3. INTRODUCTION
S curve also known as growth curve is a tool to illustrates the
life cycle of a phenomenon that starts off slowly, grows rapidly,
decreases or levels off, and finally declines.
The curve is used to describe many phenomena, including
biological growth, demand for a new product and technology
adoption rate.
The S-curve can be used as a strategic tool to understand the
product, industry or technology life cycle. In the management
literature, S-curves help to describe the invention, innovation,
diffusion, growth and maturity phases of
products/industries/technologies.
3
4. INTRODUCTION
Technology investors want to anticipate growth. It's more
important than growth itself.
Once products mature and become highly profitable, measure
tech against any other industry.
The S curve describes how supply, demand and profit work in
a fast-growing market.
Profits are highest when the market is young, when a product
is just entering the mass market. Once most people have the
product, profits per unit decrease
This is why technology investors prioritize growth over gross
profit 4
6. STAGES IN S CURVE
Infancy
Usually, a new system starts with a promising idea and uses many parts that come from
the old system.
It often takes a long time due to the lack of resources when people are trying to improve
it.
Youth
Gradually, people would invest and support the improvement of the new system when
recognizing its value and market
potential. The system comes into the rapid growth stage.
the system is trying to enter several market segmentations where it would gain recognition
of customers.
Maturity
The main performance of the system is reaching its limit
In this stage the profits that the system could get from the market are still very
considerable. But we should be ready for
the coming decline stage. The development of the next generation of the system based some
new principles should be
considered now.
Old age
When the old system is in this stage, the new generation has better main functions than
the old one. The old system will be
replaced and eliminated or go into some special areas, such as sports and entertainment
industry where it may find new
7. STAGES IN S CURVE
Discuss some examples of
innovation/technology for each
phase.
7
9. S CURVE USAGE
S curve offers benefit to the following TM activities:
Acquisition
Exploitation
Identification
9
10. ACQUISITION
the analysis of S-curves shows the managers where their
technologies stand in the curve and how they should invest in
technologies over time. If the technology in hand is mature
and in decline, managers decide to terminate all R&D in this
area. Alternatively, an emerging technology can be identified
and technology investment can be made in this field with a
lower risk of failure.
10
11. IDENTIFICATION
S-curve is also used to identify the future trends of existing
technologies as well as new technologies that might become
critical for the company. This is particularly helpful in
forecasting activities. For instance, S-curve analysis is used
for renewable energies: it indicates that wind energy and
geothermal energy will become more economical than fossil
fuels within a very short time.
11
12. EXPLOITATION
S-curve is particularly helpful in this activity since it shows growth of
revenue or productivity against time. In the early stage of a
particular innovation, growth is relatively slow. At some point,
customers begin to demand the product and product growth
increases more rapidly. New incremental features or changes to the
product allow growth to continue. Toward the end of its life cycle,
growth slows and may even begin to decline. After this stage, every
amount spent for innovating the product will not result in a normal
rate of return. In addition, S-curves help firms to analyze the
adoption rate of new technologies, so they can organize launching
and marketing activities of their products.
12