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To: Dennis R. Duke who wrote (8475)	12/11/1998 9:48:00 AM
From: Chris Stovin	Respond to of 18016

Friday, December 11, 1998 Dancing with giants Tech firms must be prepared for rapid-fire changes By SUSAN TAYLOR, Ottawa Sun IN TODAY'S hi-tech sector, dancing with giants means more than nimble footwork. To survive in a market that's increasingly dominated by major players, firms must pick up new steps and dance partners at the drop of a hat. A reminder came this week with Nortel's $300-million US buy of two-year-old fledgling Cambrian Systems Corp. "The pressure is on for you to be be sharper, faster, smarter and better," said Mike Hornby, vice-president of marketing and marketing development at QNX Software Ltd. Simple strategies -- market focus and taking advantage of partnerships -- are keys to success don't always come easy. Miscues can mean stagnant growth or being crushed by competitors. "We have to be careful," Hornby said, adding there's always a danger of targeting the wrong market or missing a deadline. "That's going to hurt." There's nothing new to the philosophy. But rapid-fire changes in the hi-tech landscape add hurdles. The Kanata firm has learned the hard way, Hornby said during a hi-tech marketing event put on the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation. At 18, the company could well be earning more than the $10-$20 million revenue it today records. Success means a firm like QNX, which sells a real-time operating system, can compete with corporate giants such as Microsoft and Sun. Despite a niche that sounds highly specialized, the firm has 80 competitors, Hornby said. "We're in a huge growing market," he said. "I'm talking about literally dancing with huge giants." To grow, QNX dropped a shotgun approach and selected three key markets: telecommunications, medical instruments and consumer electronics. The strategy was further refined by targeting the top 10 players in each sector. That's helped the medium-sized firm, which now has 200 staff, to win key contracts and cut out competitors. "You get in there quicker than they do," Hornby said. "You get corporate-wide agreements and you shut them out." The company also worked at expanding the firms it works with. Today, QNX has more than 200 partners. Firms such as Motorola, which embed QNX technology in their products, deliver a boost in sales and profile. "That is something that pays dividends," said Hornby. Even direct competition has its rewards. When Microsoft announced it was developed a real-time operating system, it named QNX as its competitor in a press release. "Excellent. A multi-billion company mentioned my name," Hornby said. "Thank you." The simple strategy appears to be paying off. The firm opened six new offices this summer and plans to launch another in Japan in early 2000.