Dan Laskowitz

Rachel,

I also agree with what you have written. The genre and the distribution model should be in line. While individually distributed media is certainly catching on (blog posts are a great example for entertaining subjective writing), certain types of media will benefit from the standard models, and big name publishing companies are…[Read more]

John,

Great point on the top down support. This draws in lessons learned from other classes as well. For something to be widely accepted, people need to know that it is important to the powers that be. Any company can (and usually does) say that it supports innovation, but allowing and encouraging the workforce to take time away from other…[Read more]

A primary advantage of digital media over physical for the record labels is reduced cost of distribution. The article notes in its Table A the cost breakdown for a physical album, in which the largest share, 20%, is record company overhead. Retail overhead is also noted at 20%. Other costs associated with physical media include packaging and…[Read more]

I agree with the notion that abundance is more disruptive than scarcity. The reason, similar to that stated, is that scarcity is manageable. When something is limited, there are fewer players out there, lower production quantities (in manufacturing or publishing), and fewer consumers who are able to purchase a presumably more expensive or hard to…[Read more]

I do not believe that the age of agents and publishers is dead. While there may always be those who want to get the most of their money and keep their fair share, I also believe that there will be an equal number of people, if not more, who prefer to allow others to manage aspects of the business that they do not care for. This is particularly…[Read more]

The Siemens case provided some useful insights for companies considering open innovation. Many benefits exist with this type of ideation process. One key advantage is that ideas come from various sources, and from people who may not have been consulted with in the past. Good ideas do not always come from the usual or expected sources, and open…[Read more]

Will,

I work in product development of medical devices, and my company also disables the flash drives. I thought they were a bit nuts, but realized after a while that, as you point out, it is about the patient safety and privacy. Our networks had information on human studies with years of patient follow-up. Granted these files were in a secure…[Read more]

Chris,

To be honest I’m not sure how to answer your question due to my lack of IT technical knowledge. For a company like Dropbox to offer superior service in Europe, would they be better off having facilities and equipment there? Does proximity affect things like speed of data transmission? For a casual user like you or me I’m assuming the…[Read more]

The global nature of the ERP system and “Global Data Warehouse” strongly influenced their design, development, and implementation, particularly due to the industry Wyeth is in. Pharmaceuticals is heavily regulated in every aspect, from labeling and packaging, to billing, to traceability requirements, and the country that the company is in or sel…[Read more]

I don’t expect this short post to count for my grade, but had to say it – I love the shoe box example.

I agree with your post and can speak from experience, as I’m sure we all can, that having files stored in the cloud is much preferable to carrying devices along. For this program alone, I have work synced via Owlbox to my iPad, phone, home computer, and work computer, and have accessed files also from hotel business centers and family member…[Read more]

I realized after reading up the posts a bit that I never actually said what the cloud is used for but more spoke about its structure. For good measure I’ll add in what others have already mentioned. The “offices” as I mentioned in my earlier post can be set up to do whatever the user wants them for – data storage, computing, even running…[Read more]

I would describe the cloud to a co-worker using same “Giant Office Building” example from the salesforce.com article and video. I thought that the explanation hit the nail on the head. The cloud is the internet version of an office building. Everyone in the building shares the infrastructure – the building itself, security, utilities – but offices…[Read more]

Andrew,

Good point identifying small firms as the primary benefactors. I got that same sense from the Amazon article – these services put in reach capabilities that were previously reserved for larger firms with deeper pockets. In the case of Amazon, a larger company could more likely absorb the costs of underutilized equipment and resources in…[Read more]

I think that information technology has certainly enabled the emergence of global brands. Through basic information sharing companies are able to coordinate logistics in a virtual space the same as in an office environment, allowing employees to work in the corporate headquarters, at satellite branches in other parts of the country or different…[Read more]

The four major web services described in the case include:

1. Simple Storage Service (S3) – This service provides access to cloud-based data storage, with a simple interface for storing, retrieving, or transferring data. The cost for this service is usage-based.

2. Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) – This service provides online access to com…[Read more]

Will,

You are correct in that trust in business relationships is key. Particularly in healthcare, knowing who you can trust is extremely important. I have worked with product development for a long time and have seen doctors change over their entire practices in order to stay with a sales rep who moves from one company to another, simply for…[Read more]

Andrew,

I like your twist on the question. Reading down the list of comments and my own, I think the consensus in this room is that he should stick to his guns. I like others noted that any deviation would undermine his efforts. Turning the negative into a positive, a call for action, is a great point. The bottom line is that the execs who…[Read more]

Systems thinking is a way of thinking in which you consider the whole as opposed to parts. In an organization, a systems way of thinking would involve analyzing how an action or decision will affect not just those immediately surrounding something, but the company as a whole, its stakeholders (customers, employees, etc.), peripheral departments,…[Read more]

The company that I work for designs, manufactures, and sells instruments for use by dentists in their practice, including high-speed and low-speed drills, hygienic equipment, hand instruments, and more. One of the boxes from Osterwalder and Pigneur’s Business Model Canvas is key partners – in the dental product development industry, as in many oth…[Read more]