If I were a CMO
I would bask in all the attention the IT world is paying to me seeing that I am going to be spending lots of $$$ in the next few years. If Gartner says it is true, the IT world usually jumps, correct? But I would be pissed that many IT vendors treat me like an [...]
Dell in Deal to Go Private
Just last week I was writing about the importance of sometimes ignoring Wall Street analysts whose focus on quarterly earnings can force a company into neglecting its best interests. Bowing to the demands of quarterly reporting (and profits) reflects short-term thinking that might prevent long-term success. Today Dell decided to go private in a $24 [...]
Wall St. Leaves Money on Table for Subscription Companies
Look, we know the old truism that if you don’t have customers and profits you don’t have a business, you have a hobby. But could we please get a little balance on the profit idea? Emerging companies typically don’t declare profits because they use excess cash to fuel growth. Anything left over is plowed back [...]
May the math and stat majors inherit the tech world
I started my career at PW as an accountant. I have a long since expired CPA certificate as memory. It was good business grounding for an MBA and required experience back then before you could move into PW’s consulting arm. But I was bored as hell and tried to get a job on Wall Street [...]
There’s Sand(y) in the Machine
Well, the good news, as I survey the neighborhood on the day after is that we survived. Boston had its moments with more than a quarter million homes without power, but it is nothing compared to the reality of New York City and environs. We were relatively lucky on this one. As I write this [...]
We dont actually do what we propose
Remember the UPS ad below? I thought about the ad as I read this Fortune article about HP. Two visiting consultants are waiting for the elevator at a big company’s headquarters. One is from HP, the other from IBM. The consultant from Big Blue pushes the up button to visit the CEO on the top [...]
What Would Steve Do? Ruminations on the Jobs Formula
The follow on wave to the initial reaction to Steve Jobs departure has begun, and it’s interesting. It’s all about understanding the “Steve Jobs Formula”. I confess I do enjoy reading these articles as do I enjoy reading about the “Warren Buffet Formula.” There are entire books about the latter. The one thing that is [...]
To the winners go the spoils
I have seen at least a dozen of my smartest friends refer to Bill Gurley’s terrific post this week before I actually got around to reading it – which I finally did. My first thought upon reading it was of some recent discussions on StockTwits as well as among my Enterprise Irregulars colleagues, particularly in [...]
Measuring Tech R&D Spend
During the Oracle OpenWorld financial analysts summit last Thurs, as I was live tweeting the event, I inadvertently set off a bit of a storm around some data that Oracle showed on R&D spending. Now if you follow my live…
Cloud Customer Confusion Continues — Anecdotes from the Field
I recently watched a video of Ariba’s Kevin Costello on Fox Business News. Well presented, Kevin deviates little from the high-level messaging that Ariba has adopted recently, both for customer and investor audiences. While the messaging might be working for Wall Street (I wish I purchased the stock a few months back given the run-up [...]
