Blog Yes & Know

Customization Marketing Done Wrong

When Mike Mace joined Rubicon, the rest of us got a chance to see a grown man wear funky white tennis shoes to work, and well, get away with it. Mike has been wearing Jack Purcell shoes as long as Nilofer has known him (15 years). They are practically part of his personality. Turns out that you can get these custom made to your liking, online. So when Christmas rolled around, this inspired a present. Initially, we thought Nike (which now owns the Jack Purcell brand) was cooler than cool, but as we worked our way through the process we found five areas that “broke” an otherwise fabulous idea, and inspires some lessons for good personalized marketing.

What’s the Big Idea?

Greatness in leadership is often associated with being the “big idea” person. When most of us think “Big Idea,” we think of technology pioneers like Steve Jobs (personal computers), Jeff Hawkins (PDAs). Heck we might think of Ben Franklin (electricity!) or whoever it was that invented the Internet. And then there appears to be a gap between those “big idea” folks and us high-tech executives. Hooey I say.
Creating “Big Ideas” is available to all of us. While I do agree education, experience, connections, and intelligence play roles, here are some ideas to guide you. With this, I hope to debunk the myth of where great ideas come from, and help you generate “Big Ideas” in your field that help you and your company to win markets.

What's the Big Idea?

Greatness in leadership is often associated with being the “big idea” person. When most of us think “Big Idea,” we think of technology pioneers like Steve Jobs (personal computers), Jeff Hawkins (PDAs). Heck we might think of Ben Franklin (electricity!) or whoever it was that invented the Internet. And then there appears to be a gap between those “big idea” folks and us high-tech executives. Hooey I say.
Creating “Big Ideas” is available to all of us. While I do agree education, experience, connections, and intelligence play roles, here are some ideas to guide you. With this, I hope to debunk the myth of where great ideas come from, and help you generate “Big Ideas” in your field that help you and your company to win markets.

Difference bw Google and Yahoo

The press sometimes depicts Google and Yahoo as head to head competitors, but if you work closely with the two companies you’ll notice substantial differences between them. These differences affect the sorts of partnerships you can create with them, and the sorts of competition you can expect if you end up competing with them.

Bring on the “Singularity”

Our usual rule when facing any long-term challenge is that you need to change the rules. If a big competitor’s about to bombard the place where you’re standing, move someplace else. If your economic model is becoming obsolete, find a new model. In the case of people living and working in Silicon Valley, the challenge is the rapid migration of tech jobs to low-cost countries, andthe opportunity is to embrace and consciously accelerate the rate of change. Silicon Valley can’t be the cheapest place to write software, but it may survive by being the nimblest.

Bring on the "Singularity"

Our usual rule when facing any long-term challenge is that you need to change the rules. If a big competitor’s about to bombard the place where you’re standing, move someplace else. If your economic model is becoming obsolete, find a new model. In the case of people living and working in Silicon Valley, the challenge is the rapid migration of tech jobs to low-cost countries, andthe opportunity is to embrace and consciously accelerate the rate of change. Silicon Valley can’t be the cheapest place to write software, but it may survive by being the nimblest.

Healthy Outlook for Education Software Spending In 2006

Is the Education market facing several years of flat growth, or are things looking up? A widely reported forecast from INPUT recently predicted flat IT spending in US Education until a sharp upturn after 2008. Reading deeper, the renewed spending is predicated on the wildly optimistic hope of reigning in healthcare spending beginning in 2008. So, without the rose-colored glasses, the outlook is pretty discouraging with little relief in sight.