deal architect

Return to Sender

I have noticed a pattern where PR firms send me press releases, unsolicited, and when I ask to be taken off their list (which I never asked to be on in first place), they go – sorry you were not meant to be on the list.

One, Ventana PR has used that excuse at least 3-4 times in last couple of years. Their explanation one of those times “I added your email on the unsubcribe (sic) list of our main system but used an alternate system on the last announcement.”  The week prior they had responded on another mailing for another client “My apologies. I thought I took you off my list but apparently missed it. I will go through the database again to make sure that happens.”

Here’s what puzzles me. They must realize annoying analysts and bloggers does not reflect well on their clients, so why do they persist? And their clients – I wonder if they ask to audit how many email recipients have proactively agreed to be on their lists?

I used a book publicity firm during The New Polymath launch. I asked to review the mailing list and the firm said it was “proprietary”. I grudgingly went along till I got an email from Michael Lamoureux (“The Doctor”) asking why the firm was spamming him when he had already published his book review weeks prior.

I fired the firm soon after.

Little Big IT

It’s been interesting watching our daughter’s college talk evolve. As a freshman, there was plenty of “My Big” – as in her big sorority sister. As a sophomore it was more about her “My Little”. Now,  Big and Little seem to be equally used.

We are going through a phase in IT where Big is getting prominence. Lots of Big Data talk. Mark Herring of Software AG recently wrote about its “cousin”, Big Services.

Which is of course leading to debates on Big and Little

Jeff Nolan objected to my describing as Big, Union Pacific’s 20 million temperature readings a day using rail side sensors. He came back  with  Google does over 5 billion text searches, eBay does 1 billion transactions, Twitter, 400 million tweets, Facebook users upload 350 million photos  - PER DAY.

Bruce Rogow, my fellow Gartner alum, raised an interesting point recently. He said we really need Little Data. Specific usable nuggets for the marketing or maintenance or R&D person. Everything else is just process to winnow down the Big Data of their growing data sources.

A CIO  recently told me the biggest shift he has seen in last couple of years is a focus on the Little – not enterprise apps but mobile apps, not broadcast marketing but personalized, social approaches, sensors as data sources,  not massive interfaces from other servers.

I have a feeling the old Thin/Fat client debates are about to reincarnated, and will be even more heated than those the Dustin Hoffman movie caused.

Photo Credit

Apple, an innovation laggard?

Ashlee Vance at BusinessWeek is the latest in a growing chorus of voices that say Apple has hit an innovation wall – no moonshots in sight.

“Google (GOOG), with its self-driving cars and virtual reality glasses, is really starting to show Apple up. Even Microsoft (MSFT), with its motion-detecting Kinect sensor and its incorporation of touch technology into all manner of devices, has added some pressure. It’s looking an awful lot as if we’re on the verge of an era in which massive hardware changes will occur, finally making work in such areas as robotics and human-machine interaction come to fruition.”

Problem is most media and analysts look at product pipeline as their innovation proxy. Wall Street uses R&D spend as its innovation metric and Apple spends a pathetic 2% of revenues on R&D.

And guess what? Apple has been in similar straits for most of the last decade. However, they have had business model innovation (transformed music, publishing, telecommunication markets), channel innovation (resulting in dominant retail and apps ecosystem), supply chain innovation (strategic investments in key components, well tuned contract manufacturing ). And when it comes to product – look at how many game changing features Apple has brought to market – retina displays, Siri, Match etc etc. And then there is the Apple secretive factor – if you can mask a 500,000 sq ft data center from Google Earth, you can do plenty to surprise competitors with all kinds of new products and services. Who’s to say Apple has lost that skill?

Take a look at the Apple chapter in my recent book – download below. You see tons of activities which provide significant competitive advantage beyond well designed products. And none of them add much to the R&D line item.

One of my favorite innovation metrics is What percentage of revenues come from product introduced in last 5 years? Benchmark Samsung, Microsoft, whoever you want against that metric and then let’s discuss who’s a laggard.

Download Apple New Tech Elite

More Innovation

On the New Florence blog

MIT Tech Review’s Disruptive 50

The Science of Picking Pockets

The New Energy Realities

Broadcast Technology at Daytona 500

The Center of the Universe – You

Your Car as a Mobile Device

Elevator Innovations

Chris-Craft’s Global Niches

The Flintstones and the Jetsons

Been thinking recently about speed - and lack thereof.  I am reading a Popular Science article on a NASA scientist working on a warp drive. I am watching how Amazon, Google, eBay and a bunch of startups like Zipments are chasing each other around same day delivery models. You can just feel the rush.

Faster than light travel may be theoretically impossible – if you believe Einstein. But I am surprised most of us are not impatient, in contrast, with even glacial speeds.

I recently got a press release about a financials shared service success story. I had to double check the date on the release. My first Gartner research note in 1995 was on shared services. 18 years later, my analyst colleagues are supposed to be impressed?

Why don’t many others point only 6.5 of SAP’s revenues have come from new products introduced in last 5 years compared to 60%+ for Apple?

Why are more of us not yelling at Verizon and our cable companies and asking when we will get Google Fiber speeds at 1GBPS and at those price points?

Impatience has its virtues.

I see how Katie Couric and several Hollywood types founded Stand Up 2 Cancer driven by their impatience with progress by the life sciences establishment. They are funding agile research Dream Teams which are showing promising results almost immediately. Reading Tampa Police Detective Sal Augeri’s frustration about the IRS Criminal Investigation unit and how the IRS has since massively increased focus on Stolen Identity Refund Fraud, I say impatience is good.

The best example of impatience to me came from an airline employee who was supposed to merely repeat the script explanation, but clearly frustrated with the pace of integration between her airline and one they were merging, she told me:

“The Flintstones have taken over the Jetsons”

We should all be more like her.

"It's not complicated"

AT&T's running a set of commercials with that theme. Lots of smart young kids reinforce the supposed simplicity associated with AT&T's 4G network. I look forward to a day soon when these kids all grown up go on Youtube and describe their actual, honest to goodness AT&T experiences:)

Frankly, T-Mobile should take over the tag line, as it rolls out its Simple Choice. ZDNet reports

" it's unlimited "everything." There are no data caps, no bill shock, and no hidden fees. Just one rate plan, which will cost $50, $60 or $70, respectively, for varying degrees of service.

You can either pay for your new smartphone at the full price up-front when you start your new plan, or you can pay off the device over time with additional monthly costs. What's different is that you can leave T-Mobile at any time. That said, if you take the latter option, you will can't just jump ship to a rival network — you will have to pay off the rest of the phone's price upon leaving.

T-Mobile will also allow you to effectively bring your own device to the network — giving an entirely different spin on the enterprise buzzterm "BYOD.""

Actually, I would feel much better if T-Mobile offered something similar in Germany and other markets where it is dominant, not a distant number 4 as in the US market. And it would be great if T-Mobile also took aim at outrageous global roaming rates.

Nonetheless it is a bold move by T-Mobile to try and tackle invoice shock, lock in and lack of network portability in the way too complicated industry today.

 

SAP faces massive HANA pushback

As SAP chases the Big Data market it is running into competition from IBM, Oracle, HP, SAS, Cloudera and a host of other analytical players. But a more existential threat to the product may be coming from an unexpected source - Hollywood.

A representative at Hanna-Barbera, the legandary animation studio said "Our attorneys are used to all kinds of infringement attempts around our characters like Fred Flintstone, but frankly it is shameful that they would disrespect one of our founders."

Jack Hanna, famous for his wildlife shows, says "It's pretty clear they are trying to associate their product with our speed - that of the cheetahs"

Daryl Hannah,  of Splash fame, said "Oh, it grosses me out. Association with Big and Data is not flattering at all"

An SAP  representative when asked about these reactions said "Oops ..and here we were worried about Woody Allen and Mia Farrow."

When we reached out to Woody Allen, he told us he was working on a cartoon, interestingly with some Hanna Barbera alum. Asked about the plot, he turned coy but dropped a few clues

"It's about a European clan which has discovered the Fountain of Youth and what they do with much better memories and legs"

Wait - is that legs or mermaid tails?

More New Renaissance

on the innovation blog

Time Lapse Sequences from the ISS

The Social Oscars

Lab Created Eco Foods

Mahindra Reva E20

Geeks at the Oscars

The Pesky Password problem

Female engineers make the mark in Detroit

Tech event backstage passes

Innovation Perennials

I did a morning run to Lowes this morning. The employees were cheerful and helpful as I looked for Birds of Paradise for Margaret's gardening hobby. The morale was impressive considering they had been there since 8 am on Easter Sunday. But then if you were surrounded by cheerful objects as in the photo I took below, why would you not be?

My work at the New Florence store keeps me similarly cheerful. Through March, I have posted 198 innovation entries this year.  At that pace, I could beat last year's  run of 750. Not likely given my book and other commitments this year, but I don't mind starting early and staying late with so much color and flavor.

BTW, Happy Easter!

"CIO Plus"

Peter High had a Forbes column a few weeks ago where he identified CIOs who have also taken on titles of Chief Innovation Officers, Heads of HR, Chief Supply Chain Officers, and Heads of Shared Services and he identified several at Marsh & McLellan, Waste  Management and other entities.  Chris Murphy at Information Week identifies a  trend where CIOs may soon morph to Chief Digital Officers.

In addition to the many innovative executives Peter and Chris identify, I have had the chance over the years to interact with many others who have been CIO/CTO+ for a while now.

Here are some:

Rob Carter, who is also Co-CEO at Fedex Corporate Services

Glenn Renwick, who is now CEO of Progressive Insurance

Charlene Begley, who also headed GE's appliance/lighting business till her recent medical leave

Vijay Ravindran, Chief Digital Officer at The Washington Post Co.

Phiroz Darukhanavala, who has called his CTO group, Digital Business at BP for over a decade

Steve Miranda,  who heads Fusion apps for Oracle, also has many internal CIO duties

Sukumar Rajgopal, who is also Chief Innovation Officer at Cognizant