Mondays are the day we get our brain back in gear for another week of racing with rats to find new cheese. Yes, I did read "Who Moved My Cheese!"
- This week Apple said they are going to change the textbook industry. I don't know about you, but with two kids and a spouse in college, every time I pay over $100 for a textbook I say to myself, "This is such a racket. There has to be a better way." Is the Apple initiative a better way? Since Apple likes to control the user experience--something I detest about Apple--I can see how Apple is trying to build a dependency on their devices in the textbook market. (FastCo.Exist)
- Last week, here in the Rochester, NY area where I live and work, Kodak finally went bankrupt. A friend wrote me and asked why this happened. Here is how I responded:
- Kodak was the king of film and then invented digital. As other industries and companies began to envision how they could use digital technology in personal computers, photography, and mobile devices, Kodak hesitated on putting themselves of out the old film based business. We call this cannibalization--put yourself out of business so someone else doesn't. That opened the door for competitors like Canon and Sony to leverage digital technology in cameras and mobile devices. Kodak then fell behind the curve and never caught up. There were also a bunch of financial decisions they made that Wall Street analysts punished them for. Stock options for employees dropped in value. Good managers then started leaving and the death spiral began. Let this be a lesson about hesitation in company strategic planning and innovation!
- Last for today, CROWD FUNDING has long been used by charities and non-profits to raise money for projects. In these days of banks being encouraged by Federal Reserve policy to not lend money to small businesses, crowd funding has faced the hurdle of Securities and Exchange Commission laws making this source of capital difficult for small business. That seems to be changing (Entrepreneurship).
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