By Leo Valiquette
It has been a thirty-year journey for Ottawa’s QNX Software Systems, largely under what has jokingly been referred to as “stealth mode.” Last year, the company saw its brand boosted through its acquisition by Research in Motion as the mobile device maker sought out QNX’s expertise in realtime operating systems (RTOS) to help make its Playbook a reality.
But though it remained relatively unknown in its own backyard, QNX had already cemented its market position before RIM came knocking thanks to its own unique customer-centric approach and the support of its previous owner, Harman International. Derek Kuhn, vice-president of sales and marketing, and Sebastien Marineau-Mes, vice-president of engineering, spoke this morning at OCRI’s execTALKS breakfast about how their company has evolved over the years.
QNX’s RTOS products have been applied in a broad variety of embedded applications, from the Space Shuttle program to Cisco routers and military radios. With Harman, QNX broke into the automotive market for infotainment and telematics platforms. Today its technology is found in 20 million vehicles worldwide, from GM’s Onstar to high end systems in luxury cars in which the dash is a fully customizable digital display.
In fact, one could wonder, and rightly so, how QNX has become so many things to so many verticals, without stretching itself too thin. But Kuhn said it all comes back to focusing on one specific strength.
“Even though we are applicable to many different industries, we are focused on one thing, a rock solid platform,” he said, adding that addressing the specific needs of a particular market forces the company to be more innovative and competitive. And innovations for one industry often lead to product improvements that allow QNX to better serve customers in other verticals.
An RTOS by its very definition is one that provides 100 per cent reliability. There is little patience among end users for slow boot up times or the “blue screen of death.” But it is about more than just the technology. Here are some of the key ingredients Kuhn and Marineau-Mes cited for QNX’s success.
Being one with the customer …
QNX’s customers are invariably working on large and complex projects where failure to meet a delivery deadline is always a risk but not an option, such as bringing a new automobile to market. Its people will “embed” themselves (their pun, not mine) inside the customer’s organization to work in partnership and take responsibility for getting the job done on time.
… means being where the customers are …
Having a strong presence on the ground in Europe and Asia has been fundamental to QNX’s success. Kuhn said the company absolutely had to be in the same time zone as the big systems integrators and electronics manufacturers with which it has worked.
… and building an open relationship.
It isn’t just about building the deliverable to spec and coming in on time and on budget. It is about adding value. Often, this means challenging the conventional wisdom and making the case to the customer when you believe there is a better way than what they had in mind.
“It’s extremely important to be a part of what your customers are involved in,” Kuhn said. “We don’t want to be seen just as a vendor.” Often, this means working the relationship to get past the procurement people to the decision makers at the top in order to engage in a meaningful dialogue about their vision and how you can work together to make it happen.
A lot has changed in 30 years
QNX has what Marineau-Mes described as a “very strong technical culture” in that it doesn’t make promises to its market that it isn’t reasonably confident it can deliver on over the long term. Constant reinvention has been crucial to QNX remaining on the leading edge of its technology. For me, this tied in with what we have blogged about before about the need for a technology company to have a clear product migration strategy.
It’s all about your team
Being able to offer such a broad variety of projects has been a big draw to get good people in the door, Kuhn said. However, the challenge has been how far afield the company has had to shop to find the niche expertise it needs and how it has had to market Ottawa as a desirable place in which to work and live as part of its recruitment efforts. And to retain those hires, the company has come to realize the value of providing opportunities for professional and personal development.
The Apples of the world are not impregnable
With the Playbook squaring off against Apple’s iPad, QNX and the larger RIM organization certainly have a challenge before them. But fortune favours the bold. The key is to take stock of the strengths and weaknesses of both yourself and your competitors. In this instance, part of the strategy for the Playbook is to position it in the enterprise market, which remains Apple’s soft spot, by levering the expertise RIM has garnered in this arena with the Blackberry.
“It’s very motivating and exciting,” Marineau-Mes said.
