A speculative fable ?.........or is it.....?

Time: 11:03 AM (3 minutes late)

Place: A Corporate Boardroom

In Attendance: One parent CEO (Fortune 500 Company) and 4 division CEO's and support people.

Called to order, agenda presented then unceremoniously torn in two and dumped in the waste basket. Stunned faces, hands nervously clasp, silence follows as the parent CEO (PCEO) strides around the table, a nervous and pensive look confronting his face.

PCEO-I have brought you here today not to discuss quarterlies nor how things are sustaining in your fields of operation. I have brought you here in complete secrecy, and have asked you to sign a specifc NDA regarding this meeting and its contents. In front of you now, is the information file for a competitor. A company you no doubt have never heard of, and yet could one day grow many times larger than us.

An uneasy murmur arises and surrounds the board room table. A great Teak wood piece which centers a large carpeted room with panel wood and curious art pieces. The room, rather high up in a tower, has floor to ceiling windows that imply and provide a majestic view and sense of grandeur.

PCEO-Open your folders please. On the left hand side you will see a short, concise biography of the start up in question. On the left hand side, several pages of press releases, public domain information and stock chart. Familiarize yourselves with it while I give you a quick overview of the situation.

The sound of rustling papers, interspersed with quiet gasps, and heads shaking sometimes in unison as the material is scanned.

PCEO-As you all know....Our company was started over 60 years ago by 2 visionaries. We quickly becme a market leader in the technology, with state the art design and materiials. We grew from a 2 million dollar personal investment into a 700 billion dollar company with 4 divisions and an R and D budget at over 50 billion every year. We all know that the competition in this theater of operation is heinous, so every penny, every decision, every sale is vitally important to us.

Heads nod, quiet whispers of "yes" and "thats correct" and other single superlatives sneak throught the thickened air. A hand raises for a question and is politely told that there will be a time for questions. But not yet.

PCEO-Yet with all those accomplishments, and yet with a market leadership position every year for the last 50-60 standing us in good stead. Insofar as to where one day we were always more than a year away from a competitors product rendering our latest edition to obsolescence. We now stand before a tiny giant that could well render us into history should we not make the correct choices here. What I want from you, our division leaders, our executive board members and I might add, a world class braintrust, is a strategy to combat this potential disruptive, destructive leviathon in the making.

A hand raises....

PCEO-Yes, a question ?

DCEO1-I have about 15 questions. However, before I get to the more pertinent questions, I have to state, after reading the files contents, which in themselves seem unbelievable. That all these claims seem so unreal, too unproven, your talking here nothing less than a hard right hand turn in an industry thats been on the straight and narrow virtually since inception. So my initial questions are many. Is this proven ? Where did they come from ? Whats the timeline ? How does it effect us ? If at all.

PCEO-We have few reliable answers at the moment. Let me try to giive what we have learned thats not inside your information file. The technology has been proven in the lab and to our best knowledge is being perfected by a designer and a fabricator. Its actually been in the works at a scholastic research level for the last 30 years. We have no idea of the timeline but we are assuming they are feverishly working to get it into the hands of manufacturers and then to market at breakneck speed. With respect to your last question, thats the reason you are here. We think 3-5 years down the road.....Its going to effect us, how much we are not sure as yet, the technical department has been looking at it with sales and marketing and I can say that best and worst case sceneario have a very narrow range.

DCEO2-It says or claims an 80-90% savings in power consumption. Thats a wild claim at best. Besides who needs it with better battery technology ?

DCEO3-It also claims multiple if not exponential improvment in processing speeds, that like the power savings claim seem very....well....unreal.....and a long ways away.

DCEO4-This can't be factual. Like the statement about the new material being a better conductor. R and D tried for several years to make that happen and they said it was impossible....that the physics were wrong.....that the flow of information was warped. I don't think theres anything here to be alarmed about.

DCEO2-Way out there.

DCEO3-Something very wrong here to make baseless claims like these.

DCEO1-I would not call them baseless, in fact I would be concerned that even if one or two were attainable then where would it lead from there ?

DCEO4-Still nothing to worry about, its years away from marketibility, and thats if it works.

PCEO-Our R and D people have recently looked at the patents filed and are not that confident about it being said years away. In fact a report completed last week and brought to me is what started the whole process. We could be in serious strategic trouble.

DCEO2-Ok so what can we do ? No point being in panic mode if its that speculative.

DCEO3-I say with the information at hand....we wait. None of this is proven. Its still heresay at this point. If it ever works at all.

DCEO4-This is laughable, we are number one and have always been and always will be. We get assaulted daily with these claims and we toss them to the side like an old tire.

PCEO-We still need a strategy, and I repeat......mainly due to the fact that even if one or two of the calims are functional it could hammer our bottom line, ROI and effect every other line item on our balance sheet and cash flow. If the other features they claim work as well, I don't have to tell you what it would do to us.

DCEO4-Well then keep them under surveillance, when its time to move, we can move.

DCEO1-Thats where we fail, by the time we need to move, its too late.

PCEO-I want you all to make this a top priority and meet back here in the summer so we can sit with the board and complete a unified strategy.

DCEO1-Thats 6 months away, what do we have in the meantime as an opening salvo should that be required ?

PCEO-Not as yet.....I think they are still 3-5 years away from a working prototype, judging by the press releases, and in conversation with our lab guys, who seem to think the same. The leads from all our labs have agreed on the time frame. New materials like this require much greater attention that our standby product. We have 3 new versions in the can for relase anyway so again........we think we are at least 3-5 years ahead...........Any further questions ?

Heads nod no and file folders are closed and chairs begin to move away from the table. A few smiles and soft laughs are rendered along with a disbelieving air and the wonder of who would have the audacity to even think they could take market share from the world leader. As they ready to leave the room one last comment is ventured forth.

DCEO4-What consumers want is more apps, more games, not power savings or processing speed, or even 3D pictures ! How stupid are these guys ? Assuming that we, the worlds biggest and best, would even take them seriously. Let alone allow them to take market share from us.

MORAL OF THE STORY

We should never assume, it will make an a-- out of you and me !

Bring it on world......its 2015.....and we're about to crush your assumptions.