Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform, part 2
Summary:
Apple's first marketing plan
Steve Jobs' biography, mentions Apple's first marketing plan. I wonder how this plan could be applied to FGCP. It is an intellectual exercise, because Fujitsu is not Apple, is not a company originated on Silicon Valley. Fujitsu is a solid multinational corporation with an ingrained conservative culture. However Japan has demonstrated an unusual capacity to emulate and exceed versions of products invented elsewhere. The commercial cloud was invented in US
Right now, FGPS is no match for AWS. Here are my thoughts. The three bullet Apple Marketing plan devised when Steve was 24 years old is shown here
Empathy. To understand customer needs better than any other company
Traditionally product development is based on Market Research Documents (MRD), Product Requirements Documents (PRD) or the latest Agile Development are invitations for committee work , compromises, hierarchical opinions imposed top down (meaning from the people who know less to the people in contact with customers) that breed mediocrity.
Even if Fujitsu has not a Steve Jobs equivalent, one thing we learn is that one person with the right intuition knows better than the customers themselves. This is true even more in Cloud Computing, where most suspects leads, will become prospects the moment they learn what cloud computing is - in Fujitsu version - , why is it better than other offerings and how easy is to start & rip the benefits they are told will come later.
To achieve this, Fujitsu needs an independent FGCP decision maker, with authority, to make quick changes, see what it works, and what not, and filter out all bad while keeping all good
Focus. Eliminate all unimportant opportunities
As result of multiple departments, Fujitsu offers all sorts of cloud initiatives, sometime competing one with another. Fujitsu offers Fujitsu Hybrid Cloud Services based on Microsoft Azure private cloud, and all sorts of studies on Cloud TCO (total cost of ownership), when TCO is not the measurement of a success in the cloud, the Return on Investment (ROI) is. Visiting Fujitsu web site there is constant confusion between public clouds , private clouds and public clouds, with offerings for all three. Also there is an offer for a program that takes TWO WEEKS (yes, two weeks) to determine the cloud road map of an enterprise customer.
Impute: People form an opinion about a company
Apple wording: "If we present things in a slipshod manner, they will be perceived as slipshod. If we present them in a creative, professional manner, , we IMPUTE the desired qualities
This is perhaps the biggest drawback of FGCP. Just look how Apple describes iCloud .The readers see What is a Cloud , How to build the cloud in your applications and a video demo.
Even Amazon Web Services home page looks much better - although I am not a great fan of AWS user friendliness
Being professional means being clear. Being clear means knowing what one is doing, and, in turn the customers and each user know what they are doing and why. At this stage Fujitsu does not impute the desired qualities.Their offering reading is confusing. The FAQ of FGCP does not help the user understand how to solve its' own problems; it is a litany of confessions from Fujitsu of what does not work and users should not attempt.
Fujitsu is absorbed into itself. It has no empathy for the potential users, at least in North America. But this is something that can be corrected. It should fascinating to be part of a US Silicon Valley centered team that does this creative corrections and transforms Fujitsu into all it can be.
The bottom line
Fujitsu Global Cloud Platform (FGCP) might consider to become a
separate entity With freedom from Fujitsu corporate culture, FGCP
competes equally with AWS, RackSpace, and all other public cloud
players and with Fujitsu own private cloud and hybrid cloud offering.
A success in US will propagate with the speed of light in other parts of the world and complement the local experience, making FGCP truly global, as the name implies.
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