[This post was originally published by HBR blogs on 8th October 2012] When the band, the xx, wanted to promote their latest album they chose a unique marketing strategy. Consistent with many artists today they released their album as an online stream before the general digital and physical release a week or so later. But how …
Scott Adams wants to sell an idea
... but he isn't about to let on what it is yet. Here is what we know. First, it's sort of original. I have a specific business idea in mind. It has the potential to change the world in a fundamental way and yet it is little more than a combination of existing ideas that are …
'Smart' lightbulbs
I like seeing the ideas coming through Kickstarter. Some are crazy while others are pedestrian. But one just caught my eye and I thought it was worth blogging about. It is LIFX that is billed as a reinvention of light bulb. Basically, these people wondered what could happen if you put WiFi connectivity in each …
Big Data's Management Revolution
Big data has the potential to revolutionize management. Simply put, because of big data, managers can measure, and hence know, radically more about their businesses, and directly translate that knowledge into improved decision making and performance. Of course, companies such as Google and Amazon are already doing this. After all, we expect companies that were …
Could textbooks be the key to the digital education revolution?
With all of the discussion of changes in online education, the focus has been on lectures and classrooms. Of course, another chunk of learning that flows from the efforts of academics is the humble textbook. To date, digital textbooks have been attractive mainly because they can lighten the load in backpacks more than any other …
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PopVox – building a Civic Profile online
Last week I was teaching “IDEA week” to my mid-career Sloan Fellow executive students. IDEA (innovation-driven entrepreneurial advantage;-)) is a week when we usually explore how innovation provides entrepreneurs with the advantage they need to really build a business that has competitive advantage and can compete with large established firms – either in new markets or …
Can the wisdom of crowds transform your diet?
As pretty much everyone knows, it is hard to face the choice, several times a day, of whether to choose ‘fit’ or ‘fat’ food or something in between. When I noticed that my wife was taking pictures of her food in order to keep a record of how she was doing diet-wise I wondered if …
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Where is Amazon's Kindle market power coming from?
There is much discussion of late regarding Amazon's market power in the eBook space. It is probably over 60 percent in the US but I had trouble finding a current, reliable number. The fear is not so much that but how difficult it is for competitors to build traction. There are two main barriers here. …
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Should HBO sell an unbundled product?
HBO is currently a bundled product. To watch Game of Thrones you need a cable subscription. That means that to watch it you either subscribe to a premium package on cable or you pirate. HBO clearly do not make money on the latter and the chances are, if you are not in the US, that …
Leap Motion's incredible strategy
It isn't every day that you wake up to read about a huge leap forward in technology. That appears to have happened today with a new product -- Leap Motion. Basically, it is Kinect on steriods and open. Watch the video. It looks quite incredible. Indeed, its inventors wrote on their site: "It sounds too …
Digitopoly 