Business Blog
Debt, Inflation, and Debasement
The United States spends more than it produces and pays for the difference with debt. This causes inflation. Historically, countries take on debt to fight wars and sometimes to ease the effects of a recession. Today, as a nation, we seem addicted to debt in bad times...
Why we hate marketers
Sometimes we hate marketers because they drive us crazy. Here are a couple of examples.
Bah, humbug–reduction in force in the holiday season
What should we make of the Scrooges that wrote out pink slips in the holiday season? RIFs (reduction in force) and layoffs seem inharmonious to say the least.
Thank you Japan
Almost two decades after my Japan adventure, one lesson stands out from the rest. In the United States and in Japan we both value accomplishment and both value the process by which we achieved that accomplishment, but the balance is dramatically different. This made a big difference in my life. Thank you Japan.
Silicon Valley melting pot
One of the great strengths of Silicon Valley is its diversity. It is a melting pot for the smartest and most motivated people in the world.
To boldly go, or the initial iPhone as a minimum viable product archetype
If Apple can launch a smartphone without Find or Cut-and-Paste, what can you cut out of your product requirements? What is your minimum viable product?
You can have it all: 3 business imperative
Most high-tech businesses have 3 business imperative. One is continued leveraging of global resources in order to have access to the best people world-wide and to save costs; continued outsourcing in areas where we are not the best in the world; third is that we need to develop ever deeper competencies in areas critical to business.
Winning business attack strategies against the entrenched competitor
Winning business attack strategies for use against an entrenched competitor
Mommy, it’s not fair! Great business ideas for offense and defense
Great business ideas for offense and defense from interlopers, a topic of interest to those blessed with great businesses as well as those that hope to get a piece of that great business.
The experience curve, or how to win by learning faster
“When a person with experience meets a person with money, the person with experience gains money and the person with money gains experience.” Anon. “Our strategy is to get big fast.” Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com Twenty-first century economic winners are those that find...
But thinking makes it so: business strategy
We discuss business strategy, with apologies to Shakespeare.
What does a CTO do?
My most popular essay is this one on What Does a CTO do? The CTO is the Chief Technology Officer.
Industrial Research Management by Bert Sutherland
Bert Sutherland on Industrial Research Management, March 2006, reprinted with permission.
My Years at DARPA : how to create and prevent technology surprise
What makes DARPA work
Career Planning: How to get laid off
There are lots of ways to manage your career so that you are more likely to get laid off. Here we talk about suboptimal career planning moves that you might want to avoid.