Tag: Netflix

Uncharted waters

When Henry Ford first put together 2 and 2 (wheels) to make 4 (wheels), he was probably laughed at.  Then his policy to increase worker’s wages, so they could afford buying the very same cars they had helped assembled was probably viewed as radical.

Today, the same thing with Nissan Leaf‘s buyer’s incentive, and Diamond-Lane privilege (even just one driver) that comes with driving an EV are looked at with envy and intrigue.

Early adopters only.

Going to uncharted territories.

No what if!

Without entrepreneurial spirits, we wouldn’t get Netflix, Amazon, Zappos, Yahoo and Google.

Names that did not exist a few decades ago. Uncharted waters.

Broadband-enabled companies. Google Fiber?

To the tune of Billions and employing big pipes, but not fat payroll.

They were probably laughed at too in early stage. What do you mean customers can send back the shoes free of charge? (Zappos)

Convenient online check-out? Customers recommended purchase? Perhaps you would like to check this out (Cross-selling and up-selling).

With fat pipe, we can expect more apps and new business models i.e. 24/7, easy shipping and hassle-free return,  self-improving algorithm that knows its customers better than they would themselves.

In short, business will get smarter as machine processes transactions faster.

Machine will help both sides of the equation: Business and Consumers, selling and buying.

Entrepreneurs can strike out without too much sunk costs.

Software can be tested off-shored, and while being overseas, companies might as well let the public sneak peak at  their proofs of concept (Japan has a Sample Store).

The irony of this whole process is: while off-shoring centers were viewed as cost centers, they ended up as profit-centers, for BRIC countries are now the ones with relatively strong purchasing power (after years of doing someone else’s dirty work). When traversing uncharted waters, one will never know what perils and possibilities are waiting at each turn. The pre-req is an open mind and a brave heart to deal with those unexpected turns of event.

Ads during downturn

You might think that business are spending less on advertising during the down turn. Think again. Financial, insurance and banking, all pumped more ad dollars into the system.

Meanwhile, more VC‘s are of “angel” nature (this explains why Facebook can afford taking its time before next year’s IPO), the 21st century version of Independent Film producers Model.

Just as we need to see growth, we all read about Google and ATT facing anti-trust hearings.

Maybe they should pump more dollars into PR’s and ads e.g. “we are the good guys!” But Yelp is yelling for help.

Talking about ads. Last week, we saw something so “black Friday’ish” at Target.

Its site crashed. Its stores ransacked.

Wow!

What recession?

It is to show that Costco and Target are reading the signs of the time right.

The former gives people peace of mind, in bulk.

The later, affordable clothing, in style (its demographic target: stay-at-home moms but want to get in with the action – fashion wise).

Ad has always been at the forefront (even during the time of war “Uncle Sam wants you”).

It nudges and leads the public opinion. It helps Netflix CEO draft  a written apology (e-mail blast).

It reinvents, renames companies and divisions (Netflix and Qwikster, streaming and snail-mailing) and erases (un-branding) names (remember Cingular?).

It could even handle personal “exit strategy” i.e. NYT obituary (of Mondale’s and Ted Kennedy‘s daughters).

We need copy writers. We need ad men and women.

They persuade, inform and entertain us, even during the down turn.

It’s so counter-intuitive for companies to spend more when they know consumers are spending less. When we come out of this Recession, advertising will be reaping a huge reward both on and offline. Advertising has proven to be resilient across multi-platforms : successful companies rely on ads by choice, suffering companies  rely on ads by default (can’t afford opportunities cost). Ads during the downturn.

the acceleration of nearly everything

Time heals, slowly. It makes for better wine.

But it also shuts the window of opportunity.

The moment we leap (even before we look), we defy fate.

No regrets.

In “Blink”, the author presents a clear case for intuition and conclusion.

It’s the opposite of SWOT with no action =  slow-burn effect that kills the frog (paralysis of analysis).

Most life-altering decisions are made not by (analytical) choices, but in a “blink”: a parent who picked up an added burden (hence, less time to spend with the kids), the first televised Nixon-Kennedy debate whose viewers favored the telegenic over the “tricky”, a leader who was reluctant but refused to disengage from someone else’s war ( Hey, hey, LBJ) at the expenses of his beloved Great Society .

If history is of any guide, we will eventually relegate what is now known as the internet to its proper place as we have treated its counterparts (radio, TV, phone book, encyclopedia …)

We will know that it’s there, accessible at any time, any place. But the novelty will soon wear off, or co-opted by corporations or back to the government (ARPANET started there anyway). In fact, contrarian already felt that our privacy and freedom are in jeopardy.

Internet, like everything else, will face its own “valley of death” before being adopted by the Rest. I still remember how excited everyone was with Skype and Netflix 5 years ago.

Meanwhile, it has done its job: the classification and acceleration of nearly everything.

Someday, when Search is complete with behavioral targeting, we can do away with “I am feeling lucky”. For now, if you…

Want to know about s/t? Goolge it.

Want to view and hear s/t? Youtube it.

Want to call somebody (or group w/ them), Skype him.

Although It doesn’t bring neighbors closer together, it offers us a tool to “google” them, or “verify” his/her online brand.

Something just can’t be rushed: your pot roast, your wine, and the cheese.

Or reputation, trust and friendship.

My classmate was excited upon hearing about a long-lost friend. Who wouldn’t want to see ourselves as we were once seen!

Maybe social networking is here to stay.

It connects people like the tie that binds.

Friends know what we like (that’s why they are on our friending list in the first place).

In the foxhole, we stay and fight, not out of ideology or conviction, but out of camaraderie.

Viva friendship and its enduring legacy, which can’t be rushed up.

It’s an age of acceleration, but only of nearly everything. Not of everything. A time to dance, a time to reflect. A time to die, a time to live. Still, I don’t forget those first few seconds, of  people I met. And I know they mine. The blink moment that lasts a lifetime!

supply chain dilemma

First they outsourced to lower the cost of, let’s say, an I phone.

The guy (Chinese farm-to-factory worker) if not jumped out of the window from a Foxconn‘s dorm, wished he had because there was no way he could afford one. Even his counterparts in NYC had to get in line just to hand carry the same phone back to China for a profit.

Meanwhile, leaders are scratching their heads, trying to turn that same worker into a domestic consumer. So, he needs and wants a raise. Wage increases drive up production costs, making it less affordable for emerging domestic market.

Or, because of the innovator’s dilemma, product cycle, market adoption and planned obsolescence, consumers taste moves on to Galaxy etc…just as you adjusted your production strategy (Dell just-in-time, then went Retail, then went private).

It’s hard for young people in China and Vietnam not to want an I Phone. It’s harder to keep their wages down while aspiration is up. Meanwhile, the US needs jobs here at home. The same with European countries which can offer quality workmanship (even though for years, they haven’t had a decent manufacturing order to practice their skills ).

For IT outsourcing and cloud computing, it’s easy to “follow the sun”. But for manufacturing it is hard to pick up and move, then move back. Two trends seem to recently emerge in the US: resource-sharing (ride and facility), and reshoring.

A few workers jumped out of the window in China signals the beginning of many  to follow elsewhere.  Remember we live in an interconnected interdependent world where one-upmanship now spans the globe (Indian IT workers are seen partying just like counterparts in Silicon Valley during Happy Hour).

One CEO is nominated CEO of the Year (Netflix), two CEO’s going bankrupt (Blockbuster and MGM).

I got a Sixth Sense. I see dead people. The time, they are a’ changin.  The guy who hummed it (Bob Dylan) was featured in a WSJ article as slipping due to aging.

We got enough worries about the ever expanded and contracted cycles of long-tail product but short-term people.

Ford was quite correct to make the model T’s affordable to his workers (whose wages were quit high). That seemed to put the dilemma to rest in his time. Times, they are a changin, since Model T to I phone. Quite a gulf to cross from creators to consumers.

Machine of the year

We put a five-dollar bill in, and got a quarter back. Green. Go. No toll booth collector.

Just a machine. Just like you would find at laundromat, or car wash.

Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy. Its video rental machines don’t seem to catch up with Red Box and Netflix. Netflix doesn’t seem to catch up with Hulu. Hulu won’t catch up with Google TV.

Soon we will need to vote, not for Man of the Year as TIME has, but for Machine of the Year.

This machine has to pass the most stringent of tests i.e. most conveniently placed (such as ATM machines in the casino), take dollar bills on user’s first trial, and always spit out mint coins.

I prefer to vote for machine that says “Thank You”.

After all, I have a choice to walk away, and not to give it any business.

Besides, there are competing machines nearby.

To enter the “labor” workforce, machines should pay FICA.

In case you haven’t noticed, we can go through a day without interacting with human

(see my other blog on Machine and Me) just as someone’ s comment that one can walk through Little Saigon in Westminster, CA for a full day without a word in English.

I have nothing against the machine. Only when it refuses to take my crumbled dollar bills.

Machines at the Home Depot are more advanced. Wal-Mart’s also.

I don’t know about the ones at airport from which one can buy Tampon, I pod and perfume.

Coca Cola is beta-ing a coke mixing machine, from which you can select your coke flavor.

Hence, it seeks to turn consumers into chemists.

Ice cream making machines at rest areas championed this trend a while ago.

When America gets on the road, it will have to live with coffee machine, ice cream machine, coke machine, toll collecting machine, gas station cash machine, microwave oven, fridge, TV, desktop, stereo, A/C, heater, hot-water dispenser, dishwasher etc.. That is why I propose TIME magazine to start changing its annual issue, from Man of the Year, to Machine of the Year. Vote for one which learns how to say Thanks.  Air stewardess don’t even bother to perform “human function” i.e. expressing gratitude to customers who foot the bills. It’s the Captain and pre-scripted Thanks which we hear nowadays.

Under-utilized imagination

The-girl-with-a-dragon-tatoo series got me hooked. I know it’s cold  in Stockholm. And I know he did not produce tangible products from the factory, such as sweet or swatch.

But he offered readers an emotional experience (getting out of mundane existence, stepping into character and experiencing triumph and tragedy unavailable to us otherwise).  The author did not live to enjoy his success, which is a tragedy in and of itself.

We despise those who cooked up sub-prime collateral obligation. But we wasted a lot of brain power which could get us out of our dilemma. I am hopeful that someone is building a better Twitter, a faster YouTube, and a more efficient Netflix.

On LinkedIn, the Innovation group has experienced phenomenal growth. It is to show that we want to connect with like-minded creative people.

If you want to generate energy, join a Samba group. We don’t get much results by exercising alone. The same way when it comes to exercising our imagination.

One person’s zany idea might trigger another’s bankable invention (the Orange Revolution).

Last Saturday, I sat with a few people who at one time in their career achieved sales success.

These sales veterans wanted to brainstorm some ideas. I remembered the excitement and anticipation among the group.

Multiply that experience by nth time. Then we might get  that gene pool to work. Each of us already is a miracle (at conception). Now, we need idea incubation (Edison and his team, not Edison the lone inventor).

And maybe, a star is born. It doesn’t cost much to exercise our imagination. It’s already there as nature’s gift. Some of us capitalize and monetize it better than others. In the case  of the-girl-with-a-dragon-tatoo trilogy, the author did not live to see his characters alive on the screen. God rest his soul. His characters are so real to the million who bought those books. Who said imagination is cheap? It is just under-utilized.

co-ding

It’s been an amazing contest. Netflix 1 million dollar prize was awarded to the first team of coders.

The second team came in, with equally good stuff, just 20 minutes after the deadline.

Data rule.

Organized and monetized data, that is.

The information age is here to stay. Symbol recognition and manipulation.

Pretty soon, we won’t have to tell websites what we want . They will have the ability to hold up the mirror, and help us see ourselves, our preferences, remote or immediate .

Concierge Age. Both for advertisers and for shoppers.

“Those who shop for this, tends to buy that”. Agent of influence.

I had my share of buying Amazon popped up suggestions.

In the age of Long Tail, companies like Netflix base their models solely on buyer’s known preferences.

There is no need to pay for store front, stocks are almost at zero cost if you consider Digital publishing or DVD copying (just-in-time.)

With Red Box, I feel sorry for the video pirates. It’s already a dollar for each new release. Who need to go to the alley,

risking an arrest, to purchase a poor quality (perhaps made out of home videotaping in the theater) pirated copy?

Back to our winning team. At the end of Market Place interview, they said they wanted to catch some sleep.

These guys don’t go to Disneyland. They like to code.

What I learned from the interview was that they collaborated with people from a different team, as long as they

can generate new ideas and together, come up with solutions. The runner-up also said that while working on the project, they already applied their new learning to help their clients. The reward had already been reaped before they handed in their project 20 minutes after the deadline.

These guys must be made of a different cloth. Their concept of teaming, winning is as radical as their approach to coding. I mean, since when people came up with Open Source, i.e. letting others see their recipe.

The answer lies in what Chris Anderson said all along in Wired: it’s the abundance mentality whose Tail is long.

Come and join us. Share the land since  the harvest is abundant. 24/7 around the globe. Just code.