As a device, I marvel at its elegance and capability so far beyond the sorts of devices that telephone companies have sold me over the past 15 years. I had a WorldCom phone once that required four screens to get to the address book. I do wish that Nokia was a stronger player as I usually admire the simple elegance of their devices. My teenage son prefers his call & text only Nokia to a hand-me-down iPhone.
One of Blue Pane’s senior developers believes that Microsoft should not be counted-out in the mobility arena if their late and strong entry into the game box (X-box) market should be taken as a sign of their strength when focused. I feel that Apple’s advantage is that they have a clear vision of what is the value of mobile communications or computing much more than an advantage of design or engineering skill in producing portable telephones.
Not so much has been made of their advertising on the phone strategy, iAds. In customer discussions since the advent of the iPhone, I’ve suggested that the ambition of Google, Apple, Microsoft, even Yahoo is to be a mediator of search on the mobile device so that they will reap the attendant advertising revenues. iAds and the FaceTime feature (video chat over a wi-fi network) promise the prospect for a new way of shopping and solving problems. To me, it could be the Apple Store’s authoritative, personal touch brought to the mobile device.
Let’s talk about BP and the oil mess in the Gulf in a related manner. BP professed good corporate citizenship – which I believe to be sincere – and then bought-up every url related to the disaster so that they could control the discussion. Of course, this failed and became a source of major media (sic) discussion portraying them as manipulators which harms their reputation even more. It’s a world of everyone knows and sometimes or too many times inaccurately knows. The opportunity or wonder of the improvements in mobile computing, e.g. iPhones, Droids, iPads, Twitter…., is that we can help each other to know accurately and timely. We have to start by distinguishing in-control from the fear of not being in control and sincerely trusting by enabling those whom we purport to serve.
I’m almost embarrassed by being such a champion of Apple’s products (really, it’s philosophy). I find them such a comfort and inspiration as I see too many once reliable institutions sliding into the ditch.
This time it’s Mercury, although I wondered forever why Ford offered competing brands. Cool, though, was my high school classmate Randy Gonzalez’s push-button transmission on his Mercury Comet- a red convertible, no less. Great names in those days also; better, in my view, than XC 90 or C-Class or 9.5 of today’s models.
One from the Wall Street Journal on 24 May 2010 about the perception of the Chief Information Officer
Section below from this article. As Shelly Lazarus, former CEO of Olgivy & Mather, once suggested to a CIO Conference, “the purpose of technology is to promote the Brand.” Rings true, yet both the lines of business and the IT Departments tend to treat one another as utility consumers and utility providers. Imagine asking the local electric company, “what sort of dishwasher should I purchase?” Except in the corporation, you get the dishwasher selected by IT based upon their perception of utility and form.
1. Does your CIO understand the company’s business strategy and take the lead in determining how technology can help your business achieve its goals?
2. Is your CIO able to think like a senior executive and see the big picture, without getting lost in the details of a problem?
3. Is your CIO an effective communicator, possessing strong questioning, presentation and influence skills?
4. Is your CIO out in front of every major emerging technology, educating senior executives on what each technology does and what it means for the company?
5. Is your CIO skilled at building strong relationships with colleagues at work?
If you answered no to any of these questions, your CIO hasn’t fully developed the broad business understanding, strategic vision and interpersonal skills that it takes to run a company or at least play a bigger role in running one. To acquire or polish those skills, the CIO needs to take part whenever possible in company and other executive-development programs and take the initiative to learn about every aspect of the company’s business by talking to managers from other departments.
I’ve been doing shows for four semesters. This experience has become a sort of survey course in contemporary music, its origins and its styles or forms. I’ve expanded my own library and gained the confidence that just because a song may be new or even popular, it is not necessarily ‘good music.’ I prefer the Duke’s categorization that ‘there are only two kinds of music, good music and the other kind.’ My show on Sunday worked well especially for a 10am slot on the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend.
“Goal is not to do business with people who need what you have but to do business with people who believe what you believe.” “I have a dream, not I have a plan.”
Can this be true?! The nation’s northern-most banana republic! A city that was a city when the Colonies wore tri-cornered and coonskin hats!
First Katrina, the hurricane that hit Mississippi dead-on, overflowed Lake Pontchatrain and flooded New Orleans. Then the genuine disaster of social, civil and federal response. Nearly completely unprepared for what we – my hometown – knew would occur eventually. After all, the City sinks 3″ per year. Somehow, this Keystone Kops-like response was pinned on President George Bush as the proof positive of his administration’s demeanor. Then one domino fell after another. No matter which state, which city, which issue – whether health care programs, lawmaking, car-making or the educational system – one sensed that none of the entities in authority (I prefer the term, leadership) really had much of a plan for what we all sensed would surely happen if we didn’t do something.
By now, the collapse of the housing bubble and the attendant revelations of who was trying – and succeeded- to trick whom only serves to diminish our confidence in ourselves and those that we hoped would lead us (the issue of individual responsibility should be a separate discussion). The startling backdrop is what we are discovering is in an era of near complete collapse of the traditional press. These stories have to fall into their laps or word processors to be uncovered.
Now the BP oil rig disaster and the tragic loss of life! As the uncapped oil gushes and oozes ashore, spreading along the Gulf Coast, again I see a metaphor for the nation’s plight. We took a significant risk by drilling at depth without investment in every safety system available (maybe like loans to traditionally unqualified home buyers); we did not prepare for the contingency of an associated failure threatening vital elements of the economy (fishermen in the wetlands); our initial defense measures depend upon those who got us into the damaging situation (BP, in this case, just like, perhaps the big banks in the collapse); we accept the excuse that the probability of occurrence was so small as to dismiss the need for redundant back-up systems (sort of a Too Big to Fail?); now the people most affected (fisherman and residents of Southern Louisiana) are issued paper towels to help clean-up the mess while the majority of us watch from above wondering how far will the damage extend and who will be held accountable for our cost and suffering?!
Wonder if we’ll find out that someone who sold oil rig safety equipment bought stock in paper towel companies because they knew that this gear would fail when needed?
