By bfwebster on Jul 9, 2010 in Art of 'Ware, Competition, Development, Main, Management, Marketing, Product development, Project Failure | 0 Comments
The KIN debacle (product canceled after five weeks; reports of actual phones sold range from 8,000 all the way down to 500), followed by Microsoft’s announcement of layoffs, has triggered on-line discussion among Microsoft employees, past and present. Even recognizing the self-selecting and inevitably self-serving nature of those comments, they still reflect serious, serious problems [...]
By bfwebster on Apr 16, 2008 in Books, Business, Development, Hiring, Main, Management, Marketing, Product development, Software engineering, Surviving Complexity | 1 Comment
[Copyright 2008 by Bruce F. Webster. All rights reserved. Adapted from Surviving Complexity (forthcoming).] Two disappointed believers, Two people playing the game. Negotiations and love songs Are often mistaken for one and the same. – “Train in the Distance”, Paul Simon I used to have arguments with Carol Teasley, one of my mentors, regarding software [...]
By bfwebster on Feb 26, 2008 in Art of 'Ware, Books, Competition, Management, Marketing | 0 Comments
[From The Art of ‘Ware (Version 2.0) by Bruce F. Webster (forthcoming), Chapter 1, “Starting Out”] These factors govern the success of the company: Tao; the economy; the marketplace; leadership; management. Tao means running the company so that all the employees share the same vision of success.1 “Tao” (literally, “the Way”) is probably the most [...]
By bfwebster on Dec 3, 2007 in Books, Competition, Development, Main, Marketing, Project Failure | 0 Comments
Over a decade ago, I wrote and published The Art of ‘Ware (M&T Books, 1995). The conceit of the book was simple: take Sun Tzu’s classic work The Art of War (Suntzu pingfa), written some 2500 years ago, and re-interpret it, maxim by maxim, for developing, deploying and marketing information technology (IT). Here’s an example: [...]