertise.

* Build the internal resources for a big company, while organizing like a small one.

* Build external relationships to compensate for limited internal resources.

Formulating Judo Strategy on Internet Time

* Move rapidly to uncontested ground in order to avoid head-to-head combat.
* Be flexible and give way when attacked directly by superior force.

* Exploit leverage that uses the weight and strategy of opponents against them.

* Avoid sumo competitions, unless you have the strength to overpower your opponent.

Designing Software on Internet Time

* Design products for multiple markets (platforms) concurrently.
* Design and redesign products to have more modular architectures.

* Design common components that multiple product teams can share.

* Design new products and features for parallel development.

Developing Software on Internet Time

* Adapt development priorities as products, markets, and customers change.
* Allow features to evolve but with frequent synchronizations and periodic stabilizations.

* Automate as much testing as possible.

* Use beta testing, internal product usage, and other measures to improve product and process quality.