Business & Strategy Archives

VC’s Future Lies In Building Winners June 21, 2025
AI and megafunds are about to kill the traditional venture model, forcing smaller VCs to stop hunting for hidden gems and start rolling up their sleeves to fix broken companies instead.

How I use OKRs October 13, 2023
A description of how I use OKRs to guide a team, written so I can send to future teams.

Strategy Means Saying No October 27, 2020
An oft-overlooked aspect of strategy is to define what you are not doing. There are lots of adjacent problems you can attack. Strategy means defining which ones you will ignore.

Understanding vision, strategy, and execution October 24, 2020
Vision is what you’re trying to do. Strategy is broad strokes on how you’ll get there. Execution is the tasks you complete to complete the strategy.

Developer Relations as Developer Success October 19, 2020
Outreach, marketing, and developer evangelism are a part of Developer Relations. But the companies that are most successful with developers spend most of their time on something else.

How the Sales organization in a large company slows innovation November 16, 2018
If you have a new innovative product inside a large established company, it can be much harder to reach product market fit than it would be for the same product in a startup.

Think or do July 13, 2006
Ideas are a dime a dozen. Executing them is what’s valuable.

A million parts July 12, 2006
Jeff Jarvis has a brilliant guest piece that sums up the changing roles of content...

The importance of being good May 25, 2006
Starbucks is pulling CD burning stations from their stores. That says something interesting about their brand.

Technorati quick fix May 12, 2006
Technorati makes quick work of a site bug

Home Depot: Excellent customer service May 11, 2006
A simple call for information results in a very pleasant experience.

Relax your policies May 8, 2006
Create overly-restrictive policies that assume your customers are bad people and you’ll end up treating al lyour customers like they’re bad people.

Sun Niagra server trial making a strategic mistake March 17, 2006
Sun is making a strategic mistake by making it hard for startups to try their servers.

Creative Weblogging: listening to customers March 5, 2006
I asked Creative Weblogging to bring back full text feeds. They’re trying it out.

Open Source profits February 14, 2006
Big companies are becoming major contributors to open source projects and sometimes buying the companies behind them. There’s big profits to be made in open source.

Feedburner fesses up February 9, 2006
Feedburner spammed some people. And instead of making excuses, they did the right thing.

To those who've asked... January 11, 2006
I don’t have an inside track to Ookles, so please stop asking.

My christmas deliveries December 28, 2005
Items ordered at Christmas weren’t shipped smoothly, but everything worked out okay.

Lock-in is bad December 14, 2005
T-Mobile thinks they’ll get new Hotspot customers with exclusive content and locked-in devices.

FeedFlare (or, Stop Changing my Feeds!) December 13, 2005
FeedBurner’s new feature is great in concept, but has a rotten implementation.

Angel funding through AdSense November 19, 2005
Kevin Burton has a clever new way to fund his startup.

Where do the RSS ad startups fit in? November 16, 2005
Yahoo’s RSS advertising service could spell trouble for pure-play RSS advertising services unless they adapt their business model.

How Yahoo's RSS Advertising works November 16, 2005
Here’s look at how Yahoo’s RSS ads work and a comparison to the ad insertion techniques of some of the other players.

Yahoo launches RSS advertising service November 16, 2005
Yahoo has entered the RSS advertising market.

Upcomming for Yahoo October 5, 2005
Andy Baio does good.

Placement premiums January 27, 2005
Changes in technology and consumer habits should be changing the business models of companies.

Time-based information November 25, 2004
The tasks users are trying to complete often change depending on the dates and times they are accessing your site. Help them by putting the information they need right at their fingertips.

How not to apply for a job September 24, 2004
Applying for a job isn’t that hard, but it does take some minimal effort and common sense.

Google offers Picasa for free July 19, 2004
Google makes its new photo management application available for free.

Google on the desktop July 13, 2004
Google picks up Picasa, giving them an important foothold on people’s PCs.

Customer callbacks June 29, 2004
Instead of waiting on hold for an extended period of time, PG&E customer service lets me ask them to call me back when someone is available.

RSS Strategies April 13, 2004
Are you publishing in RSS? Have you received any benefits from it?

How to be a successful consultant January 7, 2004
Jeff Nichols starts a new series on the role of an analyst.

Business blogs August 9, 2003
Anyone know of some good business and marketing blogs?

Wireless Google java July 14, 2003
I’ve already had some people arrive here that were obviously searching for wireless Internet in Carmel. If your business isn’t online, you’re losing business.

Writing Realistic Job Descriptions July 10, 2003
Publish a job listing like this one and you are virtually guaranteeing that you won’t get qualified applicants for the position.

Other uses for your content July 10, 2003
When you put information on your Web site, you need to remember that the text you write might be used in ways that you didn’t think of.

Turning away customers July 9, 2003
If a customer is going to go to the trouble of contacting you, it’s important, at least to them. Make sure you’ll see it.

Atomz responds June 20, 2003
In talking with Atomz, I’ve discovered why their free service exists. It isn’t a marketing blunder, but rather a generous decision to continue supporting legacy users after the companies business model changed.

Ecommerce liability June 19, 2003
Guess has been fined by the government for leaving their Web site open to known security vulnerabilities. What affect will this have on your business?

Ecommerce costs May 4, 2003
When planning a small business ecommerce site, you’ll need to budget for the costs involved in processing credit cards, marketing, and software.

Quotable May 4, 2003
"Don’t mistake activity for achievment."—John Wooden

Weblogs in Business April 4, 2003
How can a blog help your business? You can improve marketing. knowledge sharing, collaboration, and team communication, all without knowing a thing about Web publishling.

Worth quoting January 4, 2003
Penn Gillette on professionalism.

Small Businesses missing the Web January 3, 2003
Many small businesses don’t think they need a Web site. But having a site can enhance any business, save money, and increase revenue.

Switching wireless December 30, 2002
Wireless phone providers are going to need to up their level of service now that they are losing a competitive advantage.

The band gets it December 14, 2002
The best way for a local band to build a following is to give away their music.

Where's the link? December 5, 2002
Leaving external links out of magazine articles may keep the reader at your site, but who wants a frustrated reader?

DVD-Bomb November 27, 2002
Another case of technology trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.

Wireless Adoption September 10, 2002
At the real estate softare company where I used to work, our WAP product won us sales, but nobody bought it.

Total Experience August 29, 2002
A great Web site, cheap prices, and bad service. Which will your customers remember?

Goodbye BN.com links August 15, 2002
What happens when you break links to your site and your competitor doesn’t? Sites link to your competition instead of you.

Quality Service August 14, 2002
In contrast to yesterday’s host, Insider Hosting has stellar customer contact.

Ignoring customers August 13, 2002
Ignoring your email turns off potential customers.

Email marketing stupidity July 9, 2002
I just renewed the domain registration for kalsey.com through Register.com. Right after I did so, they automatically sent me some marketing email. They made some dumb mistakes in their message that you can easily avoid in your marketing campaigns.

Strategic Site Management June 3, 2002
Someone in your company should be in charge of your Web site. Here’s why.

Apple theft May 27, 2002
Sometimes companies other than Microsoft steal instead of innovate. Apple’s been taking ideas from their developer community for years.

Complex operations hurt your business May 11, 2002
I prefer to buy from Barnes & Noble over Amazon. I’ve never been thrilled with...

Subscription TV May 6, 2002
Another thing that Kellner said that I found a little goofy is that he’d like...

Customer Care February 22, 2002
Business 2.0 | Management Lesson #1: Speed Still Matters: "Customers' switching costs have been reduced...

Freelance Overload February 22, 2002
R144.com | Freelancers Find Success Accompanied By Longer Hours: "However, another big factor in freelance...

Mergers as an advantage February 20, 2002
McKinsey Quarterly | Learning from high-tech deals: "For most companies, acquisitions and other transactions are...

Wireless Advantage February 15, 2002
O'Reilly Network | Easy 802.11b Wireless for Small Businesses: "Now think about how this can...

Tesco Delivers January 14, 2002
As mentioned here previously, British grocery chain Tesco has been successful in the home grocery...

Ice Escapades January 14, 2002
My In-Laws took one of those all-expense paid guided tours to see the US ice...

Tesco delivery October 11, 2001
Unlike Webvan, the UK grocery store chain Tesco realized that the Web is just one...

Windows marketshare October 8, 2001
Two interesting articles on Windows XP and Microsoft’s methods to take and hold marketshare. Salon’s...

End of the Line? November 1, 2000
Stupid business plans

Shopping Woes March 11, 2000
Shopping shouldn’t be this hard.