Trolltech (Norway) - Will Cenapio Steal Christmas? Brett O’Grady, Thomas Wall, Sean Beniston, Paula Sewter

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

Trolltech - Company Overview Code Less. Create More. Deploy Everywhere.

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 Cenapio’s Embedded Product’s Division.

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

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

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.

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

Alternative 1 1. Trolltech should abandon the Cenapio project entirely Pros: The staff at Trolltech were exhausted. The project’s “finish line” seemed to keep being pushed out - the Cenapio project was eating up the vast majority of Trolltech’s 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 Cenapio’s PDA and smart mobile phone strategy.

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, Trolltech’s 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.

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.

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

Recommendation

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.

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

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.

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?

Works Consulted Christensen C., Raynor M. 2003. The Innovator’s 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/archives/2008/01/nokia_acquires.html?chan=search] 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]