The Change Function – Pip Coburn
// January 1st, 2007 // 1 Comment » // books, reading, review
‘Why some technologies Take Off & and Others Crash and Burn’ – now thats a good punch line ..that & the claw…found this book at University City Library. The author is founder of an ‘advisory services firm’.
There are couple of phrases that chime incessantly through out the book -
‘ TPPA – Total Perceived Pain of Adoption’ : let me take this first, this is well-rooted idea thats given a new & (i admit) eye catching name. Fundamentally, it takes time, effort & a genuine need (called crisis, in this book) for the users of any technology (both product & service) to switch to a better technology. The measure of the ease of transition is called TPPA by Mr.Coburn; well not bad. Dissect it -the phrase does hold its ground.
Andy Groove’s 10x disruptive change: if you all could remember Andy Groove’s vastly informative book ‘ Only the Paranoid Survive’ he talks about inflection points, how to capitalize & how to be ready for the next disruptive change. This is the industry wide arcane slang for the – killer app ( with a biz model).
Moore’s Law : no i wont insult you & make a fool of myself by stating the law, only stress on the fact that the author uses it here in a more general & actually pretty intuitive way… its the speed of cost reduction in the tech industry. pretty wide. pretty flexible. pretty good.
The book has a general flaw – the best pieces are borrowed!! Coburn quotes the best in the industry from Doug Engelbart to Larry Page & even the most revered Douglas Adam. The insight is to understand that fancy technology even if price is not an issue will never be popular just coz its fancy…the customer is always right ….& innovation goes askew if the users are forgotten. The case studies are concise, just & mingled with some very witty quotes. The analysis of failures & a few ( good) predictions about for the futures & efficacy of some technologies is also commendable. Coburn also gives back to his super-specialist community heralding the need for Tech Gurus & people who are closer to the users. The importance of feedback is illustrated though i really think he could have come up with a better example than salesforce.com.Actually, I had not heard about Reactrix and that was a pretty interesting read.
The takeaway from the book is again easy & simple but what makes it really stick in ones head is the failure stories that leads to these rules ( or rather Qs that one should ask)…..interesting read….coupla hours and you would be through with it… though the list of what all one should also read becomes pretty obvious when going over the chapter starters. A little more effort and I found the coburn ventures readling list, this is quite a collection, & it would be cruel of me to say that Coburn just tried to make precis of the best in these.
