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November 30, 2009

Comments

Chris Ward

Linux was just so. It really cannibalised the OS/2 revenue, until (like a hundred-year-old patient with a heart attack on the resuscitation table in hospital) there was no point continuing. You could invest all you like but you wouldn't get a return.

The King is dead, long live the King (as they say from time to time in European countries).

OS/2 is dead, long live Linux.

Businesses do have to reinvent themselves from time to time. Invest some of the dollars they get from sales into researching and developing things which are new and different, and which will sell as the old products commoditise.

Who would like to buy a copy of IBM Lotus SmartSuite ? Who would like to buy the whole global distribution rights for IBM Lotus SmartSuite ? Could Disney market it as "Disney SmartSuite, the future of the Disney 1-2-3 spreadsheet that started it all"

Do ask them. There is no IBM salesman and no IBM developer that would contest the sell-off.

Tom Foremski

Great reporting, Irving. I'm always on the lookout for stories of disruption.

It seems that once anything can be digitized, labor or services, the Internet enables the competitive forces of disruption.... Except Telcos, but that's because they are regulated, the government becomes a partner and a barrier to new competition. This could be our future.

Bud Byrd

“Social Media Implications for Business” organizations.

The pervasiveness of social media within the global community outside the business organization demands that management within the organization develop and implement a strategy that utilizes this potential productivity tool. At the same time, management must apply enough controls to ensure that the primary mission, value and values of the company are guaranteed and hopefully, enhanced. It will be no easy task.

For example: How do you manage, police, restrain, restrict the internal blog that becomes very popular within the company around the world but that delves into subject areas that reflect poorly on company practices; that call out the company, its executives, management, and/or employees when such practices may lean or seem to lean towards the unsavory, the unethical, the illegal, the dumb? Will you allow to be discussed challenges of the performance and/or disputes on the authority of management? Do you apply constraints? What will be constrained? What will not?

Do you allow free-wheeling discussions on policy, management decisions, salary, the benefits package, business practices, your products and services, your customers, the competition, or other sensitive matters? Do you allow blogs to be open to all or do you restrict access to classes of users?

These and many other questions come to mind when contemplating the use of in-house social networking within any organization. Whether organization social networking will be governed by dictatorial practices, exercise a benevolent environment on the part of management and employee alike or fall into anarchy remains in the balance. The main question of course is: Has management and distributed organization and management structure within any given company matured enough to allow the formal socialization of what today is primarily a function of discussions among colleagues, the rumor mill, water cooler talk, or over-drinks conversation at the watering-hole across the street?

Hopefully, management can run fast enough to make productive use of this phenomenal new communication reality. It can be a great productive tool. But, the jury remains out on management's ability to use for the good of the company.

Yunzhi Yang

Thanks for the reporting and video.
I am interested in the MIT comparative media program and just get to know that Jenkins is now at USC. I think it is time for business embracing and taking use of new media and are not just being afraid by the cannibalization. By using the social media for marketing and innovation, I guess they can get back what they lose.

Lead Generation Philippines

I completely agree with many of the points that has been raised in this article. Social media is transforming businesses and it matters. From Twitter to Facebook and every web2.0 tool in between, consumers are more and more concerned with the integrity and intent of the brands they interact with, while employees are less afraid to expose how companies work internally. The challenge for marketers is not to merely appear engaged, but to actually be engaged – to live up to the promise and deliver.

Jaiden

James the Marketing Consultant

This blog says a large aspect of social media and its implications to the business world. I agree with all the points provided in this blog.
Social media will transform how businesses approach the marketing and advertising aspect and it will continue to evolve into a more 'easy-to-understand' platform. Social media play a big role in small and large businesses. I also agree the it will open doors for companies to find capable talents around the world, thus engaging the entire web community and be productive, this is the new innovation in communication.

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