Good Lessons included
Archive for the ‘business’ Category
How great leaders inspire action
30
May
It is reasonably easy to say well – ‘duh’ – when you watch something like this. The hard bit is transforming it into action. Take a few minutes out of your day to watch – and see how it might work for you.
Passed on – with thanks to : Simon Sinek: How great leaders inspire action | Video on TED.com
Zuora Signs Over $1 Billion In Subscription Revenue In Q1
14
May
I am not sure that this headline is actually right – you have to read it carefully. Like back in the day Ad Agencies used to quote numbers for media placement – and kind of implied that was their revenue ….
I think they mean that 1 billion dollars of revenue passes through their systems in a quarter. Still – good number neverthless.
Gruber on Nack on Apple’s Control Over Native iPhone OS Software
14
May
Daring Fireball: Regarding John Nack on Apple’s Control Over Native iPhone OS Software
That’s exactly what’s going on. Apple is testing whether a tightly controlled and managed app console platform will succeed or fail based on its own merits, as determined by customers. There are different levels of competition. Apple has made its choice about how it wants to compete, and there’s nothing Adobe can do about it – other than proving Apple wrong by shipping compelling excellent software for Android.
Passed on – with thanks to : Daring Fireball
WRONG
13
May
While I one hundred percent agree with Guy Smiths’s analysis on Sandhill, in particular – when he raises this one …
Content is King, and Jobs wants the crown.
To control content, Jobs must own the means of distribution. Hence, pesky interlopers like Flash must be eliminated. Flash connects the content provider directly with the content consumer, cutting Apple out of the loop, which for someone who sold 10 billion songs is clearly unacceptable. Thus Apple acolytes are assaulting Adobe. You can have the cool new gizmo, but you can’t have Flash.
- absolutely.
More recently – this thought and thinking seems to have been removed from the media reporting – history has been ‘rewritten’ – and while I do think that there are a lot of other reasons that get recited that ‘explains’ the lack of flash … this one makes the most sense to me. (and not just because no one talks about it.)
All that said - I one hundred percent disagree with his predictions and to see this as ‘the demise’ of Apple is – IMHO – nuts. I quote :
The marketing issue at hand is never to deny your market. Apple will eventually suffer if they keep content from customers. After all, we own gizmos to achieve things, be it making phone calls, watching movies, playing games, or impressing the cute red head at the bar. Fail in this fundamental mission and the market will eventually turn to vendors that deliver. Flash is only one instance where Apple’s “our way or else” mentality may be its long-term undoing.
Erecting barriers never works in the long run. Walled gardens are more wall than garden, as everyone who escaped AOL will attest.
I guess he is covered- because he does actually say ‘if’ – but – and though I am a fan – I am actually a VERY slow adpoter. Steve is running a business. If what he is doing starts not to work – he will adjust course. But only then- not before. And actually – really – most people don’t care about open – they don’t. they don’t think. they just want it delivered – simply. that’s what steve does. And that’s what the reat of the tech world still are not thinking through.
Reading Letters
06
May
So this caught my eye as I was flipping through the networks tonight … no idea if the article is worth reading – BUT – imagine …
If Barack Obama can read ten letters daily from Americans, surely you can talk to your customers. (Your company’s entire staff should spend fifteen minutes daily talking with customers.)
Passed on – with thanks to : Holy Kaw!
Photographers : You Need to be a Salesperson First
02
May
I’m so glad I am not the only one tapping out this tune …. Blake Discher’s blog is chock full of some superb nuggets. This but one of them.
“Even in these stressful economic times, your business will be more successful if you are willing to recognize one fact: you need to be a salesperson first, and a photographer second. Many photographers take great photographs, but far fewer excel at sales. When I speak to audiences about negotiating, I%u2019m always quick to point out that sales skills are what help you to demonstrate to the client why they should hire you instead of your competitor.”
and
“Sell your value, not your product”
Linking back to Blake Discher’s Groozi.com – full story here :You Need to be a Salesperson First
Gerber on Wu
29
Apr
After reading this piece :
Don’t prosecute Gizmodo for the lost 4G iPhone. – By Tim Wu – Slate Magazine
Really dumb piece by Tim Wu at Slate on the Gizmodo/iPhone saga.
Wu writes:
Apple has indicated it believes a serious felony was committed. The company appears to regard Gizmodo’s acts as larceny, or misappropriation of trade secrets, or both. Here is where the case gets serious: If we accept that journalists can be punished severely for publishing information gained by others in unsavory ways, that’s a bad thing for journalism. Nearly every truly big story, from the al-Qaida photos on down, involves a leaker of some kind, often one who has broken some law. If the publishers of such materials—as opposed to the leakers—are treated as criminals, journalism will suffer.
If you agree with that, read the following sentence slowly, so it sinks in. Gizmodo isn’t being “punished severely for publishing information gained by others in unsavory ways”; they are being investigated by law enforcement for committing a felony themselves.
Note that Engadget “published information gained by others in unsavory ways” — they ran a photograph and a description of the phone (including revealing the front-facing camera) two days before Gizmodo. The photo and description came from the sources who took the phone from the bar and eventually sold it to Gizmodo. Yet Engadget is not in any trouble at all.
Gizmodo isn’t in trouble for spoiling Apple’s secret; they’re in trouble for breaking the law.
Wu writes:
But Gizmodo, for one thing, says it wants to give the telephone back, and so it may lack any intent to possess the phone permanently. That matters, legally speaking.
No, it doesn’t matter, legally speaking. When you borrow someone else’s property without permission, that’s called theft.
[TTT] – The Two Takeways :
“Gizmodo isn’t in trouble for spoiling Apple’s secret; they’re in trouble for breaking the law.”
“No, it doesn’t matter, legally speaking. When you borrow someone else’s property without permission, that’s called theft.”
The Nub ?
Cannot even pretend to understand and get inside the intricacies of this case – but it tingles a little – since I am a strong proponent and defender of the right to free speech – and don’t hang the messenger – and and and
But at the same time – it does piss me off when people continually reduce everything to ‘a hot issue’ – without really considering the facts.
As I said – I have no idea – Mr Wu mighty be right – but I don’t see anything in his article that says he is – and I don’t read anything anywhere else that says he is ….. in other worlds they might call it ‘the race card’
I was shown the media’s future 16 years ago …
24
Apr
Interesting flash back in time to where this writer for the Observer ‘saw the iPad’ fro the first time … ok it wasn’t really but you’ll get the drifet and the accuracy of vision.
I wrote an excited memo back to London: “The service can deliver black and white pictures, but they take about two minutes to download and are pretty poor quality.”
Passed on – with thanks to : The Guardian / Observer
