The new offerings are in large part the result of the new economics of in-flight food. Kevin Jackson, managing director of consumer marketing for US Airways, said that when airlines gave away food, “the motivation was to minimize cost.†Now that most airlines are selling food, they have an incentive, he said, to “provide better choice and quality for passengers.â€
via No Longer Free, Airplane Food Tries to Be Tasty – NYTimes.com.
Revenue over time for Microsoft, Apple and Google
via The money made by Microsoft, Apple and Google, 1985 until today | Royal Pingdom.
In each case, Mr. Iger found a solution, sometimes cajoling his people to do more and sometimes intervening more directly. “I like our people to solve problems on their own, and they usually do,†he says later. “But I will do a deep dive if there is a lot at stake or if there are creative challenges.â€
Deep is not a word that most people used to describe Mr. Iger when he took control of Disney five years ago. In fact, he was widely dismissed as little more than a stuffed suit who might have had the skills to fix a highly dysfunctional company but lacked creative sizzle or big-picture brilliance to raise its game. His predecessor Michael D. Eisner endorsed him, but faintly — at least according to “DisneyWar,†the 2005 book that chronicled Mr. Eisner’s fall from power.
via Is Disney’s Iger Having a Cinderella Moment? – NYTimes.com.
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This makes sense. During the good times, top line growth is what really drives the business. The coordination required to keep the organization closely behind sales takes a lot of effort. It is when top line growth is stagnant, when management can spend time and attention towards optimizing processes and installing best practices to tune the bottom line.
The class calls the spinoff “a massive, Enron-style debt off-loading spin transaction”. The class claims that the Idearc flop was “just one of three such transactions accomplished by Verizon Communications [that were] followed by quick bankruptcy – Hawaiian Telecommunications Inc., Idearc Inc., and Fairpoint Communications Inc.” The shareholders claim Verizon did the spinoff so it “could escape federal taxation,” and resorted to it only “after a series of failed attempts to sell the subsidiary to potential bidders.”
A short term exclusive for Warner DVDs gives Blockbuster a leg up on rival Netflix and Redbox.
Blockbuster To Get New Warner Bros DVDs Four Weeks Before Netflix/Redbox | paidContent.
Microsoft could play an open game. Tim O’Reilly has suggested Microsoft has every incentive to be the leading proponent of the open Web as it plays catch-up with Google. That same incentive applies to its efforts in mobile. Microsoft needs an open ecosystem to win in mobile, and scaring off developers like Mozilla isn't a sign that it's on the right track.
via Microsoft’s mobile strategy should learn from Android | The Open Road – CNET News.
Marketing and advertising have traditionally focused on the younger generations, mainly because they have been the major consumer group. However, as society gets older, the elderly are becoming a growth market, with the over 50s holding over 80% of personal wealth.
John Hempton is the kind of guy who compares the numbers for quarter-by-quarter average assets in Bank of America’s annual reports with the numbers for total quarter-end assets in its quarterly reports. And guess what — if you look at the year 2006, BofA’s total assets were always substantially lower at the end of the quarter than they were over the course of the quarter as a whole.
via Felix Salmon
