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Bill Gates never stops predicting. Just last week, he forecasted a rocky transition for traditional media as they shift to a more online-focused model. Bill’s perspectives are always attention-worthy, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer has examined his predictions over the years.
The annual TED (Technology Entertainment Design) Conference in Monterey, California is one of those seminal events I’ve wanted to attend ever since I heard about it. Unfortunately, it is $6000, by invitation only, and they restrict participants to 1000 people from around the world. Currently, the participant list appears filled until 2009. It features a distinguished list of attendees and speakers who exchange ideas on science, culture, business, entertainment, art and much more.
Before this year, it was difficult for non-attendees to get information on the topics discussed, but this year TED has made a number of the talks available on their website (see link above). As you might imagine there are some interesting and provocative discussions that may be of interest to many of you. They even have their own YouTube channel.
CNET is using the experience and knowledge it has gained from its own site to officially launch BNET, a resource aimed directly at people in mid- to high-level management. The site focuses on strategy, operations, insight, and business practices. There is a significant amount of “hands-on” content that includes how-to guides, white papers, Webcasts, and an extensive business library. It also includes Web 2.0 features such as blogs, RSS alerts, and other social networking features that allow it to be utilized as a lead-generation tool.
It becomes clear to see why Apple is such an innovative, successful company when you read the comments made by Apple COO, Tim Cook, recently posted on the Fast Company blog.
He provides compelling, insightful answers to three questions:
1) How does Apple keep innovating?
2) How do they visualize the market for the iPhone?
3) How does Apple handle the loss of a senior exec?
His answers certainly help demonstrate that Apple’s 1990s branding slogan, “Think Different,” was apropos internally as well as externally. Like most good branding slogans, this one closely aligned with their corporate DNA.
All companies make mistakes, but rarely do they have trillion dollar consequences. However, it appears that is the price tag Airbus will pay for siloed engineering teams that failed to communicate resulting in monumental problems on their new supersized 555-seat A380 airplane.
The details are here, but the gist of the story is that unlike the centralized, highly integrated workflow process that exists at aircraft manufacturers such as Boeing, Airbus, as supported by the European Union, uses teams in many countries. Spreading the wealth I suppose would be the concept. Unfortunately, during the development phase, the different Airbus engineering teams were using incompatible version of the CATIA design software. The result was a huge mess with the planes wiring system (300 miles of wire in one plane) that cost delays of two years and billions in canceled orders.