Playing with Google Sites January 27, 2009
Posted by gjlowes in : SandBox , add a commentJust spent an hour signing up for, and taking for a test drive the new Google Site application.
Seems relatively straight forward – though learning the quirky nuances of editing and updating is a bit tedious.
You may want to experiment, and let me know what you think. It seems a neat way to create a controlled access website for special interests….
Web site relaunch January 7, 2009
Posted by gjlowes in : technology , add a commentThis web site is in the process of being relaunched, and its look (the theme) may change drastically for a while.
The redesign is generally following the instructions on installing and customizing Wordpress on your own site.
Please excuse the dust …
Measurements – the achilles heel of strategy innovation November 25, 2007
Posted by gjlowes in : strategy , add a commentIn my prior employment there was an oft repeated catch-phrase: “The best thing about IBMers is that they do EXACTLY what they are incented to do. The worst thing about IBMers is that they do EXACTLY what they are incented to do”.
This is superficially funny, or at least ironic. The point? There are several – yet the most poignant is the observation that firms are often challenged to execute on a good business strategy. The largest reason why the strategy doesn’t get executed as the strategy designers had intended is the measurment system that is in place to incent – or more acurately to control – the behaviours of their employees. Seldom is the measurement system updated to reflect measures appropriate to the success of the newly declared strategy.
Why is this? Is it because finance is in charge by way of ownership of the measurement system and doesn’t get invited to the strategy table? Is it because no one GETS the direct relationship between employee behaviours and the measurement system? Or is it that no one really knows HOW to construct a measurement system that will foster the behaviours that are required of the strategy? Possibly, it is all of these.
High Stakes Business Models are emerging March 1, 2007
Posted by gjlowes in : strategy , add a commentThe corporate struggle for Web domination is on…. the winners and losers not yet determined!
Case in point – Google versus Microsoft versus Free-ware….Who will be the important players in the new Web 2.0 world?
It will take a few years. It will emerge per the whims of the global marketplace. There is no ability to predict the eventual outcome. Success will depend on the adoption rate – of the global internet community!
Take a few minutes to reflect on this ZDNET blog entry by Mary Jo Foley on March 1, 2007:
A Swedish, venture-backed startup believes it can beat both Microsoft and Google in bringing a “cloud OS” product to market. A “Cloud OS” is what Microsoft officials have described as the back-end infrastructure that will power its growing family of Live services. And — in spite of repeated public denials that it also is working on a “Google OS” — Google is believed to be in the throes of building its own version of a cloud OS (which allegedly is code-named “Pachyderm) and is being developed by former Plan 9 engineers who are now on staff at Google, I hear).