Managing high-tech product cycles
针对高科技企业产品周期短、技术变化快的特点，提出一种双组合组织设计，让CEO将战略家组合与机会组合匹配，以加速产品开发和资源再分配。
Executive Overview High-technology companies need an organizational design that enables rapid development and implementation of strategies in an environment of accelerated technological change, short product life cycles, and global competition. Executives should not just react to change but create changes that give a competitive advantage. In a dynamic, high-tech environment, product development needs to be a continuous process in which products move along an assembly line of marketing functions. Criteria for terminating a product's life cycle are established before the product is introduced, to assure that resources are rapidly reallocated to better opportunities. To meet these organizational needs a double-portfolio organizational design is proposed in which the CEO matches a portfolio of strategists to a portfolio of opportunities. While the design may seem radical, it is a logical extension of present theory and practice which include the concepts of the product-life cycle and the product portfolio matrix. The four cells of the proposed design include entrepreneurs, growth strategists, economists, and recyclists. The literature review shows that the proposed organizational design is consistent with authors who conclude that the development and survival of high-tech companies depend on their ability to integrate technology and market opportunities. The design also supports the argument that in some cases the concept of a manager-generalist is dead because different skills are needed for rapid development of strategies at critical points in a product's short life cycle. The need for transformational leadership is reflected in the proposed design, with many examples from the microcomputer industry. The author disagrees, however, with those who see the need for transformational leadership only when a company reaches a crisis, such as the loss of world competitive leadership or bankruptcy. Executives should create states of nonequilibrium as a process for organizational self-renewal and creativity. Equilibrium is viewed as a state of stagnation.