Toshiba Concedes Defeat in the DVD Battle
"TOKYO — The biggest consumer electronic format war in a generation is officially over.
Toshiba, the Japanese electronics giant, threw in the towel on its HD DVD technology Tuesday, announcing that it would no longer develop, produce or market disc players for the format. In doing so, it ceded victory to Sony’s competing Blu-ray format, which now looks set to become the global standard for high-definition DVDs."
This is similar to the competition between VHS and Beta formats in the early 1980s, although, it was Sony that was on the losing side in that technology face-off.
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Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
The 20 Most Important Questions In Business
Forbes recently published an article, by Brett Nelson, regarding essential questions that entrepreneurs need to ask regarding the operation of their businesses. In it he notes that:
“Companies fail for a host of reasons. Bad luck plays a role, sure, but disaster usually strikes because of a more fundamental flaw--in the original idea, the strategy, the execution or all of the above.
When it comes to building a business, even Warren Buffett would agree that no one can spot every opportunity or anticipate every threat. There are simply too many variables. And in an increasingly competitive global economy, those variables are changing faster than ever before.
What entrepreneurs can do is ask the core set of tough questions that govern the fate of any enterprise. Armed with those answers, they stand the best chance of beating some fairly dire odds: Studies estimate that just two-thirds of all start-ups survive the first two years, and less than half make it to the fourth.
Make no mistake: Digging for those answers is a grueling exercise--one that takes serious intellectual and emotional honesty. With any hope, the process begins long before money's been spent, products are built and customers are lost.
The real challenge, though, is to keep digging as the business grows. New opportunities and threats emerge, and yesterday's answers may not--and probably won't--suffice. Relentlessly asking the tough questions is how behemoths like Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) and General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) stay on top.
With that in mind, we present the 20 most important questions entrepreneurs need to answer--and keep answering--to build their businesses. Some highlights:
1. What is your value proposition?
2. Does your product address a viable market?
3. What differentiates your product from competitors'?
4. How big is the threat of new entrants?
5. How much start-up capital do you need?
6. How much cash do you need to survive the early years?
7. How will you finance the business?
8. What are your strengths?
9. What are your weaknesses?
10. How much power do your suppliers have?
11. How much power do your buyers have?
12. How should you sell your product?
13. How should you market your product?
14. Does the business scale?
15. What are your financial projections?
16. What price will consumers pay?
17. How do you protect your intellectual property?
18. How do you keep the help happy?
19. How committed are you to making this happen?
20. What is your end game?”
Go to the Original
“Companies fail for a host of reasons. Bad luck plays a role, sure, but disaster usually strikes because of a more fundamental flaw--in the original idea, the strategy, the execution or all of the above.
When it comes to building a business, even Warren Buffett would agree that no one can spot every opportunity or anticipate every threat. There are simply too many variables. And in an increasingly competitive global economy, those variables are changing faster than ever before.
What entrepreneurs can do is ask the core set of tough questions that govern the fate of any enterprise. Armed with those answers, they stand the best chance of beating some fairly dire odds: Studies estimate that just two-thirds of all start-ups survive the first two years, and less than half make it to the fourth.
Make no mistake: Digging for those answers is a grueling exercise--one that takes serious intellectual and emotional honesty. With any hope, the process begins long before money's been spent, products are built and customers are lost.
The real challenge, though, is to keep digging as the business grows. New opportunities and threats emerge, and yesterday's answers may not--and probably won't--suffice. Relentlessly asking the tough questions is how behemoths like Wal-Mart (nyse: WMT - news - people ), Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ) and General Electric (nyse: GE - news - people ) stay on top.
With that in mind, we present the 20 most important questions entrepreneurs need to answer--and keep answering--to build their businesses. Some highlights:
1. What is your value proposition?
2. Does your product address a viable market?
3. What differentiates your product from competitors'?
4. How big is the threat of new entrants?
5. How much start-up capital do you need?
6. How much cash do you need to survive the early years?
7. How will you finance the business?
8. What are your strengths?
9. What are your weaknesses?
10. How much power do your suppliers have?
11. How much power do your buyers have?
12. How should you sell your product?
13. How should you market your product?
14. Does the business scale?
15. What are your financial projections?
16. What price will consumers pay?
17. How do you protect your intellectual property?
18. How do you keep the help happy?
19. How committed are you to making this happen?
20. What is your end game?”
Go to the Original
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Reality (and its perceptions)
How much of your success is related to your perceptions? Do our perceptions mirror reality accurately?
Two familiar statements regarding reality have surfaced recently. The first, an old standard: “Perception is reality.” The second (attributed to Bill Marriott): “Perception should never be confused with reality.” Our society currently seems to be awash with examples of both. A friend, a one-time market analyst, told me, “Markets create opinions.” I had assumed it was the other way around. From her perspective every market bubble is built on that quote. Market events create decisions; decisions create trends; trends lead to opinions. "Market and business cycles are dead." (the 1990s) "House values will only continue to go up!" (2005)
For good or ill, people are “pattern recognizers” and it is our perceptions of those patterns that lead us to the conclusions we reach. In his recent book, "How Doctors Think," Jerome Groopman notes that physicians will interrupt a patient within fifteen seconds of hearing them describe their symptoms. He calls this, “anchoring” our thinking. It is this anchoring that leads Doctors to a misdiagnosis in, as-much-as, twenty-five percent of the time. Once the doctor goes down that path, they often rule out any alternative diagnosis; they do not engage in any “deep and expansive thinking.”
What if that were true of all of us? Is sixty-five to seventy-five percent accuracy in our perceptions and decision-making good enough?
Which brings me to what I want to do with this blog: I want to contribute to your success. To do this I will challenge your decision-making skills and ask you to have a wider view of your perceptions. Any exploration has its risks and, outside of a physical threat, looking at our interior is among the riskiest. But exploration can have its value as well, and I hope our journey adds richness to your business, management, or career.
The tagline to this blog asks that you stretch your views of management and business. Stretching implies effort. I’ll provide the framework; you provide the participation.
It doesn't matter whether you agree with me or not. Perhaps the question you ask is one that others have asked themselves. Perhaps the opinion you express or the challenge to what I have said helps someone have a significant shift in their perspective.
Don't lurk! Don't stand on the sidelines! If management is your craft; your passion, jump in! If you want to move your career along share your thoughts with others.
Tell me what's on your mind? Tell me what you think!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Joel Moore
Two familiar statements regarding reality have surfaced recently. The first, an old standard: “Perception is reality.” The second (attributed to Bill Marriott): “Perception should never be confused with reality.” Our society currently seems to be awash with examples of both. A friend, a one-time market analyst, told me, “Markets create opinions.” I had assumed it was the other way around. From her perspective every market bubble is built on that quote. Market events create decisions; decisions create trends; trends lead to opinions. "Market and business cycles are dead." (the 1990s) "House values will only continue to go up!" (2005)
For good or ill, people are “pattern recognizers” and it is our perceptions of those patterns that lead us to the conclusions we reach. In his recent book, "How Doctors Think," Jerome Groopman notes that physicians will interrupt a patient within fifteen seconds of hearing them describe their symptoms. He calls this, “anchoring” our thinking. It is this anchoring that leads Doctors to a misdiagnosis in, as-much-as, twenty-five percent of the time. Once the doctor goes down that path, they often rule out any alternative diagnosis; they do not engage in any “deep and expansive thinking.”
What if that were true of all of us? Is sixty-five to seventy-five percent accuracy in our perceptions and decision-making good enough?
Which brings me to what I want to do with this blog: I want to contribute to your success. To do this I will challenge your decision-making skills and ask you to have a wider view of your perceptions. Any exploration has its risks and, outside of a physical threat, looking at our interior is among the riskiest. But exploration can have its value as well, and I hope our journey adds richness to your business, management, or career.
The tagline to this blog asks that you stretch your views of management and business. Stretching implies effort. I’ll provide the framework; you provide the participation.
It doesn't matter whether you agree with me or not. Perhaps the question you ask is one that others have asked themselves. Perhaps the opinion you express or the challenge to what I have said helps someone have a significant shift in their perspective.
Don't lurk! Don't stand on the sidelines! If management is your craft; your passion, jump in! If you want to move your career along share your thoughts with others.
Tell me what's on your mind? Tell me what you think!
I look forward to hearing from you.
Joel Moore
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