2013 Oct 2

Liar, Liar, Samsung on Fire

It always amazes me when a company tries to cheat, somehow expecting not to get caught. Yesterday, Ars Technica published a detailed takedown as to how Samsung tried to deceive the performance benchmark tests in its latest Samsung Galaxy Note 3. For the non-technical among the readers, benchmarks in the technical world are exactly what they are in the business world: standards-based tests that allow purchasers to compare multiple items.

2013 Oct 1

What Your Warranty Says About You

In the last 3 months, I had the opportunity to experience warranty service on three different occasions. How the companies managed the repair and replacement process speaks volumes about what they think of me as a customer once they have my money. Nowadays, a large proportion of what people buy has two key characteristics: They are manufactured and supported, and often purchased, far away They are in constant use Distant Manufacture and Support If you buy a book at Barnes & Noble, and it is missing 5 pages, it is fairly easy for B&N to just replace it.

2013 Sep 30

Don't Hire the Stepford Wives

Fast Company has a very interesting interview with Matt Mickiewicz, CEO of engineering recruiting firm Hired. Matt discusses recruiting mistakes common to startups (and even more stablished firms). While other outlets trumpeted the (out of context) soundbite, "don't hire Google engineers," the pearls of wisdom run deeper. Top mistakes: Seeking star companies (Google, Apple, Facebook), rather than star individuals Underpaying (also known as "being cheap") Cloning the founder, the "

2013 Sep 27

Build Something. Anything.

A few weeks back, Albert Wenger wrote a short article on the value VCs bring, notably in focusing on the "big picture". Albert's article led to an interesting discussion on the best and worst kinds of VCs, and specifically how important it is for a VC to have real, hands-on, operating experience. My personal view has always been that, while there are rare exceptions, every investor and Board member should have had real-world, hands-on experience before having influence or control at a strategic level over a company.

2013 Sep 25

Coupons and Slaps

I have written about the virtues of discrimination - that is, price discrimination - here, here and here. A friend of mine in California reminded me of this when he sent me an article bemoaning coupons. Everyone who has ever bought online has seen "enter coupon code here" on the payment page. The author argues that the very existence of that text and the coupons is a slap in the face to someone willing to pay full price today, and causes many to walk away.

2013 Sep 24

Hold Me Back, or I Might Buy Blackberry!

Long suffering BlackBerry has a potential buyer. Coincidentally, or not, the $4.7BN offer comes from Fairfax Holdings, who are already BlackBerry's largest single shareholder, at ~10%. Their offer is for $9 per share, which is a small premium over the latest share price, which is after its 17% plunge due to its announcement that it has an astounding $1BN (!) in unsold devices. Given that BlackBerry is, apparently, collapsing, why would Fairfax throw good money after bad?

2013 Sep 23

Life Is Analog, Not Digital

Back in undergraduate engineering, Prof. Andy Stevens taught us our first course on digital circuits. In analog, everything is on a continuum: you can measure how many amps are coming through the system with ever more precision, or how many dollars you have allocated to marketing. In digital, everything is binary: 1 or 0, true or false, yes or no. At the end of the intro day, Prof. Stevens said, and I remember this clearly after 20 years, "

2013 Sep 20

Free vs Free - Spy vs Spy

About a year and a half ago, Layered Thoughts published a fascinating piece on the differences between different kinds of free. The author goes into the psychological impact of offering a free plan (popular in "freemium" offerings) vs offering a free sample or trial. This article is recommended reading for anyone designing pricing plans, especially for online services. At heart, the issue here is managing the psychology of your potential customer.

2013 Sep 19

The Highest Bidder... IS the One Who Will Care For Your People

Earlier this week, Josh Patrick wrote a great opinion piece in the NY Times, entitled, "It's O.K. to Sell Your Business to the Highest Bidder." Business owners often have a close emotional relationship with their business - their "baby" - and their employees, whom they view like family. In many ways, this is a positive relationship. Caring for your business, your employees and your customers is one of the best ways to get dedication and a stable, growing, going concern.

2013 Sep 18

Down with Tyranny... of Billable Hours

The "tyranny" of billable hours. Anyone who has ever provided a labour service - lawyers, consultants, designers, contractors - knows the inexorable pressure to find more hours which you can bill to some client somewhere. In multi-person firms it is far worse. Senior partners create minimum billable quotas on junior staff, who then have to run around to find them or lose their job. But there is another side to billable hours, one that I regularly run into as a consultant to companies.