10 things Galaxy S4 can do (and iPhone can’t)

Posted on May 16, 2013 by

I am an Apple fan. I have always admired Steve Jobs. I work on a Mac. I do most of my reading on the iPad, bar quality fiction/non-fiction. But I don’t have an iPhone. I am the last of a dying breed that still uses a BB. I’ve been meaning to change but Steve Jobs passing away made me hesitate. Without him, will it really be the same company?

And then came Samsung, with a well-orchestrated attack on the iPhone. So for the last year or so I have been dithering, Galaxy or iPhone, Android or iOS? I’ve read the literature and all the reviews and just when I am on the brink of deciding (in favor of the iPhone, usually) along comes a new Galaxy. Apple meanwhile has moved far away from the spirit of Steve Jobs; incremental improvements define them now, not revolutionary change.

And then I read this article recently in the Business Insider, on the 10 things S4 can do (and iPhone can’t):

  1. S4 has a built-in infra-red blaster that can be used as a universal TV remote.
  2. It has an NFC for mobile payments and swapping content between phones.
  3. You can add a micro SD card; 32 GB of memory for about 20 dollars!
  4. Has a replaceable battery. Carry a spare one if you are a heavy user.
  5. It can play full 1080 pixel high-definition video.
  6. The 5 inch display makes video watching and surfing a real treat.
  7. It has something called Group Play. Sounds naughty, but it isn’t.
  8. You can erase blurry or unclear figures in photos.
  9. Smart Stay keeps the screen lit while you are looking at it.
  10. Uses a standard micro USB plug. Much easier to get than the Lightning port.

I am on the brink of doing the hitherto unthinkable, deserting Apple. But Samsung has a do a bit more, just a wee bit more now.

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Top 10 reasons why start-ups fail?

Posted on May 15, 2013 by

Failure may be an important milestone on the road to success, but it’s advisable to work towards avoiding it. Here’s a thought-provoking list of the top 10 reasons why start-ups fail (the list has been put together by a former investment banker, Brad Bentz).

  1. Poor execution: Getting things done swiftly and correctly is much more difficult than most entrepreneurs imagine. Beats me why ‘strategy’ is the sexy word when the rocket science is in ‘execution’.
  2. No viable market: All parents think their kids are awesome; don’t get obsessed with the product or service you are developing. Spend a lot of time trying to figure out who will buy your product and why.
  3. Too much leverage: Predicting the future is tough business. My astrologer has been making a hash of it for years. So don’t take on too much debt in the expectation that the rosy spreadsheet you made at the beginning will materialize.
  4. Under-capitalization: Too little cash can also be lethal for a new business. Rely on your savings, with a little bit of help from friends and family, and not on a savior who most certainly will not deliver funding when you need it most.
  5. Lack of competitive advantage: me-too businesses are vulnerable to consumer apathy and price competitors. If you don’t have a compelling and distinctive customer value proposition, sooner or later you’ll be caught out.
  6. Competing with the big boys: Doesn’t pay to compete with the big boys. Too many have tried going head-on against 800 lb gorillas, only to get squashed. Stay in a niche that is small enough to not attract the big boys.
  7. Picking too small a niche: It pays to specialize and compete in niches that are easier to defend. However, they shouldn’t be so small that it becomes very difficult to build and scale your business.
  8. Breakup of founding team: Getting a new company off the ground is a high stress affair. Make sure your founding team sticks together and works well together. Professional disagreements are good, but only up to a point.
  9. Poor pricing strategy: The two common approaches to pricing are ‘cost plus’ and ‘what the market can bear’. Both can go wrong; ‘cost plus’ can make you too expensive and ‘what the market can bear’ is almost always a downward slope.
  10. Growing too fast: Growing too quickly can be a problem too. There comes  a stage when a fast-growing company needs processes, systems and a different approach to management. Recognize this moment, or you are likely to stumble.

If you are running a start-up (or planning one) think about these 10 reasons. It’s an insightful and instructive list. You can read the original article here; it explains each point in some detail and directs you to useful reading material.

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Success and failure: two sides of the same coin?

Posted on May 14, 2013 by

Success and failure are closer to each other than you may think.

It’s smart to learn from failure and you see it most clearly in professional sport; good batsmen learn quickly that it doesn’t pay to fish outside the off stump against the pacers. But what about business, are success and failure closely related? Those of us who haven’t courted success on a large scale would certainly like to believe so; it is most reassuring to be told that a fine line divides success and failure.

Clearly success seems to carry within it the seeds of failure; companies get wedded to what made them successful and fail to recognize their flaws. When change is imperative, as is often the case in competitive markets, the very successful get tripped.

Windows 8, for instance, is an attempt to create a platform that works across desk-tops, tablets and smart phones. Reason for the strategy? To protect Microsoft’s near total dominance in desk-tops. Result? Windows 8, in trying to be all things for all three platforms, fails to really succeed on any one of them!

Ford (in the days when the model T was around), IBM (on software for PC’s), Xerox (in PC’s), Coke Zero, Nokia… it is a long and illustrious list of corporate failure, one that demonstrates the dangers of hubris and the extreme difficulty in changing a business. It’s not surprising that only one company from the original Dow Jones index of 1896 is still on the list – GE.

The converse of it – that failure carries within it the seeds of success – seems to be even truer. Edison made a few thousand bulbs before he got it right. Lincoln was a disaster at everything he did, till he became President.

Issac Newton, Van Gogh, Charlie Chaplin, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe, Colonel KFC, Steven Spielberg, Jerry Seinfeld, Oprah Winfrey… the list of failures who go on to court huge success is a very long one indeed.

So if you are hugely successful, beware. Danger lurks around the corner. And if you still haven’t succeeded on a massive scale, persist. Your time is about to come.

Do also read: Microsoft blues from The Economist.

Posted in Creativity, Entrepreneuring, Life | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Escaping education’s death valley

Posted on May 13, 2013 by

Creativity expert and culture leader Sir Ken Robinson has long argued against education as it is practiced in schools and colleges. In this fascinating talk he focuses on what ails modern education and how children can be rescued from it.

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“Buy the ebook”, suggested my friend. I was horrified.

Posted on May 12, 2013 by

Last few days I have been meaning to get Le Carre’s new book (A Delicate Truth). I was looking forward to the pleasure of driving to the book shop, locating the book, browsing through it, coming home and pouring a fine malt, reading the first few pages… ah, few pleasures can match a good book.

My friend, who is somewhat younger than me, could not understand why anyone would go to the trouble of buying a book when getting the e-version is so much more convenient. ”It’s a tactile thing,” I explained, “the touch and feel of a new title cannot be matched by the e-thing. Going to a book shop and buying the printed title, it’s an altogether different kind of joy.”

My friend persisted, “But the words and the story are the same, so how does it matter? And it’s so much easier to carry a bunch of books in a Kindle or iPad.”

“Reading,” I explained, “is not the same with an e-book. It works for magazines, but for good books, it’s a poor substitute. Besides, how do you create and display a library with a Kindle? Can’t quite stick a Kindle in  a book shelf. And what about browsing books you have read? On a book shelf you can scan them easily. On a Kindle or iPad, it’s a problem.”

“Maybe it has something to do with age,” countered my friend. Maybe it does. Printed book sales have been declining for years though the reading habit, thankfully, is growing. Print tiles still account for about 85% of total book sales in mature markets, but the share is going down rapidly. In some categories (self-help books, silly romances etc.) the share of e-books can be as high as 50%.

But when it comes to quality fiction and non-fiction, the printed word rules; the share of e-titles is well under 10%. After all, one can’t quite read a Murakami or a Pamuk or a Le Carre in the e-version, can one?

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10 breakthrough technologies 2013

Posted on May 11, 2013 by

MIT Technology Review’s annual list of breakthrough technologies profiles technologies that hold the potential of solving intractable problems and expanding the scope of human possibilities. They are:

  1. Deep Learning
  2. Temporary Social Media
  3. Prenatal DNA Sequencing
  4. Additive Manufacturing
  5. Baxter: The Blue-Collar robot
  6. Memory Implants
  7. Smart Watches
  8. Ultra Efficient Solar Power
  9. Big Data From Cheap Phones
  10. Supergrids

Fascinating reading for a lazy Saturday. Enjoy!

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The world’s largest economy in 2025?

Posted on May 10, 2013 by

China is all set to become the world’s largest economy, right? Maybe not. An emerging view would have us believe that China may not become the world’s largest economy after all, not in 2025 and not even in this century. The argument in brief is:

  • China’s economic juggernaut is grinding to a halt. Growth is already down to 7% and is expected to hit 3% to 4% soon.
  • Economic data out of China is notoriously unreliable. Regional Governments routinely overstate economic performance to look good in front of party bosses. The extent (of overstating) could be as high as 10%. China’s new Premier has complained of “man-made” statistics.
  • China’s growth model (investment plus low-cost exports) has run out of steam. Systemic debt is now at about 200% of GDP. And the labor pool is shrinking fast thanks to the one-child policy. Last year it shrank by 3.5 million, and the IMF predicts the decline in coming years will be “precipitous”.
  • China will get caught in the “middle income trap“. Japan, Taiwan and South Korea are the only countries to have escaped this invisible ceiling on growth. For the next stage of growth, the driver has to be innovation at technology’s frontier and that’s where the problem lies; innovation doesn’t seem to flourish in authoritarian societies.

America, on the other hand, is reinventing itself quite successfully after the shock of 2008/09. An article in The Telegraph (China may not overtake America this century) spells out the argument in some detail. Worth reading, not least because it is such a contrarian view.

Posted in Business, Economy, Strategy | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments