Study of Industry dynamics leading to new venture opportunities

Abstract

This paper is a reflective note on Wireless network equipment industry from entrepreneur perspective. The discussion will be centered on Wireless equipment industry and the objective is to identify few idea generation themes which entrepreneurs employed in this industry. Wireless equipment industry constantly evolving over the years. Starting from 1995 mobile telephony has witnessed substantial growth for most part of the last decade. Net new subscriber additions remained as a primary driver to the growth. Significant improvements in the technology in the bursts helped industry to sustain the growth. Industry is governed by well defined standards which makes the differentiation difficult in the market place. Mobile networks ecosystem has been going through changes and the power to differentiate products with hardware/architecture is moving towards software and services. On the other hand IP network vendors who were mere suppliers earlier threatening to forward integrate and are influencing the product architecture. Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE with their efficient R and D are positioning themselves as the cost leaders in the industry. All the industry players looking at emerging markets to sustain the revenue steam. Emerging markets MNOs working with new business model there by converting equipment capital expense into an operating expense. All these have significant impact on the industry structure and the market dynamics. This paper reviews the history Wireless network equipment industry through industry life cycle stages and makes observations from the entrepreneurs/intrapreneur perspective. It also summarizes the major trends and discusses few companies which had successfully spotted and exploited the trend. Entrepreneur can apply identified themes while generating new venture ideas in similar such industries.