Every business is feeling like a commodity business, all the buyer seems to care about is price and this was brought to sharp focus with HP exiting the hardware business. The HP brand was great but what margin can you really make at final retail prices of $500 for laptops. So branding does not workContinue reading “Are you caught up in a commodity business like HP ? Try branding and digital distribution”
Category Archives: Future
Google Patent Search helps acquisitions and defend IP- as in Motorola
If you use Google Patents (Beta) , you can search patents and that allows you to find patents around a technology and who else is citing a patent. So let us say Apple cites a Motorola patent and Google acquires all of Motorola's patents its hard for Apple to prove that Google Android or MotorolaContinue reading “Google Patent Search helps acquisitions and defend IP- as in Motorola”
Organizations get global but Governments struggle local : French downgrade and London riots
Americans secretly admire French style and wine but publicly deride French fries – so its particularly unsettling that a French credit downgrade is affecting Wall Street and millions of Americans' retirement savings. And then you have the London riots where Prime Minbister Cameron is talking about learning how the leadership in Boston (USA) and BelfastContinue reading “Organizations get global but Governments struggle local : French downgrade and London riots”
A town level SEC for investing in local small business
With globalization it is easier and easier to buy stocks in a variety of growth markets or in large US companies who are under pressure to turn a profit and therefore outsource jobs for lower costs. Meanwhile the most stellar small businesses have a hard time in finding small money to finance a website upgrade,Continue reading “A town level SEC for investing in local small business”
Impatience: are US companies losing out in growth markets? American companies down 25% in Fortune 500
According to the Fortune 500 list American companies are down to rank 133 from 176 in 2005 representing an almost 25% decline in top spots. Most of the growth in top spots has come from growth markets like BRIC (Brazil,Russia,India,China). So the question is whether large US companies are doing enough to engage with growingContinue reading “Impatience: are US companies losing out in growth markets? American companies down 25% in Fortune 500”
Netflix pushes US distribution for streaming Internet video and DVD on way out
As discussed in an earlier post Netflix offering only streaming video in global markets seems to be spreading to the US market and has outraged Netflix subscribers. Netflix wants subscribers to spend about $16/month if they want both DVD and streaming- a 60% increase in contrast to paying $7.99/month for either service. A definite nudgeContinue reading “Netflix pushes US distribution for streaming Internet video and DVD on way out”
Jobs report: getting used to uncertainty – time to look at new markets for your skills
The US jobs report at 9.2 % unemployment is shocking and hard for those who make up this number. And this does not include those who have given up searching. It's time to get used to uncertainty and look at new global job markets. With this report world stock markets have dipped and everyone isContinue reading “Jobs report: getting used to uncertainty – time to look at new markets for your skills”
Directors want to spend more time on strategy, risk and talent says McKinsey Global Study
The Board of Directors of surveyed companies by McKinsey want to spend more time on Strategy,Risk and Talent than they are doing. According to the McKinsey study the the time spent on these things have not gone up since the economic crisis. So where is the problem? Most times the Board of Directors just goContinue reading “Directors want to spend more time on strategy, risk and talent says McKinsey Global Study”
Happy 4th of July and a globalized America
At a recent entrepreneurs meeting the speaker mentioned that if you can't succeed in America you can't really succeed anywhere else. The audience which was feeling somewhat down with earlier talk of the slow economy, got galvanized and started making active plans for the next thing they were going to do for their businesses. OnContinue reading “Happy 4th of July and a globalized America”
Dealing with nuclear power risks
http://abcnews.go.com/assets/player/walt2.6/flash/SFP_Walt_2_65.swf The Los Alamos wildfare is making headlines as concerns rise about damage to the nuclear lab. Wildfires are more predictable (brush,dry,summer) than earthquakes as in Fukushima,Japan.The question that the rest of the world is asking is if Americans and Japanese are scrambling to deal with natural disasters and nuclerar installations then what aboutContinue reading “Dealing with nuclear power risks”