Corporate Strategy vs. Starting a Businesses
Corporate Strategy thinking
1. Focuses you on down-stream industries/businesses (and what to stay away from - IT)
2. Teaches you how to write and make a clear argument
3. Introduces you to smart, experienced professionals whom you can learn a lot from quickly
Starting a Business thinking
1. Requires you to think through a level of operational detail that teaches you how the business/industry works in reality
2. Teaches you how to think in multiple disciplines (marketing, finance, operations)
3. Teaches you to enjoy spending time alone to explore
Monday, July 30, 2007
Sunday, July 29, 2007
The road to failure is lined with many good intentions
In the New York times on July 22nd Ron Nixon wrote about Greg Wyler, a 37 year old tech boom millionaire, and his honorable efforts to bring the internet to Rawanda. He was unsuccessful.
Three points are worth taking away from his experience:
1. Understand the infrasctructure of the system in which you will work and what pieces can be manipulated. Recognizing that the rules are different from the rules you are used to is a critical step.
2. Pick something small and changeable if for no other reason than to establish credibility
3. Operators must operate. Get your hands dirty or find someone who is more talented to do it for you. Especially when an infrastructure doesn't currently exist, it is frequently necessary to create one or leverage another system. America is a rare environment in that if you create a compelling product; the laws, distribution systems, talent, and eager consumers are all waiting for you. The same is not true in emerging markets. While they both offer potentially attractive rewards, each presents a different set of challenges.
One final closing note": as Roosevelt said,"it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena..."
Three points are worth taking away from his experience:
1. Understand the infrasctructure of the system in which you will work and what pieces can be manipulated. Recognizing that the rules are different from the rules you are used to is a critical step.
2. Pick something small and changeable if for no other reason than to establish credibility
3. Operators must operate. Get your hands dirty or find someone who is more talented to do it for you. Especially when an infrastructure doesn't currently exist, it is frequently necessary to create one or leverage another system. America is a rare environment in that if you create a compelling product; the laws, distribution systems, talent, and eager consumers are all waiting for you. The same is not true in emerging markets. While they both offer potentially attractive rewards, each presents a different set of challenges.
One final closing note": as Roosevelt said,"it is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena..."
Saturday, July 28, 2007
ectolearning.com
www.ectolearning.com
While I imagine this website is far from the first attempt at effectively merging the classroom with techonology, it has struck an important cord in the evolution of user created content: organizing examples.
I chose to join a "web 2.0" group on the site. There were two youtube videos provided to begin the learning experience. Each took a different angle on the sugject. While wikipedia might define web 2.0 with text, it does not (yet) go out into the internet and pick out the best examples. I watched both of videos and discovered that they were made by "experts" (read people with passion for the subject) somewhere out in cyberspace. I found one of the videos engaging and extremly well presented. So I asked myself, why can't I find these people for other things that interest me?
The internet has opened the doors into remote corners of the world from the comfort of my living room couch. If I want to, I can find someone half way acorss the globe who shares my passion for underwater basket weaving and practices the art 24/7. Why not bring these people and their experiences front and center for people to learn from? So far no one has effectively managed and organized these powerful "examples" online.
When I'm tired after a stressful day at work sometimes I just want to watch a funny video. I boot up my computer and go to youtube. Frequently my search for amuzing entertainment ends in vain. Instead of just providing the "most popular" videos, take it down to a deeper level. On a subject, for a topic, what are the most pertinent and engaging videos....? Ecto may be on the brink of starting something powerful.
While I imagine this website is far from the first attempt at effectively merging the classroom with techonology, it has struck an important cord in the evolution of user created content: organizing examples.
I chose to join a "web 2.0" group on the site. There were two youtube videos provided to begin the learning experience. Each took a different angle on the sugject. While wikipedia might define web 2.0 with text, it does not (yet) go out into the internet and pick out the best examples. I watched both of videos and discovered that they were made by "experts" (read people with passion for the subject) somewhere out in cyberspace. I found one of the videos engaging and extremly well presented. So I asked myself, why can't I find these people for other things that interest me?
The internet has opened the doors into remote corners of the world from the comfort of my living room couch. If I want to, I can find someone half way acorss the globe who shares my passion for underwater basket weaving and practices the art 24/7. Why not bring these people and their experiences front and center for people to learn from? So far no one has effectively managed and organized these powerful "examples" online.
When I'm tired after a stressful day at work sometimes I just want to watch a funny video. I boot up my computer and go to youtube. Frequently my search for amuzing entertainment ends in vain. Instead of just providing the "most popular" videos, take it down to a deeper level. On a subject, for a topic, what are the most pertinent and engaging videos....? Ecto may be on the brink of starting something powerful.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
UNIQLO - The next big visual revolution
Pictures. A large part of my brain has always resided with the world of images and the emotions that lay behind them. After a long day at work analyzing nums and compiling large powerpoint decks, a simple photograph on the front page of a newspaper, or the angle of a person's face as she sits at a cafe talking with a friend can easily bring a smile to my face. So, with that said, I am going to start a series of commentaries upon the visual world - advertisements, pictures, art, images, movies, anything counts... The world offers too many not be inspired.
To start, lets move across world to Japan. UNIQLO is one of the coolest retail operations I've run across in a while (next to Abercrombe of course - terrible stuff, but boy is their brand clear. Think model runway star and walk into one of their stores - genius. I should hit myself for saying that.) Uniqlo is one of the largest retailers in Japan and from the limited amount of info I've gathered, pretty good at what they do. But, to the content. 1. Use of space and time in their advertising reflects a flexibility with the boundaries of physics that I have rarely seen in the U.S. (My guess is that a lot of it stems from the prevalence of martial arts in their culture - think Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon...but this is purely a guess.) This manifests itself in a mold between the mechanical and the graceful. Nike is the closest to this style in the U.S. but still far from capturing it. 2. While an initial impressions may lead viewers to think that UNIQLO's style organically grew from martial arts and athletics (including myself), upon further study I reach a different conclusion (and contradict myself). A large part of their style comes from extracting beauty in the ordinary. The pictures suggest that every part of you hold powerful beauty, that at each and every moment of you life...you can be a hero. They find the nugget of beauty in someone walking down the street or watching a play, extract it, blow it up, and put it front and center. Take a look at their website (http://www.uniqlo.com/), the picture of a girl in a hoodie is a good example....doing her hair anyone? One last thing for discussion next time. We'll just call it redonculous for now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j67wgWqZ5U
To start, lets move across world to Japan. UNIQLO is one of the coolest retail operations I've run across in a while (next to Abercrombe of course - terrible stuff, but boy is their brand clear. Think model runway star and walk into one of their stores - genius. I should hit myself for saying that.) Uniqlo is one of the largest retailers in Japan and from the limited amount of info I've gathered, pretty good at what they do. But, to the content. 1. Use of space and time in their advertising reflects a flexibility with the boundaries of physics that I have rarely seen in the U.S. (My guess is that a lot of it stems from the prevalence of martial arts in their culture - think Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon...but this is purely a guess.) This manifests itself in a mold between the mechanical and the graceful. Nike is the closest to this style in the U.S. but still far from capturing it. 2. While an initial impressions may lead viewers to think that UNIQLO's style organically grew from martial arts and athletics (including myself), upon further study I reach a different conclusion (and contradict myself). A large part of their style comes from extracting beauty in the ordinary. The pictures suggest that every part of you hold powerful beauty, that at each and every moment of you life...you can be a hero. They find the nugget of beauty in someone walking down the street or watching a play, extract it, blow it up, and put it front and center. Take a look at their website (http://www.uniqlo.com/), the picture of a girl in a hoodie is a good example....doing her hair anyone? One last thing for discussion next time. We'll just call it redonculous for now: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_j67wgWqZ5U
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