Business Issues Today

Monday, October 12, 2009

Microsoft,T-Mobile Loses Personal Data

If you're a T-Mobile Sidekick user, you already know that all your personal contacts and data may have been lost forever. Microsoft said "that the recovery process has been incredibly complex because it suffered a confluence of errors from a server failure". Not much comfort for users who are now left scrambling to find lost contacts and photos.

Now I've always been against any PDA that stores my data only at GMAIL or some other server. What happened to being able to back-up on your own computer as well? Here is where Palm and the iPhone have the edge. Synching with your desktop always gives you the option of backing it up on a flash drive.

Perhaps if Palm were any good at marketing they might seize this opportunity for a very convincing Ad campaign!

Friday, September 25, 2009

Andreessen says: Entrepreneurs Must Be Able To Make Plans And Then Break Them

I've been writing business plans for over a decade for start-up companies and way before that as part of the annual corporate management process. Many times founders are reluctant to pay the fees to update a plan a year down the road, not understanding that it is a work in progress. In fact business plans need to be reviewed at least every six months, not only to ensure management is on track, but also to ensure you are aware of the changing landscape, whether it is the economy and or competitors. Constant fine tuning is the key to success! I agree with Andreessen, that "its the process of planning that's the most important thing to see". So many founders lack this discipline and end up with a fragmented, shoot in the dark attitude instead of a cogent, defendable strategy. This is the most frustrating part of working with start-ups. No one takes the time nor wants to spend a little money to research their market segment and their demographic - a costly mistake that could be the difference between a successful company and a bankruptcy!

Friday, August 28, 2009

What Has President Obama Done for Silicon Valley?

President Obama's inability to fill even half of his major political appointments is in the news this week, but the appointments he's already made are causing some in Silicon Valley to question whether they supported the right candidate. The president chose non-Silicon-Valley candidates for the nation's two major technology posts.

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