Tuesday, October 07, 2003

To Lawrence, who was stopped by police for taking photographs in Annapolis, my teeth are gnashing. As someone who was also "randomly selected" for 95% of flights boarded (and my sample size is around 120 flights), I empathize with you.  I'd like to think that I would have refused to produced identification, but I'm not sure.  I'd like to think that I would have asked the officers for their identification, but again, I can't be sure.  I'd like to think that I still have some rights, but, frightfully, I can't be sure. 7:05:01 PM    comment []

Today's ICA class was phenomenal.  While reviewing the strategic options of BSkyB in 1998, the class discussed the impending arrival of digital terrestrial television in the broader context of strategic threats to BSkyB's extremely strong position in the UK television broadcasting market. As a means of doing so, Professor Cool explained the generic strategies available to attack a dominant market position.  He used the famous Betamax/VHS battle to illustrate the techniques.  Note that the VCR/tape battle has a significant host/complement component; some of the strategies focus on this aspect for their efficacy. Generic strategies to attack a dominant market position, or What Sony Should Have Done Price - Sony could have cut prices to speed up penetration.  Typically ineffective, since it can be matched by competitors. Increase the supply of tapes.  Sony pursued this path, purchasing Columbia Pictures in an effort to make more movies available on Betamax.  This was skillfully negated with the near-simultaneous purchase of MCA by Matsushita. New complements.  Sony developed a video camera, whose appeal to consumers could increase penetration of Betamax VCRs and cassettes.  Unfortunately, the camera was not compelling to consumers. New segment.  Sony chose to focus on a new segment, reach critical mass, and use dominance in that segment as a foundation to attack the mass market.  The segment was professional studio broadcasting, which still uses Betamax to this day, but Sony's success did not prove to be useful in the broader market. Gateway.  Sony could have created an adapter through which VHS cassettes could be played on Betamax VCRs.  This would eliminate the host-complement advantage held by VHS, and allow consumers to make purchase decisions based only the quality of the VCR, not on the supply of tapes that were available for the standard.  Sony did not develop this product, for reasons unknown. Create a new standard.  Sony attempted to create a new standard (8mm) in hopes of unseating VHS.  Completely unsuccessful. Open standard.  Sony could have pushed for an open standard, though this is rarely successful as the leading/winning companies have no reason to join. Join winner.  Sony could have joined the winner and produced its own VHS products, which it ultimately did. Towel.  Sony could have quit the market altogether.   6:51:14 PM    comment []

If you are planning to go to business school, you should be prepared to spend short, intense periods of your life devoted to the study of some topic or other.  Not all of them, certainly; but you will certainly encounter things that you have to do for a class, and that you actually want to do well.  Spectacularly well.  And so you spend three days in a row completely immersed in a topic, learning how to do something new, and at the end, you realize that you can do something that you couldn't do before.  It's a great feeling, even on the third day when you are leaving the library at 2am, again. Lucky has spent the last four days studying strategy, and while he is by no means an expert, he is now at least comfortable talking about, thinking about it, and analyzing it.  Were his employer to ask him to do a strategic analysis of company X, he would actually get excited about the week's work.  You really do learn to do fun things here, but it takes lots of work, so make sure it's something that you want to do. 1:05:24 AM    comment []