Strategic Inflection Points
What Do Investors Want?
I am focusing today on what investors want to see in order to invest. I…
Strategic Inflection Points
Apple & Microsoft: Changes in Fortune
Today I want to discuss the dramatically different situations of Apple and Microsoft, and I…
China
Updating My Smartphone Market Analysis: The Market Is At A Strategic Inflection Point
NOTE: My original post, originally published in January 2013, continues to be one of the most viewed on the site. Android and Apple have enjoyed an estimated 98% market share between the two, and many of my earlier projections regarding this market appear to have been borne out. However, the smartphone market has now matured to the point that it is at a strategic inflection point which has major implications for the future of this market and the major competitors. The rapid maturation of the smartphone market should have been foreseen: the rise of domestic Chinese competition combined with the predictable end of the Western consumer fascination with “the next smartphone”
Silicon Valley Culture
Jerks And The Start-ups They Ruin
Perhaps the premiere of Season 4 of “Silicon Valley” twigged me to share this post. but despite the title, the HBO series only connection may be the now viral “mean jerk time algorithm.” The real “Silicon Valley jerk” has been around for decades, buried with all the other dirty laundry. Uber’s Travis Kalanick has only brought it front and center at this moment. It is something of a conundrum as some of the jerks are also the most successful. We all now know about the “bad” Steve Jobs. Oracle for years had a very bad reputation that came directly from Larry Ellison himself. Microsoft was long known as a “sweatshop” with a highly negative culture led by Steve Ballmer. Even venture capitalists themselves have caught the disease as evidenced by Reid Hoffman and the late Tom Perkins of KPCB. The best assessment I have heard is that these aggressive unrestrained corporate cultures destroy their own goals. Or better yet, the saying that “culture trumps strategy.”
Computer graphics
The Importance of "Convergence" In Market and Industry Analysis
If You Get Technology “Convergence” Wrong, Nothing Else Matters I came across this book during…
British Columbia
Deja Vu: Best Buy, Dell Computer, and Henry Ford
Michael Dell, CEO of Dell Computer After losing a lawsuit to the Dodge brothers in…
Global
NSA Spying Is Freezing Cisco, Google And Other Companies Out of Trillion Dollar Global Market
The good news today is Cisco’s new focus on the Internet of Things, which I have been reporting as the new Mega Global Market War. But frankly, the damage to U.S. companies like Cisco Systems by the NSA spying scandal has been catastrophic. Not only Cisco, but Google’s strategy to become a global Internet Service Provider, Yahoo, and Facebook are all affected.
Silicon Valley Culture
Never A Dull Moment: 9 Entrepreneurial Personality Types
Not enough consideration is given to entrepreneurial character. What makes an entreprener successful, or may lead him to fail? Starting and growing your own business requires many skills to be successful. Take a look at the business personality types and find out what you need to succeed. Are you Bill Gates, a Visionary, or an Improver like Body Shop founder, Anita Roddick?
Your business personality type are the traits and characteristics of your personality that blend with the needs of the business. If you better understand your business personality, then you can give your company the best part of you. Find others to help your business in areas you aren’t prepared to fulfill.
There are 9 key types of personality and understanding each will help you enjoy your bss more and provide your company with what it needs to grow. This entrepreneur personality profile is based on the 9-point circle of the Enneagram. Begin identifying your dominant personality theme and understand how you operate in your business.
Canada
After Blackberry Canada Faces An Innovation Drought
The sale and breakup of a flagship technology company is a reoccurring theme in Canadian business. But this time is different. If BlackBerry Ltd.goes, there is no ready replacement. That’s a telling switch from the situation Canada faced with the sale of Newbridge Networks in 2000 and the demise of Nortel Networks in 2009. More than a decade of declining business investment in research and development has left Canada without an obvious BlackBerry successor. Despite bright spots in Waterloo, Ont., and Ottawa, the country’s performance on most of the important benchmarks of innovation has been deteriorating for years.
Silicon Valley Culture
Ballmer Resignation From Microsoft and Missed Strategic Inflection Points
Microsoft Missed Key Strategic Inflection Points. Much has been written this week about the announcement from Steve Ballmer that he will resign from Microsoft within a year. Microsoft shares bounced upward on the news, giving an indication of investor sentiment, which might have been expected to drive the stock down. Some bloggers have commented with praise on his 13 years as President of Microsoft. But no less than Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal, who also writes for All Things D, quietly tweeted an endorsement of the blog post below by Lauren Goode at “All Things D.” Goode chronicles the major product and strategic events over Ballmer’s helmsmanship of Microsoft. Perhaps the most glaring blunder has to be also the most recent: Windows 8.
