For years, technology companies have tried to move up the value chain by promoting big ideas that would drive sales of premium business solutions rather than commodity products and services. It certainly makes sense, and some firms do it pretty well, but it's easier said than done.
Cisco,
according to BusinessWeek, is now trying to move WAY up the value chain, looking to design whole cities, among other "projects" in emerging markets such as Saudi Arabia, Brazil, and Chile.
"Cisco isn't just selling technology. [SVP Paul] Mountford's pitch is that Cisco, more than any other company, can help countries such as Saudi Arabia modernize their economies and become leaders in the Internet Age. The company argues that, by investing in the Internet infrastructure Cisco sells, these governments can better educate their citizens, improve health care, and boost national productivity. They may even be able to create their own tech sectors, giving citizens the opportunity to become well-paid 'knowledge workers like those in Bangalore or Guangdong, China."
The effort, as tech marketing guru Geoffrey Moore explains, "is getting itself designed into the fabric of these countries' economic plans, because Cisco is helping their leaders imagine the future."
Pretty ambitious, to say the least. And extremely challenging, as BusinessWeek also notes, given the economic slowdown, intense competition from Cisco rivals, and the tremendous internal demands it places on Cisco's own experts to actually live up to the hype and deliver the goods.
But I think the time is right. For one thing, industry leaders like Cisco need to be bold in finding new markets to maintain their momentum. For another, as I wrote recently about
IBM's Smarter Planet initiative, attaching ourselves in an authentic way to causes larger than ourselves (or companies) may well be the most effective way to go to market in this time of great change.
What do you think?
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