2011 Dec 5

Enterprises: how can IM replace email?

ABC reported this week that the French company Atos will be aggressively moving to a "zero email" policy, at least for internal communications. The rationales appear to be: People in the real world are replacing much of their email communications with IM, SMS and platform-specific messaging, like Facebook Only 10% of email messages in the company have value, while an additional 18% are pure spam. I agree that many people are switching from email to platform-specific, IM or mobile communications (roughly including SMS and iMessage in the latter).

2011 Nov 29

FAA, DHS, DOJ and understanding the difference between people and organizations

Last night, I had the pleasure of speaking with an old friend of mine. He is a fairly experienced executive with M&A, so naturally we discussed the DOJ and FCC attempts to torpedo the AT&T/T-Mobile tie-up, as well as the general difficulty of getting an acquisition done, especially when there are interested lawyers on multiple sides. I have always been a big believer in the power of words. For example, "

2011 Nov 15

How quickly do you become the incumbent to be disrupted?

Today, IDG posted an article that Steve Jobs was looking at using unlicensed WiFi spectrum to create a direct competitor to mobile carriers. Although the effort failed, many viewed this as another proof that Jobs, as always, needed to control the entire experience. My take is somewhat different. Mobile phones have only really been around for 20+ years, and digital mobile telephony and mobile data for far less than that.

2011 Oct 20

Reverse Psychology? How DRM may increase piracy!

Back in 2004-2005, while doing my MBA at Duke's Fuqua School of Business - which was an excellent experience at a great school - I had the pleasure of studying marketing under Preyas Desai. A few days ago, Duke, together with Rice University, published press releases announcing research by the same Preyas Desai and his colleague Dinah Vernik at Rice. Their conclusion, which is counter-intuitive to the record labels but, ironically, makes perfect sense to many of us, is that removing DRM may actually reduce piracy.

2011 Oct 16

Fast Clouds: the impact of cloud computing on the rate of technology change

A lot has been written about the impact of cloud computing - on-demand with massive virtualization - on deployment of services and, perhaps more importantly, the reduced cost to market of Web-based businesses, thus spurring significant entrepreneurship. An interesting side impact is the effect on the rate of technology change. New technology platforms, and especially software platforms and frameworks, are developed and released all of the time. Yet, there is usually a relatively slow uptake on these new technologies.

2011 Oct 13

Straight Talking CEOs

I love straight talking CEOs. Most people have a pretty good BS-meter. When someone - especially their own management and especially executive management - is trying to "spin" something, or hide bad news, or similar secretive activities, people can smell it. Some have better sensors, some worse, but employee morale takes a hit, and in the worst way. Consultants like me are pretty good at ferreting out why employees are unhappy, but it is extremely hard when there is simply a sense that execs are hiding something, but employees cannot clearly articulate it, and often are afraid to mention it even if they can; after all, if management kept it secret, could their even mentioning it get them into trouble?

2011 Oct 11

Why there is no iPhone 5: an excellent analysis by Horace Dediu

Henry Blodget (here) put me onto this excellent analysis by Horace Dediu of Asymco of why Apple released the iPhone 4S - despitw what it must have known would be tepid reviews - rather than a completely revamped iPhone 5. The analysis is worth reading in its entirety, both the original and Blodget's short commentary. However, I think two key points are worth considering at the higher level: Apple is a business.

2011 Oct 6

In Memoriam: Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was a difficult man, as most geniuses are. The (in)famous movie "Pirates of Silicon Valley" captured so much of the complex younger man, his personal life and his interactions with competitors, partners and employees. Yet, he was a great man, a true visionary. He changed our lives, with the first accessible personal computer, with NeXT which led to Mac OS X and the current Mac resurgence, with the iPod and the iPhone and the iPad.

2011 Oct 4

Eric Ries - the MBA for Startups?

I have been reading Eric Ries' excellent book called "The Lean Startup," highly recommended for anyone in the entrepreneurial business, whether it is a fast-growth tech-startup or just a local laundromat. For that matter, I also recommend it for managers at larger firms, both in terms of managing their own internal innovation and in terms of understanding where their own metrics may fall short. One of the interesting factoids about the MBA degree (of which the author is the proud holder of one from Duke University, an innovative and collaborative environment) is that business schools were originally founded for engineers.

2011 Sep 20

Qwikflix? Netster? Whence the split Netflix business?

Like most people - well, at least those who really get how startups and disruption work - I am impressed by Reed Hastings (Netflix CEO) willingness to take brutally painful short-term steps for the long-term benefit and viability of his company. He mentions several times in his posting that he worried about one issue more than any other over the last five years: will Netflix be able to make a successful transition from DVD-by-mail to streaming-over-Internet, or will it be too worried about cannibalizing its short-term cash-cow DVD business to successfully launch and grow its streaming business?