Commentary

Filene’s Files for Chapter 11 Protection

by dldamore

Filene’s Files for Chapter 11 Protection:

Discount retailer Syms and its Filene’s Basement subsidiary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection with plans to liquidate.

(Via WSJ.com: US Business)

 

Sometimes it’s not a good idea to buy things in a bankruptcy sale. In a weak economy and with tight credit the margin of error gets smaller. If the economy was growing or strong, this could work.The weak economy and integrating in the assets of Filene’s Basement distracted Syms management from what they should have been focusing on … creating customers for their own stores.

When I think Syms, I think suits. Well, in a weak economy people are not looking for new suits. They might have considered expanding their brand to comfort-casual to get more people in the stores. People want to look good and be comfortable with what they are wearing.

Notes:

The U.S. economy is changing. Some expanding trends are, contracting, consulting and casual dress.

Certainly there are some people still buying suits in a weak or contracting economy. Some firms still have old school dress.  When facing increasingly intense competition it’s important to focus, focus, focus if you want to win and survive. The weak players will be eaten by the stronger players or by some adjacent market that destroys ones own market segment. In the Syms example it’s professional dress. The casual dress market is adjacent to and expanding, at the same time also taking away customers.

Lenovo Profit Rises 88%

by dldamore

Lenovo Profit Rises 88%:

Lenovo said its profit rose 88% in the latest quarter, when the Chinese company passed Dell to become the No. 2 PC maker by shipments.

(Via WSJ.com: US Business)

 

Moving on up. Expanding profits too!

 

It’s not clear if there are special reasons that profits expanded. Increasing sales seems to be done so often by lowering prices to gain access to more customers, thus driving down margins and total profits. Time will tell if Lenovo is able to continue expanding profits or if there were other factors that lead to expanded profits for this period.

How many baskets?

by dldamore

How many baskets?:

One basket, cared for and watched carefully. When no one else can focus on and serve that customer as well as you (because you have no choice, it’s your only basket) you have a huge obligation but you also have a platform to do great work.

(Via Seth’s Blog)

 

Find a problem you care about. Create a solution or a system to fix it. Focus on it. Delight people you need to achieve the goal. These people might play a few differentnt roles, such as, client, supporter, employee, volunteer etc..  Without delighting people, they loose interest and stop actively supporting the mission.

You want to get people to be engaged, enthusiastic and empowered.

Engaged: Sharing ideas on how to be better … Caring.

Enthusiastic:  Excited to be part of. The value and importance of this in people cannot be over stated. It’s important to create this in people.

Empowerment: Belief of the individual or the group that they can do what it takes to get things done. It’ also important to consider that people want their input and participation to make a positive impact.

Follow Strategy – SoundCloud – Jordin Sparks

by dldamore

From an email from SoundCloud

Hey,

Jordin Sparks started following you.

This means that Jordin Sparks will get updates about your public tracks and comments.
If you want to get updates on Jordin Sparks’s tracks and comments you can start following Jordin Sparks too.

Your host,

The SoundCloud WeatherMan

 

Well, I’ve heard of Jordin Sparks but I was not familiar with her music. Two songs are currently featured on the her SoundCloud page. Listened to both, subscribed and favorited both songs.

Looks like she recently joined and is using a follow first strategy to get noticed. A notification invitation ended up in my email and after listening to here songs I became a Follower on SoundCloud. It worked because the content shared was good and this is still the early days of SoundCloud.  If every Tom, Dick and Harry does this it will get annoying to have so many email notifications. At that point, those users will be marked as spam or the notifications feature in SoundCloud settings will be changed so I am not notified about requests or new followers.

 

Ac51cb4a6e54d3bbe4e30d74ef1b0ec0

 

N&EC:

Currently she has 71 Followers. *Actually 85 as I write this post. Just refreshed her Soundcloud page. How long will it take until she has 2,000?

 

 

52 Cups of Coffee • Cup 50

by dldamore

52 Cups of Coffee • Cup 50: “the way you get from Point A (the start of a career) to Point B (the end) isn’t going to be a straight line. But if you keep moving forward, if you have a goal you’re shooting for—and the right mix of hard work and passion—you’ll get there. “

(Via .)

 

Life is sort of like the stock market, there are daily ups and downs. Sometimes your stock falls in the short term, current examples are Amazon & Netflix, even as you play out the long term strategy of working hard (Hustle + Intensity w Passion) and helping others along the way. Give value first (Gitomer) and be interested in other people (Carnegie) are a few other personal traits that will be useful in addition to working hard.

Codecademy Looks Like The Future Of Learning To Me « Uncrunched

by dldamore

Codecademy Looks Like The Future Of Learning To Me « Uncrunched:

“The service comes from CEO Zach Sims wanting to learn how to code. Cofounder Ryan Bubinski had been teaching people to code for years as a side job in college”

(Via .)

 

People need to express their problems to other people. Especially people that are willing to listen and to think about what is said. Meet with people and play a role (Talker/Listener) on both sides. Perhaps you and another person will find something important that needs to be done.

 

My original comment on the post is below. This was the idea that appeared as I read the sentence in the quoted text above.

A + B  = C

 

Scratch your own itch. You may find others have the same issue that needs solving even if their threshold to pain is quite high.

 

Itch, itch, itch.

 

Notes & Extended Thinking:

An itch is any problem big or small that needs solving. Small problems solved, even at a low price, a lot of times can be enormously profitable and can make the world a vastly better place. Only a few people will create and win in the race to be the next big thing. There are a lot of small problems that need solving. Coding and computer programming is not a major subject in the U.S. public education system.  Educating people how to code is a mostly untapped market. There are millions of students that will need to acquire the skills they need to participate in the workforce of the 21st century. Each year, several million new students enter the education system. As high school graduates leave, a new group of students is coming to the age where technology is interesting to them.

Opportunity.

Expanding Manufacturing Capacity – Subject: Apple

by dldamore

If Apple is increasing manufacturing capacity at or near 100% per year, when does capacity begin to out-pace market demand for the device output of that capacity?

This question came to mind while reading a post on the Asymco blog, How did I get the iPhone number so wrong (part II).

Surely there is some maximum number of units that this capacity can fill. How do you find the point where capacity growth needs to slow so that the plant remains highly efficient? IE, capacity does not out pace market demand by a significant margin.

Consider the iPhone, even if every person on Earth had one, max market capacity would be equal to all of human life on Earth. Perhaps it would be worth while to find markets of people to exclude to find a max market demand for the product. From there, one might need to factor out people who are unable to afford the iPhone under current prices and with current purchasing plans. Certainly these market segments could be served by finding or creating a pricing and payment system that allows more people to afford and acquire an iPhone. This payment and affordability innovation may not occur, or Apple may choose not to play there because it hurts average earnings per unit to the point where total profits increase at a slower rate or actually decrease. There is a cost to serving all market segments.

NOTES & MORE (+ questions)

Upgrade cycle: Is it every 2 years? Is a new device coming every 15-18 months now?

Do people wait when there are rumors of a new device?

Market demand may fluctuate on a quarterly basis. An iPad makes a nice Christmas gift and perhaps schools will buy a large volume in July and August to gear up for a new school year. For a device like the iPad there is probably a significant drop off in demand after the holiday season.

Smart phones are becoming the new standard for mobile phones. Not everyone will use this ‘computer in your had’ to its fullest, some may not use it for much more than calls. There will most likely be a large segment that will use apps to do more things and solve new problems by having a smartphone.

 

The T-Mobile Response to The iPhone 4s

by dldamore

A145e67bf316a205240bea96cb5fd72f

As T-Mobile is the only one of the big four carriers in the U.S. not able to offer the iPhone, they have to fight aggressively to keep customers from defecting. Although, if that merger with AT&T goes through, subscriber losses may not be as big of a deal. Not sure if the deal has a floor on the number of subscribers T-Mobile needs to have for the deal to occur at the valuation (price) agreed to.