First class mail at the USPS is down. In fact down from 104 Billion pieces in 2001 to 73.5 Billion pieces last year and is projected to go down to 39 Billion pieces in 2020. As a result the post office is cutting half its mail processing facilities besides planning huge cuts in deliveries andContinue reading “USPS to slow down first class mail: how the Internet affects your business”
Category Archives: Future
Supply Chain CSR: tracing child labor in growing cocoa beans for chocolates
Just as we get into the holiday mood and enjoy chocolates the focus is on where the cocoa beans come from that go into making chocolate that brings so much holiday cheer to the affluent- worldwide. The BBC Story highlights Nestle's efforts in trying to bring traceability to the labor aspects of the cocoa beanContinue reading “Supply Chain CSR: tracing child labor in growing cocoa beans for chocolates”
What an 80 year old workforce means for organizations and innovation opportunities
Working till you are 80 years old is not a happy thought, particularly if you want to retire at 65 or 67. But 25% Americans think that they might have no other alternative. From an older worker's point of view not being able to retire is hard as is dealing with the stereotype of beingContinue reading “What an 80 year old workforce means for organizations and innovation opportunities”
Why is online holiday sales set to grow 15% in a slow economy?
With high US unemployment,nervous stock markets a volatile Europe and general uncertainty you have to wonder at the 15% growth estimates for on-line sales this year. Forrester estimates that this year online holiday sales will be $59.9B up 15% from the 2010 number of $51.7B. The growth rate and the sheer large numbers imply aContinue reading “Why is online holiday sales set to grow 15% in a slow economy?”
Information is power- or is it? move out of shuffling information as a knowledge worker
In the paper and pre-Internet age information was power and organizations had people who just had a piece of information and did not share it with others mostly out of oversight and sometimes out of the intent of holding on the "power." Today with Google,social media, wiki-leaks access to information is just too high andContinue reading “Information is power- or is it? move out of shuffling information as a knowledge worker”
Diffusion of discontent: Why Netflix lost only 4% customers but about 20% share value
Diffusion of innovation used to be a slow phenomenon on the positive side (seen from the organization's point of view- hey the market and product awareness is growing) till you had the Internet and social media. On the flip side of diffusion of innovation is the phenomena of diffusion of discontent which probably explains whyContinue reading “Diffusion of discontent: Why Netflix lost only 4% customers but about 20% share value”
America Invents Act 2011 to become law next week: how it might create jobs
President Obama's jobs speech of Thursday signalled the massive reform of US patent law to spur innovation and jobs. It's intriguing that lots of main stream media is criticizing the law given that it was passed in a bipartisan fashion (for a change 89 for and 9 against in the Senate). The mere fact ofContinue reading “America Invents Act 2011 to become law next week: how it might create jobs”
Competing in a knowledge economy: Thomas Friedman on Innovation -but how ?
Friedman's new book with Mandelbaum extols Americans to innovate at every level to get back to the growth and prosperity path. The question is how? Every one is in a "locked" in mode – locked in to the supply chain and distribution channel and of course to the production process."Lockedin"worked till about the late 1990'sContinue reading “Competing in a knowledge economy: Thomas Friedman on Innovation -but how ?”
Just stopping AT&T and the T-Mobile merger is not enough-US cell phone industry needs to change and become an engine of economic growth
The US cell phone needs to change and become an engine of economic growth. Merely stopping AT&T and the T-Mobile merger is not enough. The industry needs total overhaul and I am saying this from a recent visit to India where the cell phone is changing the economy as the motor car changed the economyContinue reading “Just stopping AT&T and the T-Mobile merger is not enough-US cell phone industry needs to change and become an engine of economic growth”
Will Alan Krueger be able to help with the immediate employment problem?
Alan Krueger has been named to the top job of Chairing the Council of Economic Advisers. Compared to his predecessors Krueger is a far more influential academic. Influence being measured by the number of times Alan Krueger's work is cited in the academic world. To have an entire first page of Google Scholar in excessContinue reading “Will Alan Krueger be able to help with the immediate employment problem?”