Description: Corporate America’s worst nightmare lives in a tiny one-bedroom apartment, loves browsing in flea markets and has a lop-eared brown and white pet rabbit named Crackers. Meet Molly Katchpole. The 22-year-old Washington, D.C. resident has recently tangled with a couple of billion-dollar corporations, and cowed them into submission without breaking a sweat. Source: GlobeandMail.com… Read more »
Posts Categorized: Part 5 Managing Technology and Information
2011’s worst in tech
Description: RIM joins Netflix and HP as the tech sector’s biggest losers in 2011. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: 12/28/2011 Link:  http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2011/12/20/ts_tech_losers_2011.cnnmoney/ Questions for discussion: Why did these companies have such a bad year in 2011? Is there a common thread that explains why they performed so poorly? What lessons did you learn about… Read more »
SOPA’s most frightening flaw is the future it predicts
Description: Bob Parsons likes to go to Zimbabwe and shoot elephants. The CEO of GoDaddy, a company that lets customers register Web site domain names, is apparently deeply concerned with the plight of Zimbabwean subsistence farmers, who he says are plagued by marauding elephant gangs that destroy crops and trample fields. Source: GlobeandMail.com Date: 12/28/2011… Read more »
Internet poker owner says he broke U.S. gambling law
Description: One of the owners of three of the largest Internet poker companies pleaded guilty on Tuesday to a criminal charge of deceiving U.S. banks over the processing of gambling proceeds. Source: Reuters.com Date: 12/20/2011 Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/12/20/us-poker-fraud-plea-idUSTRE7BJ1DE20111220 Questions for discussion: Do you think the punishment will act as a deterrent to other illegal actions by… Read more »
Retail therapy
Description: How Ernest Dichter, an acolyte of Sigmund Freud, revolutionised marketing Source: TheEconomist.com Date: 12/17/2011 Link: http://www.economist.com/node/21541706 Questions for discussion: Summarize the highlights in this report. What do you agree or disagree with in the analysis?
Sony’s Shopping Spree Is ‘Wrong Direction’ in Apple Battle: Tech
Description: Sony Corp. Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer has announced acquisitions worth $8.4 billion this year to bolster phones and content. That may not be enough to turn around a company heading for a fourth consecutive loss. Source: Businessweek.com Date: 12/13/2011 Link: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-12-13/sony-s-shopping-spree-is-wrong-direction-in-apple-battle-tech.html Questions for discussion: Summarize the challenges facing Sony management today. What strategy… Read more »
All the world’s a game
Description: Video games will be the fastest-growing and most exciting form of mass media over the coming decade, says Tim Cross Source: TheEconomist.com Date: 12/10/2011 Link: http://www.economist.com/node/21541164 Questions for discussion: Summarize the highlights in this report. What does this report suggest about investing strategies related to the growth of the industry?
Building the b2b brand story
Description: When people hear the term social media, their minds often wander to obvious points like Facebook, Twitter – and possibly the Old Spice guy. But when I’m at conferences and events, people frequently tell me that they obviously see how B2C organizations can embrace and utilize social tools, given that their targets are typically… Read more »
Apple store opens in Grand Central
Description: Apple’s newest store overlooks the Grand Concourse of N.Y.’s Grand Central station and costs the company $800,000 a month in rent. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: 12/09/2011 Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/technology/2011/12/09/t-ts-apple-grand-central.cnnmoney/ Questions for discussion: Summarize the costs to Apple related to opening at this location. Do you think they make sense?
Being a boring investor…and loving it
Description: Fortune’s Allan Sloan talks about investing in boring old blue-chip stocks given the lack of other viable options these days. Source: CNNMoney.com – video report Date: 12/08/2011 Link: http://money.cnn.com/video/markets/2011/12/07/mkts_allan_sloan.cnnmoney/ Questions for discussion: Summarize the investing strategies recommended in this report? Do you think they make sense today?
