Software company's technical strategy
Zhang Yinqin, Dean of the Microsoft Asian Institute
For high-tech companies, especially software companies, technology is always one of the key factors of the development of left and right enterprises. From the historical development of the IT industry over the past few decades, companies that can grow in competition, and maintain long-term growth, are often focused on technological innovation, and have large-scale investment on basic research projects. This is because today's software market is in fact is the technical lead or by technology-driven market. Who can achieve technical advantages, who can master more core technologies and industry standards, who can develop and market in product development and market Promoting a leader, it is possible to truly have a strong growth in a certain field or some areas.
In this sense, a successful software company should have clear technical vision goals and long-term technology development plans, which is what we usually say technical strategy. Enterprise decision makers must have enough courage and patience, carry out technical reserves and basic research work in the enterprise. Perhaps, institutions such as research institutes and laboratory cannot bring short-term benefits to companies, but perfect, stable, and far-sighted technical strategies can always help companies quickly accumulate real competitive advantages and development potential, always It is guaranteed that the competitiveness of the company has increased steadily within a considerable period of time.
Research Institute is a technical strategy
Microsoft Institute often appeared in Microsoft's role in the technical strategic think tank, making a plan for the development of the company's technical strategy, and puts forward constructive opinions on the development of the company. Summary, this work content mainly includes the following points:
Tongye's trend (Understand What's Going ON)
The students' scholars and researchers should have a clear understanding and grasp of technical development, product and market evolution, and have a clear understanding of the development trend of technology. Doing research cannot only pay attention to algorithm or theory, it is necessary to pay attention to the development law of the industry, summarize and summarize the evolution of market and products at higher levels.
Predict What Will Happen
For future predictions are an important basis for the company's development of technological development planning and identifying research. Although IT World is different, it is developing rapidly, but we still have to speculate what the world will look like after three or five years, so that we can reserve technical resources in the future, competitive strength for future markets.
Defineur Research Directions
The research institute should design blueprints for the company's technology development according to their own summary of industrial laws and forecasts of market prospects, and determine the specific research direction. The research direction identified by the Research Institute should be the direction that best improves the company's technical strength and is most beneficial to the company's technology accumulation.
Advise the Company
As the most important thinking group in the company's technical field, the Research Institute usually makes a consultation with the company's decision-making. For example, to the company provides reports on technological development trends, helping the company summarize user needs, analyze the competition in the market, and put forward guidance options for the company's strategic and policy development.
Contact public (Communicate to the public)
Like other research institutions, research institutes should always maintain relationships with the public, pay attention to establish close contacts with government, media, academia, and educational institutions through various channels, and timely, in a timely man in technology strategy. Good public relations can not only help the research institute smoothly work, but also help the company have won the most wide support at the strategic level.
Promote the company
After the strategic direction and technical goals, the Research Institute should take a very important mission to take the initiative: to make recommendations for the company's business and development. The research institute gathered a large number of technical experts and industry elites, and there were deep accumulation and extensive experience in many frontier fields. If the study of the research institute is only closed in the ivory tower, its work results have no lightweight So, the company will waste in the strategic research and development. Therefore, from the company's technical status, from the basic environment of market competition, the most advanced technical concept and the most authoritative expert opinion are closely integrated with the company's management management, providing strategic and tactical guidance for the company's decision-making level or Support, this is one of the most direct and effective value of the research institute. As a relatively independent R & D institution in the company, how do the research institutes have effectively communicated with relevant personnel within the company, how to convey the experts and opinions to enterprise employees? This is actually related to the problem of internal information communication and knowledge sharing. Typically, there are many ways to communicate internal communication. In Microsoft, comparing common methods include:
l Use email delivery information; take advantage of "Whiteboard Culture" in Microsoft, gain knowledge in the "Brainstorming" discussion; write technical support at any time.
l In a certain technical direction, development, future trends, a systematic introduction and in-depth analysis, and write it into a technical white paper for company decision-making and related art reference.
L Bill Gates' "Thinking Week": This is Microsoft's characteristics. Mr. Bill Gates will take a while each year, think about the problem in the way "closed". Before "Thinking Week", Gates will ask all departments, especially the employees of the Institute to provide a large number of reading materials and technical recommendations. In "Thinking Week", Gates usually work is to bury his head, write down his own annotations, then quietly think, and finally make a significant impact on the company's strategy. Now in Microsoft, except for Bill Gates, Microsoft CEOs and vice presidents of important products such as Windows and Office will have such a "thinking week".
L Bill Gates Summary: Every time, Bill Gates will convene relevant personnel, for a certain technical direction - sometimes a product, sometimes a specific technology - for hours or even A longer time summary and discussion. There are not many people participating in each meeting, up to 450 people are experts in the product or technical field. The meeting generally has to open three or four days, and the site is often selected in the secluded suburbs. When meeting, everyone can propose their own opinions and suggestions on the development of the company in this area. Everyone can learn a lot at the meeting. In Microsoft, if anyone can participate in the summary of Bill Gates, it means that his work has been recognized by the company, or caught the company's high level of concern. The Microsoft Asian Institute has two or three chances each year. Every time we tried to use this opportunity to pass the information we believe to Gates, I hope that our recommendations about the technical strategy can be recognized and adopted by Mr. Gates. .
Therefore, the Research Institute is the company's thinking, which needs to contribute to the accumulation of its research and knowledge, and share it with you. At the same time, the Research Institute also directly affects the idea of the company's decision-making layer, affecting the company's technical strategy. The Research Institute only truly became a leader in the company's technical idea, in order to give full play to the knowledge advantage of the Research Institute, contributing to the development of the company's technical strategy and the company's long-term development.
Research Institute is the birthplace of research results
Basic research nature
The research institute is the basic research department within the company. The "basic research" here refers not only to the in-depth research of core technology, but it also represents the tracking of cutting-edge technology and early research on technology development trends. Therefore, Basic Research and the Applied Research, which are often said, is a completely different types of work. The application research and development means that customers need some kind of product with certain features, such as Word software users want to have a better syntax check tool, or a more flexible, more easier input method - - This class is based on customer-specific needs, with clear and specific research objectives, and time-limited research and development work is the application research and development. Once the application research and development, the product with new features can be released to the market; in turn, once the application research has failed, we only postpone the needs of our customers in the next version.
In contrast, basic research work is often the case: researchers envisage future calculation methods and user habits, boldly conceive a leading demand, and prepare some cutting-edge technology for satisfying this need. Such research usually does not have a specific product release goal, and there is no harsh time limit. Researchers can set a long period of time and a relatively flexible stage target according to their own work habits, and try to play the imagination and creativity in the study, break through the framework or 窠 窠 of the existing technical model, and strive to develop A new generation of technology or products.
In essence, basic research is not done in today's market and products. Basic research should recognize the trend of technology development and prepare for future markets.
Basic research is essentially a long-term investment, and its purpose is not for short-term market income. The company should look at basic research work from a strategic perspective, and it should be based on the future market and future customers.
Why do you have basic research?
In terms of a metaphor of an image, it is actually bought "insurance" for the company. Under normal circumstances, a global company is well-operated, capital and technical strength, usually don't have to worry about market changes in the short term. In two or three years, the company is guaranteed. However, from the perspective of long-term development, the company must prepare for the future of the next five to ten years. The purpose of this preparation is to ensure the company's long-term market income, essentially the company's fundamental research investment as a value "insurance" purchased. Of course, basic research This type of "insurance" is high risk, high returns. Although the company needs to invest many expenses in basic research, once the results of basic research have emerged, the company can easily maintain healthy and stable growth momentum, and thus obtain considerable benefits.
Take Microsoft, Microsoft has long very much attention to basic research work, the effect of basic research is also very significant in Microsoft. At present, Microsoft has successfully obtained products in the market, and most of its core technologies are based on the development of basic research results before five years or even ten years ago. In the work content of the Microsoft Research Institute, the most important part is to continuously develop core technology to ensure that Microsoft can maintain a leading position in the market after a few years.
Research Institute is the incubator of core technology
Development company's core technology
Research on core technology development can be understood from four aspects:
1. The Institute should help the company build a patent bank in the relevant fields, with a large number of patent results representing the international advanced level.
2. The international technical standards affect international technical standards through high level research work. Research Institutes are not only to understand and track international standards, but also participate in standard development processes and impact it. If the international technical standard uses your patent, you will grow forward along the direction you define, your products and technology can really maintain the leading position in the industry. Therefore, technical standards are one thing that research institutes must give full importance.
3. Research Institutes have improved the features and functions of existing products, and use the most advanced technical armed company developed by the Institute to maintain the lead in technology in technology. 4. More importantly, the Research Institute must strive to become a new product of new products, to combine the latest technology development trends, design technology leading new products for the company. For example, the technology used by Windows CE is that the research institute has proposed and successfully developed prior to 8 years. The frontier technology research and development of the year has now successfully converted into a commercial excellent product.
Play the influence of core technology
After mastering the core technology, we need to give full play to the influence of core technology and create value for the company. This actually requires our research and development of core technology to the company's strategic deployment and product planning, the main practices include:
1. We must understand the company's business and technical planning, the core staff of the Research Institute is best to participate in the development plan of the company, so that between the research institutes and the company will be easier to communicate.
2. The Institute must be good at communicating his own views and strategic ideas, and find ways to tell the boss, colleagues or group members. It is necessary to try to strive to support the support of various departments in the company, including people, time, funds, etc.
3. Research Institute's researchers should pay attention to whether their research work is practical, whether it can be successfully converted to a product when appropriate.
4. Research Institute should establish a mechanism that is effective and can quickly transform the research results into a product. The most important factor in the room is to adopt a variety of communication methods, and strive for the recognition of the company's research direction. If the other departments of the company are unfamiliar or do not agree with the research direction of the Institute, the research results of the Research Institute are difficult to translate into practical technologies and products.
The means of technical communication has many kinds, including the common communication methods such as email, technical airs, thinking circumstances, including Microsoft's unique "Techfest". The technical annual will hold two days a year, and we will put the results of the research institutions to make a complete display on the company. There are many people in the product sector and sales department to see our latest research progress.
In addition, there are still some specific mechanisms in the research institute. For example, we have a special new technology development group (Centralized Advanced Technology), there are more than 20 people, their work is to introduce research achievements to the product department, and then Feedback the requirements of the product department to the Research Institute, this group is quite important, directly determines the transformation of research results to the product.
There is also a "Special Projects" system: If we feel that a research direction is important, there is no product in the company to apply this technology, and no product department can keep this technology with us. Communication, then, we will listed this project as "special project", that is, hoping to pass our research, so that it can become a new product in the future, and evolve a new product department.
