Who Owns Strategy? We All Do.
A couple weeks back, I was teaching a course at Santa Clara University for their high tech marketing program, when a bright young product manager asked me a question. In a room filled with engineers and a handful of…
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October 23, 2008 - 10:00 AM
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The Apple iPhone: Successes and Challenges for the Mobile Industry
The Apple iPhone is easily the most publicized new mobile device in recent memory. But despite all the discussion about the product, there’s relatively little hard information available to the public on its impact. How is it being used? What effect is it having on customers and on the technology industry?
To help answer those questions, Rubicon Consulting conducted a detailed survey of 460 randomly-selected iPhone users in the US. This report summarizes the findings from the survey, and what they mean for users and other companies.
Articles
Warning: Don't adopt the software services model in increments
By Michael Mace on June 23, 2008
Like an oyster, software as a service business models are best consumed in one gulp rather than nibbled over time.
Who's making money on the Web?
By Bruce LaFetra on June 23, 2008
While failure for the high-tech entrepreneur is less likely to result in death, the parallels between the Gold Rush and the current Web-based economy are many. In both cases, participants must to adapt to a new way of life, with new rules. Or rather, no pre-existing, fixed rules. Silicon Valley’s famous tolerance of entrepreneurial failure has its roots more than 150 years ago in the Gold Rush when more than 90,000 people made their way to California in the two years following John Marshall’s discovery of gold near Sacramento in January, 1848. By 1854, more than 300,000—representing more than one percent of the total population of the United States at the time—had come west in search of fortune.
It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Community!
By Nilofer Merchant on June 23, 2008
Last Friday, I went to a party in Atherton and met two CEOs who used the word “community” as their secret sauce.
Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide - Professor and Speaker Amy Shuen Captures the Essence
By Marsha Keeffer on June 23, 2008
In Web 2.0: A Strategy Guide, author Amy Shuen demonstrates subject mastery from the first sentence. Steeped in her topic (she’s taught it at Wharton, Haas School of Business, CEIBS and École Polytechnique), the reader gets detailed information on the meaning of Web 2.0. This isn’t a book filled with hype—it provides theory, thoughtful detail and is practical. Chapters end with strategic and tactical questions. The illustrations and screen captures provide depth and clarity. Companies like Flickr, LinkedIn, and Facebook are used as case studies.
Can the iPhone be Apple's next big thing?
By Michael Mace on May 28, 2008
Apple’s excellent April financial report — revenue up 43% and year over year and profits up 36% — masked the disturbing news that Apple’s iPod business has basically stopped growing. iPod units were up only one percent year over year. Most of Apple’s growth came from the Macintosh business. Although Macs are on a roll at the moment, it’s risky for Apple to rely only on the relatively mature personal computer market for all of its growth. With the iPod now saturating, Apple needs its new iPhone business to provide a second growth engine.
Rubicon Influencer Marketing Event
By Marsha Keeffer on May 27, 2008
A Rubicon Sparkler at the beginning of the season saw CEO Nilofer Merchant presenting a discussion on influencer marketing with Nick Hayes, co-author of Influencer Marketing: Who Really Influences Your Customers.
VARs adapt to new realities
By Bruce LaFetra on May 26, 2008
Technology businesses come and go, but as a category VARs are the survivors of the technology world. A couple of years ago an editor asked me if SaaS was going to kill the channel. At the time, it was too early to tell exactly what was going to happen, but I expressed confidence that VARs would survive as an important channel, even if they had to evolve in significant ways.
No, No, Rupert
By Nilofer Merchant on May 25, 2008
In newspaper publishing, Rupert Murdoch is cutting a wide swath through the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post —even shrinking the physical size of both newspapers to cut costs. New channels—Craigslist, Yahoo, Google AdWords and others—have pulled classified and other types of ads away from newspapers. The New York Times, in an attempt to increase its online readership, is working on an API that aims to make the entire newspaper “programmable,” says Josh Catone at ReadWriteWeb.
Success U -- Business Model Key Questions
By Nilofer Merchant on March 27, 2008
About 110 Series A Entrepreneurs have formed into a collaborative through Montgomery & Associates Law Firm. A few of us industry experts are doing “faculty sessions” where we teach the essentials with the idea that quick, fast bursts of what really matters will help short-cut the learning curve and accelerate success. So a few weeks ago, I spoke at what is now called SuccessU (name is under construction) regarding Business Models, and the following are the video clips and notes from the talk. A PDF is available at the bottom of this entry.
Don't Throw Your Influencers Under the Bus Just Yet
By Michael Mace on February 19, 2008
One thing the marketing industry and the tech industry have in common is that they’re both periodically swept by fad ideas (call them memes if you want to sound hip) that enchant everyone to the point of obsession. That obsession then produces a backlash that causes everyone to swing the other way and completely dismiss the original idea. We’re going through one of those cycles right now with the idea of influencer marketing. As usual, the reality is somewhere in between the hype and the backlash—influencer marketing is not the be-all that some people made it out to be, but it’s not bunk either.
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