Fixing budget gaming

edit Tweet This! A most interesting article in the Harvard Management Update (Lauren Keller Johnson - Stamp Out Budget Shenanigans, Harvard Management Update August 2005) outlines some good practices to help address common games people play at budget time. Citing Richard Steele, a partner in Marakon Associates, they recommend four practices that can help make the budgeting process more realistic and strategic. I thought these were quite interesting, and essential in an era in which it is really hard for more senior people to know what is going on at an operating level.

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Don’t call us 2.0 - dumb ad category

edit Tweet This! So along the 'don't call us' theme, here is an example of a waste of money. The ad appears in the August 2005 issue of Inc, on what would be page 39. "Don't Call Us." it boldly begins, followed by the phrases "when a technology performs flawlessly and is simple to use, it soon becomes something you don't need to think about, won't need to think about. Fortunately for your business, XOptionsFlex is exactly that kind of "no need to call" technology".

What they don't tell you is what technology they are selling! I gather after scrutinizing the ad that it is some kind of telephone service provider. But what a name - XOptions Flex???

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Don’t call us 1.0

edit Tweet This! Is it a coincidence that in a recent edition of INC magazine that within a few pages the phrase "don't call us" came up over and over?

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Microsoft 1, Apple 0 in Mouse competition

edit Tweet This! The Wall Street Journal's 'personal technology' column (August 4, 2005) compares Apple's new "Mighty Mouse" with Microsoft's new entry, the Wireless Optical Mouse 5000. Much to the evident surprise of the reviewer (Walter S. Mossberg), the Apple product came out wanting in terms of usability. While the Microsoft product allows easy access to both left and right clicking and web page scrolling, the Apple product makes these characteristics subservient to a slick design. Moreover, Apple has been beaten to the punch by a key feature of the Microsoft mouse, namely that it can temporarily magnify any portion of the screen that the viewer is working with.

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Stealing Copper - Second Order

edit Tweet This! In many countries in Africa, copper is extraordinarily valuable as the raw material input for trinkets and tourist souvenirs. Where do you get a ready supply of copper, if you are desperately poor? Easy – just steal it from the telecommunications lines that criss-cross the land. A big problem for land-line based telephone operators has become a boon for mobile phone companies, even at a price that is 10 times the price of land-line based service. Now that citizens have mobile phones, a secondary market in phone-based services is beginning to emerge. Who would have thought that a great opportunity can come from such desperation?

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