I know I’m not the only one who has started to notice the growing problem with Amazon. AWS is doing well, despite losing the US Defense contract to Azure, and Alexa is certainly good enough to turn my lights on and off, but Amazon.com — the shopping site — is starting to show a critical…

For more mature enterprise technology companies, the path from on-premise to the cloud has been challenging — a unique, nonlinear journey that each vendor has achieved with varying degrees of success. Oracle’s transition has been no different — and while the company no longer breaks down its cloud vs. on-premise revenues with any granularity, the…

Looking at its past few quarters, it’s clear Apple’s stratospheric trajectory has flattened. Admittedly, most companies would kill to have results like these, but clearly, Apple isn’t most companies. Is Apple still the “it” company? No, and it hasn’t been for some time. The company is transitioning from hardware-first to leading with the services and…

[IanInsights] – The Consumer Electronics Show or CES has become an annual ritual for tech geeks and gadget aficionados to kick off the New Year. Starting as a spin-off from the Chicago Music Show in 1967, the massive trade conference has grown, introducing many consumer technology firsts, such as the home VCR, many iterations of personal…

[IanInsights] – Slack has got to be the single worst brand name I’ve ever heard, especially for a productivity app. Or so I thought when I first heard about the collaboration tool. Finding out that Slack is an acronym for ‘Searchable Log of All Conversations and Knowledge’ didn’t change my view of the lousy marketing for…

[IanInsights] – We all know it’s good for companies to give back to their communities and help worthy causes, but who knew social responsibility and philanthropic efforts could be so good for business? I mean, I’ve heard many marketers make the case for social responsibility to help strengthen the overall brand, but I’ve never seen any…

[IanInsights] – Change the narrative. Flip the script. It’s Marketing 101 when a company is burdened with bad news. Politicians live or die by it. Companies that can change their narrative can often go on to reach new heights. Apple in 1997 and Ford in 2006 to name a few. And IBM under Lou Gerstner in…

[IanInsights] – Unemployment is at its lowest point since 1969. Competition for top talent is intense now. In fact, filling positions is so tough for some companies, they’ve dropped requirements for college degrees. It’s no longer an employer’s market. Talent is now driving. (read more)

[IanInsights] – Since the dawn of the modern computing era, businesses have reacted to the latest and greatest technology advancements in hopes of gaining competitive advantage. We’ve seen numerous companies break out or fail spectacularly based on tech decisions. Retailers early to adopt e-commerce are mostly still around, for example while manufacturers that fumbled the supply…