If at first you don’t succeed…

…read a book, talk to a few people, get a reality check and try again.

This to another Steve… I am addressing quite a few of my blogs to "Steves"… speaking of – yo mystery man! When is the 3g iPhone coming out?

But this one is to Steve Shannon of Akimbo. Akimbo decided to close doors, shut down the operation and sell assets (you guys got streaming servers?)… and I have nothing but good wishes for Steve. Steve took the time off to speak to us about Marcellus and offered us good advice and provided us with contacts of content owners. But Akimbo was designed to fail. It was trying to solve a non-existent problem with an expensive solution – On Demand TV with a box that cost $300. Steve's time at ReplayTV must've contributed to the notion of On Demand TV… so Akimbo tried what it thought was an unconventional approach in a conventional market… and kudos to them for the thought. But the strategy was flawed: it was a one dimensional product when it should have been a multi-layered service. And I say this with zero bias: Marcellus's personalization engine would've helped. Marcellus's interactive platform would've definitely helped.

Funny - the same news article also refers to the demise of another company that we tried helping during our formative years – Movielink.

I am telling you core-driven guys: pull beats push, listening beats talking, edge beats core and the network beats the channel.

An Open Letter to Steve Ballmer

Dear Steve,

I am sure I caught you at a bad time… you must be on the phone with Carl, while you are texting Bill with "WTF dude?!?! Why are you selling?" But when you can please pay close attention to what I say, because I say it with love (I was the one that bought the only copy of Bad Boy Ballmer sold) and respect (I am the guy that sent you the uRock email). I believe that you've got it all wrong. You are fighting a battle that you don't need to fight, and you are losing a war that you need to win. You've been playing a lot of golf with the President? Oh wait, the President is not golfing any more… for respect! Hmmm, maybe I need to send him a letter too. But let's focus on you and MSFT for now:

I loved it when you took over from Bill. Always thought of you as the consumer guy… always believed that you will understand the edge a lot better than Bill did. Bill was the core strategy guy, so much so that MSFT's internal org structure was hub n spokes… and we all know he was super successful doing it his way. So when Billy said he was leaving MSFT to change the world (irony: Bill Gates is doing philanthropy like he did technology… from the core… Bill the edge needs you!!)handing over the company to his best bud – I got all excited.

And MSFT did undergo a transformation under you. Splitting the company up into 7 semi autonomous divisions was a bright idea! Microsoft.com got a make-over and started offering longer trials, with a focus on problem solving and customer service. Change was coming… but no it was Vista that came. Now don't get me wrong… it is a pretty okay OS… umm well correction it is a pretty OS. I used it for a while and then upgraded to XP. And boy you guys did a good job with XP!

I know you already know that the client-server model is becoming increasingly redundant, and with that MSFT is becoming irrelevant. Google is breathing down your neck and you sure must be feeling like throwing something right about now. But relax. You and MSFT do try and solve problems… but the way you them is wrong. And that is what makes the difference between profitability and sustainability. Here are a few suggestions:

• Open Windows up. No, no. Put that chair down and hear me out. I heard about you calling Linux communism (that comment must not have resonated quite the way you wanted in China). But that is the future dude… open platforms that networks will morph to best suit their needs and pump the value at the edge to the core. It is a different world now. It requires a different approach.
  
• Move from semi-autonomous divisions to independent divisions. Make your 7 divisions completely independent of each other. The cancer that is growing in the desktop systems should not spread to the Xbox… I love the Xbox. Do it before you get "sovietized."
  
• Get Umair Haque on the MSFT Board. He can be a little sensitive at times… but I am sure you understand.
  
• Promote the product strategist for Sharepoint. I think Sharepoint rocks!
  
• Buy Facebook before you buy Yahoo. And open Facebook up. If Mark is open to it, have him talk to the dude responsible for Sharepoint. You will find that they have a lot in common… and will learn from each other.
  
• If you do end up owning Yahoo, don't assimilate them. Learn, adopt, change and become more like them. Yahoo does a lot of things right… and human resources is one of them.
  
• Drop the People Ready campaign… people are ready. Knowledge workers are not a new phenomenon; they existed when Bill was drafting the first copy of Business at the Speed of Thought. How does People Enabled sound? =)
  
• Silverlight is hot but it is a little dense for people like me. You better start talking about the problem it solves, rather than the value it creates.
  
• .NET – how about .NOT?!?! Please abandon.

Ok that is all for now. I should publish this before Vista conks out on me… j/k. Oh by the way – I love Office 2007!

Riff

PS: My Xbox 360 has the red ring of death? Who do I call?

What is the Edge?

It won't take long for a member of Team Marcellus to start talking about the edge. Edge competencies are in the Marcellus DNA... it is what we do better than any other company in this space. So your question naturally is – what is the edge?

I am tempted to do my best Morpheus impression and tell you that everything that you see is the edge… but I am going to refrain and tell you the edge is the boundary that divides the internal and the external, the producer and the consumer; the service provider and the client… it is that very distinct (you can see it if you look hard enough) membrane through which the value/revenue osmosis happens. And the edge is where the action is at…

The internet has changed a lot of things, but the single greatest impact that the internet has had that it has changed the linear flow of what used to be called the value chain… companies are used to pushing "value" at the consumers and the consumers reciprocate by providing companies with "revenue." But in this new world of cheap interactions between consumer <-- company --> consumer value is increasingly and exponentially (referred to as the "viral effect") created at the edge… each time a consumer interacts with another consumer or with the service there is a distinct, tangible value that gets created… firms (read Google) that are able to capture and consequently leverage this value are the epitomes of hyper efficient business models. The reason that the same hyper efficiency is "el dorado" for some firms (read Microsoft) is that they are still operating with the core strategy and hence are in a strategic decay.

Wanna know – how you can avoid that strategic decay in this oblivion called online video? Well you can start by considering Marcellus…

“The Eagle in the Mirror”

So I am reading this book Are We Rome?
Great read… combines retroactive clairvoyance with historical relevance. Plan to write more about the subject later, but here is something that I did not know – Romulus was the name of emperor that founded Rome…. And Romulus was also the name of the last emperor of Rome… and like the author says won't it be really ironic if America's decline started with a President named George…

So, why not Youtube?

Good question Joe! So you are asking me why shouldn't you just post your videos on Youtube where you have a Googilian people coming every day?

Youtube is amazing by the sheer volume of content available on it – you want to know how to be a ninja? And Youtube has a one minute video on it. That is Youtube the brand – a massive volume of video interactions. But what if you were to believe that video brings a certain value to your brand or if video is your brand? Then Youtube dilutes your brand.

Much Ado

…about nothing! After getting us all worked up about the pros and cons of Microsoft-Yahoo merger did not happen. Steve "Baller" knew how much Yahoo was worth to him and refused to pay a penny more. Well he might have paid a penny more, but you get the point. Speculation has already started on what Microsoft will buy next? Microsoft is a software company that is looking to become a media company… and has made one bad move after another, starting with partnering with GE on MSNBC. The one good move it did make is when it developed a product called the Xbox in house… so there is a lesson in there for Microsoft… make a good product, make it fun to use, make it so that other companies can add value to themselves and to the product and you would've done something meaningful… and profitable.

And acquired a network of very loyal users.

Ontology of Blogs

"We blog, therefore we are" says the tag line for one blog directory. The discussion on the affect of blogging on the sports-media landscape on Costas Now got me thinking on why people blog. Blogs are opinion; when I blog, I am exercising my right to freedom of expression further enabled by the democratization of publishing because of the internet. My blog is what and how I feel about what and how things are… is it all fact? No. It is opinion about facts.

By blogging I am also indulging in what Friedman refers to as "information arbitrage:" buying information from one place and then reselling that information at another place. You cannot be a good publisher without being an involved consumer, so I read a lot of blogs. And in doing that I am "subscribing to people, instead of magazines."

Interesting point someone made the other day about blogs being a tool for self indulgence… but there is an element of self indulgence involved each time you are expressing an opinion… opinions are personal and everyone has them… some tend to express them a lot more. Hey but isn't it a lot easier to stop reading than to stop listening?

There is no denying the fact that blogging has become an important factor in the consumption of information on the internet. The question becomes: do we as bloggers need to adhere to the same ethics code that journalists (are supposed to) adhere to? We do have a certain responsibility to people that are subscribing to our opinions and sensationalism isn't always the most effective way of engaging your readers. When one engages their audience, one is able to listen and speak. At the same time there are different reasons for people blogging and therefore different levels of responsibilities - I do expect a lot more responsibility from a CEO blogging on his company blog…

If you are those very few lucky ones out there that can actually inspire people through blogs… then you should be blogging. But one thing I can tell for sure (opinion =)) if Adam Smith and Karl Marx were alive today, they both would've been bloggers… and would have commented on each other's blogs… ah utopia… speaking of which Moore would've been a blogger too.

And I think to myself… what a wonderful world.