Commercial awareness skills are often seen and discussed by organisations as being key to success, however, few invest in the area in a focused way. In the UK over the past couple of weeks we’ve become increasingly aware of the challenges faced by the major incumbents in the grocery sector, and in particular Tesco, who…
How often do you read the T&Cs before agreeing to install software, download some content, or access free WiFi? Let’s face it very few people, if any, do. And if you do, you’d have to wade through the equivalent of a short novel written in what seems to be another language. There’s an interesting technology…
…. it’s what you don’t that can be both an opportunity and a threat. When postcodes were rolled out in the UK back in the early 70’s they were primarily designed with the aim of helping sort and deliver mail better. Today, they are much more than this, and affect almost all of us on…
Big data is a hot topic. In the UK the National Health Service has spent the last 25 years bring forward the concept of anonymising patient data from GPs. The aim is to create a pool of data that can be used for analysis and research into health trends and research. There is a precedent…
I recently wrote an article on the investigation by the UK telecoms regulator of mobile phone contracts, only a day later it was publicised that the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) is going to be looking at free web and phone games aimed at children and that charge for extras through in game purchases. I…
It’s not a trick question. I have read a number of articles over the past week about the issue of mobile phone business model and the underpinning contracts. In particular ability that the UK providers have written into their T&Cs for them to adjust (read increase) charges during the initial period of the contract. Almost…
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…
We are all used to, and comfortable with, being contactable virtually anywhere in the world on our mobile phones. How many of us give a thought to the fact that they can also be a tracking device? I was at a conference on privacy and location services a while back, I can hear you yawning…
If you think back to the 80’s you’ll probably think of the music of Queen, Madonna, Prince and Duran Duran, you may well have gone to the Live Aid concert and the most technologically advanced device in your house was a Walkman! You may have seen and touched a PC for the first time. What…