“In short, software is eating the world”, said Marc Andreessen back in 2011. Marc, a savvy entrepreneur and investor, was quick to note how software companies were not only some of the most valuable ventures on the planet but also transforming just about every known industry from manufacturing, agriculture, transportation, banking, medical devices, entertainment, etc. – even high-tech hardware is
Read more
My days as a practitioner and student of Lean Production at AutoEuropa (VW) and MIT taught me a simple, but valuable lesson – “It’s the System, Stupid” All the different components of ‘how to do more with less’ were available (production efficiency and reliability, quality, supplier integration, employee involvement, etc.) – Toyota was the first to put them all under one
Read more
Venture Capitalists are nowadays preaching to startups – come up with a creative business model – your product or technology is insufficient for you to win in the market place – it’s the supporting system, stupid! Fair enough, but has anyone questioned the current ‘VC-gives-money-to-startup’ business model (and paltry returns)? Is there another way to create value? Turns out, there
Read more
Back in 1999, minty-fresh from my Sloan MBA and stint at the Boston Consulting Group, I thought I knew all there was to know about ‘survival’ business jargon. This namely consisted of what I called the ‘big eight’ buzzwords: The first four related to top-line growth, namely: Strategy, Competitive Advantage, M&A (when you have no competitive advantage but you have
Read more
Necrophone 