How many of you have never noticed the arrow between the ‘E’ and ‘x’ on the FedEx logo? I bet quite a few. Well you’ll never be able to look at the FedEx logo again and not see that arrow.
This is why graphic designers get paid good money. This logo is phenomenal.
Yesterday I had an opportunity to speak with Gary Reiner, CIO of General Electric and ask him anything that I wanted. It was part of my new gig in a GE leadership training program. I don’t discuss my job here on ActionsTalk but this experience and opportunity forced me to break that rule. Here are my notes from the talk with Gary:
When asked about IT’s contribution to the business, Reiner replied…IT not a contributor or service for the business, IT is the business, fully integrated. Any project that is taken on will fail if it is considered an IT project. A project should only be undertaken if it will improve the business and improve a process that the business executes. These process improvement project will succeed. Along those lines he expanded that the best measure of a process is “cycle time”.
When asked about Open Source products Reiner was very enthusiastic. He was heavily in favor and a current user of products like Skype and OpenOffice. He would even like to incorporate them into the worlds largest company if it wasn’t for issues like security, transition difficulties, and vendor support, all of which are major concerns.
There were other topics discussed that would not be appropriate for me to share on this forum. A few of these topics discussed were emerging new technologies and the companies that are developing these technologies and also many other GE specific topics.
Gary Reiner was incredibly approachable, inquisitive, broad in his knowledge of GE and the world economy and genuinely interested in what we (as low level developing managers) had to contribute. Having an opportunity to speak with Gary was an exceptional experience!
This morning, I needed to access my Google Docs to find a password that I had saved. After trying to open my Google Docs page to access the folder I needed I was unable to access it. It read that it was loading for over 20 minutes…
If Google allows these types of error that limit or deny peoples access to there saved data it will ruin peoples trust in using Google docs. I’m usually a huge supporter of Google but access to ones data is a huge issue that I hope they get worked out.
Have you had problems with Google or Google docs? Leave comments!
Today the National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations (NASDAQ) released that they would be creating an “internet index” that will follow many of the large internet companies (i.e. Google, Yahoo) and other publicly traded internet companies. As Duncan Riley on TechCrunch speculated, it is likely that any good or bad news around Google would have a VERY large effect on the index. I strongly agree with Riley that the rise of this index shows the growing importance of the internet and the companies that it spawns in the US and global economy.
My question is this…Will the existence of this index alleviate or encourage another bursting of a tech bubble? Now that there is one number that inevitably everyone (myself included) will comment on and scrutinize as the “grade” given to our industry, will it serve as a pump to the next tech bubble? Or, will it help us to track the industry more closely and help prevent another bubble?
My hunch is the former. I think that having this new index that people can follow and get inevitably excited about, people will blow it up even faster causing another “pop”. The more stock people put in this number as it grows the more money will poor into Silicon Valley and nationwide internet start-ups. Eventually, as it always does, the newly measured internet economy will correct itself.
What do you think?
Of all the folks out in Silicon Valley rolling in the cash the ‘Googlers’ are now among the wealthiest. Michael Arrington wrote on TechCrunch recently about how there are 1,000 Google employees who’s stock grants and options are worth, now with the recent increase in price, over $5 million.
See said increase:
There are other Google employees who haven’t made millions but think about this…those who joined Google just one year ago, when I joined the workforce, are doing just fine also. Those hired one year ago, on avg. received 685 optioned shares and are now worth on avg. $276,000 or $662 per share. Also they received 230 shares outright. Decent huh?
Would you accept a job that pays $276k + $50k = $316k a year right out of college? I might.
VS. 
The Ultimate Showdown
Facebook is being bullied! MySpace exec’s just released that they would agree to participate with Google’s Open Social platform (Bebo did also). Facebook will practically be the only social networking site on the web to not join the Google’s more “open” platform.
Can Facebook and Zuckerberg counter to this?
Could this be an anti-trust issue?
More coming soon.
Given the recent kudos I gave to Google, you could probably have guessed that I am in full support of the recent discussion between Verizon and Google regarding a mobile phone partnership. Verizon is in deliberations about carrying a mobile phone that would be customized to Google’s soon to come mobile OS. Verizon, the second largest mobile phone provider and Google, the largest internet company would make an awesome team, in my opinion. With Google’s focus on usability and Verizon’s great mobile service and phone design this is one of the few combinations that have the potential to be a legitimate competitor to the Apple and AT&T (iPod) combo (a true force).
Gmail, hands down the best internet based email provider, is stepping it up yet another notch. They will be adding an easy to use contact manager, more keyboard short-cuts and a quicker way to search for and pull messages which will speed up the performance of the tool. Phenomenal.
On the Gmail blog they state:
“Even on a fast Internet connection, it can take a second to request and render a new web page, and when you read a lot of mail, these seconds can accumulate to hours waiting for email to load. We’ve spent a lot of time profiling all parts of the application, shaving milliseconds off wherever we can.
Some of the most common actions should be faster now. For instance, we prefetch messages in the current view, so when you open an email your browser doesn’t have to talk to Google’s server; it just displays the message. These techniques really shine on newer browsers and computers. Using an alpha version of Safari 3 on a MacBook, we’re seeing sub-200ms times when opening messages–pretty quick.”
As a very happy Gmail user I’m pleased to see that Google is not only dominating in developing new technologies and free web based products (Gmaps, Gdocs, Gcal) but they are also focussed on improving what already exists. They pay attention to the small things too! Well done Google.
With Google’s (GOOG) stock price closing today (10/10/2007) at a whopping $630.29, there are many Googlers who are becoming ex-Googlers and cashing in. (I know I would!) Most recently, as reported on Om Malik’s blog GigaOM , Benjamin Ling became an ex-Googler. Benjamin Ling was referred to as “the golden boy” by the Google founders and is a considerable loss. Ling left Google and headed over to the new rival in town, Facebook.
This post is less about Ling or Google’s stock than it is about the futures of these ex-”BIG SHOT” firms.
The thought/argument is this…Google’s ex’s if you will, will be more successful than the ex-employees of either Microsoft or Yahoo. The reason is this… Google has so many advantages going for it that these employees were able to experience that the other 2 firms don’t and they will be able to take that experience on with them whether it is to Facebook, or any other 6 vowel start-up. Google has a company structure, an openness, and a freedom that not many companies are able to embrace. They have the money enough to allow employees to take risks with projects and be very creative (see picture below).
Google knows what’s up. They know what people are looking for out of Web 2.0 open source products and they have the business models to be able to monetize these ideas/creations. They are ahead of the game and have the financial backing now to support the creativity. It’s very simple, we are all going after the same thing. Bloggers, Facebook app developers, and open source start-ups alike are looking for users, readers, page views, clicks…the list can go on for a while but it is all the same thing. Google is developing an enormous group of products that are attracting people and if they are not developing themselves they are making purchases of start-ups that already have mass amounts of users (i.e. Jaiku), and further they are making TONS of cash off of these users.
If I’m looking to work for someone, then leave, then start my own Web 2.0 gig, I’m applying to Google. Why would I want to join Gates or the other Yahoos?
This topic is a bit disterbing, you’ve been warned.
Why are mom’s on facebook? Mine is and its a bit wierd. I understand that facebook is one of the most popular websites on the internet and is used as a very effective tool to stay in touch with friends and family, however I definitely liked the facebook of old, when only your college friends had access to those pictures of you with roughly 15 beers down. Now that facebook has changed it has opened up the tool and made it much more appealing for investors and Zuckerberg but to the facebook old timer it’s lost it’s appeal in many ways.
Old folks (people in generations before ours) have never been known for their ability to adapt to new technologies. Their generations are much more comfortable with sticking to what they already know. It is the “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality and it seems to work for them. Facebook has changed all that. This new technology seems to not wait for the older generation to come to it but it seems that it is going after the older generation. At least that’s the only explanation that I can come up with for why mothers (and fathers) are joining facebook like crazy. I guess I just have to learn to except the “new” facebook with newsfeeds, status updates and moms.
Use the comments to let us know if you mother is on facebook and how you feel about it.
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