Trolltech (Norway) - Will Cenapio Steal Christmas?

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Trolltech (Norway) - Will Cenapio Steal Christmas?

• Brett OGrady, Thomas Wall, Sean Beniston, Paula
  Sewter

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Agenda

• Company Overview
• Key Individuals
• Timeline
• Perceived Management Problems/Issues
• Alternatives
• Recommendation
• Where is Trolltech today?

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Trolltech - Company Overview

• Code Less. Create More. Deploy Everywhere.

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Cenapio Project - Key Individuals

• Eirik Chambe-Eng - President and Co-founder of
  Trolltech
• Haavard Nord - CEO and Co-founder of Trolltech
• Dr. Ogawa - The Director General Manager of
  Cenapios Embedded Products Division.

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Timeline

• 1994 - Trolltech founded in Oslo, Norway
• 1996 - First Sale of Qt
• 1998 - Created KDE Free Qt Foundation
• 1998 - Released Qt/X11 under the QPL
• 1998 - Qt 2 Released
• 1999 - Opened Australian Office

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Timeline - Continued

• 1999 - Received First-Round Funding of 2.4
  million for 10 of the Company
• 2000 - Released Qt/Embedded
• 2000 - Opened U.S. Office
• 2001 - Trolltech Approached by Linaware to
  Collaborate on Cenapio Project

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Management Problems and Issues

• Scandinavian style management versus the push to
  get the Cenapio PDA to market.
• The branding conflict - Cenapio and Linaware were
  not providing Trolltech with adequate recognition
  for Qtopia.
• Communication problems - technical interaction
  channeled through Linaware gave rise to
  frustration and misunderstandings.

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Management Problems and Issues

• Fatigue - Trolltech employees burning out.
• A number of employees had requested to be
  transferred off of the Cenapio project.
• The Christmas holiday dilemma - cancel the 10-day
  holiday period?
• The inherent issues involved with partnering
  between different sized organizations in diverse
  national settings

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Alternative 1

• 1. Trolltech should abandon the Cenapio project
  entirely
• Pros The staff at Trolltech were exhausted.
  The projects finish line seemed to keep being
  pushed out - the Cenapio project was eating up
  the vast majority of Trolltechs resources.
  Abandonment would allow the company to refocus on
  its proven product, Qt.
• Cons The project has the potential to be a
  major breakthrough for Trolltech. If the project
  was a success, Trolltech would be right in the
  middle of Cenapios PDA and smart mobile phone
  strategy.

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Alternative 2

• 2. Trolltech should create a separate autonomous
  unit to manage the project
• Pros Project deadlines differ from traditional
  Trolltech environment - separate unit develops
  its own culture. Reduce the drain on valuable
  resources used to develop Qt, Trolltechs
  established product.
• Cons Added costs associated with the management
  of an autonomous unit. The difficulties
  surrounding the balance of resources between the
  Qt unit and the new Qt/e unit.

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Alternative 3

• 3. Status-quo - continue to crash the Cenapio
  project in hopes of completion by February
• Pros If successful, reap the benefits associated
  with exposure through marketing surrounding the
  Cenapio Centaur PDA. Gain widespread acceptance
  that the Qt/e investment was worthwhile
• Cons Risk losing more employees to sickness and
  exhaustion. Continued strain on the resources
  for the Qt (established) product, and its next
  release. A failure would be a serious setback.

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Recommendation

• Trolltech should create a separate autonomous
  unit to manage the project
• This is due to
• Poor fit with organizations values
• Good fit with organizations processes
• As a small company, Trolltech is quite capable to
  pursue emerging growth markets

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Recommendation
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Further Recommendations

• 10-day holiday period - remains for regular
  employees. For the autonomous unit - reduced to
  a 5-day period ( bonus paid).
• Emphasize the importance of emergent strategy,
  sometimes deliberate strategy targets need to be
  changed due to emergent issues.

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Further Recommendations

• Evans, Philip and Wolf - Transaction costs
  constrain innovation.
• Trolltech needs to foster improved communications
  with both Linaware and Cenapio.
• Encourage teaming
• Keep work visible

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Where is Trolltech today?

• Qt/e was successfully implemented in many
  electronics following Cenapio.
• Trolltech completed an IPO an the Oslo Stock
  Exchange on July 5, 2006.
• Nokia has offered to buy Trolltech for 844
  million Norwegian kroner or 153 million USD
  equivalent.

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Discussion Questions

• Do you agree that Trolltech should manage the
  Cenapio project in an autonomous unit?
• Is Qt/e Qtopia disruptive or sustaining to
  Trolltech?
• Is the Cenapio Centaur PDA disruptive or
  sustaining to Cenapio?

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Works Consulted

• Christensen C., Raynor M. 2003. The Innovators
  Solution. Harvard Business School Publishing
  Corporation.
• Evans, Philip and Bob Wolf (2005) Collaboration
  Rules. Harvard Business Review, July-August,
  96-104.
• Karif, Olga. 2008. Nokia deals Google a
  Trolltech-sized blow. BusinessWeek - The Tech
  Beat. Accessed February 28, 2008.
  http//www.businessweek.com/the_thread/techbeat/a
  rchives/2008/01/nokia_acquires.html?chansearch
• Sayer, Peter. 2008. Nokia to buy software
  developer Trolltech for 153M. IDG News Service.
• Trolltech - Milestones. 2008. Official Trolltech
  Website. Accessed March 28, 2008.
  http//trolltech.com/company/about/milestones