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Inside this Issue:
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Business
News via the Value Framework™ Lenses
Management Perspective
by
Mitchell Levy, Author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com, Creator of the
Value Framework™
Executive
Producer, VMS3.info
VMS3.info News
For
Netflix, it's so far, so good
Netflix (NFLX) could be the next Amazon.com
if it survives challenges from behemoths Wal-Mart and Blockbuster. The 5-year-old
DVD-rental company is an anomaly in Silicon Valley. It survived the dot-com bust
and is now flourishing. Its recipe for success: It lets customers use the Web
to order DVD rentals, but it relies on the good old U.S. Postal Service for delivery
not cumbersome TV or PC pipes.
Northwest Expands Self-Service
In what
has been a terrible stretch for the airline industry, one ray of hope is coming
from the accelerating trend of self-service. Today Northwest Airlines contributed
to the trend by allowing customers who log on to the nwa.com website to not only
check in online but also to print out boarding passes for Northwest flights and
flights operated by six partner airlines: Continental, Delta, KLM, Alaska Airline,
Horizon Air, and Hawaiian Airlines.
Wal-Mart Nudges Suppliers to EPC
Wal-Mart
held a much-anticipated event this week in Springdale, Arkansas for technology
providers and suppliers facing a January 1, 2005 deadline for compliance to a
mandate requiring radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on pallets destined
for the world's largest retailer.
Roxio's Retooled Napster
Service Begins Beta Testing
Santa Clara, Calif. -- The long-awaited rebirth
of Napster began in earnest on Thursday, as Santa Clara-based Roxio, a maker of
digital media software, launched beta testing on the new paid music downloading
service. The company said that Napster, which became one of the Internet's most
popular destinations at the height of the technology boom, will officially launch
on October 29, featuring a portfolio of more than 500,000 songs available at $0.99
each or $9.95 per album. Those who pre-register for the service now at www.napster.com
will get five free downloads upon the official launch. Users will be allowed to
burn CDs and transfer music to portable devices. Selling Content on the Internet: It's
Happening, But Is It Profitable
If you look at the latest report from
the Online Publishers Association covering online paid content, you might well
think that online information is a hot commodity. Surfing around the reaches of
the Internet, consumers spent $748 million for content during the first and second
quarters of 2003, a jump of 23% over the same six months in 2002, the OPA says.
But what do people mean by ‘paid content’ and who is actually making
money offering it? Critics question some of the figures used by those who claim
to be benefiting from consumers’ alleged willingness to pay for what was
once free.
Yahoo Launches Customized Shopping Search Tools
LOS ANGELES (Reuters)
- Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) on Wednesday unveiled a feature to make online
comparison shopping easier by sorting computers and other gadgets according to
a consumer's budget and other preferences, including technical specifications.
Microsoft, Sun charge into mobile billing
Microsoft and Sun Microsystems have strengthened their lineup of products that
allow cell phone companies to bill for downloads such as games or ring tones.
The moves signal a new battle brewing between the two software heavyweights to
win a dwindling share of spending by cell phone service providers. MODEL:
PARTICIPANTS The True Path
of B2B E-Commerce
Competition between vendors in the B2B space has been
heating up, with SAP, Oracle and other ERP players taking on established exchange
software and service giants, such as IBM, Transora, GlobalNetXchange and WorldWide
He Turned WebSite in the Rough into Online Jewel
Blue Nile CEO
Mark Vadon concedes sales growth will not stay in the stratosphere indefinitely.
But he believes Blue Nile can grab a much larger share of the $5 billion U.S.
market for engagement rings. MODEL: INFLUENCES
CEOs of Aramark, AIG Lament Today’s Risk-averse Climate
CEOs
of companies that never made headlines during the corporate scandals of the late
1990s expressed concern at a conference last week over what they see as a climate
of government over-regulation in response to recent business scandals. Joseph
Neubauer, CEO of Aramark Worldwide, and Maurice R. Greenberg, CEO of American
International Group, both said new corporate governance standards, such as the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act, discourage CEOs from taking risks necessary to spur new economic
growth. Greenberg also discussed new products and global initiatives in the insurance
business.
Ray Kurzweil on the Future: Promise
and Peril of the 21st Century
As technology accelerates toward the full
realization of genetic engineering, nanotechnology and, ultimately, robotics,
we will see intertwined potentials: a feast of creativity resulting from human
intelligence expanded manyfold, combined with grave new dangers.
Gartner: Spam Will Soon Account for 60% of All E-Mail
San Jose,
Calif. -- Unwanted commercial e-mail, or "spam," will account for 60%
of all e-mail traffic by mid-2004, threatening efforts of legitimate marketers
to reach potential customers, according to a new report from research firm Gartner,
which has West Coast headquarters in San Jose. Gartner is advising marketers to
act immediately to distinguish their e-mail pitches from junk e-mail or risk being
blocked by content managers, spam-blocking software and Internet service providers.
These barriers will undermine 80% of all e-mail marketing campaigns by 2005, Gartner
says. Companies that send vast quantities of "low-value," low-cost e-mails
can avoid being blocked by asking Internet users for permission to message them
and by personalizing what they deliver, Gartner says.
comScore: U.S. Internet Population Surpasses 150 Million for First Time
San Bruno, Calif. -- In September, the total number of U.S. Internet
users passed the 150 million mark for the first time ever, according to new figures
released by comScore, a provider of Internet audience measurement services with
West Coast operations in San Bruno. Also, the total amount of time spent by Americans
on the Internet grew by 3% in September, even though the month was a day shorter
than August. "In September, a number events impacted Americans' use of the
Internet, including Hurricane Isabel, the kickoff of the NFL season and students
returning to school," said Peter Daboll, the president of comScore Media
Metrix. "That this medium has now crossed a threshold of 150 million users
is a reminder that while it continues to mature, the web also continues to expand
its reach among the total U.S. population every day." Security: Virus Attacks
August:
what a month. Human frailty, spam and a dangerous Microsoft Windows flaw combined
to produce four major Internet worm attacks. Here's a recap to keep you on your
toes. Broadband Barriers
Are Breaking
Millions of Americans are investing in high-speed Internet
connections as convenience increases while prices decrease.
Suing Your Customers: A Winning Business Strategy?
The recording industry has a pricing problem. People do not want to pay $15-20
for a compact disc when they can download the same music for free over the Internet.
The industry’s solution appears as novel as the technology that is giving
it such headaches: launch hundreds of lawsuits against otherwise law-abiding consumers
who download music. As G. Richard Shell, a legal studies professor and author
of a forthcoming book on competitive legal strategy, notes, this same tactic was
tried 100 years ago against Henry Ford. It didn’t work then, and it won’t
work today. Offshore Outsourcing:
Going There, Doing That
A CIO survey of IT executives and managers looked
at productivity gain, which processes they would or wouldn't outsource offshore
and more. iTunes Music
Store Sells Ten Millionth Song
Apple said on Monday that its iTunes music
service, which launched a little more than four months ago, has sold its 10 millionth
song. The 10 millionth song, "Complicated" by Avril Lavigne, was purchased
and downloaded at 11:34 p.m. (PDT) on September 3. The company said that its service,
which has since inspired the launch of several rivals, has sold about 500,000
songs per week. STRATEGY:
MANAGED Metrics: Really
Critical IT
While hospital CIOs play an increasingly important role in
patient safety, relatively few hospital administrators seek their advice.
The Input Bias: How Managers Misuse Information When
Making Decisions
Fans of the hit TV comedy “The Jerry Seinfeld Show”
may remember an episode in which Jerry’s friend George leaves his car parked
at work so that the boss will think George is putting in long hours, even when
he’s not. The idea, of course, is that George’s apparent productivity
will net him a higher raise or bonus. Wharton professor Maurice Schweitzer would
call George’s behavior “an attempt to invoke the input bias – the
use of input information (in this case the false impression of long hours) to
judge outcomes.” As extreme as this example might seem, business decisions
are frequently made based on input that is either biased or manipulated, as Schweitzer
and colleague Karen Chinander suggest in a new paper entitled, “The Input
Bias: The Misuse of Input Information in Judgments of Outcomes.”
GM's Matrix Reloads
In the late 1990s, GM's CIO Ralph Szygenda
built an organizational matrix of IT managers unlike that found in any other company.
Here's how an org chart can inspire internal competition, drive process efficiencies
and make a business more competitive.
eBay Pulls Plug on Auction of iTunes Song
San
Jose, Calif. -- San Jose-based eBay has pulled an auction for a song originally
purchased from Apple's iTunes Music Store, CNET News.com reported. The item reportedly
was put up for sale as a digital test of the auction site's "first sale"
doctrine, which allows consumers to legally re-sell physical goods they buy from
one source to a third party. eBay, however, said that it pulled the auction because
it violated the company's terms of service, which prohibit items from being sold
that must be delivered to the buyer electronically through the Internet. The Michigan
man who put the song up for sale told News.com that he is considering other means
to test the first sale doctrine, including possibly turning over his iTunes username
and password to a prospective buyer. Does
Sun, Burned by Competition, Need a New Business Model?
The clouds over
Sun Microsystems are thickening as the company continues to struggle against competition
from cheap, open systems offered by Dell, and from IBM and Hewlett-Packard in
high-end business systems. While many tech companies have felt the pain of the
drought in information technology spending, Sun – a manufacturer of servers
and proprietary networking software based in Santa Clara, Cal. – seems to
be suffering more than most. What should Sun do, and is CEO Scott McNealy the
one to do it? How Pepsi Got
its Fizz Back
In the last six years, PepsiCo has undergone a transformation,
keeping its storied name but re-carbonating a business that had gone flat. It
bought Tropicana, spun off its restaurant and bottling divisions and merged with
Quaker Foods in a deal valued at $13 billion. These days, it owns not only such
household brands as Pepsi and Frito-Lay but also Gatorade and Cracker Jack. Indra
Nooyi, PepsiCo’s president and chief financial officer, came to Wharton recently
to talk about leadership, change and the New York Yankees. Mountain View-Based
VeriSign to Sell Network Solutions for $100 Million
Three years after
acquiring Network Solutions, Mountain View-based VeriSign, a provider of infrastructure
services for the Internet and telecommunications networks, said on Thursday that
it will sell the domain name registration business to Phoenix-based Pivotal Private
Equity for $100 million. Under the terms of the deal, VeriSign will receive about
$60 million in cash and a $40 million senior subordinated note, and will retain
a 15% equity stake in Network Solutions. The company will keep the part of the
former Network Solutions business that handles .com and .net domain name infrastructure.
The deal is expected to close by year's end. VeriSign said that the move will
allow it to focus exclusively on providing infrastructure services for the Internet
and telecommunication networks "while allowing Network Solutions to pursue
its own independent strategy in the web presence market." Network Solutions
in 1993 launched the industry's first Internet domain name registration service,
and now manages over 9 million domain names. The acquisition complements Pivotal's
recent deal to purchase Pacific Crossing, the undersea fiber optic telecommunications
network connecting Japan with the U.S. About
the Author: Mitchell
Levy, is President and CEO of ECnow.com (http://ecnow.com),
a management consulting company helping corporations transition from the industrial
age to the Internet age through strategy, marketing, and off-the-shelf and customized
on-line and on-ground training. He is the author of the book E-Volve-or-Die.com
(http://e-volve-or-die.com), creator of
the Value Framework™
(http://ecnow.com/value/),
Executive Producer of VMS3.info (http://VMS3.info),
the Director of the Silicon Valley Executive Business Program (http://SiliconValleyPACE.com),
former Chair of comdex.biz at Comdex Fall, and Chairman of the Pay-per-Performance
PR Agency Media Attention Now TM (http://ecnow.com/mediaattention),
and the CEO Networking organization CEOnetworking (http://ceonetworking.com).
Mitchell was at Sun Microsystems for 9 years, the last 4 of which he managed the
e-commerce component of Sun's $3.5 billion supply chain. Mitchell is a popular
speaker, lecturing on ECM issues throughout the U.S. and around the world.
Read more about Mr. Levy: http://ecnow.com/ml_bio.htm
Public speaking appearances I've given: http://ecnow.com/speaking.htm
Read about ECnow.com's media coverage: http://ecnow.com/media
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