Unleashing the Killer App: Digital Strategies for Market Dominance [Hardcover]

Larry Downes (Author), Chunka Mui (Author), Nicholas Negroponte (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 1998

When technologies, products, and services converge in radical, creative new ways, a killer app emerges - a new application so powerful that it transforms industries, redefines markets, and annihilates the competition. The steam engine, the cotton gin, and the Model T were all killer apps of their time. Today's killer apps spring from the digital realm: the personal computer, e-mail, and the World Wide Web. Tempted by the promise of such devastating power, companies large and small, from vast multinationals to lean entrepreneurial start-ups, are remaking themselves into organizations that nurture killer apps rather than succumb to them. How is it done? In this groundbreaking new book, strategists Downes and Mui identify the twelve fundamental design principles for building killer apps and offer a progressive guide to transforming your company into a place where killer apps are born. "Unleashing the Killer App" provides the tools, the techniques, and the proof that you need to incubate the killer app within your organization - and perhaps even release one.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (April 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087584801X
• ISBN-13: 978-0875848013
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #951,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

You don't have to look far to see that technology is driving today's economy. Turn on CNBC, open The Economist, scan the Wall Street Journal--you'll find that technology is the prime force creating growth in almost every industry. In Unleashing the Killer App, authors Larry Downes and Chunka Mui look at the dynamics of technological change and its potential to create "killer apps." The authors describe a killer app as a product or service that "wind up displacing unrelated older offerings, destroying and re-creating industries far from their immediate use, and throwing into disarray the complex relationships between business partners, competitors, customers, and regulators of markets." Examples of killer apps throughout history include the Welsh longbow, the pulley, the compass, moveable type, and the Apple Macintosh. And today, with our increasingly networked economy (for example, the World Wide Web), killer apps are appearing all around us.

Downes and Mui argue that the dominant trend behind the proliferation of killer apps is a combination of Moore's Law, which states that the processing power of the CPU doubles every 18 months, and Metcalfe's Law, which observes that the value of a network increases dramatically with each node that's added to it. These two laws are fundamentally changing how businesses interact with each other and with their customers. To exploit these changes, the authors outline 12 points for designing a digital strategy to help you identify and create killer apps in your own organization. The book includes dozens of examples of how killer apps were discovered and implemented.

Unleashing the Killer App provides an excellent framework for rethinking the nature of business in today's wired economy. No matter the size of your company or what it does--health care, publishing, or fast food--there's probably a killer app lurking somewhere. This book will help you find it. Highly recommended. --Harry C. Edwards

From Publishers Weekly

To succeed in businessAwhether you work for a large corporation or own your own companyAyou have to be ready with the "killer application," the next wave of cybertechnology. Owing to the rapidly changing business environment, particularly because of the World Wide Web, managers will inevitably lose out to competition if they're not utilizing the latest technology. Companies must alter their operating philosophy from a strategy intended to provide growth for a two- to three-year period to a constantly evolving approach. "What has changed... are the basic principles underlying how you develop products, operate, and yes, even plan. To succeed digitally, you need to eat, sleep, breathe, and think digitally." The authors have devised a 12-step program designed to be "the beginning of a building code for commercial organizations in cyberspace." Among these strategies: structuring transactions as a joint venture, cannibalizing market share and hiring the children. The authors are serious; they advise executives to listen to young people, including their own children. By watching children play with video games or computers, executives can learn more about their products than if they tried to perform the same tasks. The authors, affiliated with Diamond Technology Partners, an executive learning forum, provide various examples of companies that have successfully incorporated these strategies, including AOL, McDonald's and Lotus Notes. With an insightful foreword by Nicholas Negroponte, this book presents a convincing case for a radical shift in current business strategies.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 243 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press (April 22, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 087584801X
• ISBN-13: 978-0875848013
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (154 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #951,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Life and Death in the Digital Marketplace December 28, 1999

By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The authors define a "killer application" as "a new good or service that establishes an entirely new category and, by being first, dominates it, returning several hundred percent on the initial investment." As they explain, the primary forces at work in spawning today's "killer apps" are both technological and economic in nature. "The technology we are concerned with is the transformation of information into digital form, where it can be manipulated by computers and transmitted by networks." Digital strategies are needed to achieve market dominance. They suggest several, each worthy of careful consideration. For me, this book has two great values: It helps us to understand what a "killer app" is and can accomplish; also, for those lacking a "killer app" and without much chance of possessing one, it suggests how to increase and enhance the appeal of what one does have, such as it is. Given a choice, of course, anyone would prefer to have a "killer app" when proceeding into an uncertain future. Lacking one, there are still opportunities to recognize...and to pursue. Most companies will not dominate but can survive if committed to the appropriate strategies. For them, this book could well be the difference between life and death.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The ROI of Innovation March 15, 2002

By Robert Morris HALL OF FAMETOP 100 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

I've just re-read this book and think more highly of it now than I did previously. Larry Downes & Chunka Mui define a "killer application" as "a new good or service that establishes an entirely new category and, by being first, dominates it, returning several hundred percent on the initial investment." As they explain, the primary forces at work in spawning today's "killer apps" are both technological and economic in nature. "The technology we are concerned with is the transformation of information into digital form, where it can be manipulated by computers and transmitted by networks." Digital strategies are needed to achieve market dominance.

The co-authors divide their book into three parts: Digital Strategy, Designing the Killer App, and Unleashing the Killer App. In Part I, there is a brief discussion of one "killer app" in the Middle Ages, the stirrup, which added mounted cavalry to the battle equation. The "lowly stirrup" played a singular role in rearranging the political, social, and economic structure of medieval Europe.

In The Lever of Riches, Joel Mokyr identifies countless other "killer apps" throughout history such as paved streets and sewerage disposal; the lever, wedge, and screw; the heavy plow and three-field system; the weight-driven mechanical clock; spectacles; the printing press; the steam engine; the telegraph; the bicycle; ...each of which also had a truly profound impact.

To repeat, Larry Downes & Chunka Mui concern themselves with the technology of transforming information into digital form. Thus in Part I, they examine the "killer app", explain what they call "the new economics", and then shift their attention to the nature of a digital strategy.... They dully acknowledge the disruptive power of "killer apps" which can suddenly destroy the equilibrium of what appeared to be stable systems of commerce and government. For them, business change now originates with digital technology; more specifically, with "killer apps." Strategies are needed to manage (to the extent possible) their impact to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. These strategies must accommodate three new forces: digitization, globalization, and deregulation. The "dirty little secret" to which Gary Hamel has referred is that the strategy industry "doesn't have any theory of strategy creation." The success of any digital strategy may well be the result of what Hamel calls "lucky foresight." Downes & Mui seem to agree with Hamel while offering, in Part II, what they refer to as "a few rules of thumb." They suggest three stages of "killer app" design and carefully explain each. They identify 12 specific principles on which to base the design process. In Part III, they shift their attention to "Unleashing the Killer App" and correctly stress the importance of communication, one which "speaks with the language of ideas, scenarios, options, and what-ifs."

In Chapter 7, the reader's attention is directed to two major corporations, McDonald's and VEBA AG, which illustrate digital strategy in practice. These are, in effect, mini-case studies. It is important to point out, however, that effective digital strategies are not the sole province of major corporations such as these. A "killer app" can quickly increase or reduce the size of any company. Consider the fact that a single dry goods store in Kemmerer (Wyoming) can become the J.C. Penney Company which, in turn, now struggles (with mixed results) to compete successfully with a company whose own history can be traced back to the Walton 5&10 in Bentonville (Arkansas). Downes & Mui assert that "Developing digital strategy...requires components of both problem-pull and technology-push...operating together in a well-functioning organization [in which] the process becomes not only circular but indistinguishable...in a pragmatic, indeed opportunistic, response to the new digital environment."

In the final chapter of their brilliant analysis, Downes & Mui suggest that cyberspace "is fueled by free computing power and free bandwidth...and free software." Consequently, "the social conditions that resulted are raw, and the nature of the business climate, by necessity, less developed." As with The Golden Rule dry goods store (in 1902) and then the Walton 5&10 (in 1950), today's companies must seek out new areas of opportunity and start doing business there. "Those who make the transformation by developing a digital strategy are choosing to engage the frontier on its own terms, just as their counterparts from Europe did in settling the New World."

Larry Downes & Chunka Mui have outlined the process of digital strategy, explained the twelve design principles, and described the experiences of organizations that are transforming themselves so that they can unleash "killer apps." Which companies will conquer the "frontier", whatever and wherever it may be? Which companies will not? In the Digital Marketplace, we won't have to wait very long for the answers. Probably in what seems to be about five minutes. Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point. Read more ›

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

1.0 out of 5 stars 12 principles, so vague as to be useless September 23, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

I was disappointed. The 12 principles were so vague as to be useless. As a web developer, every time I read these so-called strategy books I'm so disappointed. They're all written the same way -- the author makes some kind of statement that they think is profound, like "Treat your customers as a market segment of 1" then they write about one or two companies they've found that supposedly follow this statement. Well guess what, for every "principle" you can find a company that violates it and is wildly successful. For example, Microsoft doesn't treat it's customers as a "market segment of 1" and it's kicking *ss. I can easily find examples of successful web companies that don't follow the authors' principles, which leaves me wondering about how serious to take them.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars How many buzzwords can you fit in a paragraph July 5, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Hardcover

If you ever want to read a book that attempts to use every technology buzzword in existance, this is the one. This book has some interesting examples of companies that are gaining a competitive advantage using technology, but the author's try to be a little too "cute" with their knowledge of industry buzzwords. Give only a cursory reading of part 1 or just skip it and go right to part 2 and 3.

One thing that really annoyed me thoughout the book was the author's attempts to create then overuse something called Metcalf's Law and Moore's Law out of a couple of common sense observations. In each chapter, the authors constantly refered back to Metcalf's Law and Moore's Law as if these "laws" are on the same plateau as some created by Einstein. Both Metcalf and Moore are intellegent, excellent inventors, and astute businessmen, but I would never try to create some "law" out of a couple of common sense observations. After reading this book, I envision the authors having statues of Metcalf and Moore in their offices that they kneel in front of daily for inspiration.

My opinion, don't spend your own money on this book. Borrow it or get your company to pay for it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Strategy Book March 28, 2001

By Vithal Kulkarni

Format:Paperback

My purpose for choosing this book is two-fold. Firstly, it appears on the reading list for the E-commerce course of my MBA/MSE Program at San Jose State University in California. Secondly, the words "Killer Apps" caught my attention because it is apps like these (recall what Lotus 1-2-3 did to the business usage of computers) that give technology its future direction.

Killer Apps are not just a recent digital age phenomenon. They have manifested in past in the form of inventions like arch, pulleys, the steam engine, lightbulbs; and have impacted the society in a huge way. The authors in this book have done a fantastic job of describing the characteristics of true killer apps and have aptly illustrated the degree of impact they can have on the society.

Given the breakneck pace of revolution in technology, the chance of killer apps springing up from previously unknown corners has increased manifold. This book is a must read not only for those newbies starting out their first venture, but also for those seasoned and successful entrepreneurs who wish to reap further benefits by keeping an open-mind in recognizing these killer apps as they evolve.

The 12 principles outlined for designing killer apps really make one think, and, their association with real life examples could not have been more appropriate. Although this book mentions technology as the harbinger for killer apps, it leans more towards strategy than technology itself. So if you are looking for some cool new technology it may not be the best place.

Although a slightly old book, it was, is, and will be very thought provoking because it addresses some fundamental aspects of developing a winning business strategy. The only place where the book falls short is when it refers to some examples like Pointcast as the killer app.... Although conceptually Pointcast was revolutionary, it did not turn out to be quite "the" killer app. So, some recent time examples may have to be taken with a grain of salt.

The book lays out a strong foundation about what killer apps are and then develops strategies for designing and launching killer apps. This book is for strategists who would want to pick up the right mix of strategies for their own venture. Read more ›