Amazon is doing its real job: Squeezing retail chains. One of the dramas in tech right now is the story around Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet and its potential to mess up Apple’s iPad business. I don’t think the Kindle Fire (an okay-but-not-great media tablet) is a real, long-term threat to the iPad (the personal computer of the future, and potentially many more things). But that will take a while to sort out. The real story right now is that Amazon — both through its Kindle business and its broader e-commerce business — is driving retail chains crazy. This is by design, of course: Recall that e-commerce is still less than 5% of U.S. retail sales. So driving brick-and-mortar competitors into the ground and directing more spending toward Amazon is absolutely what Amazon should be putting most of its effort into. A brief rundown of recent cries for help from the retail chain world: Meanwhile, Wall Street expects Amazon to report 40% year-over-year sales growth for last quarter, and a profit.
Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO. You’re lucky that I ain't the presidentCause I'll push the f*#king button and get it over withF&$k all that waiting and procrastinatingAnd all that goddamn negotiating—Bushwick Bill, Fuck a War TOM HAGEN Mike, why am I out? MICHAEL CORLEONE You're not a wartime consigliere. Things may get tough with the move we're trying. —Scene from The Godfather Recently, Eric Schmidt stepped down as CEO of Google and founder Larry Page took over. Definitions and Examples Peacetime in business means those times when a company has a large advantage vs. the competition in its core market, and its market is growing. In wartime, a company is fending off an imminent existential threat. A classic peacetime mission is Google’s effort to make the Internet faster. In my personal experience, I was a peacetime CEO for about 9 months, then a wartime CEO for the next 7 years. In peacetime, leaders must maximize and broaden the current opportunity.
Peacetime CEO/Wartime CEO Peacetime CEO strives not to use profanity. 10 business models that rocked 2010 - by @nickdemey (skype:nickdemey.be) Hypothes.is | The Internet, peer reviewed. 12 Things Entrepreneurs Should Be Thankful For. Perché, cara PMI, il Digital Update sul marketing online vi serve più di altre cose. Quando Alessandra Farabegoli mi ha proposto questa tournée di eventi di formazione + laboratorio + shared-mentoring che poi abbiamo chiamato Digital Update, mi chiedevo se fosse una buona idea rivolgersi a un pubblico di persone che hanno sì una minima conoscenza di come funziona la rete, ma non del settore. Inoltre, se fare un corso a una cifra tutto sommato accessibile anche per piccolissime attività non potesse forse annacquare il senso del valore delle due giornate. Non sto a dirvi che il corso invece ha funzionato proprio per i presupposti che ritenevo a rischio: Alessandra ha scritto un post di commento su questo e io ho raccolto su Storify le “recensioni” dei partecipanti (che poi penso sia una buona idea per molti, per esempio nel turismo, per raccogliere i feedback dei clienti sui social media).
Il gap è tra lo sviluppatore di piattaforme o l’agenzia specializzata e i loro obiettivi come azienda, tra le attività da fare e i ritorni che si devono aspettare. The difference between a failure and a mistake. Il dilemma del ricco e del re…e di come zuckerberg l’ha ignorato! Image via Wikipedia Qualche anno fa la Harvard Business Review pubblicò un interessante articolo nel quale si sosteneva la tesi che ogni imprenditore prima o poi si trovava davanti ad un bivio: Diventare ricco (facendo crescere la sua azienda più in fretta grazie a capitali esterni cedendo però quote significative della società)Essere Re (ovvero rimanere alle redini della propria azienda ma facendola crescere molto più lentamente e ottenendo risultati molto più in là nel tempo). In un recente articolo di Techcrunch l’autore mostra come il CEO di Facebook sia riuscito ad ottenere condizioni contrattuali che lo porteranno a controllare più del 50% delle azioni con diritto di voto della società e a poter nominare tutti i membri del consiglio di amministrazione anche dopo l’imminente quotazione in borsa, che sarà ovviamente stellare.
[via Techcrunch] The Things Customers Can Do Better Than You - Bill Lee. By Bill Lee | 10:39 AM April 5, 2012 Many firms assume that customers can do just one thing of real significance: buy their products and services. It’s time to seriously challenge that assumption, as many companies are doing by looking to customers to fuel their growth engines. Facebook, for example, has close to 1 billion customers who don’t pay a cent.
Yet the company is receiving valuations of $50 billion and more — despite having just 3,000 or so employees — because of the extremely high-potential, non-purchasing value such customers provide. This isn’t genius at work. Customers know more about each other than you know about them. Customers are more credible than you are. Customers are more persuasive than you are. Customers often understand buyer needs better than you do. Prospects in your market would rather affiliate with their peers (your customers) than with you. So remember, there are many things your customers can do better than you.
Team. Lessons Anyone Can Take From Their Local Diner. Every town has them (especially the small ones), that one diner that everyone knows about and that has been a part of the community for years and years. You know, the one where you know the waitresses by name and can recite their menu? Ya, that place. Well, I’ve learned a couple lessons from my local diner that are applicable across all business segments so take a seat, place your order and enjoy: When your product is in demand, you can make a few demands-For example the diner in town only accepts cash. Now for your homework: go down to your local diner, order your favorite meal and see if you notice the same things I did, it basically comes down to this: have a product people seek out, let others co-op your costs, become a community, not just a commodity. . - Matthew King Awesome People + Awesome Places Travel around the world while making new friends Under30Experiences curates awesome experiences around the world for young travelers.
Tags: business lessons, diner. 5 Must-Dos Before Founding a Start-Up. Before venturing out into the wild world of entrepreneurship, I knew very little of what to expect. So now, eight months after founding my early-stage tech start-up, WorldBrain, I’ve had the chance to learn quite a lot. I’ve been incredibly fortunate to be in the Boston area, which has a vibrant and collaborative community of entrepreneurs who’ve helped me, taught me a phenomenal amount, and given great insight into the start-up world along the way.
Knowing now what I didn’t then, I realize that there are several key lessons I wish I’d learned before starting out, so let me share with you what I’ve discovered. Here are the big five things you should know (and do) before founding your first start-up: 1. So you have a great idea and you’re ready to start a company. When I started out, I was incredibly secretive about my company. Don’t do this. 2. Speaking of those details, when you first start a company, there’s going to be a lot you don't know. 3. 4. 5. Photo courtesy of Mike.
Walmart Labs is building big data tools — and will then open source them — Cloud Computing News. Essential Reading List for New Entrepreneurs | Inc.com. Small Business Ideas and Resources for Entrepreneurs. Geeks and Delegation: A Match Made in Hell. Last week, I was invited to join 3,000 delegates to what turned out to be the largest entrepreneurship conference in the world. The Global Entrepreneurship Congress 2012 took place in Liverpool, UK (a few words about Liverpool in a moment) and its speakers and panels were selected in order to inspire us into entrepreneurial action. Upon arriving in Liverpool on the GEC Express Virgin train, chartered for the specific occasion (welcoming speech and random encounter with Sir Richard Branson), I didn’t know what to expect. One of the first things that I found out, to my surprise, was how geeky Liverpool is! It has more scientists than Cambridge and a booming game industry (it’s supposedly second in the UK).
If you are a geek looking for an alternative city to London, then this might be it. Sir Richard Branson was the main ”attraction” for the day and who could blame the the crowd? Q&A with Sir Richard Branson If we want to become leaders, founders and CEOs we need to learn to delegate. Cash is no longer king. Money in its physical form, in other words coins and notes, has played an important role in society for centuries. But today, society is becoming more and more “cash less”. And while consumers choose to use debit and credit cards, and mobile money services to complete their monetary transactions, they are not the ones leading the change.
Retail stores, public transportation services and so on, see increasing costs and safety risks for handling cash and want digital transactions instead. So what role, if any, will cash play in the Networked Society? So many trends indicate that the Networked Society will be cash-free, for example passengers taking the bus in Stockholm can no longer use cash as a payment method and instead use an SMS-ticket system.
Electronic money systems such as PayPal and M-Pesa are also simplifying the way money is being sent around the world, reducing the amount of cash that banks need to have at their disposal. Written by Mikael Eriksson Björling. How to Go From Making $32 an Hour to $115,000 an Hour. Il dilemma del ricco e del re…e di come zuckerberg l’ha ignorato!
Governance.