The negative aspect of this is that the intrinsic quality of a technology is often overlooked in favor of who makes the biggest splash with the best marketing. Just look at Microsoft vs. Apple and VHS vs. Sony Betamax. While Silicon Valley remains the most popular location for European IT enterprises to launch their U.S. business plan, other companies have succeeded away from the traditional hub of the technology industry. In its rebirth as a U.S. subsidiary, Data Interface Systems experienced cultural teething problems, as Daniel J. Price, marketing manager for North America and an original employee of DIS, recalls. For example, in France, the vast majority of potential customers of host-connectivity software live in and around Paris.
Salesmen can easily visit customers with a pre-sales support person in tow and be home the same day.
They may make a few such calls in a day. For a small company in the U.S., such a visit would require a plane trip for two and perhaps an overnight stay, so unless you have a several visits lined up, you don't go. Exactly that difference continues to tempt European entrepreneurs to go west, despite the much-publicized drawbacks of life in the valley. Those drawbacks include a devilish job market, grossly inflated wages, housing shortages and a high cost of living. But against those problems, many foreigners speak of the valley's unique energy, the buzz of an industry on the move and the sense that everything is possible.