[IanInsights] – Tech bubble makes most people think stock market crashes. The bursting of the dot-com craze or more recently, the sharp rise and decline of bitcoin. In fact, the waning enthusiasm for Apple products, lackluster sales for wearables and stalled IoT promises have some economists predicting another tech bubble correction in the near future… (read more)
[IanInsights] – Like it or not, Millennials are entering the workforce en masse. Despite all the complaints and gripes about our first truly digital generation, they are already transforming the way we do business. Case in point – BYOD. They refused company-issued equipment and delivered unanticipated productivity using their own devices. That was eight years ago and their influence is only growing… (read more)
[IanInsights] – How did the supply chain become so sexy? Once the domain of just a few logistics specialists, it seems to have caught the public’s attention lately. That’s what a random stranger who caught the chairlift with me this weekend wanted to discuss. Not the fresh powder, perfect temperature and peak skiing conditions. He passionately made the case for how the supply chain can help him get new ski poles faster.
The supply chain has certainly captured Wall Street’s attention too, when investors recently sent Walmart’s stock plummeting more than 10 percent following the Q4 2017 earnings report. That’s because the world’s largest company saw a major slow-down for e-commerce growth. Worse yet, it ran out of popular, common items during the December holiday. Meanwhile Amazon is estimated to have accounted for 50 percent of all online sales during that holiday period. (read more)
[IanInsights] – Hats off to Amazon’s marketing strategy around the HQ2 decision. Big headlines for months from across the country as the competition heated up. 238 municipalities in total applied from nearly every U.S. states as well as from cities in Canada and Mexico. It kicked off a continental discussion of how technology could rejuvenate some stagnant markets. That alone made this exercise worthwhile. (read more)
[IanInsights] – Last November I called on IBM to fire its CEO and Chair, Ginni Rometty to save what was left of Big Blue. I cited the lack of performance and particularly IBM’s 22 consecutive quarters of revenue decline as a main argument for changing leadership in Armonk. To my surprise, a majority of readers agreed, including many current and former IBM employees. A small group of Rometty supporters, however, were quite vocal in their opposition to my arguments.
In fact, I’ve heard from a few of them since last Thursday when IBM announced a quarter of revenue growth during its earnings announcement. “HA! What do you have to say now?” wrote one status quo champion.
I will admit that the news did surprise me, and I do indeed have something to say… (read more)
[IanInsights] – In the age of analytics, metrics are increasingly driving business decisions. Well beyond total profit margin, revenue growth or even EBITA and EBITDA, we are getting more granular. Churn rates and cost-of-acquisition numbers are dynamic now. We assign KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) to everyone and measure productivity down to the profit-per-employee level. Marketing activities are weighed against sales-close rates to see how many leads translate into revenue. (read more)
[IanInsights] – It’s Shiny Object week, otherwise known as the Consumer Electronics Show or CES. That splashy Las Vegas display of all the exciting consumer tech toys that are poised to grab our attention and shake up the industry.
For the rest of this week, gadgets, gizmos and tech concepts will dominate headlines. Just after we’ve all finished our New Year’s resolutions, we now get over-sized predictions of how computing, entertainment and our very way of life is about to radically change. A week of game-changer rollouts.
But just like most New Year’s resolutions, nearly all announcements coming out of CES are 90% wishful thinking. Big ideas and themes to frame the discussion with little meat on the bones. Last year, for example, was supposed to be the year of self-driving cars, smart home devices everywhere and a tipping point for wearables. Except that it wasn’t! (read more)
[IanInsights] – Nucleus Research called for Microsoft to oust CEO Steve Ballmer in 2010 as part of our predictions for the coming year. In fairness, we knew the board would take more time before ultimately removing him. It’s too bad they waited three years to realize the need for a new direction. You have to wonder if Microsoft might have had a chance in the mobile device market had Ballmer left sooner. Succeeding CEO Satya Nadella has turned the Redmond giant around fairly quickly and made Microsoft highly relevant again. Dare I say that Microsoft is starting to lead? At least in some areas.
Sadly, another iconic tech pioneer is hanging onto a struggling leader rather than making a clean cut to quickly correct the ship. This time it’s IBM and CEO Ginni Rometty. It’s time for her to go before she takes the whole ship down with her. (read more)
[IanInsights] – It’s been at least 15 years since a vendor migrating its products to the cloud has been newsworthy. At the beginning of the adoption cycle, it was interesting and the industry watched intently. Since then, nearly every software category has made the transition, including cloud laggard ERP. Cloud migration has long since been settled and those vendors that have not embraced it have mostly fallen into obscurity.
Yet here we are in late 2017 with a vendor announcing it will finally migrate its product line to the cloud. And it’s newsworthy, but for all the wrong reasons. (read more)
[IanInsights] – Perhaps nothing impedes business growth more than customer churn. Just ask the wireless carriers where customer renewal rates are followed as closely as revenue. That’s because customer turnover is a solid indication of the coming quarters and how the company will fare in the future. It’s all about retention. (read more)
Ian is a recognized expert on the return on investment (ROI) and total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis of technology and has written and presented extensively on a range of organizational topics and the importance of matching technology to business organizational objectives.
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