TEDTalks (video): Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TEDTalks_video/~3/dQB4vIUTqps/614 Finding better, more efficient solutions...without ever (re-)inventing the wheel
Thomas M. Siebel, an I.T. heavyweight, believes information technology is a mature industry that will grow no faster than the larger economy. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/business/09digi.html I suppose it depends on whether you define IT as technology in the back room data center, or as all use of technology to enhance business performance.
From The New York Times: As we begin to grow more of our own food, we need to reacquaint ourselves with plant pathology and understand that what we grow, and how we grow it, affects everyone else. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09barber.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/opinion/09rich.html The problem is not the sense that the game is rigged, but that Americans are waiting for our institutions to give us power. This is true of republicans and democrats alike. And it assumes something akin to fascism, where all the power is vested in the institutions of state, and doled out to people, often on a patronage basis. The reality is that there is no institution to give us power. We all have that power. The question is whether we'll each learn to exercise it - and use it well.
BusinessWeek/TechCrunch reporter Sarah Lacy went on a rant against the RIAA's DRM policies and attempts to crush a range of popular start-ups trying to circumvent them (this on this morning's episode of "press: here" on KNTV, NBC's San Jose affiliate).
Her contention, so popular these days, is that the RIAA has no right to control the industry so tightly and they should give up their control to serve these young companies. Her reason? America us all about free enterprise and freedom of expression.
She contended that the RIAA "has no right" to maintain their stanglehold on the music business.
Did she forget freedom to run your business as you see fit? I don't agree with what the RIAA does (and it's a great example of how to mistreat your customers), but they have every right to run their business as they please. And the music publishers have every right to go along with them.
What's important and often forgotten is that consumers have every right not to buy music containing RIAA restrictions. And if consumers exercise that right, and music companies see sales dropping, they'll look for ways to salvage sales. And these music companies will find that parting ways with the RIAA will be profitable. And the RIAA will either change it's ways or lose it's influence.
But all of the rants, pontificating and protesting don't matter. Until we change our buying patterns, nothing else will change.
So, Ms. Lacy, may I suggest you start talking with your wallet, and maybe use your voice to help show the rest of us how to do so also?
From The New York Times: In a Digital Future, Textbooks Are History http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/education/09textbook.html
I am fairly certain that even simple steps will dramatically improve your customer relationships and put you miles ahead of your competition in your relationship with the rest of the market.
Gary Hamel's Management 2.0 : Unshackling Employees
http://blogs.wsj.com/management/2009/08/07/unshackling-employees
Every man I meet is in some way my superior. -Ralph Waldo Emerson