2012 Sep 29

Domestic Cleaning - the Next Front in Capitalism?

I have been rereading a large number of classics lately - literature, history, philosophy, economics, you name it. Among that list, of course, are Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. In rereading Friedman, I came across a very interesting description. Not so many years ago (a sliver of time in the history of mankind, let alone the unrecorded history), only the truly wealthy could afford things beyond subsistence. Because just about everything was manual labour, you had to be able to afford to pay others to do work that was too much for you to do on your own.

2012 Sep 10

Tools and organization, part II

In the first part, we laid down the principles and looked at an example in software development. In this part, we will look at an example in financial management. Like all parts of your business, finance has its processes, workflows and controls. Unlike other teams, finance interacts with every single other part of the organization. A customer support person may have no interaction with an online marketing / social media associate.

2012 Sep 6

Your tools affect your organization, and your organization affects your tools

I do a lot of work with technology companies and divisions, which makes it ironic how I often weakness in tool selection. Tool selection is generally viewed from either a vendor-relationship perspective determined by the C-level in larger firms, or technical features determined by a niche specialist in smaller firms. Tools are meant to be used by individuals in concert with others, i.e. an organization, which means that tools have a significant impact on organizational workflows.

2012 Aug 22

When buzzwords hurt your brand

I am a big believer in simple and clean. One of the great reasons so many cloud services have taken off is that, even if under the covers they are complex to implement, to the user they are simple and clean. One of my favourite such services over the past few years has been FreshBooks. They solve a very real headache for many business owners, especially professional services firms, and do it in a clean and simple way.

2012 Aug 15

Starbucks and the dynamics of trust

You are sitting in a Starbucks. Perhaps it is a business meeting, maybe catching up with an old friend or enjoying a short break with a significant other. You might be alone, working on your laptop or iPad or even reading a book. Suddenly, the person next to you, someone with whom you have never exchanged a single word, asks if you will be there for a few minutes, and would you mind watching their bag, book, or even MacBook Pro, while they use the washroom or get a drink.

2012 Jul 23

Surprise! Lawyers can be polite, even to "adversaries"

I have long believed that most people - even competitors - are eminently reasonable. Most people who take action that offend you, whether personally or commercially, are doing so for the most innocent of reasons. If only made aware of the impact of their actions, they would change them to everyone's benefit. Of course, that isn't always true, unfortunately (my neighbour's parking is a good example), and sometimes you need to take out the brass knuckles.

2012 Jul 17

Be careful what you wish for... local retailers shoot themselves in the foot with an Amazon

For a long time, beyond the intrinsic ease of shopping experience, Amazon enjoyed a price advantage over local retailers in most markets. The price advantage came from three sources: Scale: Amazon is simply a very large operation, and so can source goods more cheaply Operations: Amazon is what we used to call a "Web pure-play", and so can maintain less physical space, mainly warehouses, and do so in less-expensive locations than local stores that depend on accessibility to and desirability of local customers Taxes: Under the 1992 US Supreme Court ruling Quill v.

2012 Jul 9

Disrupting the service sector

Here is an interesting thought - I don't know how to disrupt the raw labour service sector. What do I mean by that? Every sector of the economy starts off as labour intensive. Eventually, capital replaces labour, or the majority of it, making the services higher quality and lower cost. 100 years ago, all food was picked by hand. Every single apple, every stalk of wheat, every ear of corn, had to be picked by a person, generally one of low wage.

2012 May 31

Steve Blank, Burck Smith & Fred Wilson

Fred Wilson (partner, Union Square Ventures in NYC) is one of my favourite bloggers at avc.com. He writes pretty much every day, his topics are usually interesting, and the highly active community makes for great discussions. Steve Blank writes at steveblank.com far less frequently but equally interestingly about a more narrow focus - successful startup building. Steve is a real legend in the startup community, the author of the transformational "

2012 May 13

While we are on the carriers' backs...

I have been trying to understand the mobile carrier business for some time. Perhaps it is because I wanted to disrupt them for at least as long. I do not expect to - mobile carriers, even just data, even an MVNO, is an incredibly capital-intensive business, with very high fixed costs, and therefore not one that a nimble startup guy like me can attack. I can manage those industries, and have advised to such capital-intensive ones, but doing it on my own as a startup requires raising and risking more capital than I am comfortable with on my own.