Ged Carroll

Category: ideas | 想法 | 생각 | 考える

Ideas were at the at the heart of why I started this blog. One of the first posts that I wrote there being a sweet spot in the complexity of products based on the ideas of Dan Greer. I wrote about the first online election fought by Howard Dean, which now looks like a precursor to the Obama and Trump presidential bids.

I articulated a belief I still have in the benefits of USB thumb drives as the Thumb Drive Gospel. The odd rant about IT, a reflection on the power of loose social networks, thoughts on internet freedom – an idea that that I have come back to touch on numerous times over the years as the online environment has changed.

Many of the ideas that I discussed came from books like Kim and Mauborgne’s Blue Ocean Strategy.

I was able to provide an insider perspective on Brad Garlinghouse’s infamous Peanut Butter-gate debacle. It says a lot about the lack of leadership that Garlinghouse didn’t get fired for what was a power play. Garlinghouse has gone on to become CEO of Ripple.

I built on initial thoughts by Stephen Davies on the intersection between online and public relations with a particular focus on definition to try and come up with unifying ideas.

Or why thought leadership is a less useful idea than demonstrating authority of a particular subject.

I touched on various retailing ideas including the massive expansion in private label products with grades of ‘premiumness’.

I’ve also spent a good deal of time thinking about the role of technology to separate us from the hoi polloi. But this was about active choice rather than an algorithmic filter bubble.

 

  • Gucci + more news

    Gucci

    Shenzhen sweatshop allegations force Gucci to act – FT.com – PR nightmare and management FAIL for Gucci. The Gucci story is unusual in that it affects service workers. Luxury in Asia requires a certain servility of service that I find uncomfortable and the Gucci story of long oppressive days for retail staff sounds emblematic of it. That its happening in the Gucci Shenzhen store doesn’t surprise me at all

    China

    China Favors Direct Investment to Create ‘New Blood’ in Europe – WSJ

    Maersk builds LatAm “reefer” factory | FT.com – because the cost of production is growing faster in China than Latin America

    Consumer behaviour

    What Wealthy Women Really Want – WSJ

    For Their Children, Many E-Book Fans Insist on Paper – NYTimes.com – the tactile arguments for toddlers are the same reason why I prefer print books

    Culture

    Alan Moore – meet the man behind the protest mask | The Observer – it was a nice literary tail for the Guardian to loop back with Alan Moore

    Paris Review – The Art of Fiction No. 211, William Gibson – interview with the cyber punk don

    Economics

    Housing prices fall in Chinese cities – FT.com – property developers and small businesses have been suffering

    Brussels warns on risk of UK double-dip – FT.com – UK economy stagnating and government’s deficit reduction strategy isn’t working according to a European Commission report – a deep and prolonged recession complemented by continued market turmoil cannot be excluded

    The way (not) to rein in the yen – FT.com – A more aggressive quantitative easing programme, targeting 10-year government bonds instead of shorter maturities, would contribute more decisively to ease the pressure on the exchange rate. More importantly, it would also stimulate the largely stagnant domestic economy (paywall)

    The Long Haul to Capitalizing on Web Trends – Digits – WSJ – According to comScore Inc., almost 62% of the ads shown on Facebook in the July through September quarter came from advertisers that are not among the top 1000 digital advertisers in the U.S.; on Yahoo Inc., just 23% come from such small advertisers. These sorts of Facebook advertisers range from nail salons marketing to people who live a particular town, to recruiters targeting employees at a specific company – going down the long tail due to targeting ability, not great on context like Google local search though

    Ideas

    Information: Be careful what you signal | The Economist

    Possibility Is Thrust of 100-Year Starship Study – NYTimes.com – in 10,000 years, the speed of humans has jumped by a factor of about 10,000, from a stroll (2.6 m.p.h.) to the Apollo astronauts’ return from the Moon (26,000 m.p.h.). Reaching the nearest stars in reasonable time — decades, not centuries — would require a velocity jump of another factor of 10,000

    Innovation

    Marubeni Launches 3D Printing Service — Tech-On! – interesting that it is aimed at making precision resin dies etc

    Japan

    Japan’s #1 Mascots: Kumamon, Bary-san, and Nishiko-kun | Japan Probe – Japan seems to have mascots for everything, kind of cool actually

    Japan Today | Toshiba to close three semiconductor plants

    Korea

    South Korea’s economy: What do you do when you reach the top? | The Economist – interesting economic profile on Korea

    Luxury

    Von Furstenberg to Chinese Women: Stop Chasing Men – WSJ

    The rise of quiet luxury: Understated chic that is very, very expensive. – Slate Magazine

    China’s Menswear Market (Quietly) Booming « Jing Daily

    Luxury’s anti-social (media) brigade | FT.com – variable adoption

    Brussels finally recognises luxury | FT.com

    Luxury Second-Hand Shops Spreading Like Wildfire In China | Jing Daily

    The moral of Dior’s numbers | FT.com – Galliano story didn’t affect Dior sales

    Media

    Secret documents reveal the flimsy case for Ofcom to give into BBC’s public TV DRM demands – Boing Boing

    Technology

    HP CEO: Apple will become market leader in personal computers | MacNews

    Wireless

    Nokia’s Microsoft Phones May Not Get Traction, Analyst Says – NYTimes.com – no USP, apart from a bucketload of advertising

  • Systeme D

    According to Foreign Policy, the D in Systeme D comes from the French word débrouillard which is used to describe people who are ingenious or resourceful. In the Francophone companies being resourceful means operating outside of proscribed government regulation and bootstrap entrepreneurship hence, systeme D. Back in France, this might have been applied to people smuggling in a new fangled personal computer into the workplace.

    Foreign Policy writer Robert Neuwirth argues that this grey economy exists across the developing world and has been driving economic activity from Chinese factories to African bazaars. Back when I was first visiting Hong Kong, there was a stream of west African business people travelling to Hong Kong. They would go to Chungkung Mansion. Buy a suitcase full of electronics (predominantly cellphones)  and then get a flight home. 

    There was then larger scale players based in Shenzhen and Guangzhou buying product. They then either supplied the merchants of Chungkung Mansions or shipped product home by the container load. Who knows what would happen with the customs in their destination country. Systeme D often relies on the kind of manufacturers relying on shanzhai style innovation. 

    Whilst this black economy would be seen as detrimental in developed countries due to it undermining a system that broadly works (look at the Greek government’s problems with non-payment of taxes). In developing countries where governments are less likely to be looking out for their citizens interests – so the black economy can be considered to be having partly a positive impact.

    The latest trend is that a lot of mainland Chinese people who have worked on infrastructure projects in Africa staying behind and becoming merchants, cutting African entrepreneurs out of the Systeme D model. There are well over a million of these Chinese entrepreneurs now doing business across sub Saharan Africa.

    More information

    The Shadow Superpower – By Robert Neuwirth | Foreign Policy

  • Video futures

    Peter Jackson has been shooting a really interesting video diary for the forthcoming Hobbit two-part film. Whilst all the Tolkien geeks are pouring over it salivating at what they are going to spend their next ten year’s disposable income on, I was curious to know what it was likely to tell us about the future of video. Jackson heads up Weta Workshop and Weta Digital, constantly innovating in video production. Below is the first entry, it is worthwhile working through all of them

    • Technology still hasn’t addressed the need to shoot 3D in an elegant way. Much of this is down to the fact that the economics and scale that has driven semiconductor innovation hasn’t been replicated in other aspects of technology such as camera optics, so they use Heath Robinson-esque mirrored set ups to get around the interocular (replicate the distance between your eyes) distance issue
    • The amount of dedicated cameras that Jackson is having to use suggests that 3D product isn’t likely to come down in cost anytime soon; so we are still likely to have shoddy post-production versions plied on cinema audiences for a good while yet. I could see the demand for 3D dying out, at least until VR starts to make a serious impact on lean back experiences.
    • Higher frame rates make a difference. I hadn’t realised that the human eye can distinguish at up to the equivalent of 60 frames per second. Shooting at this speed makes imagery more believable. So we are more likely to go to 60fps 4K video than 24fps at 8K resolution.
    • Digital doesn’t mean perfect reproduction. If you’ve listened to an iPod versus a decent CD player; or a decent CD player versus a decent record player – it would be easy to understand this point; despite the historic branding as digital having a higher fidelity to the original. However it was still interesting to hear how the high quality digital cameras de-saturate the video and the make-up artists and set designers have to work hard to compensate for the colour loss on screen

    More related content, alongside other aspects of technology can be found here.

  • Extreme couponing

    Extreme couponing – is a phrase that I came across in the Knowledge@Wharton newsletter to describe the way hard-pressed value conscious consumers in North America are using offline vouchers and online resources including comparison shopping and coupon websites to make their grocery spend to go further. Having worked on FMCG programs rolled out in North America, the continued power of local newspaper and electronic coupons are famous.

    Coupons and extreme couponing were historically associated with thrifty older consumers who carried on family traditions developed during and post the great depression.

    Some US supermarket retailers built up a reputation for being ‘coupon friendly’ stores. But that might present its own problems. The average basket value might be much lower. Also the productivity of cashiers might be lower as they have to process all the coupons submitted. If the coupons aren’t valid for that supermarket that might result in a customer stand-off that needs to be resolved with the help of store management.

    The more astute of you may remember seeing coupon clipping and usage in historic episodes of Roseanne (what then become The Conners).

    Which begs the question what’s new that’s driving extreme couponing now? The answer seems to be a combination of food price inflation, low-to-no wage growth and an uncertain economy with high unemployment has led consumers to change their shopping. Pharmacy chains like Walgreens have benefited from business previously done as a one-stop shop in the supermarket since they will accept coupons for personal hygiene and cleaning products. The big issue is for the major brand companies like General Mills, Unilever and Procter & Gamble who are seeing brand loyalty eroded.

    Alongside an increase in coupon adoptions you are seeing bulk buying to hedge against inflation, rather than consumers trying to save the money itself in bank account. More retailing related content can be found here.

    More information

    Brand Disloyalty: Recession-weary Consumers Take Discounts to the Extreme

  • London conference on cyberspace

    The Foreign and Commonwealth Office of the British Government has always had the best online presence of all the different government departments, but I still find it interesting that it is they rather than the department of media and culture who are looking to lead a discussion on the future of the web and associated technologies. The FCO are hosting a conference on cyberspace in London on November 1-2, 2011 and are extending it online through social media platforms. I can’t help but feel the dialogue is aimed as much within the UK as internationally.

    Of course, the ironic thing is that the UK isn’t at all progressive in terms of all things internet related compared to the likes of South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Iceland or Finland to name but a few countries. The Digital Economy Bill and actions done by the likes of Ed Vaizey have shown resistance rather than working out how it can benefit from the change. The music industry tried to fight the change and has torn itself apart so it will be interesting to see how that stance will work out. I look forward to following the conference on cyberspace; in cyberspace.

    Find out more here. More online related topics here.