Jul 2005
The Long Tail Continues
At The Long Tail Churchill Club event this morning
Chris Anderson (Wired Editor in Chief and writer for
the Economist), who claims ownership of the term,
discussed his research and his upcoming book about
The Long Tail. His speech reiterated some well
understood findings at Amazon, Netflix, Rhapsody (all
of which have been mentioned here before) as well as
some esoteric analytical findings in which academia
make an attempt to approximate the outcome of Long
Tail markets with formulas. The Q&A session lead
us into some of the business impacts of Long Tail
markets. First he agreed with us, no business should
create a Long Tail without a Torso. Second, new
search technology customized to every individual
usage (vertical search) is essential. Third, new
"Taste-makers" of the world or micro-celebrities,
vocalized by blogging about niche expertise, will
fuel and direct the trust in The Long Tail.
Meritocracy with democratic production. Interesting
example mentioned was Lego, the toy company that
changed its conservative marketing strategy (Pareto
based) into a community marketing strategy, realizing
better segmentation and margins can be derived from
its very loyal community that continues to grow.
Our stance: Long Tail markets can succeed if:
1) The Torso exists and is successful in drawing the crowd
2) Long Tail demand is fed through Long Tail supply, creating a free-market
3) Arbitration is "owned" by the marketplace (not the company)
4) The marketplace offers sufficient transparency, to allow for discovery, not just search
5) The business behind the marketplace makes money on distribution (not aggregation)
6) The marketplace offers integrity, in pricing, use and abuse prevention
Read on for more information on The Long Tail in this blog series...
Our stance: Long Tail markets can succeed if:
1) The Torso exists and is successful in drawing the crowd
2) Long Tail demand is fed through Long Tail supply, creating a free-market
3) Arbitration is "owned" by the marketplace (not the company)
4) The marketplace offers sufficient transparency, to allow for discovery, not just search
5) The business behind the marketplace makes money on distribution (not aggregation)
6) The marketplace offers integrity, in pricing, use and abuse prevention
Read on for more information on The Long Tail in this blog series...
PowerPC or Intel, who cares? Or do I?
Saturday - July 09, 2005 Filed in: Positioning
Apple switching to Intel is a move that stunned the
faithful Mac community, yet most of us knew Mac OS X
was derived from a dual core OS Steve Jobs had been
running for a while at Next. Had we forgotten?
Did the success of the iPod blur our vision? But more important than the choice for Intel CPU's is the impact on the choice for other hardware components of the computer. The Mac derives its cool look, slim laptop design, unique features and true innovation from a primarily proprietary hardware design process. Low cost and commodity designs from mostly Intel, AMD, and other mass market producers still turns out computer bricks. Intel performance is good, instead of "Intel Inside" just add "Apple Everywhere Else".
Did the success of the iPod blur our vision? But more important than the choice for Intel CPU's is the impact on the choice for other hardware components of the computer. The Mac derives its cool look, slim laptop design, unique features and true innovation from a primarily proprietary hardware design process. Low cost and commodity designs from mostly Intel, AMD, and other mass market producers still turns out computer bricks. Intel performance is good, instead of "Intel Inside" just add "Apple Everywhere Else".
Oracle Collaboration "sweet"
Friday - July 08, 2005 Filed in: Positioning
While attending Tony Perkins' Media 100
beer-and-burger bash at the Alpine Inn, I was
confronted by another opinionist that questioned
Oracle's foray in the Enterprise Collaboration
business. Indeed, it has been a long road;
Oracle*Mail, Oracle Office, Oracle Library, Oracle
Documents, Oracle Workflow, Oracle InterOffice Suite,
Oracle InterOffice, Oracle Collaboration Suite is the
reincarnation Oracle's installed base has been hit up
with since 1990. As the lead salesman (or should I
say Director of Worldwide Marketing), more than 7
years ago for Oracle Office and InterOffice I learned
a few important lessons that stuck with me
forever.
For one, technology does not sell. Oracle's
collaboration tools were then, and are now some of
the best in the business.
Two, deliver a proposition to sales people that matches the vendor's existing business model. Incompatibility of business models is why 800-pound Gorillas can't buy themselves into new categories.
Three, commission sales people competitively to other proven product offerings. Don't let your weakest sales people hide behind selling the "impossible". Again, Oracle's technology is not the problem, incompatible business models is the real issue. I see a bright future for Oracle's Collaboration Suite as the software-as-a-service solution for customers who have bought into Salesforce.com's business model.
Now, Digital Asset Management, often erroneously merged into the Collaboration substrate, is a market category that Oracle needs to own and quickly. "Unstructured" data and corporate media management markets are currently growing at a clip of 45% a year, faster than RDBMS or ERP growth. If Oracle wants to be the database for all corporate data, digital asset management is the real opportunity, not only because it works best with Oracle's organic business model. I've got suggestions for Chuck (Rozwat and Phillips) of who to buy to get in quick.
Two, deliver a proposition to sales people that matches the vendor's existing business model. Incompatibility of business models is why 800-pound Gorillas can't buy themselves into new categories.
Three, commission sales people competitively to other proven product offerings. Don't let your weakest sales people hide behind selling the "impossible". Again, Oracle's technology is not the problem, incompatible business models is the real issue. I see a bright future for Oracle's Collaboration Suite as the software-as-a-service solution for customers who have bought into Salesforce.com's business model.
Now, Digital Asset Management, often erroneously merged into the Collaboration substrate, is a market category that Oracle needs to own and quickly. "Unstructured" data and corporate media management markets are currently growing at a clip of 45% a year, faster than RDBMS or ERP growth. If Oracle wants to be the database for all corporate data, digital asset management is the real opportunity, not only because it works best with Oracle's organic business model. I've got suggestions for Chuck (Rozwat and Phillips) of who to buy to get in quick.