February 2012
4 posts
Why you should seek profitability before growth →
AOL’s Patch might be my new poster child for why startups and new corporate ventures should seek profitability before growth.
This quote highlights the way that the AOL managers framed the decision.
“Basically, there [were] two ways to do it: get the product perfect in one market or go for a land grab approach,”
AOL management opted for the latter, spending lavishly to...
To save you, we must destroy you. →
Three out of four companies currently listed on the S&P 500 will be replaced in the next 15 years at the current churn rate, according to the latest executive briefing from Innosight.
“And yes, you’re right, Steve Jobs didn’t manage this way. He was a dictatorial,...”
– http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2012/02/the-management-team-guest-post-from-joel-spolsky.html?
“Major technology platforms tend to last about 25 to 30 years. This gives them...”
– http://bhorowitz.com/2012/02/06/the-future-of-networking
January 2012
1 post
What now, textbook publishers?
Apple just threw down the gauntlet to the K-12 publishing industry.
In announcing iBooks 2, Apple is making a compelling case that if ever there was a time for school districts to switch from paper-based textbooks to a digital approach - it is now.
Even in the absence of iBooks 2, the case was already compelling, with numerous districts and states delaying textbook purchases to explore the...
December 2011
4 posts
The fallacy of maximizing shareholder value →
Fantastic article on the fallacy of maximizing shareholder value - one of the most potent and misguided management heuristics of the past fifty years.
This is what a 5Mb hard drive looked like in 1956 →
This put’s Moore’s Law in perspective!
Why your company might miss the next big thing
This fascinating story on The Rise of the Drone comes from the Washington Post earlier this week.
In the article, Peter Finn describes how Abraham Karem, an engineer in Los Angeles, created the first prototype of what would one day become the Predator Drone.
What’s interesting about the article (once you get past the coolness of the fact that he built the drone in his garage), is the...
Alpha
Hi.
I’m Alasdair Trotter, an entrepreneur and innovation consultant based in Los Angeles.
I founded Guaranteach in 2007 (acquired by Sophia in 2010), and now work with my amazing colleagues at Innosight to help our clients find new sources of growth. Innosight was founded by one of my colleagues, Clay Christensen, who coined the phrase Disruptive Innovation to describe how seemingly...