More RIM Shots: BlackBerry Apps & Mishaps Abroad

When I read this story -- "RIM Scrambles to Launch Better LTE Devices" -- I started to think about how Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; Toronto: RIM) might save itself, especially now that its troubles are so obvious that financial analysts have all but buried it. (See RIP RIM: Will Foresight Be 20/20?) 

Building a better LTE phone will help RIM. But it also stands a good chance of improving its standing outside North America if it applies the right strategy. "We should not forget that RIM is still very strong in some emerging markets -- South Africa, Indonesia, etc.," writes Stela Bokun, an analyst with Pyramid Research . 

In Latin America, Bokun points out that RIM had a good year in 2010, but a bad year in 2011. The market is so volatile, she writes, "that one killer app can make … or kill a company." 

RIM gained some 10 percentage points of market share in Latin America in 2010, largely on the strength of its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) application. It couldn't sustain that momentum the following year, but Bokun's point is that the possibility does exist that RIM could catch some emerging markets with the right idea at the right time and tremendously improve its business in a very short space of time. 

What if, for instance, RIM launched a lower-end, less expensive line of handsets for some Southeast Asian markets and BBM -- or something else -- caught on? 

What is clear is that RIM won't win on price alone in those markets. Oppenheimer & Co. Inc. analyst Ittai Kidron recently mentioned, in a note to clients, that "there is increasing risk to RIM's international business in emerging markets as more Android vendors go down the price curve." 

Chinese vendors are the most price competitive, Kidron notes, and Android phones in the US$100 to $150 price range offer an "attractive alternative to RIM's value priced Curve 8630, which has been a strong seller internationally for RIM." 

So where do we leave this topic? Right back where we found it. "All in all, I don’t think it’s 'game over' for RIM, despite the fact that it doesn’t have too many lives left," Bokun writes.

Source: Light Reading, By: Phil Harvey

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Posted in: Business Management,ICT

Smart Cities Miss Important Benefits When Telecommunications Service Providers Lack a Key Role

Smart Cities Miss Key Benefits When Telecommunications Service Providers Lack a Key RoleDoes it make sense that telecommunications service providers (SPs) are not playing a critical role in projects to create smart cities? The facts of the matter are that involvement still remains limited. This is true even though telecommunications itself plays a central role. As a result, telecom SPs compete with cable companies, utilities and other service providers in an effort to provide information and communications technology (ICT) and other services. 

Reality is that this competition can create a disconnect in the delivery of valuable services, limiting the reach and capabilities of the resulting smart city. 

A recent posting by Alcatel-Lucent "Getting Smart About Smart Cities About Smart Cities,” highlights the importance of leveraging key assets within telecommunications service provider infrastructures to partner with key players in the creation of smart cities using IMS solutions to leverage the migration to end-to-end IP networks. In doing so, these providers significantly change their role from facilitators to strategic partners with key industries and governments in the development of these projects. To gain a better understanding of the current environment and process to develop smart cities, the Alcatel-Lucent Market and Consumer Insight team conducted a three-part analysis of 52 smart cities in 2011. This process included examining smart cities from two angles: 

- Key stakeholders and their contribution to concepts and realization 

- The impact these stakeholders influenced development 

The study revealed that the value propositions for most initiatives involving smart cities do not position Information and Communications Technology (ICT) as key to the value of smart city (and smart grid in general) projects. In addition, they found that the implementation of the necessary capabilities tends to be determined mostly by the motivations of those driving the project and hence not having telecom SPs at the table from the start can be problematic. 

A vast ecosystem of key players is at the center of smart city projects, the players include those from multiple disciplines within government entities and representatives from small to large multinational business firms. Governments tend to start the projects for creating smart cities with vendor playing a somewhat background role. And, the study found that these scenarios can create their complications. 

While relationships develop among stakeholders involved with smart cities projects, it is not clear how these relationships are created or maintained over the life of a project. This is a classic case of the famous Nelson Mandela quote, “Where one stands depends upon where one sat.” Each project is driven by a multitude of motivations and interests. These include such things as the need to invent or construct a new economic model, the need or wish to reduce energy consumption, or the need to improve the environment of city life. 

For telecom and other SPs to find their role in the process and demonstrate the value they bring to the table, it’s critical that they understand how the development of smart cities impacts all other players. This means clear demonstration of the value of critical infrastructure elements as evolving 4G LTE (News - Alert) with integrated and/or predominant Wi-Fi access, along with how to leverage IMS. It also means a clear articulation of how using the vast array of mobile solutions for the key machine-to-machine (M2M) capabilities that are core to smart grids, and making the case as to how, what, when, where and why the planning, deployment and maintenance of such capabilities, are essential to project success. As the ALU posting observes, breaking through some of the ambiguous relationships, motivations and other elements can identify clear patterns for constructing the right strategy for involvement. And, as previously mentioned, telecom SPs must communicate that value of involvement with key stakeholders to ensure them not just a significant seat at the table from project start, but the centrality of their value-added from concept to project completion and beyond. In short, telecom SPs need to change the conversation so that they are involved early and often.

Source: Next Generation Communication, By: Susan J. Campbell

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Posted in: Business Management,ICT,smart city

Smart Cities and Telcos – the sleeping giants awake?

If you go back a mere 6 months, the ecosystem of Smart City movers and shakers in discussions, conferences and exciting new service concepts was similar to that of today but with one exception; the Communications Service Providers (CSPs), specifically the Telecoms Operators were not there in the front line of the movement.

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Posted in: Business Management,ICT,smart city

Cisco's Booming Business in Smart Cities

Our world is increasingly an urban one--the United Nations projects that nearly 5 billion people will live in cities by the year 2030, due to both the expansion of mega-cities and the creation of new urban centers. Cisco wants to be the company that makes all those metropolises not just function, but flourish. 

The company is peddling its knowledge and its services to city planners around the world, and last week it announced that it had picked up three important new customers. Developers in India, Ecuador, and Canada have asked Cisco to come up with master plans for fully wired communities. Presumably if the customers like the results they'll ask Cisco to put its plans into action. 

It's important progress in a growing business sector: Cisco has estimated that smart cities offer a $13 billion market opportunity just in the next five years. "Last year we were explaining to communities and developers why smart communities were necessary, and why it’s important to build a 21st century city," Hardik Bhatt, director of Cisco's Smart+Connected Communities initiative, told me in an interview. "Now the discussion is moving into how to do it." 

Cisco has a showcase in Songdo, a city we reported on last year that's rising in South Korea on land reclaimed from the Yellow Sea. The project is notable for both its bright green credentials--public transit, green space, and water conservation systems abound--and also for its sophisticated IT nervous system, courtesy of Cisco. Apartments throughout the city are being equipped with Cisco's TelePresence units for video conferencing, and the company is constructing a central control room that it says will allow government departments and utilities to leverage real-time information to improve city services, including public safety, traffic management, and energy conservation. 

Even though Songdo isn't fully built-out yet, and it's still not clear if or when the most ambitious elements of the project will come to pass, Cisco is hoping to replicate that model around the world. "Songdo was the first customer deployment," says Marc Musgrove, a Cisco spokesman. "That model is migrating to places like Barcelona. We have a number of very interesting pilot projects there, like parking space management and how to route the buses more effectively. Barcelona is using the IT platform that we’re developing to give managers access to a pool of data." 

Cisco's newly announced customers include the Delhi Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Company, which is in charge of creating a vibrant urban landscape along the roughly 1400-kilometer train route that links Delhi and Mumbai. The developer expects to revamp some existing municipalities and build some new ones to reach a total of 24 cities; Cisco is now working on the IT master plan for the first two pilot cities, Dholera in the state of Gujarat and Shendra in Maharashtra. 

Another new customer is the government of Guayaquil, the most populous city in Ecuador, which wants an IT plan that will allow it to upgrade health care, education, public safety, and e-government services. Finally, a developer in Toronto, Canada has asked Cisco for help with a new residential and commercial development in the north sector of the city.

Source: IEEE Spectrum, By: Eliza Strickland

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Posted in: Business Management,ICT,smart city

Nine Things Successful People Do Differently

Why have you been so successful in reaching some of your goals, but not others? If you aren't sure, you are far from alone in your confusion. It turns out that even brilliant, highly accomplished people are pretty lousy when it comes to understanding why they succeed or fail. The intuitive answer — that you are born predisposed to certain talents and lacking in others — is really just one small piece of the puzzle. In fact, decades of research on achievement suggests that successful people reach their goals not simply because of who they are, but more often because of what they do. 

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Posted in: Business Management

What do Smart Cities, Economic Development and Wealth Creation Have in Common?

Too often the answer is “not much”. When smart cities support wealth creation, they become a powerful economic force. Wealth is the engine that powers community prosperity. 

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Posted in: Business Management,smart city

Apple: the Numbers Behind the (Huge) Numbers

Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) just came off its best quarter yet, in which its profit of $13.6 billion and revenues of $46 billion more than doubled its year-ago quarter, making it the second largest U.S. company by market cap. (See Apple Reports Q1 Revenue of $46B.) 

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Now, What is Really Apple Worth

(Reuters) - Apple Inc shares surged the most in more than three years, after skyrocketing iPhone and iPadsales helped it smash Wall Street expectations, prompting analysts to raise their price targets on the stock by as much as $100.

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If You're An Average Worker, You're Going Straight To The Bottom

The way we do business is changing fast and in order to keep up, your entire mentality about work has to change just as quickly.

Unfortunately, most people aren't adapting fast enough to this change in the workplace, says marketing guru Seth Godin in an interview with the Canadian talk show "George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight" (via Pragmatic Capitalism).

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Posted in: Business Management

These CEOs Got Paid $100+ Million Each To Quit

When Gene Isenberg stepped down as CEO of Nabors Industries last fall, the company paid him $100,000,000 in cash as part of his employment agreement.

But that's chump change.

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Posted in: Business Management

6 Startups to Watch in 2012

An Olympic games, a U.S. presidential election and the end of the world are already planned for 2012, but we’re more excited about the startups.

Here are six of them (in no particular order) that we expect to help define the coming year. We chose companies based on the momentum they gained in 2011, promising new takes on old problems and, in one case, the possibility of an IPO. 

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Posted in: Business Management

The Ten Most Annoying Management Terms Of 2011

We are nearly at the end of 2011 and another year of mayhem behind. We will be judging our 2011 Non-Predictions and trying to dream up some new ones for 2012 in the next fortnight or so but this week we have been able to get some long needed admin done.

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Posted in: Business Management

Tech Firm Implements Employee ‘Zero Email’ Policy

You’ve got mail–not. Employees of tech company Atos will be banned from sending emails under the company’s new “zero email” policy.

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Posted in: Business Management,ICT

9 Things That Motivate Employees More Than Money

The ability to motivate employees is one of the greatest skills an entrepreneur can possess. Two years ago, I realized I didn't have this skill. So I hired a CEO who did.

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Posted in: Business Management

Stop Competing to Be the Best

With Cyber Monday, the tablet wars kicked into full swing. Which one is the best? Is it the iPad? The Kindle? Who has the best technology? The best distribution? Who's the best overall? For most people, "being the best" is what competition is all about.

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Posted in: Business Management

How Leaders Create and Use Networks, I say Leaders

When Henrik Balmer became the production manager and a board member of a newly bought-out cosmetics firm, improving his network was the last thing on his mind. The main problem he faced was time: Where would he find the hours to guide his team through a major upgrade of the production process and then think about strategic issues like expanding the business?

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Posted in: Business Management

Expanded spheres of influence, how to network effectively

When Simon Rabin, the co-founder of London-based mobile commerce business Txt2Buy, set up the company in 2008, he faced the same problem that confronts many aspiring entrepreneurs: how to obtain funding.

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Posted in: Business Management,ICT

How Apple Can Keep Control of the Tablet Market

Amazon's Kindle Fire might provoke Apple to develop a 7-inch iPad retailing for no more than $299 and backed by a content ecosystem that’s second to none

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Posted in: Business Management

Five Charts that Changed Business

Once in a while, a chart so deftly captures an important strategic insight that it becomes an iconic part of management thinking and a tool that shows up in MBA classrooms and corporate boardrooms for years to come. As HBR prepares for its 90th anniversary, in 2012, our editors have combed the magazine archives and other sources to select five charts that changed the shape of strategy. What did we miss? Nominate more charts in the comments.

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Posted in: Business Management

The Unemployment Playbook: Stay Relevant

If you've recently joined the growing number of unemployed Americans, you're entitled to a few days of moping. But don't dither away too long. Soon you'll need to brush the dirt off your shoulders and put some fresh shine on your personal brand.

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Posted in: Business Management