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Grow, grow, grow...
You have to sometimes wonder at the number of '10x growth planned...' quotes we see in the IT industry, who was the last one to announce (in advance) and achieve multi x growth? I find it very strange that the investors in these businesses keep believing this bull***t! World gone mad!
More than just preparation...
Lewis Hilton has made a spectacular entry into F1, he has honed his race craft from a very early age, remained focused, received great/total family sport, had superb mentorship from McLaren, delivered on the track and looks the real deal. He will be a marketing dream ticket and he deserves every accolade that comes his way, however, I predict that he will go on to achieve great success, remaining a very, very likeable person (unlike some others)!
NB he is supremely talented as well, helps!
Marketing in F1
Interesting to see that the demise'of F1, in marketing terms, has been very over hyped! Many of the doom mongers'predicted that when the cigarette ban came into full force the championship would struggle to attract new sponsor's, how wrong could they be.
The manufacturers have helped, however, interesting to see the number of technology'companies involved in a prominent way now, in a global'market it still seems to be (a car travelling at up to 200mph!) an effective place to promote your brand!
On line Resellers - Good or bad?
Heard about another on line reseller has run into difficulty, no real surprises here based on the choice the customer now has in a discount'driven world. Will only get harder to make a successful business model from this...
The question I keep asking myself is will the IT industry ever truly conform and become a commodity industry, parts of it will with no doubt, however, parts never will. Unfortunately, if the market thinks commodity, then commodity it will become. Nearest parallel I can draw (product diversity, massive price range, different buying criteria) is the car industry, much of this is commodity price driven, however, I never see us wanting to buy Ferrari's or a Rolls Royce like it is a commodity?
Failure equals success?
Wanted to wait till the 'furore' had died down a little, however, what is happening to our national Football team, quite unbelievable! We have a coach that is a Manager (?), who must be advised by the most 'strange' PR people in the world ('go for the alienate strategy, trust us, you will get the sympathy vote'), we have good to very good footballers that cannot play together, a mess.
Some of the blame must be with the players, they are professional footballers, they do have pride (more obvious with some than others) and yet they cannot play together.
It is fairly evident that the manager cannot handle the players, set the strategy and motivate them to achieve. It must be tough not being first choice, however, he must carry the blame as the team look lost, dispirited and lacking any motivation.
In any other industry in the world, his boss (never confuse the FA with real 'in touch' people), would fire him. Guess that is the difference between football and real life, after all, there is very little commerce attached to football!!
Changes afoot in IBM?
Lots of rumours of a 'significant' change around in IBM in July, feeling seems to be that because there was little management shift in Jan, there will be in July... makes sense along with the other IBM changes re holiday years and the like?
Come on call/Tech Guys
Been watching the announcements from the likes of Dixons and Currys, an interesting idea.
It would be fair to say that the vendor's service in this area is very 'lacking' on anything bar the basic Q & A. Many of my friends and family have/are becoming very proficient in 'doing it themselves' on anything but a warranty claim, so the need for such a service is not there in all customer situations.
However, if you can 'pay as you need', e.g. windscreen replacement, it may well work as there are times when you do not have the time/skill to resolve the issue, so 'calling someone out' would be good - much better than the call centres that often lead you nowhere!
One thing to watch out for will be if this service moves into business, if so it will be a very 'clear and present danger' to the channels that many vendors have built. Something to monitor...
Do HP's channel/distributors agree?
Interesting comments by the departing head of HP's Channel in EMEA this week in CRN...
I wonder if the real value partners would agree with his comments based on 'margin based' and 'drive for more on line'? Bet they agree with the comment, 'annoyed some people on the way'!
Also interesting to see that he blames distribution for not 'lack of marketing', I am sure that Distribution agrees that it needs to recruit more partners, after all quantity is the answer?
Some what surprised by the comments about the channel being not necessarily fashionable, seems he knows something that the rest of the world does not, perhaps that is why he is leaving?
CC acquires Allnet (Cable & Wireless)
Just goes to show there is very little money/reason to stay a hardware reseller, all resellers (of all shapes and sizes) need to offer more and more to their customers to protect/supplement their core revenues (hardware), the world is changing. The big question is whether this is to the betterment of the vendor, customer or reseller?
Out with the old...
Heard Dave Hutton has left Logicalis, not sure of the reason/what is behind this, however, means that almost all of the 'old gang...' have gone. I wish Dave luck in whatever he does next, people like him will find other opportunities easy to come by.
Server Market - IBM Dominance
IBM once again posted an impressive set of market share in the recent server research, I guess the question is can (and how long) will this last?
From a technology argument, I would suggest it will increase rather than decline, why you might ask, because 'depth of pocket' is all in the modern technology industry. Add in IBM's track record (matched by no other business in the history of computing in terms of directly/indirectly designing technology) and you have an (almost) unbeatable 'juggernaut'.
Much like we are seeing the industry shrink via acquisition, I would suggest the major technology vendors will also shrink based on 'depth of pocket'.
