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Wednesday, February 16, 2005 |
[43Folders]: A bunch of 'rules of thumb,' via Google, natch....
The best rule of thumb I always remember is from a book of the same
name that's probably out of print. I think of it every time I skulk
around the house acting like a dissatisfied crank:
If you don't know what you want, you probably need a nap.
10:12:17 PM 
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CHINA REPLACING THE UNITED STATES AS WORLD'S LEADING CONSUMER
[Earth Policy Institute]: Although
the United States has long consumed the lion's share of the world's
resources, this situation is changing fast as the Chinese economy
surges ahead, overtaking the United States in the consumption of one
resource after another.
Among the five basic food, energy, and industrial commodities--grain and
meat, oil and coal, and steel--consumption in China has already eclipsed
that of the United States in all but oil.
PS: eclipsed in hamburgers too.
Read on...
10:02:22 PM
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Silicon Insider: R.I.P. Microsoft?. After Dominating the Technology Industry for Years, is Microsoft Poised to Collapse? [bBlog: The sales, marketing and business weblog | XPLANE]
The story's ostensibly about MicroSoft, but its broader than that; it's
also about taking things -- including corporate franchises -- for
granted.
Great, healthy companies not only dominate the market, but share of
mind. Look at Apple these days. But when was the last time you thought
about Microsoft, except in frustration or anger? The company just
announced a powerful new search engine, designed to take on Google --
but did anybody notice? Meanwhile, open systems world -- created
largely in response to Microsoft's heavy-handed hegemony -- is slowly
carving away market share from Gates & Co.: Linux and Firefox hold
the world's imagination these days, not Windows and Explorer. The only
thing Microsoft seems busy at these days is patching and plugging holes.
9:54:50 PM
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Tilting at Windmills. Local environmentalism is undermining one of our best options for slowing global warming. By Bill McKibben. [NYT > Opinion]
In the best of all possible worlds, we'd do without them. But
it's not the best of all possible worlds. Right now, the choice is
between burning fossil fuels and making the transition, as quickly as
possible, to renewable power.
9:52:23 PM
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...I'm blogging today from the Social Business Accelerator, presented by Gif's Bainbridge Graduate Institute and the Social Enterprise Group,
where I'm helping develop the business strategy for a new, innovative
social marketing venture. More details as the cone of silence lifts.
11:10:44 AM
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[Booz Allen Hamilton]: A new study -- Deriving Value from Corporate Values -- by the Aspen Institute and management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton found
that companies routinely identify values as a top agenda issue, and
public companies that report superior financial results also report
greater success in linking values to operations in areas that foster
growth, such as initiative and innovativeness. However, most corporate
executives do not see a direct link to growth, and the joint study also
revealed that most companies are not effectively measuring their
'Return on Values' in areas important to their business strategy.
Not hard facts, perhaps. (And as Gifford Pinchot reminds us, 'There are no facts about the future.') But the mass of evidence, for those who need that, continues to grow.
(See also these links.)
11:05:58 AM
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The Kyoto Protocol takes effect, with 141 countries signed on. (Joel Makower
has an excellent Kyoto primer this week.) Some are more consequential
than others. Some, under the terms of the treaty, won't have to do much
of anything. (China and India, for example -- a situation that won't
last forever.) Others -- like the EU -- are On The Move. The US
government may sit this out (for now), but smart US companies -- at
least those that want to trade in Europe, be competitive against
European companies, and respond to customer expectations (that will
only become more insistent as consequences of global warming become
more evident) -- will ignore their own government and get with the
program.
The Bush Admministration is stuck in the old, and demonstrably false,
assumption that environmental quality costs money. Tell that to BP, which met its Kyoto goals nine years ahead of schedule, and at a profit.
8:19:36 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Gil Friend.
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