The problem with these lists now is that Steve Jobs breaks any generalizations about management and corporate leadership.
The Seven Habits of Spectacularly Unsuccessful Executives – Forbes.
ECPM BLOG
Online advertising, digital media, tech economics
Filed under Tech Strategy …
Uber and Surge Pricing
For days when demand for Uber cars increases, surge pricing goes into effect. On this past New Years Eve, people were paying over a hundred dollars to get a few miles:
Uber CEO Responds to New Year’s Eve Complaints – Lauren Goode – Commerce – AllThingsD.
Since Uber is a marketplace, it can’t influence demand or supply. That’s unfortunate because increasing the supply of cars by a few would have been the simplest solution.
Related: @cdixon:
Probability is often counterintuitive. From 1 to 2 bank tellers reduces wait from 5 hours to 3 minutes RT @probfact http://ow.ly/8dVz8
Job titles in a startup mean something different than titles in a large company
So true. Not just for sales but even product managers.
When we ask him to call on a different group of customers all he wants to do is call on the people already in his rolodex. When a customer throws us out he wants to get on to the next sales call and I want to talk about why we failed. He says great sales people don’t do that, they just keep selling. Every time we iterate even a small part of our business model or product he gets upset.
Why this makes sense: Barnes & Noble is Expanding Its Online Marketplace Away From Books
“Last week, Barnes & Noble started selling items like rugs and cooking utensils on its website.”
Barnes & Noble is maximizing the revenue potential of their traffic with this move. They have a large enough online presence and at some juncture, had to stop thinking of themselves strategically as an online purveyor of books. Rather, they should be thinking of themselves as an aggregator of highly qualified, valuable online traffic.
Related to this– I’ve said that I would not be surprised if Apple stores start selling PCs some day. Their product life cycles will end and when their distribution becomes a more important asset to them vis-a-vis their ability to churn out highly demanded products, they’ll make the decision to expand their product to non-Apple related goods.
via Why Barnes & Noble is Expanding Its Online Marketplace Away From Books | Moneyland | TIME.com.
Netflix Cuts Its Guidance by One Million Subscribers – Peter Kafka – Media – AllThingsD
This updated guidance from Netflix is not intuitive- You would expect that the hardest to project number would be in the overlap section but instead, they had to revise the streaming only and DVD only numbers. I don’t think the story is complete without a revision to overlap bucket. We shall see.
Netflix Cuts Its Guidance by One Million Subscribers – Peter Kafka – Media – AllThingsD.
How Not to Run Yahoo – Cringely on technology
Yahoo needs a bit a risk-taking at this point, but it would be a mistake to hire someone who comes in with the idea of making the company a more efficient machine.
via I, Cringely » Blog Archive » How Not to Run Yahoo – Cringely on technology.
The problem is that Yahoo’s Board and shareholders don’t want more risk taking. They want a leader with a credible plan to turn Yahoo around and get it back on track (in terms of revenue growth). And this does not jibe well with what Yahoo needs to do in order to stay relevant.
When selling features is better than selling benefits- FOMO
I wrote this piece about three weeks ago to suggest that in some instances, selling features is better than selling benefits. Right now, I notice a lot of normals upgrading their Blackberries and feature phones to smartphones because of FOMO. For this crowd, it’s better to sell features than benefits.
Last week, I came across this post: If You’re Competing On Features You’ve Already Lost.
I was struck by how Android devices and device manufacturers are trying to compete on features. Faster processors, brighter screens and other such intensely geeky positioning was their formula for combating the iPhone freight train.
And that’s not working.
There’s no clear evidence that it’s not working (or working) but I still stand by my contrarian view.
Specific Media acquired between 50-65 million user profiles for about fifty cents a pop
The value’s not in the product, it’s in the data.
But the acquisition today by Specific Media is quite different. They bought the profiles lock, stock and barrel. Now they will use them for their core business, ad targeting. Considering the going prices on Infochimps, Specific just got a great bargin, picking up between 50-65 million user profiles for about fifty cents a pop.
How much is an iOS user worth to Apple? About $150. Every year
The value of an iOS user is pretty high in comparison to other products.
How much is an iOS user worth to Apple? About $150. Every year.
He also runs similar calculations for Mac users:
If we assume therefore that the average lifetime of a Mac is 5.5 years and knowing that Mac sales generated revenues of about $73.8 billion then we can estimate the average revenues/year/mac user: $250.
via How much is an iOS user worth to Apple? About $150. Every year. | asymco.
Google, the big corporation
That’s what Dave Winer makes them sound like. This is the very definition of how big companies develop new product strategies.
Products like the one Google just announced are hatched at off-sites at resorts near Monterey or in the Sierra, and were designed to meet the needs of the corporation that created it. A huge scared angry corporation. What little is left of the spark that created it in the first place is now used to being Number One, and wants to feel that again. It’s being created to make that person feel better. Permanent link to this item in the archive.
