Business
Why Legos Are So Expensive — And So Popular : Planet Money
Notes Lego is crushing Mega Bloks, a rival that sells cheaper blocks. I went to Toys R Us recently to buy my son a Lego set for Hanukkah. Did you know a small box of Legos costs $60?
Google's campaign to draw a sharp line between its free email offerings and what it delivers for paying customers is nearly complete. Last week, Google announced it was killing off its free Google Apps offering for new customers. Today it dropped the other shoe, announcing, in a bizarrely named "Winter cleaning" blog post , that as of January 2013 it will no longer support Google Sync connections for new devices using a Gmail or free Google Apps account.
Google drops Exchange ActiveSync support for free email accounts
by Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine | 11:00 AM December 5, 2012 With the Winter holiday shopping season, fashion apparel retailer Zara has been the focus of media attention — the New York Times recently profiled the innovative fast fashion business model pioneered by Zara, while Elizabeth Cline's book on the costs of fast fashion has climbed up the sales charts. Despite this very recent popularity, the novel business model of Zara has gone virtually unnoticed for over 30 years, allowing Zara's parent company, Inditex, to grow from zero to almost $20B in revenues.
Business Model Innovation is the Gift that Keeps on Giving - Karan Girotra and Serguei Netessine
Andrew Parker had a great post a few years ago where he sketched out all the startups going after pieces of Craigslist: Startups that have tried to go head-to-head against the entirety of Craigslist (the “horizontal approach”) have struggled. Startups that have tried to go up against pieces of Craigslist (the “vertical approach”) have been much more successful (e.g. StubHub, AirBnB).
Some problems are so hard they need to be solved piece by piece
What Data Can't Tell You About Customers - Lara Lee and Daniel Sobol
by Lara Lee and Daniel Sobol | 10:00 AM August 27, 2012 Across industries, companies are using the vast amounts of user-generated data to guide innovation of new products and services. But data mining does not equate to developing "customer intelligence." Human behavior is nuanced and complex, and no matter how robust it is, data can provide only part of the story. Desire and motivation are influenced by psychological, social, and cultural factors that require context and conversation in order to decode.
B usiness models are perhaps the most discussed and least understood aspect of the web.
Business Models on the Web | Professor Michael Rappa
All Revenue is Not Created Equal: The Keys to the 10X Revenue Club
May 24, 2011: May 24, 2011: [Follow Me on Twitter]
Tools