FOLLOW BY EXAMPLE

First-mover advantage is one of our favorite industry clichés, but recently, Alcatel CEO Serge Tchuruk referred to the often-used, but rarely spoken of, second-mover advantage. He probably didn't mean to do it. What he actually said was that when it comes to mergers and acquisition involving the big vendors, all vendors right now have a “you first” attitude, meaning they want to see someone else go through the complexities and pains of merging and integrating a large company before they do it themselves. They want to see someone else succeed — or fail — at it before they give it a try. It doesn't seem like a very enterprising frame of mind, but it's also nothing new for a vendor community trying to meet the needs — and avoid the wrath — of fickle, slow-moving large telcos. Those telcos now have regulatory and legislative trends swinging their way, so sudden decreases in capital spending don't seem likely, but vendors have been burned before for their optimism. As a consequence, they shed businesses and research programs and became leaner, maybe so lean that they aren't ready now to fully address telcos' needs for innovative, comprehensive solutions. Some people are questioning the need for vendor mergers at all. What it boils down to is the ability to meet carrier need — if vendors can't, someone will have to lead the consolidation. The rest will follow.