Archive for the ‘Business’ Category

The Nature of Change

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

More than 9 out of 10 patients do not change their lifestyles in response to their doctor’s recommendations. More than 70 percent of corporate change efforts fail. Humans hate change. It’s a simple fact of life. There isn’t any easy way around it. In general, humans hate change. That rule extends beyond individuals into ...

Fear, thy name is Ron Wayne

Monday, February 15th, 2010

One of the little known facts of Apple’s history is that Apple wasn’t the creation of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Apple was actually founded by three guys: Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ron Wayne. The equity split was Wozniak 45%, Jobs 45% and Wayne 10%. Wozniak recalls, “Steve had 45 percent ...

IBM and Creative Destruction

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

One of the fundamental aspects of successful capitalism is the principal of creative destruction. In a capitalist system, businesses that are hampered with flawed business models, substandard management, unproductive labor or changing markets, among other things, pass away in a sometimes agonizing fit of destruction. New businesses, with a better ...

Doing It For Free

Sunday, January 10th, 2010

  "If they didn't pay me, I'd do this for free." - Harry Cabluck Have you ever had a job in your life where you felt like that? Have you ever invested your time and energy into a career where you literally couldn’t wait to get up in the morning? Few people have ...

Smartphones: The Decision

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Seven months and seven days ago, I asked some friends and relatives for input on smartphones, specifically iPhone vs. Blackberry. Not seeing any need to rush into this, I took my time before committing. I especially felt there was no need to rush into this since when you’ve been away for a ...

Propensity to Buy

Tuesday, September 8th, 2009

In marketing, the goal is to create the perception of need. In advertising, marketing's shock troops, the goal is to create the propensity to buy. I just received this advertisement from CompUSA.com via email.   Read that ad copy carefully.   Does that ad create the propensity to buy something--anything--from CompUSA.com? In marketing, perfection is the baseline. First you deliver perfection, on ...

Pick A Horse

Friday, July 17th, 2009

Here’s a quick test for anyone who has sat in their cubicle and dreamed about starting their own business. Read this short web page about a new technology: http://www.agilenano.com/technology.htm What would you build with that technology? What are your product ideas? My friend Scot Mortier, an assistant District Attorney suggested, “Interesting...so, applications from ...

The Bandwidth Gap

Saturday, June 6th, 2009

One of the downsides of the insularity of the American culture and the self-enclosed European culture is its bounding effect on opportunity space thinking. One example that is easy to illustrate is in technology. People in the post-development societies of western Europe and the U.S. live in a bandwidth rich environment. ...

Mis-Invention

Thursday, June 4th, 2009

Legend has it that when Thomas Edison created his phonograph he conceived of it as a method to record and playback messages between individuals. Legend also has it that Alexander Graham Bell envisioned the telephone as a device useful for transmitting musical performances from concert halls to people in other locations. In each ...

The Book Shelf

Monday, June 1st, 2009

One of the traumas of moving to an eReader such as an Amazon Kindle is that you have no more books to display on your bookshelves. Bookshelves can be a trauma in their own right, as my friend Lee Wochner describes here. But the prospect of not having any books ...