There is a better way to do acquisitions than the often-used Dr. Frankenstein method, writes columnist Rob Enderle. Here’s a look at how Dell does it differently and successfully.
Turnarounds are a bit of a passion for columnist and consultant Rob Enderle. More often than not they are done badly. Enderle talked with a client about how it pulled off a turnaround.
The tech industry has a history of doing major layoffs too frequently and often badly. The reality is this can and should be avoided. Columnist Rob Enderle discusses why layoffs should be seldom used and how to do them right when necessary.
When I started working on my undergraduate degree, one areas I focused on was manpower management -- the study of how to manage and motivate people. A lot of work went into understanding what got employees up and focused and how to match people to the jobs they would most enjoy.
I've had an incredibly varied and generally fascinating career. I dropped out of college after two years to work full time at Disney. When they fired everyone in management who didn't have a degree, I walked off the job and went back and finished my Associate in Arts degree. Then I went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree and ended up working in commercial real estate after turning down an interview with the firm that would eventually become Microsoft. (Yes, I still kick myself in the butt for that one.)
There is a bit of a name fight going on with a new class of security software. Traditionally, this has been called UBA, for User Based Analysis or Analytics. However, recently newer firms are coming to market arguing that the name should have more to do with the benefit the technology provides and reflect that the breadth of analysis goes well beyond users. Thus, you have ABD, or Active Breach Detection, and this could as easily be DBD, or Dynamic Breach Detection, or even SJIASSFYCAWCTYWTAAWTAS or Some Jerk Is Already Stealing Stuff From Your Company And We Can Tell You Who They Are And What They Are Stealing.
One of the fascinating things about the last decade was the iPhone. We had a market dominated by companies like Palm, RIM, Nokia and Samsung. Each was incredibly powerful in its segment and two were massive multinationals. But, despite all that, Apple walked in and cut through them like a knife through butter.
I recently attended an event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Moore's law and was entranced by some of the old stories from Intel's founding. Part of what I found fascinating was the virtual passing of the torch from the passionate founder Gordon Moore to Intel's current CEO Brian Krzanich.
All too often I have seen businesses repeat catastrophic mistakes when implementing strategic initiatives. Here are the five most common mistakes that companies regularly make thinking they are best practices.
As we start the New Year, let’s look ahead at some of the coming troubles and concerns of 2015.
Earlier this week, I was at Dell's analyst update on its thin client business and it got me thinking about how thin clients were supposed to replace personal computers. An experience that was instant on/off, that embodied simplicity and reliability and that not only had the performance of a PC but could be updated without any user impact was a compelling idea.
I'm not going to call them out by name. I'm not that fond of getting nasty calls from PR folks, but I'm going to list what I think the conditions are for failure and you can then apply those conditions to your vendors to see how they fit. This goes beyond technology and into most areas of business.
There is a lot more that goes into choosing a vendor than just seeing if the product works or the vendor can provide a compelling presentation or demo.
The general answer to the question posed in the headline is "Yes." You can count the number of firms that have done this well on one hand and still have two or three fingers left over.
One of the most interesting talks at this week's Dell World was a panel with Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and Andrew McAfee and Eric Brynjolfsson, authors of The Second Machine Age. It was a fascinating -- and frightening -- talk about what's to come.