Photo Credit: clydeorama
Farhad Manjoo of The New York Times published this thought-provoking article: Google’s Time At The Top May Be Nearing Its End. Manjoo discusses how Google’s current and past domination in desktop search advertising is leading to the source of its undoing as a technology leader. (more…)
Share-worthy links Social Media ReInvention Community Members can enjoy during Sunday brunch:
1) YouTube: Enhance Your Lighting – GE Commercial. Jeff Goldblum provides a brilliant and hysterical performance in the GE advertising campaign for #EnhanceYourLighting. Views continue exploding (1,394,000+ when I wrote this post). GE takes mundane advertising and transforms it into funny, memorable, and campy content.
Hat Tip — Fast Company: JEFF GOLDBLUM GETS TOPLESS FOR GE, NYC GETS A NEW HEART: THE TOP 5 ADS OF THE WEEK.
2) YouTube: Introducing the Post-it® Plus App. No, I won't shut up about this app because I'm a Post-it® geek. Welcome to The Collaboration Age. Enjoy this video and wear your Post-it® geekiness as a badge of honor.
3) Forbes: Gone From Microsoft, Ballmer Begins A Surprising Second Act. George Anders wrote this great profile about Steve Ballmer (former Microsoft CEO, now owner of the Los Angeles Clippers NBA franchise). Anders' article about how Ballmer is approaching this phase of his professional life is a great example of personal branding and reinvention:
4) Forbes: Finding Alibaba — How Jerry Yang Made The Most Lucrative Bet In Silicon Valley History. Parmy Olson reveals Jerry Yang's second act reinvention after leaving Yahoo in 2012. He's now a venture capitalist, Founding Partner of AME Cloud Ventures, and power broker.
Olson's article proves trust and familiarity are the heart and soul of business relationships (versus Excel spreadsheets forecasting ROI). Jack Ma (Chairman and CEO of Alibaba) and Yang's friendship started in 1997 (and may save Yahoo).
Not convinced? The Forbes article cites 36 billion reasons.
5) The New York Times: New York Times Plans to Eliminate 100 Jobs in the Newsroom. Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. (Publisher) and Mark Thompson (Chief Executive) announced the cuts October 1st. Here are some direct quotes:
I admire and respect how a revered publishing institution like The New York Times attempts to adapt a Lean Startup mindset and culture. Yes, they're conducting experiments, validating learning, pivoting, etc.
But, it takes more than carefully sprinkled buzzwords in another announcement explaining job cuts. Organizations like The Times (and others) must wake up to the painful realization that lean startups do not require 1990's staffing levels and infrastructure.
Why doesn't the New York Times "just get on with it." They will thrive as a digital publisher. If it wants to go fully digital, why not commit now and:
But, it won't.
So, the bloodshed continues …
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Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist. He thinks and writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy in his personal blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.
I just finished reading this great article: Bloomberg Businessweek, The Rise and Fall of BlackBerry: An Oral History.
The article recounts how a once-dominant technology company of the past decade is no longer a relevant player. Blackberry's 1997 IPO to its 2008 stock market peak are highlighted.
After 2008, the iPhone, iPad, and Android OS systematically put Blackberry out of business. A series of anecdotes from former executives, journalists, and others recounts Blackberry's demise due to management missteps, hubris, and self-denial.
Microsoft, Are YOU Paying Attention? What's scary is how Blackberry's key mistakes closely parallel the same ones made by Microsoft and Steve Ballmer (which eventually cost him his job).
Here are key quotes from the Bloomberg Businessweek article compared to other quotes (from other sources) paralleling the ongoing Microsoft saga:
(Blackberry) In June 2007, the first iPhone hits the stores. Far from recognizing the potential threat to BlackBerry’s dominance, Lazaridis and Balsillie (e.g., RIM's Senior Leaders) publicly belittle Apple’s device, criticizing its short battery life and weaker security.
(Blackberry) Chris Key (global account manager and carrier sales and relationship manager, 2001-09): "I remember being at a [customer] meeting and the CIO was carrying an iPhone. I found out that a lot of senior executives … were carrying iPhones. That was a big red flag for me. The attitude for most of the people in the senior leadership at BlackBerry was, “The BlackBerry solution is secure. It’ll lock down company data. It’ll allow the organization to maintain complete control over the business use of the device. IPhone is a music player and a consumer toy.”
(Microsoft and Steve Ballmer) “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item.”
(Blackberry) Kevin Michaluk (founder of CrackBerry.com, a news site): BlackBerry was a darling of enterprise. If you had a BlackBerry you were an important person, as at that time a lot of people didn’t have a smartphone. It was almost a status symbol within the company. It was the most intuitive communication device. With that blinking red light, it had that addictive quality.
(Blackberry) Gillenwater: If BlackBerry was going to be serious about consumers, they needed to make a fundamental shift in the way products were thought about, created, iterated, marketed, and sold. This was done but never to the extent necessary. It was always a partial effort. There was a period of time when this could have been corrected, but when it became apparent that HQ and senior leadership were not addressing systemic issues, people like myself left.
(Microsoft and Steve Ballmer) “$500, fully subsidized, with a plan! That is the most expensive phone in the world and it doesn’t appeal to business customers, because it doesn’t have a keyboard, which makes it not a very good email machine.”
Don't get me started on how both Blackberry and Microsoft / Steve Ballmer missed the tablet market and underestimated Apple's and Google Android's dominance. Remember, the Blackberry Playbook? It's a distant memory because nobody wanted it.
Remember the vaunted Microsoft Surface Tablet? That's latin for $900 million write-down.
Microsoft says it's active CEO search continues. Too bad, this former Googler accepted Yahoo's CEO job a year ago. Because, Marissa Mayer's kickin' ass …
Tony Faustino is a marketing and corporate strategist. He writes about how The Internet reinvents marketing strategy for organizations and individuals in his marketing strategy blog, Social Media ReInvention. Follow his tweets @tonyfaustino or circle him on Google+.
President Obama dined this past week with several power players from the technology world. As expected, this private event held at the home of John Doerr, a partner with Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, & Byers generated significant public relations buzz for the business leaders in attendance.
The picture above is from Mashable's article: Obama Toasts Tech with Industry Luminaries [PICS]. Here are articles from The New York Times Technology Section and additional sources describing the exclusive guest list:
Here's my question:
I'm not the only one who noticed.
Search Engine Land and ZDNet provide more "read-between-the-lines" analysis of the alleged, univited technology CEOs. Via Larry Dignan's post, Obama's Big Tech Powwow Invite List: A Few Stunning Omissions:
Microsoft's absence is glaring. And, a picture speaks a thousand words …