Archive for July, 2009
Ross • 16th Jul 2009 • Thinking • business, computers, innovation, software, technology
My take on Microsoft’s future strategy, now Google is planning to launch its own OS:
- MS revenues stable in the short-term, as installed Windows base still high
- Google is continuing a broad strategic shift, from being the providers of an excellent, innovative search product to being providers of a platform who actually don’t innovate as much as they like to think
- The ‘providers of a platform who actually don’t innovate as much as they like to think’ business is/was MS’s home territory. As such, Google’s entry represents a significant threat
- However, MS has more to offer as a firm that provides ‘excellent products’ - Exchange/Office and Xbox being the two best examples
- Although it will be painful, MS should be prepared for the inevitable loss of platform dominance and concentrate entirely on backing great products in its core area(s) of expertise: business productivity and communication (note that Android phone and iPhones have adopted Exchange, and that Google now licences ActiveSync) and home entertainment (Windows Media Centre beats Apple TV hands down, and I can’t see Google Launching a G-Box)
Long term, I think MS needs to start behaving like a more standard, mature company. That means better dividends, surrendering of legacy markets and ruthless focus. This may eventually mean a split between the business apps firm and the home media entertainment firm.
Ross • 14th Jul 2009 • Living • events, london, wine
This evening I went to a Bastille Day wine tasting at Brasserie Roux in Sofitel London St James. The event was free by invitation and, surprisingly, held in half of the restaurant dining room while the other half remained open for (early) dinner service. There were three tables: Old World, New World and Champagne. As you would expect from a Roux establishment, the wine was accompanied by some freshly baked bread, delicious cooked meats and cheeses.
The New World table, hosted by Ellis of Richmond, included a sharp Stellenbosch pinotage rosé (£8.99) and a citrus-heavy Mendoza sauvignon blanc (£8.75). More impressive was the Old World table. Hosted by Top Selection, this featured a rarely-seen Austrian gruner vertline ‘gmork’ (£9.90) and a delightfully light 2007 pinot noir, ‘Domaine Chevrot’ (£9.17). Best of the table was the surprising Blancs de Pacs 2008, an organic Spanish wine in an ugly bottle (£7.95). “Because it’s organic, they can’t even get to the vineywards for most of the year,” said the friendly attendant, “too many mosquitos.”
Most disappointing was the Gosset champagne. While the non-vintage ‘Excellence’ (£25.40) and ‘Grand Reserve’ (£34.21) tasted good – reminding me slightly of entry-level Pol Roger – the minimum order was 15 cases, and retail enquiries were fobbed off to Harrods or Selfridges. You can, however, pick some up from BBR, for what I imagine would be a slightly lower markup.
The organisation of the evening was efficient, but could have been thought through a little more closely. It would have been an idea to check people’s bags into the restaurant cloakroom on arrival. As it was, this wasn’t offered and many people were balancing plates of food, glasses of wine, tasting notes and bags in their hands. Another improvement would have been to have put the raised tables of fresh glasses next to the velvet rope that divided the wine tasting area from the restaurant. This would have allowed waiters to replenish glasses without having to snake through the throng. However, minor quibbles aside, it’s hard to fault a free event with great wines. Vive la France.
Ross • 12th Jul 2009 • Learning • academic, politics, public administration
Much of the core reading for my ongoing Master’s degree is dry. Some is painful. Occasionally, however, you get a gem of a paragraph, such as this:
The common problem, I believe, is this: the nation-state is becoming too small for the big problems of life and too big for the small problems of life. It is too small for the big problems because there are no effective international mechanisms to deal with such things as capital flows, commodity imbalances, the loss of jobs, and the several demographic tidal waves that will be developing in the next twenty years. It is too big for the small problems because the flow of power to a national political center [sic] means that the center [sic] becomes increasingly unresponsive to the variety and diversity of local needs. In short, there is a mismatch of scale.
That’s Daniel Bell “previewing Planet Earth in 2013″ in The Washington Post in 1988. I think his core focus is on the US government. I have heard that this (with a UK/EU spin) is somewhat the theme of the Douglas Carswell and Daniel Hannan book, The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain, which I have not read, but plan to.
Ross • 10th Jul 2009 • Living • careers, international development, jobs, work
Adam Smith International, an international development firm for which I worked a few years ago, is recruiting for a graduate role. If you have just graduated (or are about to) and have an interest in political and/or economic development, I can certainly recommend working at ASI: responsibility from day one, international travel and a really good, close-knit team. Details here.
Ross • 5th Jul 2009 • Learning • funding, policy, politics, public life, think tanks
John Blundell, the departing head of the Institute of Economic Affairs writes in today’s Sunday Times of his quest to keep the IEA ‘clean’ through strict donor rules, including:
- No corporate money tied to projects either explicitly or implicitly
- No taxpayer funds
- No FTSE 100 company to give more than 2% of budget [I assume he mean's IEA's budget]
- No corporate sector (eg oil, banking, pharmaceuticals) to give more than 5% [of IEA budget, I assume]
He mentions how he had received offers of tax-efficient funding in return for his extension of scholarships/bursaries to the donor’s progeny (he refused: “Sorry, no deal”). He also thinks that politicians have become more guarded in their dealings with think tanks since 1997.
