Business Strategy, Personal Development, Marketing
A 60 Minutes tweet and report suggest that the latest Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, needs to make $1.5 BILLION to be considered a success. That number seems pretty high considering the movie cost just $220 million to make, and even a huge marketing number gets you nowhere near $1.5 Billion. Frankly, one wonders … Read more
So, here is an interesting idea. Uber needs drivers to drive around the customers who book a ride on the Uber app. Traditionally, that means having your own car, and not just any car. The car has to meet Uber’s standards. While these standards have been loosened recently, they do still require a relatively newer … Read more
So, McDonald’s has decided to serve breakfast all day. There was a time where this probably wouldn’t have worked, but increasing standardization and the expansion of many cook lines makes it more plausible now. The question is, Will it matter? The idea of cutting off breakfast was mandatory back when I worked at McDonald’s (a … Read more
GM makes an electric car called the Chevy Volt. Unlike a Tesla, for example, the Volt is fairly low-priced. It also differs from electric cars in that does have a gasoline motor. However, unlike hybrid cars, it doesn’t use gasoline to power the engine. Rather, gasoline is used to generate electricity. In other words, the car … Read more
Once upon a time, like just one year ago, all cell phone plans and wireless service companies were basically doing the same thing, offering the same pricing, and saying that they had the best service. This quad-opoly of the big 4 cell phone companies was broken by the desperation of T-Mobile, after the government refused to … Read more
Here we go again. This time, it’s the Guardian and the particular “patchwork of laws” that will make it difficult for businesses are those mandating paid sick leave for employees. However, this is not a new argument. Amazon used the same supposed inability to manage a patchwork of laws to oppose having to collect sales … Read more
Tesla is a new car company that currently makes only electric cars. That in itself is revolutionary, but the company is looking at completely remaking the entire car selling and buying model, and that is ruffling some feathers setting up a Tesla versus dealerships battle royale. New Jersey Bans Tesla Direct Sales The latest news … Read more
Several years ago I bought a netbook. At the time, there was no iPad, there most certainly was no such thing as a Chromebook. There may have been the first iPhone, although I do not recall for certain. I liked my netbook. It was underpowered compared to other computers around, and certainly compared to other … Read more
Recent news reports suggest that Sprint is looking into the possibility of buying out rival wireless carrier T-Mobile. On one hand, this is a possibly strategic merger between the number three and number four wireless carriers. Even with the buyout, Sprint would remain the number three carrier beyond the much bigger Verizon and AT&T. On … Read more
A few years ago, Frontier Airlines jumped on the bandwagon with other major airlines to charge customers for checking bags. The justification was that all of those checked bags were making the planes heavier and costing the airline more money in fuel. It just wasn’t fair to lightweight traveling passengers to have free checked bags … Read more
After sleeping on it over the weekend, I can’t help but think that traditional television has committed suicide, and doesn’t know it yet. In the traditional television model, a producer puts together a television show and sells it to a TV network. Occasionally, the process works the other way around, but for the most part, … Read more
It happens every year like clockwork. Big retailers generate sales ads with “unbelievable” savings on items that shoppers want to buy. Then, why do so many customers end up burned on Black Friday? Black Friday Tricks The oldest Black Friday scam in the book is the super-limited inventory scam. This is the same scam that … Read more