Management and Strategy

Good Article…

A Threat to Startups

Updated August 10, 2010, 12:08 PM

Brad Burnham is a partner at Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital fund located in New York City. This was written with Fred Wilson, also a partner at the firm.

We believe that Google and Verizon’s proposed policy principles to preserve an open Internet came out of a good faith effort to bring some clarity to the market for Internet applications and access. But we fear that this agreement is a compromise that does not serve the next great startup enterprise well.

A Threat to Startups – Room for Debate – NYTimes.com

Net neutrality has been topic of discussion especially since news about Google and Verizon deal came out. More info here. I personally think Net neutrality is super important especially for startups. Our economy runs on startup and small businesses and letting Google and Verizon decide whose data is more important on web is just wrong. It means in future Google can pay to push its content for example YouTube and no one else will be able to compete. Will try to consolidate other good articles on the topic on the blog. 

Network neutrality (also net neutrality, Internet neutrality) is a principle proposed for user access networks participating in the Internet that advocates no restrictions by Internet Service Providers and governments on content, sites, platforms, on the kinds of equipment that may be attached, and no restrictions on the modes of communication allowed.^[1][2][3]

The principle states that if a given user pays for a certain level of Internet access, and another user pays for the same level of access, then the two users should be able to connect to each other at the subscribed level of access.

Though the term did not enter popular use until several years later, since the early 2000s advocates of net neutrality and associated rules have raised concerns about the ability of broadband providers to use their last mile infrastructure to block Internet applications and content (e.g., websites, services, protocols), particularly those of competitors. In the US particularly, but elsewhere as well, the possibility of regulations designed to mandate the neutrality of the Internet has been subject to fierce debate.

Neutrality proponents claim that telecom companies seek to impose a tiered service model in order to control the pipeline and thereby remove competition, create artificial scarcity, and oblige subscribers to buy their otherwise uncompetitive services. Many believe net neutrality to be primarily important as a preservation of current freedoms.^[4] Vinton Cerf, considered a "father of the Internet" and co-inventor of the Internet Protocol, Tim Berners-Lee, creator of the Web, and many others have spoken out in favor of network neutrality.

Network neutrality – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Clouds, big data, and smart assets: Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch

Advancing technologies and their swift adoption are upending traditional business models. Senior executives need to think strategically about how to prepare their organizations for the challenging new environment.

AUGUST 2010 • Jacques Bughin, Michael Chui, and James Manyika

Source: McKinsey Global Institute

In This Article

• Trend 1: Distributed cocreation moves into the mainstream
• Trend 2: Making the network the organization
• Trend 3: Collaboration at scale
• Trend 4: The growing ‘Internet of Things’
• Trend 5: Experimentation and big data
• Trend 6: Wiring for a sustainable world
• Trend 7: Imagining anything as a service
• Trend 8: The age of the multisided business model
• Trend 9: Innovating from the bottom of the pyramid
• Trend 10: Producing public good on the grid

Two-and-a-half years ago, we described eight technology-enabled business trends that were profoundly reshaping strategy across a wide swath of industries.¹ We showed how the combined effects of emerging Internet technologies, increased computing power, and fast, pervasive digital communications were spawning new ways to manage talent and assets as well as new thinking about organizational structures.

Since then, the technology landscape has continued to evolve rapidly. Facebook, in just over two short years, has quintupled in size to a network that touches more than 500 million users. More than 4 billion people around the world now use cell phones, and for 450 million of those people the Web is a fully mobile experience. The ways information technologies are deployed are changing too, as new developments such as virtualization and cloud computing reallocate technology costs and usage patterns while creating new ways for individuals to consume goods and services and for entrepreneurs and enterprises to dream up viable business models. The dizzying pace of change has affected our original eight trends, which have continued to spread (though often at a more rapid pace than we anticipated), morph in unexpected ways, and grow in number to an even ten.²

Ten tech-enabled business trends to watch – McKinsey Quarterly – High Tech – Strategy & Analysis

Another amazing video. This one is on Elevator Pitch.  

I was looking for something completely different and found this. It is awesome.

Great article to read around Cloud computing. I believe Cloud computing will be huge for next few years. Every application will start moving towards cloud. It has already taken of with offering from Google and Amazon. It just makes sense to let big companies take care of all the infrastructure.

But there are challenges too and the article by Stacey Higginbotham just highlights these challenges. The 10 reason provided in article that will hold cloud computing back for enterprise customers are.

1. It’s not secure.
2. It can’t be logged
3. It’s not platform agnostic
4. Reliability is still an issue.
5. Portability isn’t seamless
6. It’s not environmentally sustainable.
7. Cloud computing still has to exist on physical servers.
8. The need for speed still reigns at some firms.
9. Large companies already have an internal cloud
10. Bureaucracy will cause the transition to take longer than building replacement housing in New Orleans.

I may not agree with all of the above but there is merit to challenging the cloud.

Read More at: 10 Reasons Enterprises Aren’t Ready to Trust the Cloud – GigaOM

Great stuff… So you ready to write some new Apps for iPhone??? 

iFund™

KPCB’s iFund™ is a $100M investment initiative that will fund market-changing ideas and products that extend the revolutionary new iPhone and iPod touch platform. The iFund™ is agnostic to size and stage of investment and will invest in companies building applications, services and components. Focus areas include location based services, social networking, mCommerce (including advertising and payments), communication, and entertainment.

KPCB – iFund™ Initiative

One of my close friends recently decided to leave Microsoft and start his own company. He has been with Microsoft for a long time and the change from MS to a starting a new organization will be a big one. When I started thinking about this change I started thinking about my own journey through various organizations. Every organization has an character, a heart and a soul. What do I mean? Let me take you through my journey through these organizations and explain…

Baan(1997-2000): A Successful ERP company trying to accept globalization and experimenting with distributed development across NL, US and India. In 1997 that was tough thing to do with infrastructure limitations and also cultural limitations. There was still frictions between different teams on ownership of work. This instability was not just in development but also in management originally the company was run from NL then it was taken over by management in US. Management styles are very different between NL and US. It was a great learning experience to see how a successful company was struggling to cope up with time.

Nortel(2001): Again a successful company trying to survive in economic downturn. There was chaos everywhere. The goal seemed to be survival to fight another day. It was tough with major layoffs going on in every division. Moral was low and people spend more time in worrying rather than working.

e-Emphasys(2001-2005): An entrepreneurial venture trying to define itself. Are we Consulting company or a Product company? Should we focus on long term strategy or short term gains? How do we refuse lucrative consulting projects today and just focus on product development for long term benefit? It is amazing how this conflict impacted every decision we made. Basically we just could not decide what we were. Some employees loved consulting and working closely with customers other did not like traveling as consultants and were happy doing product development but for a startup you do not have choice you make your call based on daily needs. The key learning was define your strategy and follow it. You cannot do everything successfully and grow.

SAMSys/Sirit(2005-2006): Another small entrepreneurial venture in RFID space struggling to raise capital and survive to see brighter days. We all could see the hockey stick but the rapid growth in industry was just not happening. Finally we just ran out of money and Sirit took us over. The key lesson was raise capital when you can and not when you need it most.

Microsoft(2006-2008): Amazingly successful company trying to maintain alignment across all its products. Think about it when a new release of Visual studio is planned you have to make sure it is compatible with the latest under development release of SQL, Share Point and Office. When new version of BizTalk is built it is also dependent on SQL, Share Point and Office and Visual studio designer. Did I miss the Windows releases. How do you keep all this in sync. It is a complex problem to solve and I think the company does pretty well to maintain this alignment.

Alignment is really crucial for overall success but I personally think it takes too much time and effort and affects time that can be spent on innovation. I am sure someone higher up in the organization thinks about it.

So this brief info about companies I have worked for. What about your companies? What was/is your company like? What does its character look like? Do share with me… Until then enjoy…

McKinsey published a new article on 8 new Business Technology trends. It is a great article. Please register at McKinsey site to read the complete article. Following are 8 Trends to watch according to Mckinsey.

1. Distributing Cocreation (Managing Relationships)
2. Using Consumers as innovators (Managing Relationships)
3. Tapping into World of Talent (Managing Relationships)
4. Extracting more value from interactions (Managing Relationships)
5. Expanding the frontiers of automation (Managing Capital and assets)
6. Unbundling production from delivery (Managing Capital and assets)
7. Putting more science into management (Leveraging information in new ways)
8. Making business from Information (Leveraging information in new ways)

You can register for Mckinsey newsletter at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com.

 

 

Following are steps to solve any problem.

• Fact Gather
  • Interview
    • Internal
    • External
  • Gather Data
    • Company
    • Competitors
    • Customers
  • Market Research
  • Internet Research
  • Facilitated Group Sessions
• Analyze
  • Process Analysis
  • Financial Analysis
  • Value Drivers
    • Simulate/Model
    • Value Chain Analysis
    • Benchmarking
    • Business Ecosystem
      • <value net>
      • <5 Forces>
• Interpret
  • Team Brainstorming
  • Client/Consultant Brainstorming
  • Progress Reviews
  • Use of Firm Methodologies
• Motivate
  • One-On-One Feedback
  • Progress Reporting
  • Coaching/Training
  • Graphic Feedback
• Confirm
  • Final Presentation
  • Report
• Launch
  • Action Plan
  • Coaching