Patents: Tax or Protection?
I was amazed to realise that the recent dog fight to buy Nortel, was really driven by the patents they had, rather than the value of the operational parts of the business. After an opener bid by Google of $900mill, Nortel eventually was sold to a consortium that...
Sustainable innovation requires proximity
Global sourcing, whilst offering benefits to customers in the county doing the outsourcing, has the long term effect of reducing the relative innovative capacity of the "outsourcer." As innovators seek the lowest cost for the product of their innovative output, the...
The three gorillas
The decision yesterday by the federal Court to allow Metcash to purchase Franklins from Pick n Pay, then onsell, presumably with tied supply agreements is another nail in the coffin of competition in the retail trade, despite the interpretation of the law by the...
Marketing ecosystems evolving to inbound marketing
"Old" marketing is all about a business sending its messages out to their markets, it is what we are all used to, and it is the way much of our marketing ecosystem has evolved, outbound marketing. The "new" marketing ecosystem is all about attracting your customers,...
Quick Response codes rock!
Potentially, quick response (QR) codes will revolutionise mobile marketing. They offer the opportunity to open URL links easily from mobile devices, enabling content to be accessed easily on the move. This link to the new marketing program for Central Park in New...
Free media. Mostly, you get what you pay for.
Media is now "free", you can make a commercial and put it up on youtube and work/hope to attract an audience, a significant difference to buying time on TV, where you are paying for the delivery of an audience to your advertisement, assuming not too many of them can...
The “Medici effect”
The astonishing explosion of creativity that occurred in Florence in the 1500's was precipitated when the Medici family brought together creative people from a range of disciplines, painters, sculptors, writers, philosophers, mathematicians, architects, engineers,...
Value is relative
A common question every business asks itself regularly, and one with no answer without a detailed understanding of context. Imagine you are in 1990, and someone asked you "how much would you pay for an internet search?" The only logical response is "a what?" 1990,...
Detailed Specifications and Evolution
An ongoing frustration of innovation projects is the apparently always moving goalposts. How often have you heard "wish marketing would make up their minds what they want" This desire to have the end point articulated at the commencement is natural, it enables good...
The big 600
Yesterday I was surprised when I posted the entry having a shot at the crap service Optus offers customers with a problem of their making, and a screen came up telling me it was my 600th post. Amazing to me, what started as a creative outlet, a way of expressing my...