GetQuik Blog
Thursday, May 8, 2008
The Green, Green Valley
2008 is shaping up to be the year of "Green Tech". Green technology has been gaining momentum over the past couple of years, but Web 2.0 companies led by Facebook, MySpace, Digg and YouTube had previously dominated the lion's share of attention, press, and VC dollars.
Discussion at the numerous startup networking sessions in the valley is shifting from SEO and unique visitors to solar, biofuel, energy efficient LEDs, and hybrid and electric cars. $124/barrel gas, the rising costs of rice and corn, and a robust VC funding environment has pushed green tech into the spotlight.
2008 is shaping up to be the year of "Green Tech". Green technology has been gaining momentum over the past couple of years, but Web 2.0 companies led by Facebook, MySpace, Digg and YouTube had previously dominated the lion's share of attention, press, and VC dollars.Discussion at the numerous startup networking sessions in the valley is shifting from SEO and unique visitors to solar, biofuel, energy efficient LEDs, and hybrid and electric cars. $124/barrel gas, the rising costs of rice and corn, and a robust VC funding environment has pushed green tech into the spotlight.
Many of the people I frequently run into at networking events have shifted their focus from web 2.0 to green tech. Interest in green tech is largely being fueled by the VC's growing interest in this sector. Kleiner Perkins recently made news with their $500 million "Green Growth" fund led by Al Gore.
There are some exciting innovations coming from Silicon Valley in Green Tech including biofuels, solar, electric/hybrid cars, and LED lighting to name a few. With the influx of VC money and talent looking to tackle alternative energy, fuel efficiency, and earth friendly materials, it will be exciting to see how many Facebook, Digg, YouTube successes will emerge from the green tech sector.
It is impressive to see how quickly Silicon Valley mobilizes and moves on to the "next big thing" as evidenced by the shift from Web 2.0 to Green Tech. Many of the players are the same, but the game has changed. A reason that Silicon Valley is seen as an innovation center is largely due to the fact that the key participants - technologists, enterpreuners and VC's - fearlessly tackle new challenges in hopes of capitilizing on the opportunties of these emerging markets.
Labels: al gore, green growth, green technology, kleiner perkins, silicon valley, vc funding
¶ 10:03 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Monday, April 28, 2008
Fortune500.com
The Internet Services and Retaining category had 6 companies on the list.
Google (#150), Amazon.com (#171), Libery Media (#275), Ebay (#326), Yahoo (#353) and IAC/InterActiveCorp (#370).
Microsoft (#44), Oracle (#137), and Symantec (#461) were listed in the Computer Software category. Dell (#34) and Apple (#103) were listed under the Computers, Office Equipment category.
Now lets take a closer look at this list of Internet and technology companies. See the above chart for reference. What is striking is that except for Dell, which is struggling to get back on track, these Internet, technology and software companies are greatly outperforming their Fortune 500 peers in the all important area of market capitalization. The dot.com days are long gone, so the bubble inflated values are not to blame.
So what is the reason behind investors' preference for these Internet-based companies?
So what is the reason behind investors' preference for these Internet-based companies?
These Internet stars are benefiting from the inherent virtues of the Internet. The Internet provides an efficient marketing and distribution platform. Additionally, a successful Internet company can expand rapidly domestically and internationally. In the early days of the Internet, detractors scoffed at the unprofitable Internet companies without paths to profitability. From the wreckage of the bubble implosion, companies with discipline and focus on profitability have emerged. These companies are growing fast, generating profits, and massively disrupting traditional businesses. Starting an Internet business becomes easier every day, which fosters an vibrant ecosystem where only the best emerge from the pack.
Despite Yahoo's likely removal from the Internet Serves and Retailing category, expect the representation from this group to continue to grow in the future. As long as investors are willing to bet their 401K plans on these Internet giants, the competition to join the list will be fierce.
Labels: fortune 500, internet companies
¶ 9:13 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
To Do to Done
The demands for time has created a pressing need for an effective strategy to keep track of everything.
The demands for time has created a pressing need for an effective strategy to keep track of everything.Calendars:
Using Outlook or Google Calendar has helped keep track of the many events, calls, and time based "to do" items.
Contact Management:
Facebook, LinkedIn, Outlook and our mobile phone contact lists allow us to quick find and connect with our personal and business contacts.
Event Management:
Facebook and Evite allow us to quickly find, calendar and plan our events.
Even with all these powerful tools, our "to do" lists continue to stay full. It has been 6 months or so since I first read "4 Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss, and I recommend this book for anyone who wants to get things done more effectively. I have been surprised at how effective Ferriss' techniques have been. Here are a few things that I have been working on:
1) NOT checking email first thing in the morning and multiple times through the day.
Email is such a distracting force, that it drives your day, rather than allowing you to manager your time. Set aside some time in the afternoon to deal with your email and you will find that you are getting way more done due to this "batching" process.
2) Do Nothing!
There is the item that is perpetually on your "to do" list, yet it never is important enough to take priority over the more important tasks or the emergencies cropping up throughout the day. TAKE IT OFF YOUR LIST! Most likely nothing will have changed, except you have one less thing to stress about.
3) Get your Important, yet Challenging Tasks done first.
The item that you need to get done that won't go away (i.e. filing taxes) is looming. Get it done. Not only will it free your mind making you more effective, but it will make you feel better.
Changing your work habits are not easy, but once you get accustomed to suggestions (1) and (2), it gets easier and easier to stick to these best practices. The hardest change to implement is suggestion (3). If you are able to use Ferriss' game plan, you will see major results in a short period of time, and your stress level will decrease significantly.
Labels: 4 hour workweek, tim ferriss, time management, to do lists, work productivity
¶ 8:55 AM 2 Comments Links to this post
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Easy Does It
A common saying is that "genius is the ability to make something hard look simple."
A common saying is that "genius is the ability to make something hard look simple."Another popular phrase is "don't work harder, work smarter." The wrong approach to take in the quest for hyper-efficiency is for a person to spend inordinate time and energy trying to rethink their daily routine. This is a case of the cure being worse than the pain. The key to work success is to determine what task or tasks one can do better and faster than others. When people excel in a field or talent, it is a combination of aptitude and afinity. Tiger Woods is the world's best golfer because he has incredible talent, and he works really hard at his game. The incredible ability of Tiger makes the task of practicing and improving his game a labor of love. This virtuous cycle becomes the engine which drives his game to the top.
"When looking for work, choose something you love." It is pretty hard for a person to enjoy work that is difficult, a grind, or a mismatch for their talent and interests. On the other hand, it is common to excel in a field that provides fulfillment and a showcase of a person's talent.
The challenge for a leader is to discover the genius of those working in their group or organization, and figuring out how to maximize productive and results by utlitizing their special talents. The Michael Jordan baseball experiment was an example of a egergious misuse of talent. Michael went from the world's greatest basketball player to a mediocre minor league baseball player. A winning organization will have a knack for keeping their MJ's playing on the hardcourt rather than the diamond, and in turn attracting more MJ's to their team.
Labels: genius, managing to strengths, winning organizations, working smarter
¶ 9:36 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
The Art of Customer Retention
Many businesses carefully study the cost of customer acquisition. Budgets for advertising, marketing, promotions and sales are largely defined by their effectiveness in bringing in new customers. The better organizations realize that not all customers are created equal. Businesses can offer high service levels to high volume and profit generating customers. Businesses can also succeed by attracting a large number of lower volume, low maintenance customers.
Many businesses carefully study the cost of customer acquisition. Budgets for advertising, marketing, promotions and sales are largely defined by their effectiveness in bringing in new customers. The better organizations realize that not all customers are created equal. Businesses can offer high service levels to high volume and profit generating customers. Businesses can also succeed by attracting a large number of lower volume, low maintenance customers.Companies need to be careful if the techniques they use attract low volume, high maintenance customers. That is not to say these are "bad" customers (though some are). More often than not, the company does not have the proper infrastructure and support structure to effectively address these customers. An example is McDonald's. Very few restaurants can generate ANY profits featuring a $1 value menu offering. McDonald's has the size, equipment, training, brand, marketing, and system to generate billions of dollars of profits with this product offering. If a restaurant uses a go to market strategy which attracts customers seeking pricing, speed and quality to match McDonald's, there is a good chance they will fail. Even if the cost of customer acquisition is very low, the lifetime value of the customer may be less than zero. For those versed in mathematics, the flaw with this business model is obvious.
Landing high volume customers is often managed with expensive sales or marketing programs. A critical mistake that many companies make is to take these high volume customers for granted once they transfer from prospect to customer status. In any business relationship, there are going to be problems that occur in the course of the account maintenance. These mistakes can often be costly for the company to remedy and absorb. Rather than taking a big refund hit that will impact a bonus or commission, the company takes a hard line on the service issue. In turn, this highly prized customer may take their business to the competition. If they are really pissed off, they may influence other prospects or luke-warm customers to steer straight of the company. Sounds pretty bad, right? It is. Now let's be clear. I am not advocating that a company give away all their profits to ultra-demanding customers. Instead, I am suggesting that if a customers truely has a legitmate claim to refunds or credits due to a mistake made by a company, than the company needs to take ownership of the situation and satisfy these high-value customers. Offering customers satisfaction when every things are running smoothly is easy. The trick is to delivery when something blows up. The cost to remedy a customer service disaster can be expensive, so a company is highly motivated to reduce these problems. However, customer service disasters happen to even the best run organizations.
Funds need to be directed to both customer acquisition and customer retention costs. The benefit of spending on customer retention are many. Organizations with the happiest customers are able to win new customers with lower costs than competitors with low customer service ratings. In turn, sales, marketing and customer service talent are easier to recruit and retain. Due to a superior employee base, the top customer service organizations delivery superior results. This virtuous cycle is how some of the legendary customer service companies such as Nordstrom's, Southwest Airlines, and AMEX have outperformed their peers. Although it a simple concept, many organizations' focus on short terms profits conflict with this "do the right thing" approach.
Labels: customer acquisition, customer retention, customer service, lifetime cost of a customer, profitable customers
¶ 9:04 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Smart Phones Getting Smarter
The two darlings of Silicon Valley - Google and Apple want to get into your pocket. The approaches to get there are quite different. Apple's iPhone takes a new step forward as they release their much anticipated SDK.
Google is working on Android, which they are claiming as the "first open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices". We should be seeing some Android handsets later this year, but the question for application developers is whether Android will help to simplify application deployment or further complicate the matter.
Although J2ME (Java Mobile Edition 2) is designed to be a write-once deploy to many solution, the reality is that different handsets and even different carriers require modifications to the code in order for these J2ME applications to run correctly. As the number of deployed handsets increase, the porting requirements are massive. 200 or more ports are necessary to have a high percentage of installed base handsets covered.
That is why the single handset iPhone with its 27% of smartphone sales in the US is such an attractive platform to develop to. The usage patterns for the iPhone are unlike any smart phone. The amount of web usage fpr an iPhone user is significantly higher than any other handset. For application developers looking to target their ideal mobile customer without the massive cost of porting and testing, the iPhone offers a cost-effective entry-point.
GetQuik is getting onboard the iPhone bandwagon. Today GetQuik is releasing our iPhone for GetQuik web application. You can check out a tutorial on how to setup and use our application at www.getquik.com. We have some press coverage that is coming in conjunction with this release, so our traffic to our web-site may cause a few delays. We are eagerly awaiting the SDK announcement to see how we can extend and enhance future versions of our iPhone application.
If you get a chance to try out our app and have some thoughts - you can post here or email us comments@getquik.com.
The two darlings of Silicon Valley - Google and Apple want to get into your pocket. The approaches to get there are quite different. Apple's iPhone takes a new step forward as they release their much anticipated SDK.Google is working on Android, which they are claiming as the "first open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices". We should be seeing some Android handsets later this year, but the question for application developers is whether Android will help to simplify application deployment or further complicate the matter.
Although J2ME (Java Mobile Edition 2) is designed to be a write-once deploy to many solution, the reality is that different handsets and even different carriers require modifications to the code in order for these J2ME applications to run correctly. As the number of deployed handsets increase, the porting requirements are massive. 200 or more ports are necessary to have a high percentage of installed base handsets covered.
That is why the single handset iPhone with its 27% of smartphone sales in the US is such an attractive platform to develop to. The usage patterns for the iPhone are unlike any smart phone. The amount of web usage fpr an iPhone user is significantly higher than any other handset. For application developers looking to target their ideal mobile customer without the massive cost of porting and testing, the iPhone offers a cost-effective entry-point.
GetQuik is getting onboard the iPhone bandwagon. Today GetQuik is releasing our iPhone for GetQuik web application. You can check out a tutorial on how to setup and use our application at www.getquik.com. We have some press coverage that is coming in conjunction with this release, so our traffic to our web-site may cause a few delays. We are eagerly awaiting the SDK announcement to see how we can extend and enhance future versions of our iPhone application.
If you get a chance to try out our app and have some thoughts - you can post here or email us comments@getquik.com.
Labels: android, apple, GetQuik, iPhone, sdk, smart phones
¶ 6:49 AM 0 Comments Links to this post
Thursday, February 28, 2008
In Other Words
Does business advise from the 60's and 80's apply today?
After reading Peter Drucker's classic "The Effective Executive" (1966) and "In Search of Excellence" (1982) - Thomas J Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr., I would answer "yes".
First a short review of the two books.
Does business advise from the 60's and 80's apply today?After reading Peter Drucker's classic "The Effective Executive" (1966) and "In Search of Excellence" (1982) - Thomas J Peters and Robert H. Waterman Jr., I would answer "yes".
First a short review of the two books.
Drucker's "Effective Executive":
(disclaimer - Drucker's concepts are simple. Drucker's genius is his ability to present these common sense ideas into startling epiphanies. This review does not do justice to his book.)
- Time Management: Record where your time goes (having someone else record your time is best). Are you satisfied that your time is being spent on essential and high impact activities? If not, find the time wasting activities and delegate or simply quit doing these activities.
- Focus on Contribution: Effective executives focus on results not effort. This point leads back to time management. Just because an executive is working long hours or dilligently, does not ensure he or she is adding significant value to the organization.
- Maximize Strenths: Rather than lamenting an employees mistakes and weaknesses, an effective executive appreciates this employees strengths and finds ways to utilize their strengths accordingly.
- Make a Decision: Effective executives are good at analyzing a problem and then taking decisive action. They do not fall into the analysis-paralysis trap. The worst mistake it inaction.
"In Search of Excellence"
- Close to the Customer: The top performing company have a strong emphasis on listening to their customers in order to innovate and service their customers more effectively.
- Entreneurship: Excellent companies encourage, nurture, and champion innovation. Passionate employees with wild ideas are allowed to experiment and are not chastized or penalized if the project winds up failing.
- People Focused: Excellent companies treat their employees with respect and trust. Rigid controls and procedures are absent from these top performing companies.
- Value-Driven: The top companies have a guiding mission statement, often created by the original founder. The focus is on this mission over all else, including market valuation and profits.
For those looking for more modern version of these business concepts, I found some interesting similarities between these books and other best sellers.
Drucker's "Effective Manager" offers much of the time management ideas found in last year's best seller "4 Hour Workweek" by Tim Ferriss. "4 Hour Workweek" benefits from the fascinating accomplishments of Tim Ferriss.
"Built to Last" (1997) by James Collins and Jerry Porras is extrodinarily similar to "In Search of Excellence". Although Collins and Porras determined their list of excellent companies using a different technique than Peters and Waterman, the list of excellent companies overlapped closely. Both books have in depth profiles on IBM, 3M, and HP. The fact that "Built to Last" and "In Search of Excellence" came to similar conclussions on what makes a great company, lends further weight to the findings of both of these books. For the record, all 4 authors attended Stanford's MBA program. For someone who has not read either of these books, "Built to Last" is considerably more readable and memorable.
Technology, globalization, and communications have dramatically changed over the last 50 years, yet many business concepts remain constant. To turn a phrase, those who study history may learn to benefit from it.
Labels: 4 hour workweek, built to last, in search of excellence, peter drucker, robert waterman jr., the effective executive, thomas peters
¶ 9:34 PM 0 Comments Links to this post
