Smart or Lucky?: How Technology Leaders Turn Chance into Success

To be successful in any highly competitive market, you have to be smart, but you also have to be lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. And you have to be smart enough to realize which you are.
Using her insider experiences with hundreds of successful and failed technology companies over three decades, two bubbles, and one burst, Judith Hurwitz shows how the most successful entrepreneurs understand the value of the combination of luck and smarts—and make it work for them. Those who fail are the ones who may be lucky but get complacent, believe they′re the smartest players in the market, or fail to make the changes needed to sustain leadership.
Smart or Lucky? is for business leaders who are interested in learning what it takes to be successful in emerging markets and how to sustain success over the long term. It shows entrepreneurs how to recognize a lucky break and have the foresight to take advantage of it. Brimming with real–world lessons based on well–tested principles, this groundbreaking book explores why lightning doesn’t strike twice; how to supplant market leaders; how to walk away from legacy products; how to avoid lemming–like conformity; why promising technologies fail; how to gain, win, and retain customers; and how floundering companies can come back from  near–death experiences.
Informative and highly detailed, Smart or Lucky? is a key resource for all business leaders and emerging entrepreneurs who want to understand how to stay nimble and succeed in complicated, competitive markets.

Spis treści:
Introduction.
1 Lightning Doesn′t Strike Twice.
What Happens When You′re Lucky but Think You′re Smart.
2 Gaining and Retaining Customers.
How to Get Customers to Adopt and Commit to Technology.
3 You′re Not Dead Yet.
How Some Companies Come Back from Near Death Experiences.
4 The Google Sneak Attack.
Supplanting the Market Leader.
5 Hero Worship.
Gaining Loyalty by Helping Your Customers Find Personal Success.
6 Lessons from the Lemmings Era.
How Out–of–Control Dot–Coms Fueled the Future
7 The Gotcha Syndrome.
Why Promising Technologies Fail.
8 Standing on the Shoulders of the Pioneers.
How Lessons Learned from the Past Pave the Way for New Technology.
9 The Silver Bullet Syndrome.
Beware of Solutions That Appear Too Good to Be True.
10 Splitting Up Is Hard to Do.
When Walking Away from Legacy Products Makes Sense.
Conclusion: Ten Rules for Turning Luck into Sustainable Success.
Notes.
Acknowledgments.
About the Author.
Index.

Nota biograficzna:
Judith Hurwitz is President and CEO of Hurwitz & Associates, a strategy consulting and research firm focused on emerging computing technologies.

Okładka tylna:
To be successful in any highly competitive market, you have to be smart, but you also have to be lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time. And you have to be smart enough to realize which you are.
Using her insider experiences with hundreds of successful and failed technology companies over three decades, two bubbles, and one burst, Judith Hurwitz shows how the most successful entrepreneurs understand the value of the combination of luck and smarts—and make it work for them. Those who fail are the ones who may be lucky but get complacent, believe they′re the smartest players in the market, or fail to make the changes needed to sustain leadership.
Smart or Lucky? is for business leaders who are interested in learning what it takes to be successful in emerging markets and how to sustain success over the long term. It shows entrepreneurs how to recognize a lucky break and have the foresight to take advantage of it. Brimming with real–world lessons based on well–tested principles, this groundbreaking book explores why lightning doesn’t strike twice; how to supplant market leaders; how to walk away from legacy products; how to avoid lemming–like conformity; why promising technologies fail; how to gain, win, and retain customers; and how floundering companies can come back from  near–death experiences.
Informative and highly detailed, Smart or Lucky? is a key resource for all business leaders and emerging entrepreneurs who want to understand how to stay nimble and succeed in complicated, competitive markets.