Yalbo Business Space

Unleashing your professional vision, or how to get focused, energized, and get great results!

2011-08-26T12:14:00.006+03:00

Being away from home on a business trip during the past 2 weeks, I've managed to spend some time with myself, thinking about the future... but this time, instead of trying to find an answer to "What's next?" I've tried to concentrate on "What's first?"

Yeah... I've spent 3 hours at Starbucks on a sunny Sunday afternoon, defining my vision and synthesizing the intrinsic core values that have drove me during times of growth, change, or opportunity...

The goal that day was for me to create an enduring vision that will guide me on a daily basis... so here we are:

Being one of the most valuable international business leader/executive located in Israel, by helping global organizations, teams, and individuals reaching their most important dreams and objectives.

My professional journey is driven by my core values (in this order):

1) Be in inner-peace & harmony with the people around me

2) Be driven by my passion

3) Work hard, play hard

This post describes the professional aspects of my retrospection, but I've run the same exercise with my personal life... believe me on this front.

Why am I sharing this with you, and why now? This is something you will agree is quite personal in a sense... Because, thanks to a truly inspiring book from Ken Blanchard and Jesse Lyn Stoner titled Full steam ahead!, I've realized having a clear vision is something important anyone needs to get focused, energized, and get great results!

Sorry for giving you even more homework ;-)

Yohan Albo

Finding Opportunities in Greece: Wishful thinking?

2011-06-30T22:25:00.008+03:00

I was watching Bloomberg this morning at the fitness, as I use to do every morning of the week lately... most of the air time was spent on the fact the Greek parliament tries to pass legislation mandating 28 billion euros of spending cuts and tax rises over the next five years. If it goes through, and it will, as the Greek government has no better alternatives, each of the 10 million Greeks will ultimately be about 2,800 euros (US$4,000) poorer per year. That's a huge hit for the population knowing that the average monthly salary in Greece is about 650 to 800 Euro. It obviously depends on your education or if you have kids or being married and also on the field that you work, for example people who work in Banks, Military, Public offices their salary can reach around 1500 euro, but this is still very low compared to other European countries...

Even the high-tech "hot" jobs don't pay much compared to other countries part of the OECD (source: PayScale):

So opportunities you said? show me the money...

At the beginning, I was thinking global firms doing outsourcing of knowledge intensive works to Greece could be cost effective due to the relative low wages and the fact 48% of the greeks speak english or some english (Source: Eurobarometer 2005 Europeans and their Languages), but I've discovered today reading a bit Wikipedia that only 15% of the population currently holds a university degree, and many of the talents immigrate to other countries (I can understand why these days...).

So being the new paradise for high-tech outsourcing is the big no...

After all, when I've searched tonight on Google "Greece + Opportunity"

I got 135 Million hits... so if Google said so...

In conclusion, the only good business that could hugely grow in Greece is sadly debt collection services... also known as collection agencies...

A collection agency is a business that pursues payments of debts owed by individuals or businesses. Most collection agencies operate as agents of creditors and collect debts for a fee or percentage of the total amount owed.

If you want to open such a firm, I'm ready to invest.

- Yohan Albo

Usage of social networks to pass messages to the enemy during war time

2011-04-28T09:35:00.005+03:00

Dear Followers,

I've realized something interesting this morning...

As we all know, the social networks, such as Twitter & Facebook, linked to powerful complementary content sharing services, have played an important role in the latest events in Egypt, Syria, and other parts of the arab world.

If in the past, the "leaders" managed to control the conventional media, including newspaper, radio, then later on the TV, some governments today are ready to kill to take control, or stop access to the new social media.

Not sure if the funders of Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube have identified the potential of this new weapon... a weapon of mass... CHANGE... for the good and for the bad... as anything in life.

I was aware the Israeli Army (IDF) had a channel on YouTube since 2008... but I have discovered a new facet of this strategic communication channel:

The IDF has uploaded videos in arabic addressing terrorist organizations, such as the Hamas or the Hezbola, sending a clear message to the enemies and to the civil population.

See below. Pay attention to the format, the wording, the atmosphere...

Change Your Words , Change Your World

2011-04-20T21:22:00.002+03:00

This is an example of authentic marketing.

- Y

One of the insights from the Jewish Passover

2011-04-18T13:20:00.003+03:00

The Jewish Passover has different meanings and symbols for the people of Israel and for the humanity as a whole... one of them is the renewal of the nature, that should inspire and help the human beings realize the intrinsic ability for them to renew and re-invent themselves for the good.

This is the antithesis of the "path dependency" concept tought to MBA students.

Every year, this little point helps me try re-engineering myself, and rethinking things that we use to take for granted...

This is true for our personal life, and this is also true in business.

Wishing you the best to you and your family.

- Y

Google Android 3.0 or Google's first real move to tablet...

2011-01-07T10:37:00.008+02:00

Hi Guys,

During CES 2011, Motorola have showcased their new tablet named Xoom... looks like a nice product that could become the first real iPad competitor...

This product will include the upcoming version of Android, code-named Honeycomb (or 3.0)...

Google's Andy Rubin has previewed to this table as a prototype a month ago at the D: Dive into Mobile conference, where he discussed the Android roadmap and specifically the 3.0 version, that should be optimized for Tablet devices... a great talk, you can find here.

We need to remember OEMs like Archos or lately Samsung have released Android-powered tablets in the past, but their L&F and performance were not comparable to the iPad...

Seems like this time Google got it right... for you to judge:

Knowing When To Walk Away From a Negotiation

2010-11-25T10:50:00.002+02:00

One of the most common dilemmas for negotiators has been to determine when the time has came to leave the negotiation table, and consider a given deal as lost and not profitable enough for the interest for their companies.

Furthermore, even when the decision to “walk away” has been made by the negotiator or by the decision makers involved, the negotiator sometimes feels like having failed to deliver upon his mission, his duty… The pressure coming from his colleagues not directly involved in the negotiation reinforces this feeling; but is this sentiment in fact justified?

From experience, we don’t need to wait for the face-to-face negotiation to define when will be the time to walk away from the negotiation, moreover, it is strongly not recommended to try asking this fundamental question in real-time during the actual negotiation… this question needs to be answered during the preparation phase.

The answer is driven by an concept named BATNA.

BATNA is an acronym described by Roger Fisher and William Ury which means “Best Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement”. It is the alternative action that will be taken should your proposed agreement with another party result in an unsatisfactory agreement or when an agreement fails to materialize.

If the potential results of your current negotiation only offer a value that is less than your BATNA, there is no point in proceeding with the negotiation, and one should use their best available alternative option instead. Prior to the start of negotiations, each party should have ascertained their own individual BATNA.

It took me long to understand this idea… During the early years of my career, I used to be depressed when negotiations went in the wrong path or were not as fluid as we would have liked… In some cases, I was finding myself trying by force to find creative ways to conclude deals at virtually any price… This is what I use to call the “investment” project syndrome, or in other words, justifying a deal you foresee will be with a negative NPV (or an NPV nearly equals to zero)… This can be explained by the level of effort you’ve invested in preparation, brainstorming, negotiation, etc… at some point, you start being emotionally involved…

With time, I’ve realized this perception was in fact erroneous… stopping negotiation when you reach a dead-end (the value of the deal is less than your BATNA) is more an opportunity than a failure… an opportunity to win even bigger with your alternative option…

Regards,

Yohan Albo

Final MBA Project - Call for proposals

2010-11-21T14:25:00.005+02:00

Dear Readers,

How are you?

I'm nearly at the end of my Executive MBA program @ the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Our team needs to submit a 1-pager describing our final MBA project in a couple of days.

I got a couple of propositions from people in my network, but nothing transcendent yet, to be honest... It will be best if we could find a project with a real "customer" behind, that will be able to propose a real-life problem, share with us some real data for analysis, and be present during the final review (May 2011) with the forum...

I was wondering whether your firm potentially has a non-trivial business problem my team and me could try to propose some solutions. I guess such a work could be of value for your firm.

We are open to YOUR challenge ;-)

Note that we already did a couple of comprehensive research reports in the past for/on several firms: Tivo (Expansion to India), Better Place (Expansion plan for next round table), Starbucks (Product line-up Glocalization), and many others...

Just to provide you more information: the output of our final project (30-page report + 40-min presentation) should be integrative... My MBA is focused on integrative management, so the project chosen should be cross-discipline as much as possible, covering finance, marketing, business strategy, org structure, etc...

The problematic to be addressed should be in a way non-trivial, but achievable and very well-defined. The outcome of this work (for instance: the analysis and the recommendations to the management team) should be driven by quantitative analysis (market share, revenue forecast, cost analysis, tax projection, competitive analysis using benchmarks, etc...)

The due date for the actual presentation and submission of the report is the first week of May 2011.

If you are interested and want to get more information, feel free to contact me.

Best Regards,
Yohan Albo

Coopetition is the new normal

2010-10-15T09:39:00.005+02:00

During the last negotiation skill session (a seminar part of my E-MBA studies), I've learned about a notion, new to me: “coopetition” (“cooperative competition”).

I’ve started to look for more details about it on the web... I’ve found some interesting examples, such as an agreement between leading carmakers, Peugeot, Citroen, and Toyota, to share components for a new city car - simultaneously sold as the Peugeot 107, the Toyota Aygo, and the Citroën C1. In this case, companies save money on shared costs while remaining fiercely competitive in other areas...

I can think of many additional examples in my short career... We used such an approach mainly to ensure scale-up.

This duality is interesting, to sustain your business, many times you have to both compete and collaborate at the same time. It’s like asking from 2 countries to be simultaneously in war and peace all together. This situation may raise a lot of new challenges within the organization.

I’ve found on the web an interesting chart describing the different potential "combinations" of coopetition within a given ecosystem:

When such a collaboration agreement is reached, the 3^rd party turns to be at this given point in time a complementor, and not a competitor…

If you are interested to learn more about this approach, I recommend you to have a look at this presentation from Barry Nalebuff http://users.uoa.gr/~atsaoussi/Nalebuff.pdf and on this book: http://www.amazon.com/Co-Opetition-Revolution-Combines-Competition-Cooperation/dp/0385479506

Best Regards,

Yohan

Sources:

§ Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coopetition

§ Presentation from Barry Nalebuff http://users.uoa.gr/~atsaoussi/Nalebuff.pdf

One of my conclusions from IBC: the DTV STB middleware business is broken... Let's face it!

2010-09-19T23:04:00.002+02:00

It has been a pleasure to meet many of you during the IBC conference last week...

One of my conclusions: the DTV middleware business is broken... Let's face it, in most of the cases, being a provider of TV middleware or interactive apps only is not a sustainable business anymore... No way to secure any respectable margin in the long run... My only hope is that the industry will acknowledge the need for broad standard... And NO, web technologies and open Internet alone are definitively not the good fit for the next-gen tv platform...

What's your take?

More to come on my blog on this topic soon...

Il est une heure du mat... ca va me coûter cher...

2010-09-02T01:05:00.004+03:00

Il est une heure du mat... ca va me coûter cher, en sachant que demain j'ai une très longue journée... Je viens de finir la confrérie des éveillés, roman de Jacques Attali... je l'ai trouve passionnant... La quête des personnages m'a rappelé un peu L'alchimiste de Paulo Coelho...

Un vrai chef d'œuvre bien orchestre... Ça faisait depuis près d'un an que je n'avais pas lu de roman a cause de mes nombreuses lectures professionnelles liées a mon MBA...

J'ai interdit a mon frère de mettre entre mes mains des livres aussi prenants, ce n'est pas raisonnable... d'ailleurs, est-ce que la raison doit-elle diriger nos vies?

Un roman que je recommande...

- Yohan

Research In Motion's loyalty problem - What? So What? Why?

2010-08-04T11:55:00.005+03:00

According to data released Monday from Nielsen, only 42% of BlackBerry owners want their next phone to be a BlackBerry. A full 29% want an iPhone next, 21% want an Android phone, and 7% fall into the "other" category.

To the full article: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/top-stocks/blog.aspx?post=1788737

If you have invested in this ticker, you may ask yourself if this information is noise only, or something you may need to take into consideration...

To tell you the truth, I'm convinced these numbers indeed reflect people's intentions in general...

Companies like RIM, Nokia, and even Google, didn't manage to create an emotional relationship between the individual customer and their brand. This is something essential for the long run, but extremely hard to achieve, especially those days because of the growing culture of the CHANGE, the NEW, and the BUZZ... you name it... and the more-than-ever low cost-to-switch... and yes, smartphones in North America are seen as a commodity product despite the cumulative price (one-time acquisition fee + monthly fees).

To inspire people (which Apple does most of the time with their products), you need to possess the correct genes at DNA-level of your company...

At this stage, the market perception is that companies such as RIM, LGE, Nokia create great hardware & software, and try to mix some artificial storytelling around to make the product more human and attractive... @ Apple, it seems that the storytelling is the product, which inspire their customers in improving (some time synthetically but this doesn't really matter as we are in the "perception" world which is at the end of the day our personal reality) their quality of life.

Bottom line, it means RIM will need to invest more $$$ to keep its customer base and try to attract new customers in the future, which will not help the firm in its constant efforts to reduce its operational costs and increase its profit...

My 2c.

- Yohan

Etats-Unis : Amazon vend plus de livres électroniques que de livres reliés

2010-07-21T11:47:00.004+03:00

Dans les News de ce matin: "Etats-Unis : Amazon vend plus de livres électroniques que de livres reliés"

Il me semble que c'est une milestone de taille pour l'economie dematerialisee...

Je pense que très bientôt on notera une milestone similaire dans les ventes de jeux videos sur consoles de nouvelle génération (par exemple la nouvelle version de la psp n'a pas de lecteur optique pour les jeux, les jeux sont achetés "over the air" via le storefront de Sony)... En d'autres mots, comment tuer une partie de la chaîne afin d'augmenter les marges et mieux contrôler son écosystème... Les choses se compliquent, ou se simplifient, ca depend de quel cote on se positionne...

Par ailleurs, depuis que j'ai le iPad et des apps qui couvrent les news qui m'intéresse je ne lis plus le journal papier au quel je suis abonne... En plus de la portabilite, la version électronique apporte sa couche de valeur ajoutée avec de l'info qui se rafraîchie tout au long de la journée, la video, l'audio, les commentaires des lecteurs... C'est la fin de la presse papier... Pour de bon.

Qu'est-ce que vous en pensez?

- Yohan Albo
Weblog: http://yalbobusiness.blogspot.com/
LinkedIn Page: www.linkedin.com/in/yalbo/
TED Member: http://www.ted.com/profiles/view/id/292721

[TED '10] Bill Gates on energy: Innovating to zero! & Thoughts on Petrodollar...

2010-06-23T20:38:00.002+03:00

At TED2010, Bill Gates unveils his vision for the world's energy future, describing the need for "miracles" to avoid planetary catastrophe and explaining why he's backing a dramatically different type of nuclear reactor. The necessary goal? Zero carbon emissions globally by 2050.

I'm interested these days on Zero Emission solutions. I've visited Better Place Center this week, it was very informative. I recommend everyone to go visit there and get familiar with their EV network solution that may one day help turn countries like Israel, Denmark and others into oil-free transportation zones.

The vision is here, but the challenges to deploy such solutions are huge. As part of my MBA study, I'm doing an essay on the EV market in general and on their ability to deploy and more interestingly on the chance of adoption. Stay tuned, I may put the results of this research on the net soon...

I don't care if this will be actually done leveraging EV, solar, gas or even nuclear (oh... maybe not) based energy, but we need to fight the petrodollars... I realized the geo-political petrodollar issue after reading "Hot, Flat, and Crowded" from Thomas Friedman... For those who may not know, a petrodollar is a United States dollar earned by a country through the sale of petroleum. You will agree with me, financing terrorists should not be our cup of tea.

In short, even Bill has joined this war, maybe not for the same reasons, but anyway... a inspiring speech.

A special thank to DanS for sharing this video with me.

Thoughts on VC & private equity world AND how to calculate EBITDA...

2010-06-15T19:37:00.008+03:00

I'm learning more about Venture Capital and Private Equity these days... An amazing world...

Who knows... maybe one day I will switch industry and join a VC or a LBO, or even create one... One thing is sure: this sector sounds very interesting and extremely close to the real action.

I've noticed many times the valuation of a given deal/target company is expressed in number of times its EBIDTA.

For instance, in 1999, Cadbury Schweppes had agreed to sell all of its non-American soft-drink assets to Coca-Cola for 18 x EBITDA.

EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. It is a measure to gauge the profitability of a corporation or business. A person need not have an MBA to understand financial calculations. EBITDA is not as complicated to calculate as the lengthy acronym would suggest.

Instructions
Step 1 Calculate net income. To calculate net income obtain total income and subtract total expenses. Total income is defined as the amount of money obtained for services, labor or the sale of goods. Total expenses is defined as when a corporation uses up an asset or incurs a liability.

Step 2 Determine income taxes. Income taxes are the total amount of taxes paid to federal, state and local governments.
Step 3 Compute interest charges. Interest is the fee paid to companies or individuals that reimburses the individual or companies for the use of credit or currency.

Step 4 Establish the cost of depreciation. Depreciation is the term used to define a cash (machines or property) or non-cash asset (a copyright, a trademark or brand name recognition) that loses value over time whether through aging, wear and tear or the assets becoming obsolete. There are two methods of depreciation: straight line and accelerated.
Step 5 Ascertain the cost of amortization. Amortization is a method of decreasing the amounts of financial instruments over time including interest other finance charges.

Step 6 Add all previously defined components. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) equals amortization plus depreciation plus interest plus net income plus income taxes. The resulting figure is then subtracted from total expense. This final figure is then subtracted from total revenue to arrive at EBITDA.

Financial Statement Analysis Automation leveraging XBRL

2010-06-11T16:45:00.005+03:00

I continue my investigation on how to automate the analysis of financial statements...

I found you can get financial statement in a standard xml format named XBRL...

After that the sky is the limit, you can parse the data and do what you want with it...

Some more additional information if this interests you:

Definition:
http://www.xbrl.org/WhatIsXBRL/

Open source parser:
http://code.google.com/p/xbrlware/

Le développement d’Android passe à une version par an - Je n'y crois pas...

2010-06-08T10:16:00.006+03:00

Cet article de chez Zdnet a attire mon attention ce matin: http://www.businessmobile.fr/actualites/le-developpement-d-android-passe-a-une-version-par-an-39752217.htm#talkback_list

Et oui, le fameux problème de fragmentation que j'avais décrit il y a de ca plusieurs mois sur mon blog dans un post intitulé: “Pourquoi la décision des fabricants mobile de passer sur Android est suicidaire?” - http://yalbobusiness.blogspot.com/2010/02/pourquoi-la-decision-des-fabriquants.html

Ce post m'avait valu de nombreux commentaires des analystes du secteur.

Ma prochaine prévision sur ce sujet: Il y de très fortes chances que Google n'arrivera pas a synchroniser son roadmap et les demandes du marche avec une version par an. Cette approche risque de causer encore plus de fragmentation dans le cas de Android, pour des raisons évidentes... les acteurs de ce secteur, OEMs ou opérateurs, n'attendront pas Google pour implémenter de nouvelles fonctionnalités requises afin de diversifier leurs services face a une concurrence acharnée...

De plus, il ne faut pas oublier que Google devra aussi synchroniser le roadmap de Android Mobile et Android TV, chose que Google n'a jamais eu besoin de planifier au paravant. Je parle d'expérience car je connais de très près les challenges de ce type de produits, car je dirige de tels produits et offres convergentes pour le compte de Sun Microsystems (Maintenant Oracle).

-Yohan Albo

My transition to Oracle

2010-06-03T15:20:00.007+03:00

Since this monday, I'm a formal Oracle employee (LEC for Israel was on May 31st)...

I didn't truly realize this change until yesterday evening...

no, it's NOT the new email address, it's NOT the multiple orientation sessions we had, it's NOT the new introduction pitch during customer meetings (Yohan From Su... Oracle), or not even the new employee card (I still didn't receive btw...), but because a little sticker...

Last night, I had to remove the 'Sun Micro' sticker on my company car, and to replace it with the Oracle logo... To tell you the truth, it was both a strange and sad moment, like saying goodbye to very close friend you may never see again...

I had a chat with my kids today when they noticed the new sticker...

They were curious to understand who is this 'Ora... Oracle' ?!?

I tried to explain them Oracle is the largest entreprise software company worldwide, and that they have acquired Sun to beat IBM, the second most recognized brand in the planet (after Coca-Cola)... but they seemed not convinced ;-)

Looks like they didn't learn about M&A strategy at school just yet...

- Yohan Albo

European Java Roadshow in Israel - few pics

2010-06-03T12:29:00.003+03:00

It has been a pleasure for me to meet some of you at the European Java Roadshow event in Hertzelia last week.

I hope you enjoyed my live demos showing JavaFX TV applications running on the Intel CE3100-powered STB ;-)

Again, feel free to visit the javafx.com site to download the SDK, learning more about this emerging technology leveraging the Tutorials & How-to pages, and the sample codes...

Here are a couple of pictures from the event:

- Yohan Albo

Successful Pitch for your startup!!! A MUST-READ IF YOU ARE AN ENTREPRENEUR.

2010-05-29T21:13:00.006+03:00

I found this excellent preso from Canaan Partners on SlideShare.

Canaan Partners is a global venture capital firm based in a couple of countries, including Israel. They are located in Hetzelia next to my building (Sun Microsystems).

This workbook-style presentation gives entrepreneurs just the information they need to give a successful pitch to venture and angel investors.

A MUST-READ IF YOU ARE AN ENTREPRENEUR.

BTW - I took some time to review their website, I've their resource page valuable, have a look: http://www.canaan.com/home/resources/

If you have valuable resources for start-up companies, feel free to share them with me, I work on a directory for start-ups I will publish when mature enough to be shared.

Regards,
Yohan Albo

Java @ EDF : le grand chantier des compteurs communicants a commencé

2010-05-11T08:26:00.009+03:00

On a fait les news ce matin en France...

A lire:
http://www.businessmobile.fr/actualites/edf-le-grand-chantier-des-compteurs-communicants-a-commence-39751516.htm

Un de mes premiers projets energies est en phase de deploiment par EDF en France...

ERDF (Electricité Réseau Distribution France) entame le remplacement des compteurs électriques traditionnels par de nouveaux dispositifs communicants. A terme, ce sont 300 000 compteurs qui seront installés.

Grace a ce dispositif, les informations sur la consomation electrique seront transmises en temp reel en utilisant le réseau électrique via la technologie CPL (courant porteur en ligne) puis le GPRS vers le réseau télécom de l'électricien.

Ces concentrateurs GPRS embarquent une machine virtuelle Java provenant de chez Sun Microsystems, d'ou ma contribution a ce projet en temp que chef de projet.

Java est definitivement une technologie grandissante dans le monde de l'embarque... ce n'est pas pour rien que Java est present dans 90% des telephones portables dans le monde, dans plus de 80 millions de decodeurs TV, dans 100% des lecteurs BluRay, et dans tous les Amazon Kindles... c'est un fait!

May the Java force be with you ;-)
- Yohan Albo

How a company such as Tivo could expand its business activities to the Indian DTV market...

2010-05-06T20:47:00.003+03:00

This document provides a set of analytical tools in hope to enable Tivo’s board of directors to reach an optimal decision concerning a potential operational expansion to the Indian market (simulation).

This report, generated as part of our EMBA studies, has been prepared by Yohan Albo, Dan Stemmer, David Spitzer, Dan Friedman, and Hemi Shmueli.

http://www.docshare.com/doc/214224/Tivo_Business_Expansion_to_India_v05

Comments are welcome.

Yohan Albo

Starbucks' International Business Expansion Strategy & Why they have failed in Israel...

2010-05-06T16:34:00.004+03:00

Below is a presentation we have generated as part of our EMBA program, describing a bit Starbucks' International Business Expansion Strategy & why they have failed in Israel back in 2001... Enjoy...

Here is a direct link if required: http://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhrtq25j_62gsmr7ndt

How great leaders inspire action

2010-05-06T09:28:00.003+03:00

Below is a presentation that have inspired me today, wanted to share it w/ you guys...

How a start-up of 3 engineers working from a Starbucks can propose a more complete solution than a IBM or a Sun

2010-04-13T14:26:00.018+03:00

No it's not only about better coffee...

One of the first thing I've learned from my business masters about 10 years ago is the KISS theory: "Keep It Stupid and Simple".

Simplicity is the only way to drive a business in the long-term. That's why some firms manage to do much more with LESS...

The startups against the big boats... The Davids vs Goliaths of our age in a way... or how a start-up of 3 engineers working from a Starbucks can propose more complete and suitable solutions to their customers than a IBM or a Sun Microsystems. This has always amazed me... (I know simplicity is only one factor out of many)...

This little idea somehow converges to a great article from Clay Shirky: "The collapse of complex Business Models"

A must-read article for people wanting to understand the evolving business jungle:
http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2010/04/the-collapse-of-complex-business-models/

P.S. This article is applied to the TV/media industry, but can definitively be applied to many other areas.

Why companies that will propose customer-oriented, connected/cross-screen services will definitively win big...

2010-04-11T12:07:00.009+03:00

During the 2010 Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, I took a break between meetings and went to see how our future will look like...

One of my big takeaways from this CES edition was how the mobile interface (the most personal screen of your life I would say) is now leveraged to access new services in a user friendly way...

The touch-screen revolution and the mobile application development democratization (thanks to Apple via his versatile iPhone SDK and application roll-out system, the AppStore) have been the catalyzers of this new connected evolution that will give birth to new end-user oriented use cases that may change our life...

These past 5 years have been about usage and not technology which is a good thing in itself... for instance with the emergence of the notebooks (new usage), the market place has shown the world the race after the CPU power is over... this is bad news for the chip vendors that need to justify their prices, but this is wonderful news for the users, and a wake-up call for the big players out there...

During the show, OnStar revealed a mobile application for the Chevrolet Volt, the first mobile app specialized for an electric vehicle. Below is a video demonstration of how the app works.

Creative and smart companies that will propose customer-oriented, connected/cross-screen services will definitively win big...

This OnStar initiative is only one example out of many...

Here is another example from my industry: AT&T U-verse TV Mobile Remote Access App

Want to learn more about MHP, OCAP, ACAP, and JavaTV - Pointer to a good tutorial...

2010-04-07T14:35:00.003+03:00

The below web site is dedicated to open standards for interactive TV and aims to provide tutorials and information for developers who are involved with the interactive TV industry, and who need to learn more about the current crop of open standards. Although this site is mainly aimed at the DVB Multimedia Home Platform (MHP), OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP), and JavaTV standards, there is some mention of other open standards where it's appropriate:

http://www.mhp-interactive.org/tutorials

Video Game Psychology

2010-04-07T08:49:00.001+03:00

Big Brother, Video Game Psychology & Obedient Humans living inside Skinner Boxes. This was a presentation at the recent DICE 2010 Summit.

- Cereal boxes with screen
- Soda cans with Wi-fi
- Tatoos with Adsense
- REM in-ear entertainment
- Sensors that sense our emotions
- Gov't rewards for supporting political candidates
- Eye sensors that track our reading

Pourquoi la decision des fabriquants mobile de passer sur Android est suicidaire?

2010-02-28T11:06:00.013+02:00

J'ai travaille la semaine dernière sur une competitive analysis traitant les solutions de plateforme embarque présentes sur le marche...
Ca m'a aide a mieux comprendre pourquoi la trend présente chez les OEMs de choisir Android par défaut pour réduire leur coût de R&D est problématique, pour ne pas dire suicidaire en un sens sur le moyen/long terme...

Raisons principales:
- Manque de contrôle sur roadmap de la part des fabriquants
- Manque de contrôle sur la technologie software de la part des fabriquants
- Détérioration du brand name du fabriquant... Google phone effect: C'est plus regarde le nouveau mobile de chez LGE... ca va devenir regarde le nouveau Google Phone...
- Manque de différenciation du produit face a la concurrence. Difficile de se différencier de ses concurrents et de créer une brandname au long terme si l'unique différentiation possible est au niveau HW... (d'ailleurs, en général, pour supporter un avancement HW, il faut obligatoirement du soft derrière... même si un OEM arrive a bidouiller la plateforme en sa faveur, après tout c'est du open source, diront-ils.... il naîtra de graves problèmes de fragmentation et de compatibilité... ce qui mettra en danger le application development model )
- Problème de fragmentation de la plateforme Android. Lire article plus bas...
[Petite clarification suite a un commentaire recu: les constructeurs (dans le meilleur des cas) utilisent Android comme un start-up kit et le modifient extremement pour en faire une toute autre monture... (pas simplement un changement dans l'interface graphique) puis arrive une nouvelle version de la plateforme android de chez Google... et il est en suite bien trop complique ou trop couteux pour les OEMs d'integrer les changements ou maintenir plusieurs codebases... d'ou les problemes de fragmentation... d'ailleurs, ils ne faut pas compter sur Google pour que tous leurs code drops soit backward compatible et donc ceci meme a la longue posera des problemes de compatibilite des applications... Je parle d'experience en prenant en compte les nombreux problemes survenus chez Sun Microsystems quand a la compatibilite de notre Java Virtual Machine: JavaME offering]
- Manque de contrôle futur sur un revenue stream prometteur: Targeted advertising
- Restructuration total du R&D et risque encouru au niveau stratégique car les ingénieurs qui ont un low-level skill-set fuiront la boite ou se verront vire... si la stratégie Android ne tient pas ses promesses, il va falloir racheter ce savoir a prix fort...
- En dernier point, celui qui pourra faire le plus mal... et si Google décidait de planter tout le monde... les fabriquants, les opérateurs, etc... ? je crois personnellement que ce scenario est tres probable...
[On m'a demande de donner des examples concrets pour illuster ce point: (1) Google rachete ou cree une joint-venture avec un OEM, disons Motorola Mobile (quoi? un example comme un autre :), et propose ses nouveautes en exclusivite sur ses propres Goolgle-branded modeles pendant 8 mois... Science-fiction? (2) Google propose une solution mobile gratuit (ou presque) sans passer par les operateurs ayant comme business model la pub uniquement... possible? Yes, we can!]

Une bombe a retardement?

A lire:
http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/google-androids-self-destruction-derby-begins-863?page=0,0

[Response a une autre question recu par email: Est-ce que Google est capable de rectifier le coche niveau fragmentation? j'estime que oui mais peux-etre pas sous un model totalement open source, si Google avait une offre commerciale binaire du core de sa plateforme, ils auront bien sur plus de controle sur les nombreux deploiments... ]

Votre opinion?

- Yohan Albo
P.S. J'espere encore pouvoir travailler chez Google apres un tel article ;-)

The Future of Mobile Media and Communication

2010-02-14T14:07:00.005+02:00

An interesting video for those of you, like me, who are interested to anticipate the future, and dream about new products and services that will shape our future. This reminds me a series of books I read a couple of years ago called "Popcorn report" if I remember correctly...

Actualy while writing this post, I spent 2 minutes google-ling "popcorn report", I found out Faith Popcorn is still active... no new publication (as far as I can see), but a website: http://www.faithpopcorn.com/

So this time is about the future of mobile...

Israel: Leader of Business Innovation

2009-11-01T10:44:00.001+02:00

Dan Senor, co-author of 'Start-up Nation: The Story of Israel's Economic Miracle,' discusses with CNBC how Israel has managed to become a leader in business innovation.

Delivering a clear and powerful Message to the market - Oracle Study Case

2009-10-28T08:34:00.010+02:00

Hi Folks,
Because of the Oracle-Sun aquisition, I've started spending some on the Oracle site, to better understand the next company I may work for, its corporate culture, its offering, its way to do business.

One of the things, I believe Sun will definitively learn from Oracle, is the way Oracle manage to deliver a crystal-clear and powerful message to the market. A message than no one can ignore... a message based on facts, and not promises.

One examples out of many available on a page dedicated to their Ads:

Building on facts provide a very strong message that cannot be easily rejected by competitors such as IBM, MS, and others... Between us, I don't know which channels they use to promote solutions that are not yet #1 in the market... Could it be that their ad/promotion campaigns really run only after they have reached the #1 place in at least one of the relevant benchmarks in the targeted sector? From the ads mentioned in this page, it seems to be the case.

An other point worth to mention is their genius in targeting specific industries or sectors with the optimal messaging/positioning.

No need to say too much... In general one strong sentence in bold you cannot miss even if you are 10 feet from the newspaper...

No images, just black text on top of a white background... In general, something written black on white MUST be true, isn't it?

In most of the case, the only color on the ad is the now well-known Oracle RED logo that cannot be missed.

I've learned a lot from the couple of minutes I spent analyzing Oracle's way of doing advertising...

I'm sure I will be reusing what I've learned here during my EMBA... a good teaser for a future case study.

Comments are welcome as always...

- Yohan

What leads to success? - A 3-min video answer

2009-10-26T14:56:00.004+02:00

Excellent video answering a simple, but critical question: "What leads to success?"

Share with us what you think about this video using the below comment icon.

Are you a JavaFX user?

2009-10-04T17:35:00.003+02:00

Are you a JavaFX user? Unleash your opinion! Take a short survey and tell us what you think: http://alturl.com/fwk2

NDA template

2009-09-06T14:16:00.004+03:00

I had to work on a project with a friend that required an NDA to be signed...

For your convenience, I'm adding here an NDA template that can be freely used... no real need to pay a legal for that...

Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) Template -

The number one reason my startup failed...

2009-09-06T10:52:00.003+03:00

Have a look at this interesting post : http://www.teabuzzed.com/2009/08/the-number-one-reason-my-startup-failed/

As well, I fully agree with one of the comments left on the blog: "It’s really nice hearing from failures from time to time. These kinds of stories don’t often get out, but they’re very educational on so many levels.

Especially now when all too many people become so easily enthralled by success stories the likes of Google, Facebook, Youtube, Digg, Twitter, …"

Viral Marketing Explained in video! -~> A Must...

2009-09-06T10:16:00.002+03:00

Some of my work promoting the FX TV product during the past months...

2009-08-23T21:51:00.003+03:00

[Mac] Where Apple has hidden my "home" and "end" keys?

2009-08-13T11:39:00.004+03:00

I've purchased my first Mac a few weeks ago when I was in San Francisco. (actually I've had a Mac LC 20 years ago at home, but I was not allowed to touch it else my brother would have killed me :)

What a change my friend... especially for persons like me that use to spend more than 10 hours a day in front of their machine! and yes, if it was not already clear, I'm VERY happy with my new laptop.

Today, I'm interested to share with you where Apple has hidden the "Home" and "End" Keys...
At the beginning, it was kind of annoying for me to not be able to just hit a button to get to the end or beginning of a line while typing. Here is the solution:

command+left arrow is home

command+right arrow is end

For more, visit the "How to make the Home & End keys on a Mac keyboard work like Home & End keys" article from GeekGuides.co.uk .

Ygal, this post was for you and the hundreds of others that have typed "end and home keys on mac" on google and have reached to this page ;-)

Enjoy,
- Yohan

HTML/DOM 5 Demo Apps

2009-08-11T10:56:00.004+03:00

HTML 5 is the next major revision of HTML ("hypertext markup language").

HTML 5 was initially said to become a game-changer in Web application development, making obsolete such plug-in-based rich Internet application (RIA) technologies as Adobe Flash, Microsoft Silverlight, and Sun JavaFX.

Based on my analysis and discussions with key players in the TV industry, this solution is not mature enough to really compete with RIA integrated development and operating frameworks such as Flash or JavaFX, at least not in the TV space.

You will say I'm not objective as I'm the PM of the JavaFX for TV product... and I will answer you that you could be right, but this is also what I hear from most of the players in my industry.

One of the partners I work with just sent me those HTML 5 demo applications:

Video player and effects
http://www.dailymotion.com/openvideodemo

Effects vs. video
http://9elements.com/io/projects/html5/canvas

BTW - this 9elements.com company seems to have terrific ideas in terms of UE/UI design.

Yale University Courses available on iTunes FOR FREE

2009-08-02T16:45:00.005+03:00

Hi my Friends,

I really recommend the Yale University Business related courses available for free on iTunes. An amazing repository of knowledge that can make the difference...

To access the courses, one way is simply to type "Yale University" in your iTune "Search iTunes Store" search box (make sure you are using the US store).
Full path= Home >> iTune U >> Yale University

I especially recommend the following tracks:
~~> How to Write a Business Plan 40:58 Maureen Burke Yale Entrepreneurial Institute
~~> Lessons Learned as an Entreprenuer 36:39 Andrew Greenwalt Yale Entrepreneurial Institute
~~> Decision Making at a Startup 49:39 Jordon Goldberg Yale Entrepreneurial Institute
~~> The Challenges and Opportunities Facing Business and Society Today 38:18 Roland Betts Yale University
~~> Problem-Solving Ideas: From Creator of the "Why Not" Interactive Website 54:55 Barry Nalebuff Yale University
~~> Yale Entrepreneurial Institute: Innovation for Tomorrow -- Today 23:54 James Boyle, Richard Madonna, Jennifer McFadden Yale University
~~> Why You Shouldn't Be An Entrepreneur 43:40 Barry Nalebuff Yale Entrepreneurial Institute

This was a wonderful way to prepare myself for my EMBA...

BTW - this is a proof, those days, knowledge of quality is available from everywhere for free for a better world... The power to change your "destiny" by first-class education is in your hands... no excuse & no magic... invest in yourself & boost your personal bottom-line!

- Yohan Albo

Creating Developers for the Cloud of tomorrow - J1 '09 Report

2009-06-01T21:50:00.007+03:00

Below are my notes from the "Creating Developers for the Cloud of tomorrow" session.

This session was a roundtable that looks at the convergence of application development and cloud computing, its impact on development tools and programming models, and the emergence of integrated cloud development environments.
Panel from market leader from Sun, Gartner, and Apache foundation
The emerging wave of cloud computing represents a major shift in information technology and application development.
Developers are starting to see the rise of cloud-based development platforms as part of the broad industry shift to cloud computing.
Gartner: "The point of Cloud Computing is not hosting but value-add service..."
Some small players can now come to cloud infrastructure players and deploy their applications/services and no matter where they are, they can address a market globally - remind me the world is flat - great opportunity for small players... from now no need for large infrastructure to be built and deployed... Service providers can focus on their core activity: monetization...
Discussions around the level of abstraction for developers that wants to make available their apps available on the cloud. Different approach exists in the market.
As a general guidance, the developer doesn't need to care about the infrastructure... but from my point of view, it may depend on the use case.
There is no free lunch - Cloud Computing costs and will cost - not talking about potential migration cost which could be huge.
Big problem in Cloud: Latency ( the data is not locally stored anymore), security, mash-up of services that come from different sources that can heavily cost in terms of performance, lack of control, legal requirements that not allows usage of cloud.
For the latency, some technologies are now being developed to address this matter (partial caching, local validation, etc...)
According to the panel, there will not be ONE killer app that will boost the adoption of cloud computing, it will be the existence of thousands of services available on the cloud...
An interesting point was mentioned re testing cycle of minutes when using the Cloud computing using an automatic test bench
According to the panel, it is too early to a speak about real API standardization for cloud computing...

Reporting from San Francisco this week - JavaOne conference - Community One Keynote

2009-06-01T19:01:00.011+03:00

Hi Folks,
As some of you know, I'm in San Francisco this week introducing the first version of the JavaFX product for TV.

I'm now seating at the CommunityOne Keynote reporting in real time... sorry for the real time typos :)

(1) open community effort to improve our life and the life of others...

helping the community using your skills and talents...
Sounds good... I really believe educated people from the workforce around the world can make the difference locally...
Surely something I will try to apply when I'm back to my home country. I've already started preparing a computer education program at my son's elementary school...

(2) now the focus has moved to Cloud Computing....

Why the Cloud Computing has became the #1 buzz word in our ecosystem?
Open source is the foundation of Cloud Computing...
All is the about data... data sharing between system and subsystem... API rationalization will be a challenge
But to the truth is, all is about service...
Now we have a demo of the deployment of a data center in 6 clicks :) - drag and drop of machine, network switches, firewalls, etc... on a diagram , connecting them & that's it... BTW, this was done from a simple web browser interface:) Cloud app, obviously...

(3) Now they have touched Cloud apps/services, the focus moved to storage!

A partner has discussed how he has deployed a data recovery service running using Sun Cloud in hours....
They have also shown different tools to monitor the activity around the cloud, a simple dashboard.... I believe there are opportunities in the Cloud Computing monitoring business - I guess some API rationization work is required but I guess it could be relatively simple to build a cheap offer for web browser monitoring application that will address the different Cloud Computer offers available in the market... Interested? give me a call or send me a check at... ;-P
Now they are demoing a way to import a local application running on a standard PC and exporting it to the Sun Cloud... impressive... Between, I guess this is not so simple... but nice demos...
My Guess: Cloud computing offering + Id card + standard terminal computer = $$$ (at the begining, I believe this kind of E2E solution can be adopted by governements...) I guess that the issue that could slow the adoption of such a solution is mainly lack of standard :(
Good news... Sun has worked on the hardening (security fine tuning) for their cloud computing offer... Indeed, Security for the Cloud computing could be a real risk, this is also a reason for the slow adoption for large organizations... I believe we will need some time to see the security issues addressed in a satisfying way...
Imagine that in 1-2 years, you will be able to deploy a datacenter or a large-scale web application in a day (and not in weeks or months)... amazing! and this w/o having to care much about scalability, maintenance, etc... A very powerful tool that has a clear value add for nearly any organization...
biz dev model= monthly fee + pay what you use model + add to cart approach ~ on the paper at least ;-)

(4) Quick update on JavaFX

JavaFX now available on solaris
Nice demo running on solaris - adding Video reflection with 4 lines of code...
Many news around FX to come during J1...

(5) Network virtualization & ZFS

Introduction to the concept
Demo of kind of Time Machine application running on the cloud (using ZFS)
Fully-integrated flash storage support in ZFS helps to optimize large-scale pools of high-performance storage, which are automatically managed by ZFS to achieve extreme levels of performance across many workloads. All the new storage features are integrated into the Solaris Platform and take full advantage of its core functionality, including fault management, networking, multi-threaded scaling, performance, security and resource management capabilities.
Demo of web browser monitoring app of the file system in realtime using dtrace on Solaris - key to toubleshoting in realtime

Side comment - It was the first time I had the chance to see the video quality of a high-end HD projector - simply amazing.

Yohan
Reporting for you from SF CA

How to get emails and internet on your Blackberry without paying any BES or BIS subscription to your mobile provider

2009-05-08T08:20:00.007+03:00

Hi Folks,

The below configuration will allow you to access internet and your emails from your Blackberry without having to pay for the special additional Blackberry subscription fees (a.k.a. BES or BIS plans)...
Using the below configuration, you will be using your regular mobile internet access plan. (please make sure you have one, else there is no point to try the below)

This simple manipulation was tested on my Blackberry Bold, I guess it should work on other models as well...

Step by Step Instructions:
1. From your mobile, go to Setup--> Advanced Options --> TCP
2. Enter the APN info of your mobile provider.
Click here to find this information (most of the carriers are listed there)
For instance, for Orange IL, you can use the following parameters:
APN: internet
Username: orange
Password: orange
3. The native Blackberry applications will not work as there are tuned to be used only if you have a backberry subscription, so you need to install other applications to access internet and your emails. I personally recommend the following free applications:
Opera Mini --> Internet Browser
Gmail BB Client --> Access your Gmail account(s)
LogicMail --> Email client that will allow you to access your professional emails

That's it! Quick and Simple.

Enjoy,
Yohan

David Schlesinger's "Off-Shoring With Obligation" memo

2009-04-27T21:23:00.003+03:00

Interesting memo sent by David Schlesinger (Reuter's managing editor) to his Staff where he tried to deal straight with the growing outsourcing trend within his company:

Off-Shoring With Obligation
I grew up in New London, Connecticut, which in the 19th century was a major whaling center. In the 1960’s and 70’s the whales were long gone and the major employers in the region were connected with the military - not a surprise during the Vietnam era. My classmates’ parents worked at Electric Boar, the Navy and the Coast Guard. The peace divident changed the region once again, and now it is best known for the great gambling casinos of Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods and for the pharmaceutical researchers of Phizer. Jobs went; jobs were created. Skills went out of use; new skills were required. The region changed; people changed. New London, of course, was not unique. How many mill towns saw their mills close; how many shoe towns saw the shoe industry move elsewhere; how many towns that were once textile powerhouses now buy all their linens from China? Change is hard. Change is hardest on those caught by surprise. Change is hardest on those who have difficulty changing too. But change is natural; change is not new; change is important. The current debate about off-shoring is dangerously hot. But the debate about work going to India, China and Mexico is actually no different from the debate once held about submarine workd leaving New London or shoe work leaving Massachusetts or textile work leaving North Carolina. Work gets done where it can be done mose effectively and efficiently. That ulimately helps the New Londons, New Bedfords and New Yorks of this world even more than it helps the Bangalores and Shenzhens. It helps because it frees up people and captial to do different, more sphisticated work, and it helps because it gives an opportunity to produce the end product more cheaply, benefiting customers even as it helps the corporation. It’s certainly difficult for individuals to think about “their” work going away, being done thousands of miles away by someone earning thousands of dollards less per year. But it’s time to think about the opportunity as well as the pain, just as it’s time to think about th eobligations of off-shoring as well as the opportunities … Every person, just as every corporation, must tend to his or her own economic destiny, just as our parents and grandparents in the mills, shoe shops and factories did.

Why "The World is Flat" is an inspiring book...

2009-04-27T20:59:00.004+03:00

Hi Folks,
Some people have asked me about a comment I posted on Linkedin about this book re why this book has been a revelation for me... So here is my explanation:

This book has helped realizing how much flat the world has became in terms of potential activity outsourcing, and how much this pattern is and will reshape how we do business at the macro and micro level in one hand.

In addition, it has helped me better understand my personal ecosystem and future (present to be honest) personal challenges... Now working and competing globally have became a must not only at the corporate level but at the personal level as well.

In conclusion, a revelation of new threats and opportunities in this new era...

By the way, I've started reading the next volume from Friedman: "Hot, Flat, and crowded"...

Stay tuned!
Yohan

Pardon me for the size the video that doesn't perfectly fit in my blog layout, but I believe the below video from MIT WORLD may be valuable for some of you:

Run Forrest Run... but in the optimal direction to achieve results!!!

2009-04-11T21:53:00.009+03:00

Those days trying to be competitive and working very hard to serve your personal agenda are not politically correct... I believe this needs to change in order to achieve results, I mean results that will make you proud of what YOU are and what YOU have achieved in life, for you and for your ecosystem. If you believe in you, there is no magic you need to invest... your time, your money, and without a doubt your energy!

As many things in live, you need first to define your direction, your own 'way', and then RUN Forrest RUN!

I have found this African proverb in one of the lastest books I read, it has inspired me:

Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up.

It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed.

Every morning a lion wakes up.

It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death.

It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle.

When the sun comes up, you better start running.

This proverb is extremely powerful, but, IMHO it misses one important point: first select the optimal direction and then run... At the end of the day, running in the wrong direction may not help it!

- Yohan

Understanding the Israeli culture - Don't even try!!!

2009-04-02T22:55:00.003+03:00

For those of you my dear friends who work with Israelis...

JavaFX Challenge

2009-04-02T08:27:00.003+03:00

Hi Folks!

Create. Develop. Win. JavaFX Coding Challenge. There is no limit to reak-through thinking. If you're a developer in the professional or student communities, there is an opportunity for you to win up to $25,000 in the JavaFX Coding challenge. Download JavaFX 1.1 and use your creative talents to design a winning application with JavaFX. Submit your application before the deadline and you could be selected as one of the top winners.

Cash prizes of $5,000, $10,000 and our top prize of $25,000 will be awarded to professional developers or students. Three additional $1500 cash prizes will be awarded to the top applications submitted by students. One prize per entry. All top entries will be showcased on JavaFX.com as examples of great new applications.

For more visit: www.JavaFX.com/challenge

No need to send me additional emails about my last post on Obama...

2009-01-06T19:04:00.005+02:00

Hi Folks,
During the last 24h, I've received several emails concerning my last post on Obama...
First of all, no need to send me direct emails to express your views, use the comment button available below, that way the following readers will not have the impression they are the only one from planet blue reading my posts :)

So now seriously to respond to your emails, moi, Yohan Albo, the simple blogger, has no way to say whether the Obama's image as broadcasted on the web is fake or not, but my friends one thing is clear to me, the personage as presented is truely inspiring...

Yohan Albo ---
I think then I blog

The most web viral character of 2008

2009-01-05T21:06:00.004+02:00

no doubt... this is him... President elected Obama... He was everywhere... but mainly on the web, where he definitively built his image from zero to the super-hero he is considered today (putting aside the threat being seen as superman can be those days, when you have extremely complex issues to solve, and quickly based on the huge expectation of his electorate...). The web was used in this case not solely as a colorful communication channel, but as well as a way to raise funds that have helped him making the difference when required. His advisors/teams are, with no doubt, true maters in communication, understanding from day one the importance and the impact of Internet as a revolutionary media, capable to touch most segments of the society, not only in the states, but internationally... yes, Mister Obama could have been elected the President of the world with such a campaign... I'm sure we will see more of that in future elections around the globe. It's for sure not new... a person that knows how to re-invent and control his image, is king... This is not only applicable for a president, but also for any entity/person willing to tremendously influence its/his environment... (because at the end of the day, everything is a matter of influence... Think of it.) For that, I guess, you need to be well prepared with a clear message and a detailed action plan...

Learn from the master:

The story of Linux (video)

2008-11-21T13:37:00.004+02:00

The new company I will work for intends to base the heart of its strategy on open software, so I was interested to learn more about the origin of the Open Source...

I wanted to share with you one of the valuable documentary I've found during my research:

THE CODE: THE STORY OF LINUX 1 OF 3
Uploaded by Top-Notch112

THE CODE: THE STORY OF LINUX 2 OF 3
Uploaded by Top-Notch112

THE CODE: THE STORY OF LINUX 3 OF 3
Uploaded by Top-Notch112

My 2c interim lessons learned results on Scrum from a project management viewpoint

2008-11-19T10:19:00.014+02:00

Hi Folks,

I had some time this week (my last week at NDS), so I've decided to start learning a bit more about Scrum...

Scrum is an iterative incremental process of software development commonly used with agile software development. The following diagram I've found on wikipedia provides a good descriptions of the general idea behind Scrum:

We had some attempts to implement a flavor of Scrum in some SW development projects, to be honest the results were mixed. Based on my analysis (mainly conducted via interviews with stakeholders), if we focus for a sec on the management functional layer, it seems that 4 key points are essential to increase the chance of success for SW development projects using Scrum:

A. Pick an experienced leader (one & only one) who was involved in the management of similar development projects before, and that is seen as a true leader in his field. I personally see Scrum as a toolkit, as in the real life, not all the tools available are adapted for a specific work. One of the first tasks for the leader will be to define the internal processes (The Framework) that will direct the project. The framework should be optimized for your needs. As any methodology, Scrum is here to help you achieving business results, you should NOT be in ANY CASE the slave of Scrum.

B. The leader will need to get a formal buy-in on the process from the following parties (in this specific order) : (1) his task force members (2) his management (3) the customer (4) the 3rd parties

C. Mapping the interfaces/interactions between your new internal processes and the external world (customer, 3rd parties, etc...)

D. Be ready for change! Review your internal processes at the end of every sprint/iteration.

You need to ask the correct questions (and be honest): What can I learn from the way this iteration was handled? What may be the best way to achieve the next business objective? Should I add fast tracks in parallel to my sprints to be better prepared for the next next iteration? etc...

Comments are welcome.

As a bonus, please find embedded an excellent video from the Scrum Guru, Ken Schwaber, founder of the Agile Alliance and Scrum Alliance. This video is from Google Tech Talks of September '06 :

Death by Powerpoint

2008-11-13T16:02:00.004+02:00

My brother has sent me a very interesting presentation today. It is about helping people improving their presentation skill.

As this presentation was valuable for me, I wanted to share it with you...

Death by PowerPoint

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: tips powerpoint)

[FR] Explication de la crise des SubPrimes

2008-11-02T14:58:00.001+02:00

Sub Primes

Get your own at Scribd or explore others:

Don't Forget to vote!!! ~ www.podcastawards.com

2008-11-01T20:45:00.003+02:00

Hi Folks,

Don't forget to vote for the best podcasts you've chosen on www.podcastawards.com .
The vote will close Nov 6th. Note that there is even a possibility to vote every day...

My vote this year go to Manager Tools... One of the best business podcasts on air...

Thanks again to Mike & Mark for their amazing work!

Vote ~ Just Do It :)

Yohan

Intel Ultra Mobile PC - A bluff?

2008-10-03T11:40:00.003+03:00

For you to say...

Laptop Production Line - Panasonic case study - Optical Validation

2008-10-03T09:29:00.009+03:00

I've read a very interesting article on businessmobile.fr explaining the acceptance testing performed on the ToughBook Panasonic Laptops across the production line.

In my current job, I'm indirectly involved in the production process of Smart Card, Set-Top-Box and other CE devices, but thanks to this article, I've learned about a validation method I didn't know about (BTW - it could really be that this technic is broadly used in the CE manufacturing area, but it was new for me): Optical Validation. This technic is to "scan" the actual newly produced complete PCB and compare it to the designed blueprint (schematics) of this product. This step helps discovering any missing part in the newly produced product.

Here is a pic of this sub system:

Interesting, isn't it?

Here is a link to the full article (FR) : http://www.businessmobile.fr/actualites/analyses/0,3800003718,39383770-3,00.htm

Competitive intelligence - A good book to start with...

2008-09-17T17:46:00.002+03:00

I just finished a good book from Larry Kahaner on CI, and wanted to share with you my feedback. This is actually not a very recent book, as it was published on 1997, but this book explains the increasingly vital practice of Competitive Intelligence. A kind of practical guide to turning raw info into priceless knowledge and winning business strategy.

The book starts with describing what CI exactly is, and introduces a revolutionary notion: The Intelligence Age. After you understand the basics, the rest of the book provide you very useful real world CI cases and methodogies used in this field.

In short, a book I recommend.

Enjoy your reading.

"Software Reuse" & "Reuse @ Disney"

2008-09-09T10:44:00.006+03:00

From Wikipedia:

"Software reuse grew out of the standard subroutine libraries of the 1960's. It is the main principle of today's object-oriented programming. Instead of constantly reinventing software wheels, programming languages like C++, Java, Objective C, and others are building vast collections of reusable software objects and components."

This method can save both time and money, is broadly used in many industries, and is a major component of our daily decisions as managers responsible for software product delivery...

It seems that this methodology is also used @ Disney, have a look...

(I didn't manage to track down the author, but he did a nice job compiling this video.)

Ressemblances dans les films Disney - Video

Dilbert's comment on "Best Practice" - What's your take?

2008-09-08T13:06:00.003+03:00

Dilbert's comment is actually very smart! What's your take on this?

I personally think the term "Best Practice" is overused those days... Everyone tries to sell you what they call "best practice" methodologies...

My advice on how not to be mislead?

Be in control of your future by setting the present. You, as a manager, should be the one that defines what should be the best practice to be used in your area.

How?

I personally think this should be part of your organization competitive intelligence internal process, by mapping this effort with the "Intelligence Cycle", as the following:

1. As any process, the first step will be for you, the manager, to define your needs (as part as the CI "Planning and Direction" phase)

2. Collect information from other internal departments, your industry and/or any other industries that can potentially face similar challenges (as part as the CI "Collection" phase). The optimal way to do it may be to have a look at the best players in a targeted field. For instance: FedEx for Logistics, Google for employee retention, etc...

3. Analyze the information collected, to generate intelligence (as part as the CI "Analysis" phase) and make decisions to determine which of the methodologies highlighted by your analysis will provide your organization the greater payback taking into account the investment needed to implement it in your case.

4. Generate a Cookbook that lists the methodologies you "recommend" your organization to use in a specific area. (as part as the CI "Dissemination" phase)

Comments?

The 50 best business blogs

2008-08-14T09:34:00.005+03:00

Some of the biggest corporations have been forced to review company policy after campaigns by bloggers. Internet blogs are taking on big corporations and winning.

TIMES Online (the magazine) have listed the 50 best business blog for 2007 in an good article from Rhys Blakely.

You will say, 2007 = old news, and you may be correct, but I feel that if we had to recompile a TOP 50 list for 2008, it will look quite similar... anyway it seems that this list is a work in progress, so it could be up-to-date.

Here is the ArTiClE anyway.

The Art of Delegation ~ Quick Guide

2008-08-13T14:09:00.005+03:00

A good booklet to read, even if you are an experienced manager...

If you want your business or organization to function properly, at some stage you will need to delegate a part of your work. This means handing over some of your authority and control to someone else and making sure that all goes well.

Please find a quick end-to-end guide to delegation of a specific task:

I. Introducing the task to be delegated is an essential part of the process...

How to do it?

3 basic points that need to be covered:

(1) What you want doing.

(2) Why it needs to be done.

(3) How it fits the overall picture

II. Setting the Standards

People who are taking on tasks need criteria against which to measure their performance.

You set standards by considering four basic elements:

(1) Quantity

(2) Quality

(3) Time

(4) Costs

III. Reporting Progress

Ahhh... sorry for that, delegating a task is not only to fully explain the task and ensure the individual knows how to perform it (see previous post). Delegating also includes in general a component of reporting upon progress...

You will need to make a jointly-agreed plan of how the delegated task will be monitored.

IV. Summary

Delegating always needs to be carried out in a systematic and structured way. It is a bit like building a house of cards. If the base is not firmly and solidly constructed, the edifice cannot stand up for very long.

I had to reach page 39 to finaly understand the cover of the book ;-)

Good Luck!

How to teach someone ~ 4 magic steps

2008-08-13T13:21:00.004+03:00

I'm interested to share with you today a basic technique I personally use for years to teach someone something I know... The reason I write this to you now, is that I saw this common-sense method written on a book I've just finished to read... You will say: "yes, obvious buddy", but sometime it's good keep in mind those 4 steps in a conscious manner in order to make sure, not only you've shared the relevant information needed to accomplish a given task, but also to ensure the individual indeed know how to perform it in the future (meaning, at the end of the day, less re-work in your side).

So, here are the promised magic 4 steps:

1. Show how it is done in the normal way

2. Repeat it sloooooowly, explaining what you are dooooooing

3. Get the individual to do it while you talk him or her through the process; and only then...

4. Get them to do it on their own

That's it. Simple, isn't it?

BTW ~ those are basics you need to use at some point when you delegate a new task to someone to make sure he is capable to handle the task in a satisfying manner and guarantee the results...

PMI Certifications ::: PgMP - PMP - CAPM - OPM3

2008-08-05T16:09:00.010+03:00

It's sometime not clear from the PMI site which kinds of certifications are available and for who...

When the PMI sends you the hard copy of your PMP certificate, a CD is included in the kit with a couple of documents on it... One of them is the certification Program Brochure where the different certifications are described. Please find the list below with a short explanation:

Guide to Competitive Intelligence

2008-08-04T23:20:00.003+03:00

As discussed in the past in this blog, accurate competitive intelligence can be an invaluable asset to make correct strategic decisions for your business.

I've found an interesting article on CI last week written by Jason Agard.

We can call it a good start if you want to better understand how to find business intelligence about a competitor or to run a business background check on a potential client.

PMP certification - Useful Links - Free Mock exams and additional valuable information...

2008-08-04T22:48:00.007+03:00

I've cleared the PMP exam last month. I wanted to share with you some useful links that have helped me to prepare myself.

Here it is:

PMP Exam

PREPAREPM: PMP Preparation Site

PMP Sample Questions

Scientific Calculator

My Study Guide for PMP Exam - Memorize Formulas

Project Management Formulas

PMI Online Registry

Global Knowledge Project Management Training

Feel free to contact me if you need additional information, I will be glad to help.

Bonne chance !

BoomeRang Effect! < New Trend in Hiring >

2008-08-04T22:31:00.003+03:00

Hello All,
I've listened to a interesting podcast from manager-tool last week about a new trend in hiring.

This cast describes how to increase your chances of re-hiring someone who has left your organization. They’re called Boomerangs!

There really IS a war for talent going on today. Demographics are in many ways working against us, reducing the labor pool, as well as changing the nature of work and the relationships “employees” have with their “employers”. Frankly, it’s harder than ever - and will KEEP GETTING HARDER - to find and hire high caliber associates.

One effective technique is hiring former employees, or “Boomerangs”. 20 or 30 years ago, it was unheard of. The reasons then seemed to make sense … but now?

This cast will tell you what to do with Boomerangs.

Enjoy it!
This is an excellent opportunity for me to thank Mike and Mark on their incredible work.

Yohan

Be RemarKable! Seth Godin Hits again...

2008-08-01T10:50:00.001+03:00

Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change.

Godin is author of seven books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. The titles of these books are: Permission Marketing, Unleashing the Ideavirus, The Big Red Fez, Survival is Not Enough, Purple Cow, Free Prize Inside, and All Marketers are Liars, Small is the New Big, The Dip, and his latest book Meatball Sundae.

Seth is a renowned speaker as well. He was recently chosen as one of 21 Speakers for the Next Century by Successful Meetings and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses.

Seth was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, the industry's leading interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998.

He holds an MBA from Stanford, and was called "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by Business Week.

Look at this video... this guy is remarKable...

Seth Godin Sliced bread and other marketing delights
Uploaded by marketing-mix

Rethinking the web !@#

2008-01-21T23:37:00.000+02:00

Web 2.0 the machine is using us
Uploaded by doris3m

One of the best speeches ever...

2008-01-21T23:09:00.000+02:00

Competitive Intelligence research and the future of the internet

2007-12-21T09:18:00.000+02:00

I did a quick review of the Competitive Intelligence Management field. I'm happy to share with you some elements of my study and probably a bit more.

First, I was "shocked" by the amount of money moving in & out in this field. Some large companies have hundreds analysts working full time competitive intelligence. And the truth is, I can understand why; for them getting reliable information on opportunities and threats for their business is not only vital but priceless. If you can propose the truly right solution to those companies, they will be ready to pay you millions...

The competitive intelligence notion is not clear to you? I will try to explain: Competitive intelligence is a in fact a kind of industrial espionage but using "only" legal and ethical methods. It helps organization to detect the upcoming threats and opportunities based on a large range of information available.

This field was completely transformed by the creation of the world wide web where the information where made available to anyone around of the world, and huge amount of data were then documented. The UGC (user generated content) and the Web 2.0 evolution have also deeply transformed this area.

Several software companies already propose solution to collect, filter, and present the information gathered by a bunch of automatic agents.

During my research, I've studied some of the solutions available in the market.

One of them was a solution called Evolution from Digimind.
Please find bellow a quick summary of my personal conclusions on this product/company:

General

French company focused on CIM software, consulting and training.
Point of presence in France, UK and Morocco.
Years of experience in the field + mature products (first impression ~ To be confirmed).
More than 200 customers (based on their site).
Covers many sectors.

Software Products

Main products:

Digimind Evolution. Comprehensive Integrated solution for competitive intelligence automation.
Digimind Prism. Framework on which Evolution is based.

Several awards of excellence

Achilles’ heel

The main products are based on obsolete technologies: Win NT/2000, IIS, C++, and COM
Licensing cost: Very expensive compared to the competition.
Doesn’t have the best software solution in the market anymore.
Need to invest more in R&D

Those days, many company involved in this field work hard on the preparation of frameworks that will be capable to support high level application for "search", customized to respond specific organization's needs.

If the buzz world is currently "framework", the next ones will "advanced artificial intelligence" and "data visualization".

I personally think the latest developments on this field will cross and be reused with/for the mass market (web users) in a couple months, years... and you know what... I feel this is Holy Grail of the internet... Web 2.0 is already obsolete, long live to Web 3.0 ... A web where the information will be "touchable" with your own fingers, where the transition between different pieces of informal will be logical and smooth. Before that, we must be able to "teach" the machine how to rethink and truly understand the information, and then in order to take advantage the new information processing methods, the UI of the web will also need to be rethink to allow the navigation in a 3 dimensional environment. I personally see it as a kind of Second Life-like navigation into the information...

In short, if web 2.0 was 2D, web 3.0 will be 3D. If web 2.0 was SD in our view to the content, web will be Full HD...

The organization that will be able to turn this prophetical vision to reality will become the richest and the most powerful one in the planet.

It may sound mad but this is it... Rendez-vous in a couple of months...

Yohan

An interesting video demonstrating Mobile phone security holes...

2007-11-28T22:44:00.001+02:00

How to crack/protect a wireless network ~ Demo

2007-11-28T22:38:00.000+02:00

The Bugatti Veyron running at full speed ~ 407 km/h

2007-11-28T21:46:00.000+02:00

Another piece of art in term of engineering... You name it the Bugatti Veyron... more faster than a formula 1... Have a look...

Bugatti Veyron at top speed
envoyé par Flabber

Top Ten auto “Out of Office” replies

2007-11-08T14:25:00.000+02:00

From PharmaGossip's Blog:

Top Ten auto “Out of Office” replies

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. I may be a little moody so be prepared.

2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.

3. Sorry to have missed you but I am at the doctor’s having my brain removed so I can be promoted to our management team.

4. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from holiday on 18/10/07. Please be patient, and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.

5. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged GBP5.99 for the first 10 words and GBP1.99 for each additional word in your message.

6. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and try sending again.
(The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over.)

7. Thank you for your message which has been added to a queuing system. You are currently in 352nd place and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.

8. Hi, I’m thinking about what you’ve just sent me. Please wait by your PC for my response.

9. I’ve run away to join a different circus.

10. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons. When I return, please refer to me as ‘Lisa’ instead of ‘Les’.

The Information Age 2.0

2007-11-05T19:40:00.000+02:00

I've found this post on one of my business partners' blog. This short video clip simply amazing...

A must... Have a look, you will not regret it.

Thanks Bob :-)

Do you think we should buy Apple's stocks this week, right before the launch of the iPhone?

2007-06-24T21:30:00.000+03:00

Use the comments to answer this question...

if you are interested to see addtional answers to this question, have a look at my question on LinkedIn : http://www.linkedin.com/answers/financial-markets/futures-markets/MKT_FUT/59151-10586694?browseIdx=0&sik=1182710057049&goback=%2Each_MKT

The power of software - Incredible

2007-06-19T21:40:00.001+03:00

How UPS Airlines Works?

2007-04-27T12:24:00.000+03:00

I found this little video very instructive...I was amazed that UPS Airlines, the air service owned by UPS
for their delivery service is the 9th biggest airline in the world... Have a look at this short
documentary,this is impressive...

Einstein, a myth, a man...

2007-04-27T11:21:00.000+03:00

I fully realize this is not a pure business post but I take the privilege to share with you this very interesting documentary on Einstein... yes, I know, it's in French with no subtitles, tell me about it, but, based on the stats of site (using the ip addresses), we have a large numbers of readers from France , so this post is dedicated for You... Enjoy ;-)

My Profile on LinkedIn.com

2007-03-02T12:51:00.000+02:00

I added my profile on LinkedIn.com .
Click here to see it:

How to generate good publicity from bad service

2007-02-23T12:24:00.000+02:00

Based on my observations, the success of a service provider company, in a competitive market, is mainly based on two basic factors:
- Market Demand for your products (The higher demand, the higher the revenues will be - in parallel, fighting for market share is always vital).
- Customer willingness to purchase from your company/products.

You will say, yea, yea but what about "Quality of the product delivered to the end-customer"? On that question, my answer will be: You are right, quality is important, BUT the most important is the image of your company, the reputation of your product, this is the only way to generate sales. In other words,
(if you are not in a zero-bug tolerance business, like aircraft manufacturing or missile industry), you don't need to have a "perfect" product to start generating cash.

In order to improve the customer willingness to purchase your product,
one way is to invest your time, money and talent on improving the customer relationship by creating/developing a strong and durable relation.

I learned from my short experience that even problematic events can be used to generate good publicity and develop the so-wanted durable customer relationship.

I received a letter from Jet Blue last week. I feel that this letter is the example par excellence of the above method. Take 5 minutes, read it, it is worth every seconds... I'm convinced any company can learn from the below...

Dear JetBlue Customers,

We are sorry and embarrassed. But most of all, we are deeply sorry.

Last week was the worst operational week in JetBlue's seven year history.
Following the severe winter ice storm in the Northeast, we subjected our
customers to unacceptable delays, flight cancellations, lost baggage, and
other major inconveniences. The storm disrupted the movement of aircraft,
and, more importantly, disrupted the movement of JetBlue's pilot and
inflight crewmembers who were depending on those planes to get them to the
airports where they were scheduled to serve you. With the busy President's
Day weekend upon us, rebooking opportunities were scarce and hold times at
1-800-JETBLUE were unacceptably long or not even available, further
hindering our recovery efforts.

Words cannot express how truly sorry we are for the anxiety, frustration and
inconvenience that we caused. This is especially saddening because JetBlue
was founded on the promise of bringing humanity back to air travel and
making the experience of flying happier and easier for everyone who chooses
to fly with us. We know we failed to deliver on this promise last week.

We are committed to you, our valued customers, and are taking immediate
corrective steps to regain your confidence in us. We have begun putting a
comprehensive plan in place to provide better and more timely information to
you, more tools and resources for our crewmembers and improved procedures
for handling operational difficulties in the future. We are confident, as a
result of these actions, that JetBlue will emerge as a more reliable and
even more customer responsive airline than ever before.

Most importantly, we have published the JetBlue Airways Customer Bill of
Rights-our official commitment to you of how we will handle operational
interruptions going forward-including details of compensation. I have a
video message to share with you about this industry leading action.

You deserved better-a lot better-from us last week. Nothing is more
important than regaining your trust and all of us here hope you will give us
the opportunity to welcome you onboard again soon and provide you the
positive JetBlue Experience you have come to expect from us.

Sincerely,

David Neeleman
Founder and CEO
JetBlue Airways

Impressive, no?
Note that in this case, the message passed to the customers is even stronger than previously analysed as the
reason for the bad service was somehow totaly out of control.

The Google way

2007-02-16T11:06:00.000+02:00

This video is old (2005), very long (more than 5 hours), with bad video/audio quality (and I don't mention the poor quality of the subtitles) BUT IT IS A MUST IF YOU WANT TO UNDERSTAND GOOGLE'S CULTURE, GLOBAL OBJECTIVES, CORE TECHNOLOGIES, AND THE GLOBAL CHALLENGES THE TECH COMPANIES FACE OR WILL FACE.

Here it is:

Faux training videos for Microsoft UK employees

2007-02-15T23:47:00.000+02:00

Sorry for that, but it was both so funny and so true... I post it at the end.
For those who, like me, use to listen business podcasts like INSEAD Knowledgecast or Manager Tools, this is video is hilarious.

Part one of two faux training videos for Microsoft UK employees featuring Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant in their roles from the BBC version of The Office

Enjoy!

How to reduce costs using an expert system?

2007-02-14T21:44:00.000+02:00

No panic... I will explain what it is...

An expert system, also known as a knowledge based system, is a computer program that contains some of the subject-specific knowledge of one or more human experts. This class of program was first developed by researchers in artificial intelligence during the 1960s and 1970s and applied commercially throughout the 1980s. The most common form of expert systems is a program made up of a set of rules that analyze information (usually supplied by the user of the system) about a specific class of problems, as well as providing mathematical analysis of the problem(s). It is a system that utilizes what appear to be reasoning capabilities to reach conclusions. (Source: Wikipedia)

My theory is very simple as always... I'm not someone that can have complex theories... I'm too lazy for that...

Let's say your business includes a large part of decision making and problem solving. In general, you will need some very clever and qualified employees to first of all understand the parameters of the problem and then propose the optimized solution(s) to you or an end-user. Hiring such employees is often extreemly hard, consisting of a large part of your cost (training, salary, etc...) and furthermore can be a serious pain in your business expansion.

If an expert system fully suitable for your problems was available, your life would have been much more easier now. You could in theory:
- Find more rapidily and easily employees suitable for the job you propose and ensure the expansion of your business at the speed you choose. In other words, the number of employees available of a specific mission is not the bottle neck anymore.
- Reduce the costs using on 3 differents vectors: hiring campagns cost saving, employee's salary cost saving, and training cost reduction.

Note that the cost of expert system on its own is not so high, the problem is more:
- To make it correct. Imagine using a system that gives you results with even let's say 20% of errors... It could be disaster for your entire business.
- TTM (Time To Market). Set-up such a system can take months of development and testing.

In short, if it's done very carefully and with the focus of your best people, this can be the key to the success of your company.
(Note that the next trend will be to have expert systems embedded in your CRM and covers all the entire flow of transactions faced by your business)

(:~ This article is for Myriam and the rest of the world ~:)

The Hasidic Masters, Guide to Management - Personal Review

2007-02-14T20:54:00.000+02:00

Here are my views on this book I read a few months ago. I had a very good time reading this book but, the truth is, I didn't learn much about management from this book... This is a good one if you are interested to read a book about work on Shabbat :)
I saw the author of this book once, Moshe Kranc, he worked for my company (NDS Technologies Ltd) a few years ago. He seems to be a very interesting, straight and clever person according to his reputation. When I think about it, I really think you need a lot of courage to write a book of this kind. In his book, he mentioned he is a descendant of Rabbi Jacob Kranc, the renowned Magid of Dubno, also known as "the Jewish Aesop". I guess being a storyteller is in his blood. I would be interested in meeting him again... who knows... I understood from a friend that he now serves as Vice President of Research and Development for Jerusalem Venture Partners Studio... A person I may contact if I finally decide to create my start-up... BTW, this venture is the main partner of DoubleFusion (see article below...)

Even if I don't see this book as a true guide to management, I recommend this book. Enjoy.

The only way to define a product

2007-02-12T21:13:00.000+02:00

The background for this post is something that really upsets me today. A large company, I don't want to mention (as this will not bring any added value to my point here), has proposed to sell an upgrade for their lines of products. If you carefully read the brochure of those products, you will quickly understand that the only "improvement" is the fact those products are based on the latest version of Oracle, Oracle 10g... Really, who is stupid enough to purchase the upgrade package of such a product that doesn't bring any additional true added value to the product... You name it, EVERYONE...
Why? my guess would be those companies said to themselves "Everyone else is doing so, so I guess we should too"...

Now listen to this revolutionary, simple and obvious idea that everybody knows and rarely applies when decisions need to be made:
THE ONLY WAY TO TRULY DEFINE A PRODUCT IS BY ANSWERING THIS BASIC QUESTION: "WHAT CAN THE PRODUCT DO FOR THE POTENTIAL CUSTOMER?"

Did you ever ask an engineer about his last creation in front of one of your customers that came to visit your R&D facilities and look for new products he may be interested to add in his catalogue? (if you didn't, you are one of the both: unexperimented or very clever)
From my short experience, it would sound like: "It's web applet written in java that can be automatically plugged and played into a web browser and can generate HTML page based on templates located in the remote server"... gggrrrrr!!!!
Probably his product would have been able to generate millions in sales... but not... not that way... Java, HTML, template, remote server... who the hell cares? That's not what the client wants to hear... if only your message would have been: "this product can increase your sells on the web by 40% by simplifying the purchasing process"...

Bottom line, no matter if you are a supplier or a demander, an entrepreneur or an engineer, the only way to truly evaluate/define a product is to understand what it can bring to the end-user.

In-game advertising

2007-02-03T21:55:00.000+02:00

A few days ago, I was contacted by a company called www.doublefusion.com .
This start-up seems to be well positioned to gain a bunch of money on the in-game advertising market.

You are not familliar with this concept... I don't worry... I copied below a short explaination taken from this site:

"In-game advertising is a new advertising medium which allows marketers to display their brand messages, in a variety of graphic formats, directly inside the actual games played by hundreds of millions of gamers worldwide.

While products and brands have appeared in games for years, these product placements have historically been “hard-coded” and couldn’t be changed. Double Fusion now provides the technology that makes these advertising opportunities dynamic and real-time¸ so that advertisers who want to promote their products for a specific period of time, or change their messaging during the campaign, can now take advantage of the huge audience of game players.

Why is in-game advertising on everyone’s lips these days? For good reason. With every year, more people play games, and the audience of gamers is in the hundreds of millions worldwide. More than half of all US households own a gaming console, and the number continues to grow every year in parallel with the number of game players and their hours of gameplay. It’s gotten so big that the largest games alone can generate hundreds of millions of hours of audience time per month.

Time spent gaming is coming directly out of other media, with a particular emphasis on TV. At a time when advertisers and marketers are questioning the value and impact of their television campaigns, in-game advertising offers the answers…which is why everyone in the marketing, gaming, and investment communities are focused on Double Fusion and the in-game advertising business overall. "

"Serious Game" - a new way to deliver your messages...

2007-02-02T13:14:00.000+02:00

This reminds me of a story I heard this week in one of my favorite podcasts (BFM: 01 Business - sorry but yes it's in French) about a new type of electronic game called "serious game". Those games are in general free and are a kind of simulation game where the author wants to increase the awareness on the gamer on a specific topic. For instance, a simulation around creating a new village in Africa, developing the basic infrastructures (water, electricity, even internet access point...), fighting a pendemic, finding external funds, etc...

This time again, a simulation is on the center of a communcation strategy.

By the way, the dark side is that this new type of games can also be used as propaganda to unfair causes like terrorism...

The Cone of Learning

2007-02-02T11:51:00.000+02:00

A propos increasing our financial knowledge, and our knowledge in general, Mister Kiyosaki brought, in his latest book mentioned in the above post, a very interesting study completed in 1969 that shows the effectiveness of different types of learning. It reveals that the least effective way to learn is by reading and lecture, whereas the most effective way is by actively doing. The next most effective method is through simulating the real experience.
I used this principle in one of my training session, I presented to 10 engineers few weeks ago. Instead of giving a linear lecture on a complex topic, I choose to pass the message via a simulation where the participants were hired in a new start-up to delevelop a solution/product around the complex presented topic. The participation in class room was not only very high but also the result of their work were amazing. Some parts of their solution were far better than the actual products I wanted them to be introduced to during this training (The reason for that is simple: (1) new solutions from scratch means no need to backward compatible with some painful legacy issues, architectures, etc... (2) I gave them a chance to express themselves and it was bi-lateral communication, they took the simulation and they wanted to prove to me and probably to themselves that they are capable to beat the actual solution proposed by our company, and the truth is, for some points, they did it). By using a simulation, they also deeply understood the technical and non-technical challenges faced by the development teams. After completing the simulation, explaining them the caracterists of the actual products were obviously much easier. Weeks after this presentation, some participants stoped me in the corridor to discuss some new solutions they thought about since the session. It was impressive... they remembered the majority of the material taught during the training even the small details.

In conclusion, the cone of learning theory seems to be incredibly true...

Why we want you to be rich - Personal Views on this book.

2007-02-01T22:28:00.000+02:00

This book is indeed interesting but may be problematic in some ways. Really, I don't think real estate is suitable for any invester. This book tries to convince the reader that the best business opportunities are in the real estate area due to several simple factors like tax or control. The truth is, I'm not conviced someone who invests in real estate has more control on his investment than someone else investing in stocks, bonds or mutual funds... All is a matter of being professional and really understanding the impact of your transactions. On another hand, this book taught me one essential concept: in order to win in business, constantly increasing our financial IQ is a must no matter the business area chosen. When reading this book, I was thinking about why Donald and Robert wrote such books... was it indeed to help others, or simply for them to make more money and to be in the buzz for another couple of months... After finishing the book, I understood that the answer to this question in fact doesn't really matter... the rich will be richer but it seems the poors will NOT be poorer this time. How? By increasing their Financial IQ...

In brief, a book I may recommand...

Yohan

Welcome to my new business related blog !!!

2007-02-01T21:13:00.000+02:00

Welcome to my new business related blog !!!A place for book reviews, new ideas, opportunities and fun...