Von Braun, Michael Newfeld’s masterful biography of Werner von Braun, brings to life one of the most remarkable figures of the 20th century. He portrays Von Braun as a modern Faust, whose single-minded focus on his dream of space exploration both drove him to one of the greatest achievements of the last century and blinded him to the moral [...]
Tag Archives | Innovation
The culture of incumbency
Megan McCardle has a great article in The Atlantic on “Why Companies Fail.” In short – it is because of culture. The article explores why companies don’t change, despite all the evidence that they have to. It is not that their leadership doesn’t see the need to change, just that the weight of the culture of [...]
Amazon goes again
What an amazing culture Amazon must have. Amazon was one of the earliest dot.coms and has lived through every stage of the ‘modern’ era of the internet. It has evolved from selling books to selling everything. It has more recently become actively involved in disrupting the print industry (my Kindle is my favourite device) and [...]
The rich history of the Panama Canal
The story of the Panama Canal is not one I have ever really thought about. Born 60 years after its completion, I’d just treated it as one of those obvious thing that someone got around to do at some point, much like how a road or railway came to be. The Path Between the Seas, [...]
The future of the internet…
I recently came across the Chrome Webstore, which I gather is part of the longer Chrome OS push. What’s most striking is how some companies have leverage Chrome and HTML5 to create a genuinely new experience for web browsing. The New York Times, in particular, has created an experience that is identical to an iPad app. [...]
Thoughts on Going Google
Ray White went Google last week. The press conference and subsequent media articles reflected an industry going through significant change, with the usual mix of those driving ahead with change and those that reject change as foolish. The most dominant perception among the media is, based on my experience, that Google’s Enterprise business is in [...]
Challenges to the public NBN model
The debate on the NBN is a frustrating one. The debate in the mainstream media has descended into a faith based argument – you either just ‘have to do it’ for reasons so grand that they are incapable of definition, or one should just trust the good people at Telstra to sort it out. Unfortunately, it seems [...]
Nokia – a case study in strategic catastrophe
Nokia will surely be fodder for business school case studies in how poor strategy can destroy a company. I recall going to a Nokia flagship store in London a couple of year ago. The most striking thing was how many phones Nokia actually produces. There must have been 100 SKUs lined wall to wall, each [...]
An electoral system in need of reform
When it comes to electoral reform, I am a true conservative. I voted for a minimalist republic, and would vote against a directly elected President. Our system has served well, with Australia being one of the world’s oldest continuing democracies. An electoral system should not be tampered with unless there is a genuine need. I [...]
Australia’s leadership in credit cards
Many may not know that Australia was the first country in the world to allow merchants to surcharge customers for the use of credit cards. New Zealand has since followed. To most members of the public, this once hidden charge appears to have come from no-where. Many are upset and wonder how they’re getting screwed [...]
BPM in a services industry
The original concepts for apmasphere were borne from the classical business process re-engineering/management frameworks. The argument goes something like: Property management is a heavily process-oriented business The current structure of the industry leads to unpredictable outcomes, and poor outcomes By exerting more control over the way property management is done, then good things happen. The [...]
Using technology to be better
I was recently going through some old business plans from a few years ago, and was struck by some of the thinking that went into them. So much talk of productivity gains that can come from innovation in property management, which I still agree with. But also a lot of assumptions that the productivity would [...]
The statistic that defines our industry
There is one fact that defines the property management industry: 1 in 4 landlords in Australia own more than 1 investment property. It is an amazing statistic given the reality of most rent rolls. Few businesses I have seen have anything like 25% of their landlords having multiple properties managed by the agency. Even factoring [...]
Online is not about preserving the print world
The online/print debate in real estate is clearly not an easy one. The print media has played a dominate role in the evolution of the real estate industry, and the rise and fall of different real estate franchise groups and individual businesses. For at least 15 years the real estate industry has struggled with how [...]
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The next phase for the Euro
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The ersatz parliament
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McNamara’s lessons for today’s war
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Swan’s amazing chutzpah
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Vale, Neil Armstrong
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- Ryan: Several thoughts this Monday after the Greek elect...
- Stephanie: Hear Hear! Your point could be true of all major w...
- Ben White: Yes, if Edwards and DSK weren't such narcissists ...
- Ryan: I would give pretty good odds DSK will be happier ...
