December 2010
6 posts
The Kind of People That Matter Most...
Those are the kind of people that matter most in this new world, because seeing connections where no one else does is the way you can innovate best, and thus the way you can be successful. But just as important, it’s these kinds of people who are passionate about their ideas. They’re the kind of people that will explain to anyone who will listen why what they see (and what no one else does) is...
What the debate on the economy is about exactly...
Keynesians think that the market failed because of lack of regulation in a dynamic innovative environment. Those with Classical inclinations believe that exactly the opposite is true; that it was ill-conceived regulatory initiatives like the concerted push to expand home ownership in America, underwritten by FANNIE MAE and FREDDIE MAC, and facilitated by easy money, that caused a housing bubble...
Caring for Your Introvert
Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day? Who loves quiet conversations about feelings or ideas, and can give a dynamite presentation to a big audience, but seems awkward in groups and maladroit at small talk? Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate? Who growls or scowls or grunts or winces when accosted with pleasantries by people who are...
Coffee Shop Integrity on the Internet
if we vomit every single detail of our lives on each other — that is: what we ate for breakfast; the latest app we installed on our iPhone; our highest score on a mobile game; or detailed every item of our personal schedule since the last time we chatted — we would surely not get around to discussing the deeper nuances of what life has been teaching us. We’d be so hard pressed to squeeze in a...
Amazon & The Future of Books →
Amazon has been both the best and worst things to happen to the publishing industry.
The best, because smaller more niche focused books can reach any audience when it would have been much more difficult in a place like Barnes and Noble.
The worst, because of their power in negotiating prices with publishers who seem to be stuck on the value of books at $20+
If anything, this is a lesson that...
Training People for an Industrial Economy?
There’s a massive misalignment between the labor pool and the job pool, and I blame our undergraduate institutions. They’re still training people for an industrial economy. While not every person graduating can be an engineer, business folks are not going to be managing and working with production lines, or for that matter filling roles in investment banks and management consulting...
November 2010
9 posts
Blast from the Past: How to use a Telephone
(3056 KB) Watch on posterous Unbelievable how far things have come in 50 years. I love stuff like this that reminds you about certain things that are normal for people today that a generation ago distorted reality and changed the way the world worked. Posted via email from Marcelo Somers | Comment »
Netflix on Cloud Computing →
THis one is a bit more technical, but still a great read for any manager to understand the costs and benefits of cloud computing. It’s trendy, but something that almost any company needs to come to understand and evaluate over the next few years.
My New Project
Welcome to Behind Companies Hi and welcome to Behind Companies! This site is written and curated by me, Marcelo Somers. I have always been passionate about learning the stories behind how companies arrived where they are. It might stem from my interest in history, but it is truly fascinating to hear the inside stories of what made companies succeed and fail. It is also something that helps...
Here's exactly what "Share/Social is the New...
Billboard magazine reports that The Beatles sold more than two million individual songs worldwide and in excess of 450,000 albums in its first week on Apple’s iTunes Music Store. (The Beatles’ catalog was added to iTunes on November 16th.) According to Experian Hitwise, it was social media — not search — that drove a lot of the online interest and, more importantly, the online traffic...
What the Average Person Doesn't Understand About...
I think that the attitude that many people have about working in big companies can be summarized by a LinkedIn status update I saw recently, written by Marcin Janowski:There are two kinds of people: those who want to go work for a company to make it successful, and those who want to go work for a successful company.” I’m proud to be the former.If you’re not yet working for a big...
What not to do in life
Do not ever work Picasso used to paint all the time, Henry Moore sculpt the whole day. Others would have thought they were working themselves to death. They actually were reenergizing and reinvigorating themselves. Do what you enjoy doing. Do not ever work. Do not try hard Let it simply flow. Jimmy Hendrix did not play guitar. He simply let his feelings flow unabated. Muhammad Ali used to...
Protecting Jobs & The Future of Business
Here’s Louis Gerstner formerly of RJ Reynolds, American Express, and IBM: If you look at the history of America, you know we started out making shoes, we started out making clothes, we started out with basic manufacturing industries. What has proven to be enormously successful over 100 years is we’ve moved up the chain. Those industries moved to other countries that were more than...
A Lesson on Incentives: How Taxing the Rich Hurts...
People who are concerned about the genuinely needy should keep in mind that government doesn’t create resources, it merely takes money from one group and hands it to another. In the process, the government actually makes the total pie smaller, because of the disincentives of taxation. If the government reduced its parasitism on the productive classes, then private charitable giving would...
A lesson to business people who think apps make...
We’re making iPhone software primarily for three reasons: Dogfooding: We use iPhones ourselves. Installed base: A ton of other people already have iPhones. Profitability: There’s potentially a lot of money in iPhone apps. Of course, the last two are related: it’s hard to have one without the other, but subtle implementation or demographic differences can make a huge installed base yield...
October 2010
9 posts
NPR on Why Incentives Matter
Back in the 1700s, the British government paid sea captains to take felons to Australia. At first, it didn’t work so well, Tabarrok says: About a third of the males on one particularly horrific voyage died. The rest arrived beaten, starved, and sick. I mean, they were hobbling off, those who were lucky enough to survive. ...
NPR on Why Incentives Matter
Back in the 1700s, the British government paid sea captains to take felons to Australia. At first, it didn’t work so well, Tabarrok says: About a third of the males on one particularly horrific voyage died. The rest arrived beaten, starved, and sick. I mean, they were hobbling off, those who were lucky enough to survive. ...
Things Economists Agree On - Please government,...
A ceiling on rents reduces the quantity and quality of housing available. (93%) Tariffs and import quotas usually reduce general economic welfare. (93%) Flexible and floating exchange rates offer an effective international monetary arrangement. (90%) Fiscal policy (e.g., tax cut and/or government expenditure increase) has a significant stimulative impact on a less than fully employed economy....
How media changes politics
Now, though…When attention is scarce and there are many choices, media costs something other than money. It costs interesting. If you are angry or remarkable or an outlier, you’re interesting, and your idea can spread. People who are dull and merely aligned with powerful interests have a harder time earning attention, because money isn’t sufficient. via sethgodin.typepad.com ...
Deliberately Uninformed
Many people in the United States purchase one or fewer books every year. Many of those people have seen every single episode of American Idol. There is clearly a correlation here. Access to knowledge, for the first time in history, is largely unimpeded for the middle class. Without effort or expense, it’s possible to become informed if you choose. For less than your cable TV bill, you...
Why Government-mandated health insurance doesn't...
Imagine you are an employer. You certainly aren’t going to pay an employee more than his value to the organization and competition from other employers will tend to prevent you from paying less. What matters here will be the total cost of employment, not the individual components. If your employees would rather have more in health insurance and less in wages, you will likely comply. If the...
Older means you know too much
Knowing that “it can’t be done” because you can recount each of the failed attempts in the last 20 years to solve the problem can be a boat anchor on insight and imagination. This not only effects individuals, but happens to companies as they age. via steveblank.com This in itself is why young talent is invaluable at any company, but especially so at well-established companies. It does say...
ngmoco M&A Fail
And perhaps most interesting, Ngmoco is growing, but has spent a lot of money for that growth. In 2008, its revenues were only $484,000, and it lost $2.46 million. 2009 went better on the revenue side, jumping up to $3.16 million, but the company’s losses came out to a whopping $10.89 million. Pretty amazing that financials like that led to a sale of $403 million — both Ngmoco and...
Purple Squirrels - How to get the best talent for...
HR professionals have a name for the highly sought but elusive job candidate whose skills and experiences precisely match an employer’s needs: the “purple squirrel.” What’s happened with the aftermath of the Great Recession is that the process of hiring back staff in the “average” organization has been delayed by both software/computer upgrades that allow...
September 2010
2 posts
Will you...?
Tomorrow, in a very real sense, your life — the life you author from scratch on your own — begins. How will you use your gifts? What choices will you make? Will inertia be your guide, or will you follow your passions? Will you follow dogma, or will you be original? Will you choose a life of ease, or a life of service and adventure? Will you wilt under criticism, or will you...
The Forever Recession
Thus, middle class jobs that existed because companies had no choice are now gone. Protectionism isn’t going to fix this problem. Neither is stimulus of old factories or yelling in frustration and anger. No, the only useful response is to view this as an opportunity. To poorly paraphrase Clay Shirky, every revolution destroys the last thing before it turns a profit on a new thing. The...
August 2010
1 post
A Culture of Meetings
A Culture of Meetings Somewhere in the evolution of a growing company, meetings take over. At the time, it seems like a good idea because the product roadmap is all over the floor, key people are quitting, or there’s lots of yelling in the hallways. Whatever the disaster, a single well-led, efficient meeting with the right people provided a solution to a hard problem. Those who were watching...
July 2010
2 posts
Everyone should get a Chevy Volt! We've already...
Quantifying just how much taxpayer money will have been wasted on the hastily developed Volt is no easy feat. Start with the $50 billion bailout (without which none of this would have been necessary), add $240 million in Energy Department grants doled out to G.M. last summer, $150 million in federal money to the Volt’s Korean battery supplier, up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks for purchasers and...
Thoughts Worth Avoiding
I’ve found there are two types of thoughts especially worth avoiding—thoughts like the Nile Perch in the way they push out more interesting ideas. One I’ve already mentioned: thoughts about money. Getting money is almost by definition an attention sink. The other is disputes. These too are engaging in the wrong way: they have the same velcro-like shape as genuinely interesting ideas,...
December 2009
26 posts
Mark Cuban: Success & Motivation
Success is about making your life a special version of unique that fits who you are. Not what other people want you to be.via Blog Maverick Posted via email from Marcelo’s blog | Comment »
The Winspear Opera House is gorgeous!
See and download the full gallery on posterous Sent from my iPhone Posted via email from Marcelo’s blog | Comment »
Innovation in Banking - Square is looking great! →
I love what Square is doing in the world of credit card transactions and banking. Just like Mint, the banking industry just lacks innovation, and I’m sure this is poised for some great success.
There is one thing - what I’d like to see is the business model reversed. Instead of business opting into the Square system, make the concept of emailed, beautiful receipts integrate with all...
Dustin Curtis: Humble Beginnings
All successful businesses start as an idea in the back of an insane entrepreneur’s mind. They start with a single storefront and a single product. All successful businesses start with a single customer. And no matter what — no matter the size it is aiming for nor the type of business it is looking toward — all successful companies start with something simple and quaint (even if it...
The Man Who Predicted the Depression
Taking his cue from David Hume and David Ricardo, Mises explained how the banking system was endowed with the singular ability to expand credit and with it the money supply, and how this was magnified by government intervention. Left alone, interest rates would adjust such that only the amount of credit would be used as is voluntarily supplied and demanded. But when credit is force-fed beyond...
AOL's new logo(s) - seriously?
-via Gigaom.com This is a joke, right? Please tell me I missed the joke… Update: idsgn linked to this video showing off the new Aol logo. Still doesn’t work, sorry… Posted via email from Marcelo’s blog | Comment »
The Geography of a Recession: An animated chart of...
via cohort11.americanobserver.net This blows me away. Very sad. NOTE: Click the link to see it bigger. If you’re watching it on this site, the darker the color the higher the unemployment rate. Posted via web from Marcelo’s blog | Comment »
Rupert Murdock: Without eTablets, “Newspapers Will...
Old habits die hard. Rupert Murdoch believes that the future of the newspaper business is subscriptions—electronic subscriptions. He’s done with giving away his news for free on the Web and to search engines like Google. Instead thinks that Kindle-like tablet computers can save the media industry. It’s a notion that’s been floated before: an entire newsstand in a color tablet which delivers...
McDonald's learning a thing or two about design &...
Danish Modern furniture. Flat-screen TVs. Free Wi-Fi.You want fries with that?A McDonald’s in midtown Manhattan became the first in the U.S. this fall to undergo a sleek, European-style makeover similar to what McDonald’s has done at thousands of outlets around in France and the United Kingdom.The eatery is outfitted with outlets for plugging in laptops, upholstered vinyl chairs...
How AdMob's mobile video ads will work on the...
via youtube.com I will be interested to see if this actually takes off. I think it’ll drive most consumers absolutely nuts! Think about loading up your app in a quiet environment and this blaring video ad pops up. Very intrusive. Posted via web from Marcelo’s blog | Comment »
WSJ: Where Are the Doctors to Implement ObamaCare?
Health care reform will fail to achieve its promise of affordable access to medical care unless the nation’s physician workforce is substantially expanded to meet the demand that newly insured patients will place on an already over-burdened system. A comprehensive strategy for growing the physician workforce – as well as other allied health professionals such as nurses and...
Seth Godin: Debt, equity and a third thing that...
It works like this: you have an idea, a fledgling business or a new market to enter. You find an amateur investor (a wealthy dentist, a retired executive) and raise the money to bring it to market. And in return? The investor gets $xx for every unit you sell. From the first one until forever. No fancy bookkeeping, no board meetings, no worrying about the accounting. Instead, you pay a royalty on...
Paul Krugman - The (crisis) story so far, in one...
World industrial production in the Great Depression and now: via Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com Paul Krugman paints an amazing picture of what happened in this economic crisis - industrial production in 1929 vs 2008. Scary to believe that we dropped below even the Great Depression for a bit, but it is really encouraging to see the two lines diverge recently. Posted via web from...
How Chipotle, Pinkberry, and others win big by...
The dirty little secret about simple: It’s actually hard to do. That’s why most people make complex stuff. Simple requires deep thought, discipline, and patience – things that many companies lack. That leaves room for you. Do something simpler than your competitors and you’ll win over a lot of people. … When you choose that path, you get clarity. Everything is simpler. It’s simpler to...
The Man Who Named the iMac and Wrote Think...
Jobs is a very Walt Disney-like character, Segall says. He’s best at creating teams — that’s how he’s creative. “He surrounds himself with creative people and gives them room to be creative,” Segall says. “He’s an interesting combo of taste, no compromise and charisma. via cultofmac.com A great look at how the Think Different ad campaign came to be, as well as the iMac’s name. I do...
Everyone is clueless
You don’t want everyone. You want the right someone. Someone who cares about what you do. Someone who will make a contribution that matters. Someone who will spread the word. As soon as you start focusing on finding the right someone, things get better, fast. That’s because you can ignore everyone and settle in and focus on the people you actually want. via...
Efficient Market Theory and the Crisis
Our crisis wasn’t due to blind faith in the Efficient Market Hypothesis. The fact that risk premiums were low does not mean they were nonexistent and that market prices were right. Despite the recent recession, the Great Moderation is real and our economy is inherently more stable. But this does not mean that risks have disappeared. To use an analogy, the fact that automobiles today are...
Some people are better than others
The challenge, then is to look for cues that people give you that they are better, and then cater to them. Every industry has people who are worth more, buzz more, care more and buy more than other people. Don’t treat people the same, find the ones that matter more to you, and hug them. via sethgodin I’ve been noodling this thought more and more as I study business strategy. So...
The State of Business Strategy in the Mobile Phone...
The Mobile Phone industry today is less of a mess than many analysts make it out to be. As tech-geeks, we get so wrapped up in the latest and greatest, we often forget that there is a strong level of business strategy behind these cool toys we all love. Michael Porter is the founding father of modern business strategy. His innovations have brought us concepts from the Value Chain to the Five...
Google unveils free turn-by-turn directions for...
A free turn-by-turn directions app for mobile phone is also a shot across the bow of the wireless carriers, most of which offer their own turn-by-turn direction apps that require a monthly fee, such as AT&T Navigator, which is also available for other cell phone platforms. It’s another indication that the growing prominence of smartphones is shifting the balance of power in the mobile space...
Twitter vs. the Facebook status update
Different social media spaces have different norms. You may not be able to describe them, but you sure can feel them. Finding the space that clicks with you is often tricky, just as finding a voice in a new setting can be. This is not to say that one space is better than the other. I don’t believe that at all. But I do believe that Facebook and Twitter are actually quite culturally...