Page 83 - The Resilient Organization

70 Part Two: Step 1. Managing the Consequences of Past Performance

Thus began a series of dizzying changes for the Sun Ray. Months after
the product’s launch, a new leader took over the group. Over the next five
years, the Sun Ray group would have six executive sponsors and four vice
presidents in charge of the product. Turnover in the Sun Ray group
skyrocketed, particularly in marketing, because it was perceived as an
“engineering-led” team.
As the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, Sun began to experience its first
downsizing in company history. Through a series of companywide layoffs,
the Sun Ray group, which had grown to be a grossly inefficient 250-person
group, was whittled down to be a mere 22-person group. Only Sun’s inter-
nal IT group saved the product from being canceled completely, which it
was able to do because the Sun Ray had become the de facto desktop with
Sun employees over the course of its three-year history.
Eventually, a shell of its former self and with only one of the original
engineers remaining, the Sun Ray group moved to Sun’s software division.
There it finally found the supporting products to enable its bundling as a
desktop to customers. Java Enterprise System, complete with the Sun Ray
technology, debuted in 2003, and it sparked a new wave of optimism for
the Sun Ray both internally and with customers. Sun Ray sales continue
today, though nowhere near their initial, optimistic projections.
Sadly for the Sun Ray, the JavaStation prevented it from gaining a fair
playing field.

MISSED EARLY WARNING SIGNALS FOR INNOVATION
TRAUMA WITH THE SUN RAY

This case study suggests that attention should be paid to the conditions
under which innovation is likely to cause trauma. The Sun Ray example
points to three early warning signals that were missed.

Trauma Breeds Cynicism

The Silicon Valley, where Sun Microsystems was founded and still has its
headquarters, has been credited for its friendliness to “fail-often” culture;
yet there are indications that such entrepreneurial failures are nevertheless