Lessons Learned From Past Failures

Lessons can certainly be learned from failed effort of the Dot Com era.  But how do they apply to business in today's economic turmoil?  That is for each and every business model owner to figure out.  But the first part assumes one can access a wealth of understanding about what went right and what went wrong during that time. 

 

So where do you go, or who ya gonna call?  Lets start in the attic, that is the "dot.com attic"......

This NY Times article highlights such an effort.

BUSINESS   | November 23, 2008

 

Prototype:  Lessons of Survival, From the Dot-Com Attic

By LESLIE BERLIN

The Dot Com Archive contains data that has begun to reveal interesting insights into the dot-com bubble.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/business/23proto.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1

 

Your thoughts on its usefulness would be appreciated

She Wears Short Shorts...

In this world of market turbulence, and lack of week to week or even day to day predictability in the market (as if we ever had predictability), the Feds step in and try to engineer the market for entities selling what they do not own. As a capitalist, you might say, "Hey, if someone can sell something they don't own, and someone is willing to buy it, then why should I care?" Good question.

The answer is, "I've got this bridge I'm trying to unload". It spans the East River between Brooklyn and Manhattan. Lets agree upon a price, and execute the contract. However, between execution and settlement, I have to go out and really buy that so I can deliver it to you. That works when you can make a market or the market is liquid - which is not always the case with bridges. It works great when the market (say for a stock) is heading south. It brings up the volumes and makes the market even more liquid. The problem is that is is self perpetuating.

This Forbes article explains it more detail and how it has impacted Bank stocks, Fannie/Freddie and your pocketbook even if you don't own the sector.

Commentary: Shortsighted Naked-Short Solution
http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/24/sec-shorting-regulation-biz-cz_rl_0726croesus.html?feed=rss_news

The Very Last Lecture

I guess I'm of age now. I'm not scanning the obits, but this was presented to me my Google news reader - and i'm glad it did.

The Last Lecture series of lectures was made much more famous by this one CMU professor Randy Pausch who had developed pancreatic cancer, yet talked to the audience about redefining your priorities and reaching your goals. Great video (on youtube/google and just about any emedia outlet). Its a great video, and he was a very interesting guy, not just for what he did in life, but his approach to it. He was very much of the same ilk as the subject of "Tuesday's with Morrie" yet thirty years younger.

I recommend this NY Times article on him, which has links to Randy's blog. Hopefully it will stay up even though the content will be dated after today. So long Randy....

Last Lecture Professor Randy Pausch, 47, Dies - Well - Tara Parker-Pope - Health - New York Times Blog

Randy's infamous video on the web:  

gladwell dot com - in the air

What is innovation? How does it happen? Why are accidents so important in resarch and discovery? These questions won't be answered here, but here are some stories that help stress their import.
gladwell dot com - in the air

Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications list - Trends in the Living Networks

So what are Aussies doing on the net, together? Here is a list the top Web 2.0 sites that some find interesting. While the list is published by an Austrian, the interconnection of web use in AU is not that different from that in the US.

Why should you care? Good question. It could that you suffer from ADD or you simply follow trends in usage of the net and how it could be utilized to benefit your life, your existng business, a potential new venture, or all of the above. Does it resonate?

Official launch of the Top 100 Australian Web 2.0 Applications list - Trends in the Living Networks

Status: Looking for Work on Facebook - New York Times

SOCIAL NETWORKING and THE JOB HUNT?

Do social networking sites factor into one's strategies for the most effecient way to find your next gig? They certainly should. If potential employers are looking at these sites, shouldn't you also factor into these sites. Finding future co-workers. Finding ex employees of a target firm or industry is certainly possible. You would do this normally using your phone and through your friends. Why not start the process by doing it online. I recently heard a Stamford U podcast on social entrepeneurship and film making site that the networking done online actually saved a persons life.

This documentary filmmakers Michaelene C. Risley was detained by the police while filming in Zimbabwe. The police apparently let her go with the order to report back the next day for further questioning which according to her is standard practice there as they are in short supply for food for prisoners. Well after communicating with a friend familiar with things on the ground. Her friend went online and Twitter'ed or Facebooked her friends for her. An American consulate/embassy person then inserted themselves on behalf of the Ms. Risley who was subsequently released that very same day (with her footage that was not to positive on the Robert Mugabe govt). So Facebooking does help, but can it help on the job? You decide after reading the following....

"In a survey by the National Association of Colleges and Employers published in March, employers indicated that whereas in the past they used social-networking sites “to check profiles of potential hires,” said Marilyn Mackes, the group’s executive director, today “more than half will use the sites to network with potential candidates.”"


Status: Looking for Work on Facebook - New York Times:

When Web Time Is Playtime - New York Times

HOW FIRMS ARE AIMING FOR YOUR KIDS ON LINE:

Playing a video game against a computer is one thing. But online services are increasingly being targeted at kids. Showing that interacting with actual humans can be much more interesting, especially when the person behind that other avatar might be your own child.

When Web Time Is Playtime - New York Times

The Key To Management: A Balanced Scorecard - Forbes.com

Balanced Score Card - Is it overly complex, to hard to implement, or only for the big enterprise? Gene Mark says no: and that small businesses can benefit too from BSC. Enjoy this Forbes article, but recognize its just a scratch of the surface. You decide if its big impact from simple solutions or little yeilds from little steps....

Ever try to keep a scorecard at a little league baseball game? After a while, you learn to track what's most important, ignore the niggling errors and just make sure there's a snack at the end. Well-managed businesses--large and small--use a similar approach.The concept of managing by "balanced scorecard" has been around awhile. It boosts performance using a combination of metrics, goals and process improvements. The U.S. Navy, City of Newark and the Atlanta Public School System are just a few large organizations that have benefited from this approach. Small businesses can too.
Read more here
The Key To Management: A Balanced Scorecard - Forbes.com






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Netflix Sides With Blu-ray In HD Format War - The Channel Wire - IT Channel News And Views by CRN and VARBusiness

Looks like the tech landscape will start to get a little clearer in the home video market. The battle for physical format is now over: and the winner is ..............

Netflix Sides With Blu-ray In HD Format War - The Channel Wire - IT Channel News And Views by CRN and VARBusiness


...... the winner is Sony's BluRay disc format. Its clearly technologically superior, and would be more useful when used in a PC then the Toshiba backed HD-DVD format. Look for this to have an impact on the availability of your favorite rentals in Blockbuster as well, now that there will be more movies titles available, but alas, more competition for those movies (when renting). Thats just a short term hiccup of the Netflix announcement. Other market effects will include a big increase in Sony's Playstation 3 sales as it has an embedded BluRay player in its game console. And soon, BRdiscs will be available in rental stores. But for now, people will start to slow down in buying movies in physical format as these discs are quite expensive to make (thus to sell). Look for the movie industry to follow the path of the music industry - which is shrinking overall sales volumes and a move to online downloading.

The next battle on the homefront will be with the increasing the downloadable movie content that is secure and relatively copy protected. And this will unfortunately follow like Apple did with its proprietary technology the iPod, movie distrubution companies will introduce more and more very specific (non-transferrable) content distribution (at home) kiosks. These boxes will allow you to download, pause, rent, replay (for a ltd time) movies as much as you like over the internet. Problem is that you can't take it with you, nor transfer it from one box to another. Oh well, at least you'll have the content you want (even though you'll be married to the technology you eventually choose).

dp Musings: Retiring is Hard Even for Bill

Transition planning is vital component of strategic planning. Its a hard and difficult task, transforming an organization or transitioning yourself between roles.


Enjoy this informative video presentation of very good transition planning. Hopefully Bill Gates can shed some light on this process here.

dp Musings: Retiring is Hard Even for Bill