Blog Yes & Know

Not all Business Books are Created Equal

Quick, what’s the difference between a book and a doorstop? The answer: nothing, if the book’s not well-written.
Here’s a list of ten books that have changed the way I think. I consider them must-reads for 2007. These are whack-on-the-side-of-the-head good. Some are practical, some are theoretical. If you haven’t read them, fire up your computer and start ordering. If you have, this is the right time for a refresher.

Crossing the Rubicon

Its meteoric rise is the envy of executives and geeks around the world… for those in technology, it is a marvel of Web strategy, and for Wall Street, it just may be the company all aspire to own.
No view of what matters in 2007 could be complete without mentioning Google. I’m going to propose something really crazy–actually blasphemous–here in Silicon Valley. I’m going to go out on a ledge.

Hardware to Watch in 2007

We’re optimistic that 2007 will turn out to be a year of significant progress in the creation of new types of computing devices. Here are some of the things to watch for, and why we think they’re significant:

Software Platforms of the Future

A very important trend to watch in 2007 will be the ongoing efforts to separate the operating system from the platform (the APIs and user interface that an application interacts with).
Key players in this movement include Adobe’s Apollo and Microsoft WPF/E.

Is Vista the End of Windows?

At the end of 2006, Gartner Group predicted that Vista would be the last major release of Windows, with future updates being delivered on the fly, in modular format. “The era of monolithic deployments of software releases is nearing an end,” Gartner said. “Microsoft will be a visible player in this movement and the result will be more flexible updates to Windows and a new focus on quality overall.”

Value Models: Many Ways to Skin a Cat

As in any innovation-driven market, software vendors continue to develop and exploit a variety of business models, most recently a variety of “free” services. Unlike the period of the Internet bubble, during which companies failed because they didn’t monetize their services, many of today’s “free” services are well thought out and are likely to become successful businesses. While this article looks at the monetization side, it is equally important to note that these companies leverage Web 2.0 tools and consequently have dramatically lower development and operating costs than their Internet bubble predecessors.

Has Yahoo Lost Its Mojo?

The jury is still out. There are those who believe Yahoo has lost the clarity of vision needed to complete with a juggernaut like Google, and an increasingly hungry Microsoft. They’re convinced Yahoo has lost the pulse of its community. Other observers believe Yahoo can recover from its recent stumbles, if it recaptures the cachet it once had.
Let’s quickly review some of the facts. Yahoo is battling slowing sales growth, a slumping stock price and a steady stream of executive departures. In spite of these troubles, it is still the dominant player on most of the web. Yahoo is the most visited website on the Internet today with more than 412 million unique users. Since November, 2006, it’s been battling MySpace for the title “Top US Visited Website.”

Good Profits vs. Bad Profits: What You Need to Know As You Grow

“Good” profits are like compound interest or a snowball rolling down a hill. “Bad” profits are like eating your seed corn or spending endowment capital: the results are not immediately apparent, but over time it is an unsustainable situation. For growing businesses, the ability to differentiate between good and bad profits, and generate good profits, is especially important.
So why don’t businesses focus on good profits? One reason is that businesses today are under tremendous pressure to grow, and maintaining growth is hard. For public companies, quarterly reporting can provide a temptation to go for short term gains. As a result “savvy” managers look for any way they can generate a profit today.