Some had said that the release of the new Blackberry 10 device and OS was its last chance. There was certainly a lot riding on it. Since Blackberry’s high point in terms of innovative poster child, other players, notably Apple, have taken that crown. Apple in particular, from its consumer roots, has created some revolutionary…
There has been much in the news around measurement or payment by results over the last week or so whether it is the reforms proposed within the UK justice system or the bonuses of top executives. What ever we call it rewarding by results has been around for many centuries and can be seen in…
There have been many column inches given over to the changes announced by Facebook to the T&Cs for Instagram. Having paid ~$1Bn for Instagram, Facebook is obviously keen to leverage the synergies and find a way of monetizing their new acquisition. In their move towards these goals, what they seem to have miscalculated is that in approaching…
I’ve written before on the issue of cash flow, its importance to business, and the potential for companies to use it as a strategic tool as a part of a supply chain. It was therefore interesting to read an article in the business section of the Sunday Times today which was describing the plight of…
With many countries struggling with tough economic times there has been much focus on the issue of taxes, who should be paying, and what is the right balance. In the UK last week it was the turn of three global companies to come under the interrogation of the UK’s Parliamentary Accounts Committee which I briefly…
As Apple fans the world over waited for the release of the iPhone 5 last month the focus was really on the hardware as most of the new features of the next release of the iOS6 operating system had been publicized already. In general there have been no real issues with the new hardware this time round,…
Sitting on a long-haul flight can be a great opportunity to break from the connected world. It forces you to reconnect with things like books, newspapers, and magazines in a way that you don’t when time is at a premium as it so often is. In reality it means for me that I actually read an article…
As anyone who has worked in a consultancy, law firm, accountancy practice, or the like will know only too well, to keep your position you have to bill as many hours as possible. Managing a firm that runs a consultancy or partnership model relies on balancing order intake, sales, utilisation, and margin. Order intake and its…
When I read Mat Honan’s article earlier this week it certainly hit home the potential risks associated with life in the cloud. For those of you who didn’t see the article, Mat, a journalist at Wired magazine, found that his Twitter and Gmail accounts had been hacked, and he found out when his computer and phone were…
I listened to an interesting interview recently about a new service which brings airline style ticket pricing to restaurant booking. We are all used to seeing the cost of an airline ticket fluctuating with demand. What is going on in the background in simple terms is that the airline, with a fixed supply (i.e. number of seats), …