Category Archives: Etc.

Business Ideas/Plans, Etc.

Will AOL rise again?

Phoenix, a legendary Arabian bird is said to periodically burn itself to death and emerge from the ashes as a new phoenix; according to most versions only one phoenix lived at a time and it renewed itself every 500 years.

AOL is reduced to ashes, in just five years since its merger with Time Warner. Most of the analysts and shareholders take the name of the company with a sense of nostalgia, almost writing off its future. They do not rule out the possibility of Time Warner selling AOL soon.

“AOL largely sat on the sidelines as the internet evolved over the past six years,” says Kevin Werbach of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. Does it make it very difficult for AOL to bounce back? What is AOL upto after the recent departure of Steve Case, AOL’s controversial co-founder, from the conglomerate’s board?

Will the revamped AOL.com signal the rise of the phoenix? The Economist has more.

1-By Laksh, Books, Etc.

The blue ocean strategy


When a book is titled “Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant  “, it is bound to attract attention 🙂

Who would like to get his hands red anyway?:-) Here’s how to get blue from Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne.

The authors take a blue ocean metaphor to competitor-free markets that innovative companies can navigate. Unlike “red oceans,” which are well explored and crowded with competitors, “blue oceans” represent “untapped market space” and the “opportunity for highly profitable growth.”

The authors make a case for pursuing a blue ocean strategy (Although 14% of new product launches are blue ocean launches they contribute 38% to revenue impact and 81% to profit impact out of all launches)

The book outlines the following steps of the Blue Ocean Strategy:

1. Reconstruct market boundaries. (Strategically examine your industry’s key competitive drivers. )
2. Focus on the big picture, not the numbers
3. Reach beyond existing demand.
4. Get the strategic sequence right.
5. Overcome key organizational hurdles.(Cognitive,Resource,Motivational and Political hurdles)
6. Build execution into strategy.(Sustainability and Renewal)

 

Etc.

John Carmack on mobile gaming

With games like Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake, computer programmer John Carmack is widely considered as one of the fathers of the popular—and sometimes controversial—first-person-shooter genre of videogames. Even with all his success, the 35-year-old remains at heart a tinkerer, shown by his longtime interest in rockets, and, more recently, games for mobile phones, including Doom RPG [role-playing game], a translation of the PC classic.

NEWSWEEK‘s N’Gai Croal caught up with Carmack.