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Article Archive 2003

December 2003 - Better, faster, cheaper
My idea, also vaguely seasonal, is more along the lines of a list of technical or business hits and misses for the last twelve months. You know the sort of thing, my personal favourites from the new gadgets, web sites, business and public services I have encountered recently. An opportunity to praise the efficient and get my own back on the time wasters.
November 2003 - It ain't what you do
It was most amusing recently to hear about the mobile phone company boss who had decided to ban his staff from using e-mail. Lots of free publicity was lavished upon this unorthodox stance, allowing the company to quote some arbitrary figures for the amount of staff time and therefore money that would be saved and also giving their product, the good old phone, a massive plug.
October 2003 - Almost There
By a happy coincidence I have recently contrived to damage or loose both my mobile phone and the hand held computer or PDA which serves as a replacement for that part of my brain which used to be able to remember my appointments and contacts. This fortuitous turn of events provides me with an ideal opportunity to revisit both of these markets in search for the perfect executive gadget.
September 2003 - Christmas comes but once a year
As I write this article there are sixteen weeks to go until Christmas. For most of us this won’t be cause for any great concern, sixteen weeks is a long time away, still plenty of time left to stress over what to buy the man or woman who has everything and whose family’s turn it is on Christmas day. But for retailers, particularly those with an on-line presence, sixteen weeks isn’t a long time and they should already be gearing up for what promises to be a bumper Christmas on-line. Last year, in the UK alone, £949 million worth of orders were placed on-line in the last three weeks before Christmas and with on-line sales set to grow 46 per cent this year, from £7.1 billion in 2002 to £10.4 billion in 2003, there are great expectations for this Christmas.
August 2003 - Generation X
PDMS recently celebrated its tenth anniversary and whilst this is no time at all in many industries, in IT it represents several generations. In that time we have seen at least two major booms with all of the attendant bandwagons, enrichment of lawyers and venture capitalists, and ultimate disappointment and exhaustion for many of the participants. To be fair, we have also seen some remarkable successes with new companies and new ideas making a massive impact in a very short time. The importance of being the first in the field with a new idea, known as ‘first mover advantage’, was one of the great delusions of the internet bubble. The truth is that pioneering any radical new idea is going to be hugely expensive, where as learning from other peoples mistakes is much cheaper, if not as glamorous.
July 2003 - Quality not Quantity
Quality, what does it mean? If you ask the average person they will more than likely respond by naming brands such as Rolls Royce, Mercedes, Porsche, BMW, Dior, Cartier or some other well known name or label. Ask others and they will reference an experience of service whether this is at a hotel, restaurant, shop or garage. So does this mean that quality is something that is only available from multinational corporations, or is it something that can only be accomplished when customer and supplier interact on a one to one basis?
June 2003 - What Price Service?
We have two cars in our family, one of them is relatively new and when it needs servicing or repairs it goes to the main dealer who first delivered it, new born and pristine. The other rather longer in the tooth, battle scarred and unwashed in living memory (mine), tends to go to the local garage for most of its health care requirements. The main dealer provides an excellent service including use of a courtesy car if required and an overall cleanup as a matter of course; all this at no extra charge. The local garage on the other hand provides a ‘no frills’ service, gets cheaper parts where they can and charges about half as much per hour. The quality of the work is much the same.
May 2003 - Mobile Mayhem
When British Rail was privatized one could not help but feel that no matter what the theoretical benefits of market forces might be in galvanizing a tired state monopoly, there was a fundamental problem. Specifically it is quite hard to get more than one train on to the same piece of track at the same time. In fact it tends to result in quite a bit of unpleasantness for all concerned. To my mind this has always seemed to be a pretty good reason to run the railways as an integrated business which provides both the infrastructure and the service. At least that way we only have to write one letter of complaint when we miss that all important meeting.
April 2003 - Going off the rails!
We haven't seen anything yet! At least not when it comes to mobile phones. Or, perhaps I should say mobile computing & communications gadgets. It is a bit of a shame that the difficulties and delays in the widespread roll out of 3G telephone networks around the world have rather deflated the public perception of what is possible on the move. Contrast this with the quite unexpected runaway success of text messaging and we see an interesting picture...
March 2003 - On-line but Off-target
Internet technologies have created a whole new channel for businesses to communicate with their customers and on-line marketing has grown at a huge rate over the last few years. As somebody who works in the marketing profession, I welcome the opportunities afforded by this new cost effective and interactive communication channel, but as a user of the Internet, I am becoming increasingly annoyed by those who are giving marketing online a bad name. The Internet is being used by advertisers who care little about market segmentation and targeting but who will advertise anything to anyone on-line simply because it is cheap and easy to do so. The Internet's power to communicate with millions at a press of a button often means that advertisers are placing much more of the focus on quantity rather than quality...
February 2003 - The Investment Paradox - when less is more
The IT sector is well known for generating innovative new products and services. It is also an investors nightmare, combining the remote chance of a significant stake in the next Microsoft with a high probability of disillusionment and confusion. The problem is that investment in IT tends to be predicated on the fact that an idea should be the next big thing rather than simply a good team of people with a reasonable business plan in a measurable market. The truth is that most businesses in the IT sector, like any branch of engineering belong in the small to medium sized enterprise (SME) sector; they are never going to be global mega corporations just solid profitable efficient businesses which live within their means and understand their market niche...
January 2003 - Smoke and Mirrors
The rise and fall of Internet based companies inside the 'Dotcom Bubble' may have left many suspicious and sceptical of the use of technology as a direct interface to customers. But some of the unsustainable aspects of this supposed revolution could be seen as beneficial and actually promoted good business forward thinking. A realignment of strategies appeared to take place within the 'bricks and clicks', or traditional, companies who, however briefly, took up the gauntlet of the challenge offered by these newcomers to the market. Almost overnight, Internet presence and electronic channels became essential offerings in the corporate repertoire...