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Secrets of Software Success: Management Insights from 100 Software Firms Around the World
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by Cyriac R. Roeding, Gert Purkert, Sandro K. Kindner, and Ralph Muller
Sales Rank: 562778
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List Price: $27.50
$20.08
At Amazon
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Hardcover: 312 pages
Publisher: Harvard Business School Press October 1999
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1578511054
ISBN-13: 978-1578511051
Product Dimensions:
9.3 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Product Review
In Secrets of Software Success, Detlev Hoch, with Cyriac Roeding, Gert Purkert, and Sandro Lindner, look at what's driving the prosperity of the world's best software companies and what's responsible for the failure of others. The authors, who are consultants with McKinsey & Co. in Germany, visited nearly 100 software firms around the globe and conducted 450 in-depth interviews with executives. The result is a book loaded with sharp insights and colorful anecdotes from leaders of companies such as Microsoft Germany, Keane Inc., BroadVision, Andersen Consulting, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, and Navision in Denmark. "The opportunities for success in this industry remain strong," they conclude. "But the price of change brings new challenges and uncertainties. Neglecting these challenges could be a deadly mistake: Falling behind in the software industry, after all, almost certainly means failure."
In separate chapters, the authors examine the importance of leadership, the keys to developing and marketing software, winning the war for software talent, cementing partnerships for growth, and the shape of the future of this rapidly changing industry. Some of their findings are contrary to common belief. For example, software developers' and managers' disdain for rigid procedures is well known, but what the authors find is that morale and creativity actually rise with tighter rules that create better products and cut development time. Other conclusions are reinforcing; for example, the most successful companies team up with four times as many other firms as the less successful ones. Written in a lively, conversational style, Secrets of Software Success should be on the bookshelf of anyone connected to the software business. --Dan Ring
From Booklist
Researchers and theoreticians no longer look to the factory floor or the assembly line for management models. Instead, they have turned to such companies as Microsoft, Netscape, and Yahoo to gain new understanding of how organizations work most effectively and how employees can be most productive. Such recent books as Karen Southwick's Silicon Gold Rush: The Next Generation of High-Tech Stars Rewrites the Rules of Business (1999) and Rama Dev Jager and Rafael Ortiz's In the Company of Giants: Candid Conversations with the Visionaries of Cyberspace (1997) profile software companies to show how business and management have been transformed. Now four consultants working for McKinsey and Co. in Germany present the results of a comprehensive survey of 100 software companies and 450 executives from around the world that identify the industry's "best practices." The authors distinguish three industry segments (mass-market packaged software, enterprise solutions software, and professional software services) and outline challenges and appropriate responses within each. David Rouse
Customer Reviews & Comments
For such a critical area of business there are very few good books written on the software industry. 'Secrets' gives some annecdotal insights, a decent point-of-view, but is by no means a great overview of the industry. It very much feels like this book was thrown together by a team and lacked editorial or conceptual focus. Nonetheless, it deserves a relative four stars because there is nothing else better (if you know of something, please email me antonow@yahoo.com.
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Secrets of Software Success: Management Insights from 100 Software Firms Around the World
List Price: $27.50
Available from Amazon
Price: $20.08
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