(The Big Disrupt) Tesla Motors: The Empire Strikes Back... Again

Tesla Motors has many obstacles in the way in making the electric car ubiquitous and actually selling them but auto dealers using their pull with state legislators is one obstacle they're not going to get around anytime soon. Auto dealers, dead set against Tesla Motors plans to sell their cars directly to customers, once again showed just how much clout they have at state level across the country as Michigan governor Rick Snyder signed off on a bill that prohibits carmakers, never mind Tesla, from selling their cars directly to consumers.

While Snyder maintained that the bill reflected existing law, it clearly was a signal that Tesla wasn't about disrupt the auto dealer system in Michigan or other companies in the home state of the big three. So far, Tesla Motors, like many innovative companies, has found itself outfoxed and out-muscled against entrenched interests with political connections that run deep but with the announcement that the company was going to build a $5bn in Nevada, it seems like electric car manufacturer is learning how to play the game.

Uber, who have made waves aggressively disrupting the taxi and private hire cab worldwide, has run into the same problem but with it's hiring of Obama former campaign manager David Plouffe, the car hailing outfit has realized that ushering a new product or service that renders old or existing models obsolete is a political  as well as technical feat.

While getting outmaneuvered by auto dealers in a number of states sucks, things haven't been all bad for the company as while competitors Daimler AG and Toyota sold their shares in the electric vehicle manufacturer, Daimler AG sold their shares out of fear of Tesla's Model S which could serve as stiff competition to the German carmakers luxury models.

However the real problem confronting is not auto dealers and state legislators but just how it can meet its demand or even if there is enough demand in the first place. So far, Tesla hasn't made much effort marketing or advertising it wares which makes the company's growth and profile in the media quite a feat. Analyst have pointed out this lack of push might hurt its demand but Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk has wisely fixed his focus on making sure they can produce enough cars to meet demand rather than get into the tough spot of stoking up demand for their cars and not having the machine in place to meet it. 

In sum, it sucks that Tesla is getting outmaneuvered by  auto dealers fighting to stay in business in the long run, the company looks like its in a good place as it has a great product and as soon they figure out how to make their cars cheaper, Tesla, and more importantly, the electric car, will finally get its due. 

(The Big Disrupt) Cloud Computing: The New World Up In The Cloud

The Big disrupt exists for the sole of exploring new disruptive technologies and companies shaking things up in business and culture and no technology in recent years has shaken things up as much as cloud computing or better known as the cloud.

The main benefit the cloud lends to organizations big or small is agility and thus the ability to respond quickly to the needs of customers. The agility the clous lends also a major driver to its adoption as organizations everywhere as the phrase “adapt of die” is not just snappy saying you’ll find on a bumper sticker but the organizing principle of modern business.

The cloud has had many implications for business because of the agility it offers organizations but this has had a serious impact on the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO). The advent of the cloud has transformed IT from a traditional maintenance cost centre and even a potential obstacle to progress to one of the key drivers of innovation and even future growth in a number of organizations.

The change in mentality among CIO’s in light of advent of the cloud has IT has CIO’s looking at adding value the business illustrated by a 2012 poll of CIO’s that recorded a substantial focus among CIO’s on revenue growth as “81 percent of respondents see revenue growth as a crucial priority” alongside  customer facing priorities such as “Customer satisfaction (78 percent), improving product capabilities (69 percent), cost cutting (65 percent) and the ability to innovate for competitive advantage (57 percent)[1].

This more business focused approach to IT among CIO’s encouraged by the onset of the cloud has had CIO’s looking for ways to add value to organizations as while the cloud has given, by default, greater responsibility over how organizations operate, this has led to leaders in organizations to openly question the value their IT departments actually brought to the business. This public audit of the CIO in relation to other executives in the C-suite, particularly the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), has forced CIO’s to take a greater interest in the business side of the organizations they serve as the growth of importance of CMO’s as well as the increasingly data driven nature of the role has led to predictions of IT departments to see cuts in their budgets as “organizations move maintenance-intensive tasks into the cloud”[2].

This new reality confronting the CIO provides a great opportunity for CIO’s to maximize their importance to their respective organizations but in doing so this makes them more accountable than ever before and with such accountability the role of the IT leader in an organization becomes more precarious as NetApp CEO Tom Georgens observed ““The opportunity for CIOs to differentiate and provide competitive advantage for the firm might be greater than it's ever been. However, the risks associated with being a CIO are also greater than they've ever been."”[3].

However, while most CIO’s have embraced their new role in the advent of the cloud, the actual department he or she runs might have different ideas. Martin Ogden, CIO of Expro Group, came up against this apprehension among his department as he received pushback when introducing a cloud based HR tool designed to manage the company’s growing number of employees across the globe.

While Ogden was keen to play up the benefits of the tool to the organization and sees as a glaring opportunity for his department to add value, his department was clearly concerned that the tool was “ the project was largely delivered by HR, rather than IT”[4]. However their concern was largely peaked by Ogden’s and clearly Expro Group’s intention to move more processes into the cloud, However. Their concern for their jobs didn’t seem to bother Ogden who saw it as a opportunity for “those reasonably well paid, highly skilled members of staff and actually get them to do something useful for the organisation.”[5].

In that one sentence above revealed not only the apprehension IT departments have towards the cloud but the rather snide attitude the new breed of CIO has towards his own department reminiscent of Alec Baldwin’s classic “always be closing “ speech in the expletive heavy screen adaptation of playwright David Mamet’s masterpiece Glengarry Glen Ross.

Why CIO’s like Ogden would have such an attitude towards his own departments makes no sense given the advent of the cloud and its commercial availability allows other departments to bypass the CIO and complicate his role in the organization at the same time as increasingly other executives in the C-suite now have their own IT spend.

What’s also strange about the CIO poking at the futility of his department is that the arguments that IT or the CIO is becoming is a very stupid argument in an gage where just about every business is a technology whether they like it or not. In this new reality where the arbitrary line between technology and business begins to blur, the CIO is arguably going to be one of the most important roles in any business going away as doing business in the modern world, for better or worse, has become technical question as much as an economic one.

In sum, the advent of the cloud has shaken up the C-suite and the CIO in particular but the cloud in doing this has only revealed a simple but telling truth about the business world, there isn’t much of a dividing line between tech and business and in the future, no one will able to tell the difference.    

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[1]http://www.rackspace.com/knowledge_center/sites/default/files/whitepaper_pdf/Rackspace_CashingInOnCl

oud.pdf

[2] Ibid

[3] http://www.informationweek.com/strategic-cio/executive-insights-and-innovation/netapp-in-the-cloud-age-ceo-tom-georgens-qanda/d/d-id/1114009

[4] http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/cloud-computing/3494144/expro-group-cio-warns-of-its-fear-of-job-loss-with-cloud-computing/

[5] Ibid

(Business) Apple: Innovation Key To Stemming Apple’s Recent Decline

While there has been much lip service lended of late to the current trend of the decline of Apple’s dominance in the smartphone and tablet markets and it’s less than encouraging stock market performance, the question that really should be asked or addressed is when Apple going to launch a new product that always used to get them out of trouble and stave off competition. While losing a whopping 22% in revenue in  in one quarter shouldn’t inspire muck-eating grins at any department at Apple HQ, a drop from 8.8bn to 6.9bn in real numbers is nothing to panic about[1].

Despite all the focus on the slight decline in sales due to leading two increasingly competitive markets, Apple still has a sound business that has for two decades straight have defied the laws of the marketplace through genius level innovation, marketing and design. But notably since the death of its iconic founder and CEO Steve Jobs, the company has failed to stick to it main strengths that has kept ahead of its competitors for so long with Apple launching glorified updates of existing models for the last three years.

This notable lack of innovation in the last few years has been underlined by its competition making inroads into its dominant position in the smartphone and tablet markets, two markets Apple have had a large hand in creating in the first place. However not all Apple’s recent problem end and begin with its noted stagnation as far as innovation is concerned but with the savvy and market prowess of its competitors. For years, Apple competitors have lagged behind due to the company freakishly consistent habit of innovating its way out of trouble but now with the lack of innovative new products, the business nous and smart pricing of its competitors are now becoming key factors as to why Apple in experiencing a slight decline.

What Steve Jobs understood and Tim Cook must by now know better than the back of his hand is that the tech industry, much like the music industry, is that a hit will solve all problems and a hit for Apple is an innovative product launch. This is why it is important to judge any product launch by Apple in the near future by its success or failure but the company willingness to take a risk and innovate and avoid rehashing successful models of the past. Apple, as with much of modern life, has fallen into the trap of rehashing old hits instead of trying to innovate which has been at the heart of its success.

While numbers are at the heart of most business, the tech industry, maybe except the music and movie business, real currency and source of any real success is the ability to innovate and effectively change the world as business and all processes that come with are only the means to an end.

In sum, Apple are now more than any time in the last three decades subject to the laws of the marketplace, a marketplace they have managed to defy for the best part of two decades through genius level innovation, marketing and design. Now Apple, who seem to forgot the secret to their success for so long have fallen into the trap of rehashing old models which has seen their competitors eat into their dominant position in the smartphone and tablet markets. If Apple are to make a strong return to dominance, it must regain its trademark spirit of innovation that made it the company what it is today and be prepared to take risk that have made the company a cultural as well as business entity recognised and admired across the globe.

 The Shameless Plug: 

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Purchase Apple iPad 2 - Black (16GB, Wifi) at Amazon 

Purchase Apple 16GB iPod Touch 5th Generation at Amazon

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[1] Marketing Week, 2013, Apple’s European revenue slumps, http://www.marketingweek.co.uk/news/apples-european-revenue-slumps/4007444.article