The New Technology Elite: How Great Companies Optimize Both Technology Consumption and Production

Chapter 15

Speedy: In a New Era of Perishability

Charlie Feld is a highly respected figure in information technology circles. As an executive and a consultant, he has shaped the technology direction at Frito Lay (the snacks subsidiary of PepsiCo, Inc.) and Delta Airlines, among others. As he talks even about today's trends, you can see the influence the time at Frito Lay three decades ago had on him.

He describes conversations with a long retired Herman Lay, one of the founders. Lay described the business in very basic terms: “No matter how big or complicated the company gets, we still buy potatoes, cook them, put them in bags, sell them to our customers and collect the money.”¹

Feld also describes periodic “field trips” with route drivers who stocked Frito Lay snacks at various outlets. There were constant reminders that their product was perishable and no amount of sophisticated industrial engineering or computing could ignore those basic principles of nature.

Charlie Fine, an MIT professor, wrote a seminal book in 1999 where he introduced the concepts of “clockspeeds” and “temporary advantage.”² He also suggested businesses learn from fast-paced industries as geneticists do from the short life span of a fruit fly.

A studio executive is discussing the challenges of demand forecasting in the business. How many BluRay versus traditional DVD copies of a new movie to ship to each city? How soon before we can plan for streaming video even for new releases? Then he confides that with ...