The fundamental model we teach MBAs for thinking about manufacturing is the value chain, a simple model that describes the value adding steps that take a low value material like iron ore and turn it into a high value product like a Ferrari Testarossa.
The U.S. model has been distorted in the last ten years, misleading people into thinking that the risk- reward ratio is comfortably tilted toward equities.
Themodel that Sun wants Wall Street to use in thinking about Sun is that of a wireless carrier like Nextel, which sells its technology any way customers want.
In this new model of educational thinking, educators and students tap into the cloud to build, collaborate, share and manage media rich lessons and curriculum.
Even as they pour billions at the problem, their primary business model which made them successful in the first place seems to override their expansion into some new way of thinking.