From gapingvoid: The corporate business model of the (very near) future is childishly simple to understand. Nike, Dell and Coca-Cola already use it, and most big companies are gearing up to implement it asap. The company is divided into two parts, Part A and Part B. Part A is much, much smaller than part B. […]
Category: Business
The monolithic monopoly game
Stuart Bruce is seriously unhappy with Royal Mail in the UK. Stuart has started a new business and recounts a sorry tale of dealing with an organization that supposedly provides an essential service to businesses, yet which seems wholly incapable of understanding simple business/service concepts, never mind actually wanting a customer’s business: The Royal Mail […]
What makes a leader?
You often hear the phrase ‘leaders are born, not made.’ Yet you also see behaviours in so many organizations where those who are leaders just aren’t the right people and haven’t a clue what leadership is all about. They seem to think that a “Being a Natural Leader for Dummies” book is all they need […]
Carnival of The Capitalists
Evelyn Rodriguez at Crossroads Dispatches is hosting Carnival of The Capitalists, a weekly focus on interesting business-oriented posts on blogs around the blogosphere. Evelyn has gathered a wide-ranging collection of topics with links to each post on the respective blogs so you can visit and contribute to discussions if you feel so inclined. My recent […]
Fly biz class on Air France, get a free iPod mini
Air France has a new promotion where they’re giving away free iPod minis to people who fly business class to Europe [from the US] between now and January 15th, but before you get any ideas about picking up your new toy at the airport lounge they won’t actually be sending you your free iPod mini […]
Who you’re working for next
The Economist shows how by unloading work on to their customers, companies can grant them more control – and save money in the process: Meet your airline’s latest employee: you. You may not have noticed, but you are also now working for your phone company and your bank. Why? Because of the growth of the […]
Time is no luxury for communicators
For everyone involved in organizational communication – be that PR, marketing communication, investor relations, employee communication or public affairs – one of the luxuries I see so many continuing to delude themselves with is that they have plenty of time to strategize, formulate, execute and measure as they progress their work in the traditional way […]
Who says CEOs aren’t blogging?
Reading again through New Frontiers in Employee Communications: Current Practices and Future Trends, a survey report published in August by the Edelman PR agency (see my post today with a summary), I was thinking again about the report finding that nearly 20% of the survey respondents said, “My CEO would never blog.” It would be […]
Edelman CEO starts blogging
Just after posting my commentary on Who says CEOs aren’t blogging?, I see that Richard Edelman, the CEO of Edelman PR, started a blog on 29 September. Here’s his mission statement for the blog: My intention is share trends in communications, the issues, lessons and insights that I gather from managing this firm. […] I […]
The dotcom era saved for posterity
All those failed start-ups from the dotcom boom will live on, because the University of Maryland and the US Library of Congress see value in saving their records for posterity in a massive digital archive, InternetWeek.com reports: “We want to let today’s entrepreneurs learn from the mistakes,” said the archive project’s lead researcher, David Kirsch, […]
Hotel WiFi – and blogs
A report from Engadget on developments with wireless network access in hotels in the US: Check in. Go to your hotel room. Get online. Or, more likely, try to get online. Call the front desk. “No WiFi access, sir. We can get you a phone cable so you can plug into your data port.” Great. […]
Oracle getting closer to winning PeopleSoft
Last Friday’s firing of PeopleSoft CEO Craig Conway by his company’s board could speed up the what looks like an inevitable outcome in the long-running battle Oracle has waged to acquire PeopleSoft. Conway’s departure as a result of action by his own board looks like good news for Oracle. Many commentators and industry observers are […]
Microsoft rules out PeopleSoft bid; SAP not currently on radar screen
The Financial Times reports today that Microsoft on Sunday night ruled itself out of a white knight bid for PeopleSoft, who is fighting a $7.7 billion hostile takeover by Oracle. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told the Financial Times that PeopleSoft did not compare with SAP, the German enterprise software vendor that Microsoft considered buying last […]
33% of IT jobs are Microsoft-related
An IDC study commissioned by Microsoft reveals the impact of the software industry on European economies, The Register reports. In 19 countries surveyed (Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey and the UK) nine million people are employed in the IT […]
Six Apart gets more VC funding
The future is looking rosy for Six Apart, the company behind the TypePad blog hosting service (the one I use) and the Movable Type blog publishing platform. Business 2.0 journalist Om Malik published an exclusive announcement on his blog yesterday stating that Six Apart is about to secure more venture funding in their series B […]
Flexible corporate ethics and diminished trust
In an article on 5 October, eWeek analyzes whether PeopleSoft would consider a takeover by Oracle at the right price and raises questions about PeopleSoft ex-CEO Craig Conway’s integrity. Consider this comment from the article: The [PeopleSoft] board decided to fire CEO Craig Conway because it was dismayed by his display of “situational ethics” when […]
Google: No to browser, Yes to more search
Detailed report in today’s Financial Times about Google. On whether Google is going to launch its own browser: Speaking at the Web 2.0 conference in San Francisco, [John Doerr, one of Google’s non-executive directors] denied recent speculation that Google was planning to launch its own internet browser, to compete with Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer. On […]
Corporate blogging helps companies open up
A well-articulated article that discusses the pros and cons of corporate blogging, written by Trevor Cook for the Australian Financial Review Boss magazine: Corporate blogging is being heralded as the next big thing on the communications horizon, valued mostly for its potential to bring personality and authenticity to a bleak landscape of dull newsletters, breathless […]
iPod US marketshare rises to 82 percent
After clothes, money and a car, an iPod is what US teenagers want most this holiday season. A survey of 600 high school students by Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster found Apple‘s digital player No. 4 on their wish list. And the iPod wasn’t even among the items Munster suggested – the kids wrote it […]
Two-way blogs and moderated conversations
When Richard Edelman, CEO of the Edelman PR agency, launched his blog in late September, he was welcomed enthusiastically by the PR blogging community. Two weeks on and after Edelman’s second post – he’s committed to posting once a week – some bloggers are a bit twitchy about how he’s blogging and how commenting is […]