"Small Ball" in Tech

I have heard it a few times during the Tampa Bay Rays surprising run this year - that the era of the "long ball" (and steroids) is over.  We are back to making singles, steals, bunts and other tools of classic baseball pay off again.

It was starkly apparent during the Rays series with the White Sox, a team with two players (Jim Thome and Ken Griffey Jr) with glorious "long ball" careers (over 1,100 home runs between them). Just about every time Thome came to bat, the Rays would apply "the shift". And every time the commentator Harold Reynolds would plead him to bunt for a sure-fire single. Nope - not Thome.

We are coming to a similar end of an era in technology. Oh, we have had some glorious careers who have thrilled all of us with Wall Street home runs. But that type cannot easily make the transition to technology "small ball" which is about:

• Customer first
• More investment in R&D compared to SG&A
• Building great talent
• Dramatically lowering costs and prices
• and then a bit farther down, a focus on the investor

If you are a vendor, are you set up to play in this "shift" the market is rapidly experiencing?