Mark Hurd and Tony Hayward: two CEOs that led their companies to prosperity and hope through most of their tenure, now forced to resign because of a media explosion that will likely overshadow the years of positive energy they brought to their companies.
Apple is acting just like the snotty monopolist it has become in
electronic music distribution and combined that lousy attitude with the
presumptive arrogance of a smartphone monopolist.
Opinion: We all know what a pain it is when we head out for a day's plowing before the sun's even risen. The oxen grumble as you prod them into wakefulness; the ground is crisp with frost; and that bottle of cold tea won't be much use in keeping the cold at bay. How much better would it be if we could somehow move time so it was daylight all the time? We could get more plowing done if it wasn't so damned dark in the morning.
Opinion: Whether it's a book fantasizing about a world in which Google executives run the United States or another tome that suggests geeks are on the road to controlling the globe, there's a hopeful strain among technology, business, and political writers that there's something special about the technically astute, the so-called digerati. Barack Obama bathes in some of that reflected glory because he's the first US president who knows how to use a Blackberry.
Opinion We heard the CEO of Nokia, Oli-Pekka Kallasvuo at a CEO conference in Paris just two weeks ago shrugging off the iPhone and the BlackBerry as competitors.
Opinion: If you've ever attended a venture capitalist conference you will hear the truism: Is it a feature or a product? That is, does the start-up company being considered for funding have a true, standalone product that others can add features to, or is it just a feature to another product? Both approaches can be considered shrewd investments, but the exit strategies for the VCs are substantially different.
Depending on how you count, January begins the second decade of the 21st century. While a painful 10 years in many ways, the information technology industry saw some phenomenal changes during that time. It also saw the demise of a few iconic figures and the emergence (and re-emergence) of others who led the companies that drove those changes.
Opinion: Google or Bing "corporate blogs." Just below the ubiquitous Wikipedia entry, in the number two slot, is: "Ten Corporate Blogs Worth Reading." Click on it. Listed at number 5 is: "Check Out Blog: The Official Wal-Mart Blog." If you visit it, you'll notice that the top item is a post about milk from seven months ago...
Opinion: In 1982-1983 the economy in the West was battered. Unemployment in the U.S. reached 9.7 percent. The United Nations pegged growth for developed nations around one percent. Stagnation and recession were global conditions.
Opinion: Print publishing is in serious decline. Magazine revenues in the US tumbled 22 percent in Q2 this year. McGraw-Hill is selling its old cash cow BusinessWeek and TimeWarner is trying to dump its print group, including the Time in TimeWarner. It's even worse for newspapers.
