Affichage des articles dont le libellé est billion. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est billion. Afficher tous les articles
jeudi 31 mai 2012
How Do You Cultivate Innovation ?
Being innovative means solving a problem in a unique and creative
way. Companies like Google, Apple, GE and Facebook have made billions
because innovation is a principal value in everything they do. Given the
positive associations with it, every organization likes to think it
fosters innovation, but unfortunately, the truth is often much
different. This week's Culture Beat explores the qualities of truly
innovative cultures. How does yours stack up?
Promoting Pride in the Individual and the Organization
According to research recently published in the Journal of Business Venturing, which looked at two decades of data on 62 countries, both individualistic and nationalistic cultures support innovation. While it’s not a major surprise that individualism is strongly associated with innovation, a more intriguing finding is that cultures that value the success of the group and have high degrees of patriotism also encourage innovation in their people. Countries like Japan and Sweden, for instance, are traditionally more collectivist but are also extremely innovative.
Employing Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is a management style that seeks to positively impact the attitudes and behaviors of followers. Frequently described as high-energy and high on passion, transformational leaders are focused more on success of the people responsible for the outcome than the success of the outcome itself. Such managers promote intellectual curiosity, open communication, performance rewards and professional development. They are able to articulate a clear vision for progress and, by appealing to the moral high ground, serve as an inspirational role model for employees. Michael Dell of Dell, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Lou Gerstner of IBM and Martin Luther King Jr. are oft-cited examples of transformational leaders.
Giving People Permission to Fail
True innovators know that hitting upon a successful idea is a process of trial and error, and more often than not, you have to experiment with several approaches before finding one that works. Cultures infused with innovation are not risk-averse and don’t hold people back by always insisting on a revenue-winning outcome. By giving employees the freedom to fail, organizations also open themselves up to spectacular wins. Sounds a bit like transformational leadership, doesn’t it? And one need only to look at Microsoft to see it in action.
Don’t Restrict the Focus to R&D
Throwing some budget at research and development departments, or launching a siloed “innovation committee” will not definitively move your culture in the right direction. Instead, employees in all areas of the business must be encouraged to weave innovative thinking into everyday tasks and projects, and should be rewarded for doing so.
Innovative Cultures Don’t Need Gatekeepers
Fast Company Co.Design bloggers Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen claim that there is a new type of professional in American businesses specifically tasked with innovation. “Innovation custodians” are middle managers assigned to oversee innovators and their processes. “Innovation word-slingers” are external consultants who lead in-house innovation workshops. The problem with innovation professionals, say Skibsted and Hansen, is that they rarely have the maverick outlook that it takes to innovate in a substantive way. Also, innovation should be an attitude that organically runs through the heart of an organization and cannot be easily implemented by a manager with a to-do list.
Do you think your culture breeds innovation? What advantages and disadvantages do small businesses have in this regard?
Alexandra Levit is a former nationally syndicated business and workplace columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success. Money Magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year, she regularly speaks at organizations and conferences on issues facing modern employees.
Promoting Pride in the Individual and the Organization
According to research recently published in the Journal of Business Venturing, which looked at two decades of data on 62 countries, both individualistic and nationalistic cultures support innovation. While it’s not a major surprise that individualism is strongly associated with innovation, a more intriguing finding is that cultures that value the success of the group and have high degrees of patriotism also encourage innovation in their people. Countries like Japan and Sweden, for instance, are traditionally more collectivist but are also extremely innovative.
Employing Transformational Leadership
Transformational leadership is a management style that seeks to positively impact the attitudes and behaviors of followers. Frequently described as high-energy and high on passion, transformational leaders are focused more on success of the people responsible for the outcome than the success of the outcome itself. Such managers promote intellectual curiosity, open communication, performance rewards and professional development. They are able to articulate a clear vision for progress and, by appealing to the moral high ground, serve as an inspirational role model for employees. Michael Dell of Dell, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Lou Gerstner of IBM and Martin Luther King Jr. are oft-cited examples of transformational leaders.
Giving People Permission to Fail
True innovators know that hitting upon a successful idea is a process of trial and error, and more often than not, you have to experiment with several approaches before finding one that works. Cultures infused with innovation are not risk-averse and don’t hold people back by always insisting on a revenue-winning outcome. By giving employees the freedom to fail, organizations also open themselves up to spectacular wins. Sounds a bit like transformational leadership, doesn’t it? And one need only to look at Microsoft to see it in action.
Don’t Restrict the Focus to R&D
Throwing some budget at research and development departments, or launching a siloed “innovation committee” will not definitively move your culture in the right direction. Instead, employees in all areas of the business must be encouraged to weave innovative thinking into everyday tasks and projects, and should be rewarded for doing so.
Innovative Cultures Don’t Need Gatekeepers
Fast Company Co.Design bloggers Jens Martin Skibsted and Rasmus Bech Hansen claim that there is a new type of professional in American businesses specifically tasked with innovation. “Innovation custodians” are middle managers assigned to oversee innovators and their processes. “Innovation word-slingers” are external consultants who lead in-house innovation workshops. The problem with innovation professionals, say Skibsted and Hansen, is that they rarely have the maverick outlook that it takes to innovate in a substantive way. Also, innovation should be an attitude that organically runs through the heart of an organization and cannot be easily implemented by a manager with a to-do list.
Do you think your culture breeds innovation? What advantages and disadvantages do small businesses have in this regard?
Alexandra Levit is a former nationally syndicated business and workplace columnist for The Wall Street Journal and the author of Blind Spots: The 10 Business Myths You Can’t Afford to Believe on Your New Path to Success. Money Magazine’s Online Career Expert of the Year, she regularly speaks at organizations and conferences on issues facing modern employees.
12:49 1
vendredi 11 mai 2012
Facebook Inches Into Craigslist Territory With ‘Highlighted Posts’
The feature — discovered by Stuff, a New Zealand blog (which is unaffiliated with the U.K. publication of the same name) — is being tested with a “small percentage of users” right now, a Facebook rep says. The fee for using Highlighted Posts, meanwhile, runs from zero to “a couple of bucks.”
When asked who would use the product, the rep gave the example of a small band plugging an upcoming gig or someone selling their car. The latter appears to be new ground for Facebook since the company hasn’t previously offered users the ability to amplify their status updates. If the program is successful, it could let Facebook enter the online classified market, a segment that the IAB pegged at $2.6 billion in 2011.
It’s unclear how the program — which is similar to new ad products aimed at corporate users — would work and if it would function along the lines of Reach Generator, a Facebook ad product that ensures that a high percentage of people in your network see your post.
The rep stressed that Highlighted Posts is one of many products the company is testing right now.
The introduction comes a week before Facebook’s expected IPO. Facebook filed an amended S-1 form on Wednesday highlighting the fact that its advertising growth hasn’t kept pace with its exploding user base.
11:59 0
dimanche 6 mai 2012
How Instagram Took America by Storm [INFOGRAPHIC]
The flaming hot mobile app and recent $1 billion Facebook acquisition now has more than 40 million users.
This Online Colleges infographic shares some impressive stats behind the viral mobile photography app. Instagram gains one new user every second. One billion photos have been taken with the app — that’s roughly 58 photos uploaded each second.
Instagram’s on track to hit 100 million users — joining the ranks of LinkedIn, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook — two years after its initial iOS launch in October 2010.
The infographic, created by an online university database, focuses on college students’ adoption of the app. It suggests professors and campus professionals use Instagram to foster community through photo contests. It also recommends that students follow professors to learn about their interests outside of the classroom.
How have you seen colleges use Instagram? Do you think students and professors should interact on social networks?
10:24 0
mardi 10 avril 2012
Everyone’s Curious About Instagram; Android App Hits 5 Million Downloads
As reported first by The Next Web, by studiously watching the Google Play page for the Instagram app, the app has now jumped into the category of “5,000,000 – 10,000,000″ installs where it was previously in the “1,000,000 – 5,000,000″ install range. I’ve picked up the application myself, and while I still think it’s a close call with Camera ZOOM FX, Instagram’s ability to auto upload and share with others is pretty slick.
Are you using Instagram for Android?
10:32 1
lundi 19 mars 2012
Why Apple Is Giving Cash Back to Shareholders
There are several reasons Apple is giving dividends, but the primary one is that investors feel they have a right to some of Apple’s $100 billion. “People expect a return on their investment,” says Charles Elson, director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. “If you can’t do anything with the money, then you should give it back.”
Elson says that Apple is not the only company to deal with this issue. At some point, every successful public company will get pressure to give money back. (Before the recession, Exxon Mobil, Dell and Pfizer, among others, got the same kind of pressure from investors to give back their cash or find a way to invest it.) In Apple’s case, closing in on $100 billion seems to have triggered a call to launch a dividend for investors, but there’s usually no benchmark for such decisions. “It’s all up to the judgment of the board,” says Elson.
Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, says $100 billion is way more than Apple needs, so it doesn’t make sense to keep all that money on hand. He points out that even after the company pays out its $45 billion in dividends, Apple will still have more than $50 billion in cash plus whatever it puts aside in the future. “They’ll always have cash for even big acquisitions if it enhances their position,” says Bajarin, who expects Apple to start buying more companies.
During the call with analysts Monday morning, Apple CEO Tim Cook repeatedly stressed that the dividend would also attract new investors. With a share price of $600, drawing new shareholders doesn’t seem like an issue, but Bajarin notes that there’s a type of investor that is primarily concerned with dividends. “Most of the guys buying [Apple stock] today are buying on a holding basis,” says Bajarin, who notes that such investors believe Apple is a good long-term buy. “But there are a lot of people who buy stock only on a monthly basis.”
Another point Bajarin emphasized is that some 65% of of Apple’s cash is based outside the U.S. Merely bringing that money — now housed in foreign banks — back to the U.S. would force Apple to lose cash in taxes and other fees. “Apple’s not the only one,” he says. “No corporation wants to bring money back to the U.S.”
Known for its dramatic product introductions, Apple’s Monday morning announcement will probably seem ho-hum for non-investors. But, based on Apple’s stock performance Monday morning, the company has at least prompted a squib of excitement among its intended audience: At press time, the company’s stock was up about $6 or 1% at the iDividend news.
The New iPad Details Hit Apple.com
The new 9.7-inch iPad
has 2048 x 1536-pixel retina display, 5-megapixel camera (with the same
optics sensor from the iPhone 4S) and 1080p video recording. It is
available March 16 in black and white, powered by A5X chip (with
quad-core graphics) and supports 4G LTE networks. It's 9.4 millimeters
thick and 1.4 pounds.Wi-Fi only iPads cost $499 for 16 GB, $599 32 GB and $699 for 64 GB, while 4G versions cost $629 for 16 GB, $729 32 GB and $829 for 64 GB. Pre-orders start today, and the devices will be in stores March 16 in these 10 countries: U.S., UK, Japan, Canada, Switzerland, Germany, France, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.
Credit: Apple.com
Apple.com Touts New iPad Features
"Pick
up the new iPad and suddenly, it’s clear. You’re actually touching your
photos, reading a book, playing the piano. Nothing comes between you
and what you love. To make that hands-on experience even better, we made
the fundamental elements of iPad better — the display, the camera, the
wireless connection. All of which makes the new, third-generation iPad
capable of so much more than you ever imagined."Credit: Apple.com
09:15 0
4 Things Apple Should Have Done With Its Billions
The Cupertino company’s decision was an obvious one — its $97 billion cash hoard was becoming a burden, and a combination of a dividend and a stock buyback program is a simple way to keep shareholders happy.
However, Apple was in a unique position: it had zero debt and an unheard of amount of cash, which gave it an unprecedented freedom of choice.
With the world coming out of one of the worst recessions in recent history, and Apple being on the forefront of a smartphone/post-PC revolution, one can’t help but wonder whether there were other — braver, perhaps — ways in which the world’s most valuable company could have spent that money.
Green Energy
Apple has invested in green energy before — its new data center in Maiden, N.C., for example, will have the largest end user–owned, onsite solar array in the U.S. Also, Apple’s new “Spaceship” campus will be one of the most environmentally friendly buildings of its kind.
However, while Apple was only investing in green energy for its own purposes (all that positive PR doesn’t hurt, either), Google has gone a step further, making green energy its business.
In 2011, Google invested an astounding $880 million in a variety of renewable energy projects — an amount that sounds trivial compared to the approximately $2.5 billion Apple will spend only on its first quarterly dividend in July 2012.
Philanthropy
Steve Jobs was often criticized for not being particularly philanthropic. Though he was a multi-billionaire, Jobs rarely donated money, and he stopped all philanthropic efforts in Apple as well when he returned to the company in 1997.
Tim Cook has had (he still does) a unique chance to completely turn this stance around. Of course, donating a large sum of money to a philanthropic foundation would probably be frowned upon by shareholders, but there are many ways to donate to a good cause: giving away smartphones and tablets to children in poor countries, or helping them get better Internet access, for example. Such efforts might benefit a multinational giant like Apple in the years to come.
iPads for Schools and Universities
Apple recently announced a big play into the textbook business. For this business to thrive, kids in schools and universities need to have iPads, and the simplest possible solution is to just give them away.
Equipping every kid in the U.S. with an iPad is no cheap task. As of late 2011, there were more than 49.4 million students attending public elementary and secondary schools, and 19.7 million students were attending U.S. colleges and universities.
If you count the cost of iPad at $499 (it costs Apple less to make it, but we’ll use the retail price for simplicity’s sake), it would cost approximately $35 billion to give an iPad to every student in every classroom in America. It would be a very bold move, but also one that would revolutionize the U.S. education system, with Apple sitting firmly at the forefront.
And if you think such a move would be mere squandering of Apple’s cash, just think how much money Apple would get when all those kids start buying iPad apps.
A Major Acquisition
Forty-five billion dollars can buy you a lot of things. When we talk about companies as big as Apple, I’m not a fan of major mergers and acquisitions, because it’s really hard to integrate the visions of two different IT companies (remember Sony Ericsson and Benq-Siemens?) into one.
As far as acquiring smaller companies — Tim Cook pointed this out in today’s announcement — Apple still has more than enough cash to buy pretty much whatever company it fancies.
However, with so much money on its hands, Apple could even afford to buy its way into a completely different industry. The aforementioned green energy comes to mind, but there are other options, as well. With today’s electric cars becoming more and more intertwined with the IT industry, an iCar becomes closer to reality. So why not buy your way into the auto-industry?
08:38 0
mercredi 22 février 2012
HP Q1 Revenue Down 7 Percent To $30B, Net Income Down 44 Percent, Software Sales Up 30 Percent
“In the first quarter, we delivered on our Q1 outlook and remained focused on the fundamentals to drive long-term sustainable returns,” Meg Whitman, HP president and chief executive officer, said in a statement. “We are taking the necessary steps to improve execution, increase effectiveness and capitalize on emerging opportunities to reassert HP’s technology leadership.”
In the Americas, first quarter revenue was $13.2 billion, down 9 percent year over year. Europe, the Middle East and Africa revenue of $11.7 billion was down 4 percent year over year, and revenue in Asia Pacific was $5.2 billion, representing a 10 percent decrease year over year.
Revenue from outside of the United States in the first quarter accounted for 66 percent of total HP revenue. BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) generated revenue of $3.1 billion, down 13 percent from the year-ago period, and representing 10 percent of total HP revenue. Revenue in HP’s commercial businesses declined 4 percent year over year. Revenue in HP’s consumer businesses, within PSG and IPG, was collectively down 23 percent year over year.
In terms of specific product lines, the Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue declined 15 percent year over year, and services revenue of $8.6 billion grew 1 percent year over year with a 10.5 percent operating margin. Imaging and Printing Group revenue declined 7 percent year over year. Consumer hardware revenue was down 15 percent year over year.Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking (ESSN) revenue declined 10 percent year over year.
On the bright side, software revenue grew 30 percent year over year with a 17.1 percent. HP says software revenue was driven by 12 percent license growth, 22 percent support growth and 108 percent growth in services.
17:58 0
jeudi 16 février 2012
Chinese Search Engine Baidu’s Q4 Revenue Up 82.5 Percent To $711M; Net Income Up 77 Percent
For the full year in 2011, total revenues were $2.304 billion, representing an 83.2% increase from 2010. Net income for 2011 came in at $1.055 billion, up 88.3% from 2010.
Robin Li, chairman and chief executive officer of Baidu said in a release, “I’m pleased to report that we closed the year with solid financial results as strong execution allowed us to benefit from exceptional market opportunities…Over the course of 2011, we made great progress on the Baidu Open Data and Open Application platforms, executed effectively on our landing page strategy, and rolled out several new initiatives, including our personalized homepage and the Baidu Yi mobile platform…In 2012, we will continue to innovate and to solidify Baidu’s central position in China’s Internet ecosystem.”
Online marketing revenues for the fourth quarter of 2011 were $709.7 million, representing an 82.3% increase. Baidu had about 311,000 active online marketing customers in the fourth quarter of 2011, up 12.7%.
As of Q3 2011, Baidu had 77 percent of the search market share in China. And in the fourth quarter, Dell and Baidu unveiled a new smartphone.
17:30 0
mercredi 1 février 2012
Facebook IPO: Top 10 Things to Do While You Wait
According to reports, most indicators point to $10 billion in stock and a valuation at over $100 billion — making it the largest in tech IPO in history.
While we’re all watching our social streams, waiting for the news to drop, the Mashable team has decided to share what we believe are the best ways to pass the time.
13:40 0
mardi 31 janvier 2012
Want to Print Facebook? Better Get 11.5 Billion Sheets of Paper [INFOGRAPHIC]
Printing a year’s worth of Facebook statuses would be equivalent to printing more than 500 million Oxford English Dictionaries, a new survey found.
Sure, it would be a waste of paper, but a UK online cartridge retailer thought it would be interesting to find out how much paper would be needed to print a year’s worth of Facebook statuses if the website’s 800 million users updated once per day. The answer — 11.5 billion sheets.
Of course, there are a few stipulations for cramming the statuses onto paper — each of the estimated 292 billion status updates would be an average of two lines, which is equivalent to 584 billion total lines; the statuses would be printed on 8.3-by-11.7 inch paper in size 11 point Arial font.
The print job would be expensive — the ink alone would cost about $194.5 million or 147.2 million euros. To compare, England could build two more of the London Eye with that amount of money. It would take 573 million hours to read every Facebook status posted in a year, which is how long it would take to fly around the globe 8.5 million times, according to Cartridge Save, the online ink cartridge retailer who compiled the facts.
The UK company surveyed 2,102 UK Facebook users by email to calculate numbers for the infographic. Of those surveyed, the average UK Facebook user spends 32 minutes per day reading on Facebook, and 62% of respondents write one status about two lines in length per day.
How much paper and ink do you think was used when people sent snail mail on a daily basis to communicate with family and friends years ago?
Infographic created by Cartridge Save
Sure, it would be a waste of paper, but a UK online cartridge retailer thought it would be interesting to find out how much paper would be needed to print a year’s worth of Facebook statuses if the website’s 800 million users updated once per day. The answer — 11.5 billion sheets.
Of course, there are a few stipulations for cramming the statuses onto paper — each of the estimated 292 billion status updates would be an average of two lines, which is equivalent to 584 billion total lines; the statuses would be printed on 8.3-by-11.7 inch paper in size 11 point Arial font.
The print job would be expensive — the ink alone would cost about $194.5 million or 147.2 million euros. To compare, England could build two more of the London Eye with that amount of money. It would take 573 million hours to read every Facebook status posted in a year, which is how long it would take to fly around the globe 8.5 million times, according to Cartridge Save, the online ink cartridge retailer who compiled the facts.
The UK company surveyed 2,102 UK Facebook users by email to calculate numbers for the infographic. Of those surveyed, the average UK Facebook user spends 32 minutes per day reading on Facebook, and 62% of respondents write one status about two lines in length per day.
How much paper and ink do you think was used when people sent snail mail on a daily basis to communicate with family and friends years ago?
06:44 0
lundi 30 janvier 2012
What Piracy? The Entertainment Industry is BOOMING!
We’ve pointed it out
numerous times in the past. Despite the rampant piracy, Hollywood and
other entertainment industries continue to break revenue and sales
records year after year.
In an excellent report commissioned by the CCIA, Techdirt’s Mike Masnick has has made an excellent overview of how well things go in the various entertainment industry sectors.
The report titled “The Sky is Rising” was presented at the MIDEM music business conference earlier today.
A summary of some of the key findings:
* According to MPAA, box office revenues grew 25 percent from 2006 to 2010 from $25.5 billion to $31.8 billion.
* Data from PricewaterhouseCoopers and iDATE show that from 1998-2010 the value of the worldwide entertainment industry grew from $449 billion to $745 billion.
* From 1999 to 2009 music concert sales in the US tripled from $1.5 billion to $4.6 billion
* Consumers’ choices growing as more movies are produced jumping from 5,635 films produced globally in 2005 to 7,193 in 2009.
* BLS data also show entertainment sector employment also grew 20 percent during that last decade and 43 percent for those identified as independent artists.
In addition to statistics, the report also lists many of the case studies that we’ve covered here at TorrentFreak, from Paulo Coelho to Louis CK.
n large part, the report is meant to counter the entertainment industry claims that their businesses have been ruined by piracy, and that the Internet has to be monitored and censored.
“Unfortunately, it feels like much of the debate about copyright law over the past few decades has been based on claims about the state of an industry that simply don’t match up to reality,” the report reads.
“Rather than decrying the state of the entertainment industry today and seeking new laws to protect certain aspects of the industry, we should be celebrating the growth and vitality of this vibrant part of our economy — while consumers enjoy an amazing period of creativity.”
“We hope that this report will help shift the debate away from a focus on a narrow set of interests who have yet to take advantage of the new opportunities, and towards a more positive recognition of the wide-open possibilities presented by new technologies to create, promote, distribute, connect and monetize. We’re living in a truly amazing time for the entertainment industry, and it’s time that our national debate reflects that reality.”
Let’s hope so.
In an excellent report commissioned by the CCIA, Techdirt’s Mike Masnick has has made an excellent overview of how well things go in the various entertainment industry sectors.
The report titled “The Sky is Rising” was presented at the MIDEM music business conference earlier today.
A summary of some of the key findings:
* According to MPAA, box office revenues grew 25 percent from 2006 to 2010 from $25.5 billion to $31.8 billion.
* Data from PricewaterhouseCoopers and iDATE show that from 1998-2010 the value of the worldwide entertainment industry grew from $449 billion to $745 billion.
* From 1999 to 2009 music concert sales in the US tripled from $1.5 billion to $4.6 billion
* Consumers’ choices growing as more movies are produced jumping from 5,635 films produced globally in 2005 to 7,193 in 2009.
* BLS data also show entertainment sector employment also grew 20 percent during that last decade and 43 percent for those identified as independent artists.
In addition to statistics, the report also lists many of the case studies that we’ve covered here at TorrentFreak, from Paulo Coelho to Louis CK.
n large part, the report is meant to counter the entertainment industry claims that their businesses have been ruined by piracy, and that the Internet has to be monitored and censored.
“Unfortunately, it feels like much of the debate about copyright law over the past few decades has been based on claims about the state of an industry that simply don’t match up to reality,” the report reads.
“Rather than decrying the state of the entertainment industry today and seeking new laws to protect certain aspects of the industry, we should be celebrating the growth and vitality of this vibrant part of our economy — while consumers enjoy an amazing period of creativity.”
“We hope that this report will help shift the debate away from a focus on a narrow set of interests who have yet to take advantage of the new opportunities, and towards a more positive recognition of the wide-open possibilities presented by new technologies to create, promote, distribute, connect and monetize. We’re living in a truly amazing time for the entertainment industry, and it’s time that our national debate reflects that reality.”
Let’s hope so.
14:07 0
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