“Son, I’ve lived here since 1958, and I’m here to tell you it just doesn’t snow in Connecticut in October,” said the man next to me at the soccer field, as we shivered Saturday morning and pondered the approaching storm. It was so cold, my seventh grade son was wearing a florescent green [...]
keep reading →I’m wondering whether marketing will still exist in five years. Nearly all customers will carry smart devices, and it’s possible that smart customers will only interact with smart companies.
No technology in human history has been adopted faster than wireless devices like smartphones and iPads. Tens of millions of these devices are spurring [...]
keep reading →In the spirit of thinking differently, I’d like to suggest that Steve Jobs was not a person, but a way of thinking. As long as others emulate his approach to “thinking,” he will never die.
From what I can piece together from afar, Jobs crossed boundaries that few dare cross. Not because they [...]
keep reading →Free enterprise works beautifully when leaders feel rooted in their communities, beholden to their employees and answerable to their customers. But when these connections fray, the free market slides out of balance and the result is dangerously heartless behavior.
Heartless is laying off thousands of employees when your company has record amounts of cash on [...]
keep reading →Many weeks after the scandal broke that British tabloids were hacking into the voicemail boxes of others, would you invest your money in a phone-hacking company? If not, then you shouldn’t invest in Groupon.
I’ve written previously about Groupon here and there. Since then, Groupon’s IPO hopes have dimmed but keep reading →
Banks have record amounts of cash, but they won’t lend.
Companies have record amounts of cash, but they won’t hire.
Both have circled their wagons, and are protecting… whom? Certainly not employees, many of whom are now on the streets after years of loyal service. Certainly not customers, with whom these institutions play a zero-sum [...]
keep reading →Lots of other people woke up this morning, saw the new Netflix video apology, and were surprised that the firm’s leaders never realized that Qwikster makes us think of Trickster… especially given the firm’s recent actions.
The firms’ CEOs (yep, there are now two) announced that they are separating the Netflix physical [...]
keep reading →Let’s dream big for a few minutes. Imagine if the United States invested $50 billion in entrepreneurs, instead of fiddling with minor changes in payroll taxes and more construction projects that don’t create long-term jobs.
In 20 years, I’ve never heard an entrepreneur say she decided to hire more people because of a tax change. [...]
keep reading →(Part 1 of 2) The price of restoring our economy, saving our banks, and ensuring long-term prosperity is higher than most are willing to pay: the end of football, baseball and every other win/lose game.
From the time we are old enough to grasp a ball, we are taught that there are winners [...]
keep reading →Less.
That’s what we should expect in the next decade.
Regardless of your political beliefs, these facts are clear:
1.) Our economy is weak. Nothing is likely to change that for years to come.
2.) Government spending will decline for the foreseeable future. That means fewer jobs.
3.) New fees will be everywhere. Want to [...]
keep reading →Tales of Disruption
- Sometimes Words Escape Me
- No More Racing Home to Let Out Your Dog
- How to Get a Girlfriend, circa 2013
- Chatting about iBooks 2 with a Computer?
- Your Phone Won’t Let You Call Your Girlfriend
- Mission Impossible: Reaching Customer Service
- Paris with a Flexible Phone and a Sweet Tooth
- How Pachube Killed the Big, Slow Firms
- Banshee Construction Copter Robots
- James Bond meets Jonathan Livingston Seagull?
- Are Companies on Other Planets Stupid, Too?
- Fan Letter from a “Stalker”
- 3rd Party Candidate Becomes U.S. President
- Aha! (You Are a Cheating Spouse)
- Machiavellian Virtual Presence
