nick gonios

Back to the ‘localsmiths’ production with Open Source Manufacturing

nickgonios — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:06:29 +0000

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid56328629001?bclid=10175001001&bctid=63270385001

Edge is Core – Consultant urges bee model for business success

nickgonios — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:51:26 +0000

BUSINESS STRATEGIES

June 02, 2010|By Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer

Businesses and individuals should behave like bees, constantly in search of new ideas and opportunities, rather than squirrels that find and hide goodies, says a consultant with a new take on how to compete in a global economy.

John Hagel III, with Deloitte Consulting's Center for the Edge in San Jose, lays out this strategy for success in a book, "The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion."

Hagel and his co-authors, Silicon Valley thinker John Seely Brown and editor Lang Davison, wrote "Pull" to encapsulate a problem they've observed with Western businesses – a long-term decline in return on assets. In 1965, they said, businesses earned an average of $4.72 for every $100 in assets. This return has fallen to 52 cents per $100 of assets in 2008.

Their prescription for reversing this decline is to work smarter, by creating networks that can respond to new opportunities or challenges.

"We call it shaping serendipity," Hagel said. Companies – and individuals – must partner with others who can help them, using conferences, personal meetings and social networks to find potential collaborators.

Hagel said this runs contrary to Western business thinking, which holds that competitive advantage comes from exploiting some knowledge or process that should be guarded, like the formula for Coke.

But in a rapidly changing world, Hagel said, advantage comes from a network of partnerships to pull together skills, materials and processes that no single company may own.

He cited the success of the Chinese company Li & Fung, which has created a worldwide network of 10,000 suppliers in pursuit of its basic business – filling apparel manufacturing orders for global brands.

"If you go into any shopping mall roughly 40 percent of the apparel is connected to the Li & Fung network," he said, because the Chinese firm can find the right materials, manufacturers and turnaround times for an unimaginable variety of projects.

Hagel offered the iPod as a case of how this is already taking effect behind the scenes.

He traced the iPod's genesis to the former Silicon Valley firm PortalPlayer, which employed a networking model to create a series of music players for Japanese manufacturers.

Hagel said Apple CEO Steve Jobs fused PortalPlayer's underlying technology with an idea being circulated by entrepreneur Tony Fadell, who argued for the creation of a music-distribution service. Apple wrapped all of that up in a device with its vaunted aesthetic appeal.

"The mythology is that the iPod resulted from the genius of one guy, but the actual story is more complex," he said.

Posted via email from edge is core

Fred Wilson: Chatroulette Founder Doesn’t Know What He Wants To Do

nickgonios — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 23:44:56 +0000

A A

Image: Randy Stewart

Posted via email from edge is core

Microsoft Surface – new possibilities come alive!!

nickgonios — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:30:46 +0000

I was amazed with the iphone User Interface, Microsoft latest product Surface has blown me away!!!

IKEA here we come……..

Traditional media going new….TBD!

nickgonios — Sun, 14 Jan 2007 22:28:39 +0000

Interesting article in The Australian today about Beeb (BBC’s online venture) going social with a plan to establish social communities around their popular TV shows like 5th Gear.

No timeframe set…..that’s the catch.

Apple iPhone

nickgonios — Sat, 13 Jan 2007 03:26:25 +0000

Great interview and demo of the upcoming Apple iPhone at the recent CES event. For someone that’s been in the mobile space, it is certainly an impressive devices. You can really see Apple usability and simplicity features come thru…..

It is so human likable…..I close to being converted to the Apple revolution!

Another interest point made in another post from a senior Apple exec in doing the deal with Cingular was that there is no way they are going to open up the platform for anyone else developing on it…interesting approach to business but for a business that is obsessed with design and function like Apple…well what can i say.

Visualising the Long Tail….

nickgonios — Tue, 12 Dec 2006 19:33:09 +0000

Great blog piece on how over time, user generated content and social network driven sites will eventully become part of the norm leaving Google as Mt Everest!

http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2006/12/visualizing_the.html

As a visual person, I found this representation a very interesting perspective on the Long Tail……

Immersive brand experiences and social network sites

nickgonios — Mon, 27 Nov 2006 11:11:18 +0000

With greater uptake and usage of broadband services, users are demanding richer web experiences. On this note, one of the (if not the) most broadband enabled country’s South Korea has demonstrated the value of these communications enablers with the success of cyworld (Korea’s version of MySpace and the most successful per capita in terms of usage and revenue generation). Last year, they generated more than 20% of South Korea’s online musc sales via their online communities!!

What’s different about is there business model and rich user experience. They have long recognised the value of rich user experiences online and have taken this one step further with the announcement of a relationship with Double Fusion . This agreement will allw cyworld to immerse digital assets in the cyworld spaces with branded sponsorship opportunities. Check out this press release for more info on this exciting announcement.

Mobile Carriers’ Gates are being broken….eventually!

nickgonios — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 22:12:47 +0000

What a great moment in the mobile world!

Some of you maybe aware of the fact that I have being running a mobile solutions company (Smooth Mobility) for close to 1 year now with continuous changes to the business model and initiatives due to many reasons. One of the major issues has been the “gravity” and perception the mobile carriers have with the general consumer and business markets when it comes to the range of products and services available.

For a long time, I’ve been talking about the fact that carriers have unfortunately being using the marketing “muscle” to actually not doing anything real proactively to drive higher data volumne growth across their networks. The “poster child” in the business mobile market has been Blackberry yet this is only the tip of the iceberg with respect to data usage and user value.

An announcement this week by three (3) in the UK with its X-Series bundle and pricing has created the chnage needed to drive user adoption and value for mobile data services in my view. Check out the press release 3′s X-Series and also 3′s great promotional site for the X-Series bundle.

I really believe this will take off based on human usage and behaviouron traditional mobile voice and simple data services. Those capped plans have really given users a sense of “sleep at night” factor comfort and I see this doing the same thing.

Let’s see what other carriers do next.

Windows and the next frontier…no devices!

nickgonios — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 12:18:48 +0000

Many of you who know me have a passion for good design (have a real passion for industrial design and architecture) and came across this site about a design competition sponsored by Microsoft to find the next great device design.

It seems like a great success as an event and I really enjoyed the video clip depicting, in Microsoft view, the world of tomorrow!

http://www.startsomethingpc.com – select the flash cube and go to see video link.

Imagine a world with no devices and Microsoft Windows all around us – in the air!!

Wow.