Topcoder Case Study

If you were a senior theatre director at TopCoder, what ar the main capabilities you would need to develop to succeed at running the firm? Are these capabilities similar or unique from managing a much traditional firm In order to develop and action the highly non-traditional business organization approach and vision of TopCoder, the senior caution has to regularly challenge actual industry practices and innovate better methodologies to improve the timber of deliverables to the client. . Since the business model for TopCoder is highly reliant upon participation from the develop confederation they need to keep a continuous track of the activities in their gathering and need to devise the aspiration in such a expressive style that it attracts more and more better quality coders. To make this happen, the senior direction has to develop high level of marting skills so that they move march on their product and keep the coders evoke. 2.The main challenge which comp either faces is that though the customers ar getting high quality defect free products in a short span of time they are usually suspicious of the product quality since they do not have any relationships and in somebody/on call interaction with the developer community. Due to this suspicious outlook of the customers, the wishment needs to have high level of negotiation and convincing skills so that they can keep the customers. 3. Software product requires regular maintenance and updation after(prenominal) certain period of time and thus vendor selection for information is a long term investment.Now, the customer knows that the developer community of TopCoder is usually interested in complexity of the competition and intellectually challenging tasks and thus the clear coders in the community might not take up such tasks. Thus, it becomes very important for TopCoder management to keep the clients interested. 4. The TopCoder community is innovation and competition driven, thus managing innovative and creative people who can be heart-to-heart and too direct to the customers whitethorn diminish and even destroy the temper of company with he customer thus they need to be adequate to handling not only the customer but the coders, who are generally independent and can move out at any prone time, given over a better opportunity Most of the capabilities required by the senior management at TopCoder are rather similar to managers at a more traditional IT company, but the fact that they have to manage some(prenominal) the customer relationships, as well as the virtually find coder community, which can be challenging.Also, they have to additionally handle the feedback from both these communities and have to keep a balance between these two parties, which I not desired to such an extreme from a normal IT manager. What are barriers to access in this type of a business? TopCoder is competing with in the intemperate and saturated space of IT Product development and Se rvices. Gaining a market piece in the high tech industry with already established and bank brands along with relatively newer but technologically advanced businesses is a large task. The entry barriers are the result of competitive behavior by existing businesses within the marketplace.TopCoder faces a variety of entry barriers that must be overhaul or adapted to in order for its non-traditional business approach to get to trust and standing with the customers and gaining a foothold within any given marketplace. According to the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, the most common entry barriers are 1. Established businesses attempt to prevent new competitors from entering their market because they could lose business and profits. 2. Absolute cost and capital advantages of existing business 4. An existing large company with high bench strength is more capable to cope ith new competitors by developing high complexity products at a lesser cost than a new company. 4. pos tgraduate entry barriers present a difficult challenge for new businesses to flog to be profitable in the market. If the barriers are too high, incumbent businesses in the market have a distinct advantage over any new entrant which can prevent the new business from macrocosm a significant threat to their market position 5. There can be many customers, who prefer contracts of multiple projects with an established brand which may prevent them to source their requirements to a relatively smaller new company, 6.Several multiplication the processes and specialized business knowledge available with established companies are aline with the processes and business needs of the customer and they prefer to work with each other. 7. Having worked in multiple projects together and knowing the quality of deliverables customers develop a appreciation to certain companies 8. Some customers, such as banks, have a bus of sensitive and secure data which they want to share with only already establi shed and trusted IT firms 9. Usually high performing IT firms have a highly sophisticated infrastructure and quality control mechanism in place.