Business ecosystems tend to evolve into a dynamic equilibrium where all of the parties divide a growing pie — think Windows/Intel for much of the past few decades. However, when the core business model of one of the players is threatened, look for all of the players in the ecosystem to look for ways to reposition themselves for survival. As an interesting case study, check out this story about the Associated Press, the cooperative-owned news organization.
Quick update and idea for you. Over dinner at our Mind Vault Intensive last month, an idea that came up is the distinction between manager’s time and maker’s time. If you don’t get this distinction and put it into practice, you are likely leaving a lot of opportunity untapped. Manager’s Time: Short time blocks of…
In the 12/1/2008 Barron's, Tom Sullivan writes about the Big Three Rating Agenies — Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings. The SEC is reviewing how these agencies are regulated and "the basic business model employed by the largest agencies" is "open to question". What does this mean?
Examples of clueless marketers at Seth's Blog: Clueless. Amazing how penny-wise, pound-foolish companies are when it comes to service. Airlines are one of the best examples of this problem. I just flew back from a workshop in Connecticut, flying from Providence through Charlotte to Raleigh. Summer storms in the northeast caused all sorts of havoc…
Interesting quote in Chief Learning Officer magazine article about the importance of employee engagement. "You end up with solutions that sometimes are not designed to work in the real world because no one working the frontline jobs was asked about whether this would work or not," Kanazawa said. "So you have a lack of engagement,…
Rich Karlgaard writes a fascinating, informative, and entertaining historical perspective on the first ten years of the Internet economy — WSJ.com – The Ghost of Netscape. (subscription required) In many ways, this story parallels my early career. I was in graduate school at Stanford when Jerry Yang and David Filo quit their Ph.D. programs to…
Is the business model for retained executive search "broken"? A recent article in Talent Management explores the issues. Some thoughts …
