Original Sender : Ari <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------- http://www.forbes.com/asap/99/0405/065a.htm Marketing expertise was essential on the Internet and elsewhere, as firms invented new ways of getting customers to buy. Apple's 10-minutes-and-you're-on-the-Internet claim made the iMac the best-selling computer of the year, helping bring the firm back from the brink to #4 among hardware entries. Gateway (#3) proved that, if nothing else, its managers aren't afraid to try something new: They opened inventory-less stores where retail customers could meet with salespeople to design their own computer systems. It's a long shot-but most high tech successes are. Gateway also started leasing PCs to its customers in '98.Human capital is, of course, essential to success in high tech. Technology companies often send their most important assets home every night (except when they sleep in their cubicles). Can a hot company retain the loyalty of the world's most creative designers and programmers? J.D. Edwards (#40 in software) can: The ERP company has a reputation for keeping its people "forever." One way to get people to come in the first place is to lure them with lucre. According to cofounder Dr. Henry Samueli, Broadcom (#1 in semiconductors) has made some 350 of its 450 employees paper millionaires. Alliances and partnerships are often the quickest way to hold a commanding market share of a new or shifting market. Internet Security Systems (ISS) (#29 among software firms) makes security software that competes with products from Cisco Systems (#1 among networking companies); but while Cisco builds its own networking equipment, ISS holds its own through its agreements with Cisco's manufacturing rivals. Citrix Systems' (#1 in software) partnership with Microsoft protects its leadership status in the market for server-based computing software. And consider Yahoo (#1 among Internet firms): "Yahoo has shown us that you don't need to own anything to succeed in e-business," says Kevin Landis, manager of the Technology Leaders Fund. "You partner instead." Finally, good intentions and better prospects aren't enough to make the list. Ultimately we want to see the same thing everybody else does: killer growth. Companies like @Home Network (#10 among Internet firms; last year's revenues of $48 million are expected to jump to $2.2 billion by 2002), Citrix (100% revenue growth in '98), and Global TeleSystems (#6 in telecommunications; 319% '98 revenue growth) set the standard here. A side note: More than half the firms on this year's list and four out of the seven category winners are from places other than Silicon Valley. Blame it, along with much else, on the Internet's ability to spread power and wealth around. While you ponder the companies that are on this list, spare a thought for the firms that aren't. Some that otherwise would have made the cut were bought by or merged with other dynamic companies before our January 31 cutoff: Yahoo bought GeoCities; @Home bought Excite; Vodafone merged with AirTouch; Lucent bought Ascend. Others got beat by the three Cs: circumstances, competition, and-once again-change. The year ahead may be easier. But don't count on it. You can bet none of the companies on the list are. They know that markets will change and even disappear, new competitors will emerge, alliances will shift, and technologies will blow up. That said, we're convinced the companies on this year's "Dynamic 100" list are capable of resisting and even exploiting most of the twists and turns that will come their way in 1999. �Clint Willis ---------------------------------------------------------------- Compu-Mania MailingList is provided by PT Centrin Utama Maintained by : [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Post a msg : Send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To Unsubscribe : Mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] BODY : unsubscribe Compu-Mania For more information, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "HELP" in the BODY of your mail (without quote). ----------------------------------------------------------------
