Page 221 - How Cloud Computing Is Transforming Business and Why You Cant Afford to Be Left Behind

C A L C ULATING THE FUTURE

use the cloud to design a new process or product without any-
one realizing it—a kind of cloud skunk works. Top manage-
ment will have to decide whether such behavior gets rewarded
or punished, but when it comes to disruptive change, the more
direct experimentation with a disruptive wave, the better. In all
likelihood, after his innovation is adopted, the line-of-business

manager will be admonished to stick to the proven methods
of the company. If he keeps his nerve, exercises his ability to
invoke cloud computing again, and succeeds a second time,
narrowly beating out the competition, he will go from dog to
hero. Through frequent iterations of the software features on
the new product, the company pulls ahead. The cost of ex-
perimentation in the cloud will be slight compared to the cost

of unfettered competition emerging in a field that you know
nothing about.

“Programmatic Control” Means That
the Customer Takes Charge

We emphasized the potential of small firms using the cloud for
advanced design because designing a product in advance of a

market has usually been impossible in the past. The design
process is too expensive to be attempted willy-nilly without an
identifiable market. The scenarios given previously postulate
that design might shift out of the conventional sequence in
producing products in a cloud disruption. Once a market is
identified and customers are consulted, design on expensive
in-house CAD/CAM systems usually follows. But a cloud could

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