BUSINESS: Merge Hewlett-Packard and Compaq - Two years after

Knowledge@Wharton published an analysis - The H-P Compaq Merger Two Years Out: Still Waiting for the Upside - about the results of the merge between Hewlett-Packard and Compaq for a while. Interesting to see that there are still two different entry points for the new company (hp.com, compaq.com)...



Different quite opposite views are expressed in this, which shows that it is still difficult to know after 2 years is this huge merge was/is worth or not.

George Day
"Wall Street may say, "Break the damn thing up'. Analysts [often] have good insights, but they made the same proposal in 1992 when Gerstner came on board. It's a nice parallel. Gerstner was confronted, when he first arrived, with the idea of, 'Let's break up IBM into six or seven different businesses.' Well, it would have been the worst possible decision for IBM. If Carly's going to make this thing work, she's going to have to do something like Gerstner did: pull things together and create solutions at the level of market segments. Each part of the organization that reaches the customer should have the autonomy to pull together whatever the customer wants, supported by product groups. That's not a bad strategy. H-P is really a product-centric company. If they can move to become a customer-focused company, with the products feeding into those customer groups, then they may have a chance. But the problem with that strategy is we have a player [IBM] that's already done that. HP is trying to be cost competitive with Dell and be the same kind of integrated-solutions provider that IBM has become. If that doesn't work -- if it's clear IBM has too big a lead -- then HP, which has this hugely profitable printer business, has to think about breaking up."

Saikat Chaudhuri
"H-P has to be more focused on its marketing, not just saying, 'We provide everything,' but 'We can cater to all your needs and this is how were going to do it.' The beautiful part of IBM's e-Business strategy is everything else can revolve around it. The challenge for H-P is to extend its brand. High quality and innovation need to apply to servers, services and storage systems as well as PCs."

PRIVATE: BMW vs. Mercedes

[thanx Patrick]

TOOLS: google cheat sheet

A description of the most important Google advanced search operators.

BUSINESS: some interesting driving values

[via dragos]

Have a look at this entrepreneurial story. Interesting values (they called them "precepts"):

1. We must be financially successful to be a business


2. Respect


3. We want our clients to love our service


4. The success of the business along all dimensions is everyone's responsibility


5. Our work environment must be comfortable and stimulating


6. Strive to be the best


7. We want to grow into new areas that we have not yet explored


8. Work should be a substantive, positive part of our life experience and personal growth


9. We want to be our clients' best computer technology investment


10. We will periodically meet as a group to evaluate, question, and re-affirm our precepts and our mission

I must say that I agree a *lot* with these "precepts". The only strange thing is that the guys sold the company one year after having defined these values... A pity in a way?

BLOG: back home :-)

Wow, I'm back home after three *very* intensive days in our so-called "Management Forum". As explained on Wednesday, this is our yearly group-wide Executive Managers meeting (Board of Directors and local Executive Board members, special Group functions). Near all the strategic workshops and presentations (some very interesting guest-speakers), these 3 days are a great opportunity for me to discuss with all my internal clients. All in all, I had exactly 15 (!) meetings. And a lot of great contacts with some quite impressive leaders (as usual, not all of our managers are leaders ;-).

Surely my best and more productive Management Forum (it was the third one).

The main strategic topic was ... world ageing. Incredible, it was really fascinating. I can tell you, we all underestimate the impact of demography (ageing!) on our society ... and the business opportunities generated by this development. I will present you a little bit more in the coming days.

In this field, it was interesting to observe how the age distribution looks like for the managers involved in the Management forum:
- 10% under 40
- 50% between 40 and 50
- 40% over 50
I was the only one under 35 (I'm 32) and the youngest, sometimes I feel a little bit alone ;-)

BLOG: out of office till Friday evening

Hi folks, I will not be very active till Friday evening as I will participate for the coming three days to our so-called Helvetia Patria Management Forum, which takes place once a year in October, at the holding headquarter in St.Gallen - Switzerland. This yearly meeting gather together all the Executive Board members of the subsidiaries, the Group Executive Board members and some special Group functions (as myself).

It is the third year that I could participate. Great experience, strategic discussions/exchanges and human contacts with all my internal clients! So, a good perspective of three amazing and very intensive days ;-)

TOOLS: the ultimate tool for geek

[via vowe]

If you are a geek (who's not a geek here?), you need to try this tool called Kapsules ;-) It is a scripting engine that lets you run small desktop widgets. It works on Windows 2000, XP and 2003, It needs the Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 and Microsoft Scripting 5.6 in order to run. The current version is the 0.9.4.5. A lot of widgets are available here (date and time, weather, post-it, news, system info, launchers, Email, music and audio, etc.). Kapsules is now a freeware (not Open Source), not completely mature, but stable enough!

Kapsules is desktop widget engine for Microsoft Windows.
What's a widget you say? A widget is like a miniature application which rests on your desktop. Widgets can do all sorts of things. A widget could show you the current weather conditions, display news from your favorite website, or even check your email for you.

Kapsules makes use of the Microsoft Active Scripting Engine, which is a part of Windows. Using this built-in scripting engine, Kapsules can allow widgets to be written in a multitude of scripting languages, provided that a user has a language's add-on engine installed. That being said, widgets can make use of a certain languages strengths, weaknesses, and special features. Kapsules does not limit a developer to what language they can use!

It is worth noting that Kapsules was very much inspired by Konfabulator, a similar - yet very different application for the Apple Macintosh OSX platform. Kapsules ceases its similarities with Konfabulator beyond its general purpose and ideology.

I have installed it and I am using now two widgets: KapWeather and MrStickies:

WEEK-END: great autumn's day!

Marvelous autumn's days, great opportunity to work in the garten.

Mowing



Picking up the dead leaves



And, closing the day with a beautiful sunset

TOOLS: Firefox v1.0

The Mozilla Foundation has called on its supporters to chip in on a full-page advertisement in The New York Times for the launch of its Firefox 1.0 browser in November, exactly on November 9, 2004.
You have 6 days left to donate! I know from my blog statistics that quite a lot of you are using Firefox, so, have a look at this great idea on Spread Firefox.

Here is how it works:

• The full-page ad will include the names of everyone who supports the campaign along with a message about the benefits/features of Firefox.


• The ad will only include verifiable, personal names: no URLs, emails, etc.


• An individual contribution of $30 will get your name included in the ad ($10 student rate).


• The campaign will act as a fundraiser to support all Firefox 1.0 launch activities, not just the ad itself (find out more about your contribution).


• Special recognition — Community Champion — will be given to people who sign up 10 names at a time.


• There are also two packages available for businesses to participate.


• You will be notified via email when the ad runs.


• More questions? Check the FAQ.

I am personaly using Firefox almost exclusively since some months and I donated my $30 to this great project and tool (have a look at my review). What about you?

PRIVATE: have a look :-)

[via vowe]

Don't try this at home :-) Really funny (video WMV, 20.1 MB)

BUSINESS: Product Marketing

Two great articles from Marc Goldberg - a "VC focused on building global European technology companies" - about Product Marketing here and here.

A must-read!

WEEK-END: great day!

What for a weather on October 23!

TOOLS: new version of skype released

Skype released a new Windows version (v1.0.0.94) of its great freeware VoIP tool. As you know, versions for MacOS X, Linux and PocketPC platforms are also available.

NEWS: Google first financial results

Google published its first quarterly financial results (3rd quarter '04) on October 21, 2004 (quarterly values):

revenues: $805.9 million, up 105% year over year

Google-sites revenue: $411.7 million, 51% of the total revenue

adjusted EBITDA: $321 million

net income: $52 million, 6.5% of revenues

2'668 full-time employees

For the first 9 months of 2004:

revenues: $2.16 billion

net income: $195 million

NEWS: MP3 player with a 100GB hard drive

A new MP3 player with an incredible 100GB hard drive, the DMC Xclef 500.

With a massive 100 GB hard drive (the largest on the world market today), the DMC Xclef 500 can store up to 3,500 hours of music, and still come back for more. Its internal battery provides over 20 of hours of play on a single charge

The DMC Xclef 500 also features an FM Tuner with encoding (so you can record as you listen), a voice recorder with built-in mic, and an analog/optical line-in so you can digitally record from any source at up to 320 kb/s.

NEWS: download of Windows XP SP2

About 106 million XP Sp2 downloads in two months... 90 million on the different Microsoft web sites and 16 million copies on CD. A list of SP2 incompatibilities updated on October 15.

TOOLS: new version of K-Lite Codec Pack released

New version of K-Lite Codec Pack available, have a try of the Mega Codec Pack, incredibly easy to install (v1.33)! I posted about this Codec Pack last month.

K-Lite Codec Pack is a collection of codecs and related tools. Codec is short for Compressor-decompressor. Codecs are needed for encoding and decoding (playing) audio and video. The K-Lite Codec Pack is designed as a user-friendly solution for playing all your movie files. With the K-Lite Codec Pack you should be able to play 99% of all the movies that you download from the internet.

NEWS: Barcelona...

My friend and colleague Laurent is in Barcelona till the end of this week for the Microsoft Connect Event, which is a Microsoft's event for Key Community Opinion Leaders across Europe . Laurent is responsible for the french community .NET website Tech Head Brothers (with his brother Mathieu).

NEWS: US elections

An interesting operation from the Guardian in UK:

Last week G2 launched Operation Clark County to help readers have a say in the American election by writing to undecided voters in the crucial state of Ohio. In the first three days, more than 11,000 people requested addresses.

Have a look at some responses from the US...

Have you not noticed that Americans don't give two shits what Europeans think of us? Each email someone gets from some arrogant Brit telling us why to NOT vote for George Bush is going to backfire, you stupid, yellow-toothed pansies ... I don't give a rat's ass if our election is going to have an effect on your worthless little life. I really don't. If you want to have a meaningful election in your crappy little island full of shitty food and yellow teeth, then maybe you should try not to sell your sovereignty out to Brussels and Berlin, dipshit. Oh, yeah - and brush your goddamned teeth, you filthy animals.
Wading River, NY

As a US citizen, I want to advise you that you and anyone that participates in subverting the US presidential election can be criminally charged and perhaps even charged as spies.
California

Please be advised that I have forwarded this to the CIA and FBI.
United States

No comment

PRIVATE: next holidays booked!

Be careful, this post could be dangerous for your spirits, specially if you are reading it on Monday morning, beginning of a new working week, and if the weather is as bad as by us :-)



As we cannot fight against the weather, we decided on last Friday to choose and to book our next "family winter holidays" at the beginning of February 2005. We hesitated between three sunny destinations: the Seychelles, the French west Indies and the Maldives. After some studies (thanx Internet :-), we chose the Maldives. The average precipitation is almost the same at home and in the Maldives in February (4 cm), not exactly the same for the temperature:
- at home (North-East of France): avg. low: - 1.7°C, avg. high: 6.1°C
- the Maldives: avg. low: 26°C (no, it's not an error), avg. high: 30°C





Some interesting statistics about the Maldives from the Maldivian Ministry of Tourism:
- Situated southwest of Sri Lanka, on the equator
- 90'000 km2, 99% covered by the sea
- 1'190 coral islands, 820 km north-south, 120 km east-west
- Highest point: 8 feet (!)
- More than 200 islands are inhabited
- Capital: Malé, about 75'000 people
- February is the month with the highest occupancy rate: 97.7%!
- Average duration of stay: 8 days
- Tourism growth 2003-02: + 39.6%
- More than 560'000 people visited the Maldives in 2003, thereof 41'000 from France. Interesting to notice that the Italian market is from far the biggest market for the Maldives (about 25%)

Now, the Maldives are confronted with some instability, specially in Malé. People are pushing a process of democratic and institutional reforms. One unique party with the same leader since 1978 is ruling the country (President Gayoom)... News articles here and here.

Here we are, some pictures of the island we will visit ;-)

TOOLS: evaluating Typepad Pro

Umh, we are evaluating Typepad Pro for the next coming 30 days (free trial) in our professional environment. That means: no public access ;-)

My first impressions are very good. SixApart did a great job with the interface, it's incredibly easy to set-up the blog and its different options. Let's use it and stay tuned, I will give you some feedbacks!

PS: Loic, finally, I'm testing Typepad, I hope you appreciate :-)

TOOLS: Windows FTP client

[via vowe]

I was searching for a new Windows FTP client, vowe did the work for me, thanx ;-)

FileZilla is really great (actual version: v2.2.8d), a SourceForge project with a GNU General Public License. If you also want to change yours, have a look, it's worth.

A printscreen:

NEWS: the 20 greatest equations

[via MIT Technology Review]

Beurk, that remembers me some very bad souvenirs. I was "confronted" with all 20, unfortunately, during my schooling. And, since I'm working in the "real" life (already 9 years, wow), I haven't use them...at all. On the other side, the *good* souvenirs are also coming back slowly :-)

TOOLS: Google Desktop Search released

Google released the first beta version of its Google Desktop Search tool. Little download (447KB), still indexing my local content :-) As usual, this tool is coming from the Google Labs.

A good functional description from BetaNews:

Google Desktop Search provides full text search over your email, computer files, chats, and the web pages you've viewed. By making your computer searchable, it puts your information easily within your reach and frees you from having to manually organize your files, emails, and bookmarks.

Google Desktop Search introduces new ways to access relevant and timely information. When you view a web page in Internet Explorer, it "caches" or stores its content so that you can later look at that same version of the page, even if its live content has changed or you're offline. It organizes email search results into conversations, so that all email messages in the same thread are grouped into a single search result.

And a printscreen:

TOOLS: Sauce Reader v1.9 released

Synop released the new version 1.9 of its feed reader three weeks (!) after the last release. Great job! You can find a complete evaluation of this product here.




What are the new features in this version?

Improved memory management techniques.

Error reporting for feed refresh problems.

Weblog editor support for ISO Latin-1 Characters (e.g. accents, tildes, umlauts and symbols).

Improved UI behaviour, speed and stability; particularly the Items window.

NEWS: BetaVoting

[via LeDanois]

I just beta-voted for Kerry here.

In today's world, all nations are inextricably interconnected. The United States is the most powerful and influential nation in the world. Everyone everywhere will be affected by the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

What if the whole world could vote in this election?

Switzerland and France are voting for Kerry by 95% :-)

NEWS: new Technorati blog statistics

[via Sifry's alerts]

Some very interesting statistics here and here about blogs published by Sifri, CEO of Technorati.

More than 4 million blogs registered by Technorati, 3 millionth blog in July 2004.

12'000 new blogs created each day, a new blog each 7.4 second

Average posting volume per day: 400'000 posts, or 4.6 post per second, 16'000 posts per hour

Impressive!

MUSIC: On heavy rotation

I already published some comments about a DVD live from Sade called Sade lovers live. I found another one from this great artist, simply called Sade live. Recorded live at the San Diego Open Air Theatre in 1993, this DVD gives you a great selection of Sade's classic hits (The Sweetest Taboo, Your Love Is King, Love Is Stronger Than Pride, Smooth Operator, Kiss of Life, No Ordinary Love, Is It a Crime, Jezebel). The band is playing SO good in the background, wow! Special mention to the drummer/bassist :-) Outstanding performance, great 5.1 remixed, nice filmed. Really a superb DVD!

PS: this DVD is definitely a live performance, no re-re in studio! I'm a drummer and I guarantee you that the man behind his set is playing, and as hell ;-) I found also one rythm error and two melodical ones during the set. With a re-re in studio, the production would have removed these. Conclusion: to my mind, all this story is a joke.

BUSINESS: Lasting Leadership

Knowledge@Wharton published an article and a book about lasting leadership attributes. These ones were identified based on interviews and studies with 25 choosen leaders of our times - "the 25 Most Influential Business People". You find the expected ones: Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, Warren Buffet, Peter Drucker, Jack Welch, etc. Plus some surprises. The title of the most influential business leader is given to Andrew Groove, Chairman of Intel.

The eight founded attributes of Leadership:

1. [The leaders] are able to build a strong corporate culture.

2. They are truth-tellers.

3. They are able to find and cater to under-served markets.

4. They can "see the invisible" - that is, spot potential winners or faint trends before their rivals or customers.

5. They are adept at using price to build competitive advantage.

6. They excel at managing and building their organization's brand (which in some cases may be their own name).

7. They are fast learners.

8. They are skilled at managing risk.

BLOG: because bigger is better

[via rodrigo]

Sick of short urls?
Because bigger is better, right?

If you are looking for a *huge* URL, try hugeurl.com :-)

Instead of http://www.didierbeck.com, you can type:

http://www.hugeurl.com/?MjU0NDlhZDVjNjJkZDFiN2E2YTZjZGU2ZGVi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NEWS: SixApart raised $10M (series B)

Mena Trott, co-founder of SixApart, announced officialy that the company got a $10M funding from August Capital VC. Have a look at the detailed explanations of Mena and the comments of Jeff Clavier here.

An anecdote: David Marquardt, co-founder of August Capital, is Microsoft's Board member since 1981 (!) and his other company - TVI - was the *only* investor in Microsoft! Good reference :-)

NEWS: Google Dance yesterday

[via Zorgloob - in French]

Google updated yesterday the PageRanks! It's the first complete GoogleDance since weeks... The last Dances just updated the number of BackLinks without changing the corresponding PR.

All the pages of my website were updated (PR between 4 and 5), as the ones of my blog (PR between 4 and 6).

NEWS: a resume for George W. Bush :-)

[via LeDanois]

Have a look at this funny CV.

NEWS: the Google's platform

[via Jeremy Zawodny]

A great article from Rich Skrenta about the "real" competitive advantage Google is building with its very cheap but incredibly powerful hardware platform. A very interesting analysis and point of view!

While competitors are targeting the individual applications Google has deployed, Google is building a massive, general purpose computing platform for web-scale programming.

This computer is running the world's top search engine, a social networking service, a shopping price comparison engine, a new email service, and a local search/yellow pages engine. What will they do next with the world's biggest computer and most advanced operating system?

NEWS: Despair, Inc. - Part III

Oh, I know, I exagerate a bit :-) So, the last three ones from Despair, Inc.

WEEK-END: Ecomusee, again :-)

We spent some hours in the Ecomusee today. Really a nice place! They celebrated their 20 years birthday last week-end and their 5'900'000 visitors. Respect!

BUSINESS: Tom Peters (3/3)

Rolf Jensen/The Dream Society:How the Coming Shift from Information to Imagination Will Transform Your Business

The sun is setting on the Information Society even before we have fully adjusted to its demands as individuals and as companies. We have lived as hunters and as farmers, we have worked in factories and now we live in an information-based society whose icon is the computer. We stand facing the fifth kind of society: the Dream Society. The Dream Society is emerging this very instant the shape of the future is visible today. Right now is the time for decisions before the major portion of consumer purchases are made for emotional, nonmaterialistic reasons. Future products will have to appeal to our hearts, not to our heads. Now is the time to add emotional value to products and services.

Richard Branson

I never, ever thought of myself as a businessman. I was interested in creating things I would be proud of.

Sam Hill & Glenn Rifkin, Radical Marketing

Rules of Radical Marketing
Love + Respect Your Customers!
Hire only Passionate Missionaries!
Create a Community of Customers!
Celebrate Craziness!
Be insanely True to the Brand!

Warren Bennis & Patricia Ward Biederman, Organizing Genius

The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it. They revel in the talent of others.

Nathan Myhrvold, former Chief Scientist, Microsoft

Did We Say "Talent Matters"?

The top software developers are more productive than average software developers not by a factor of 10X or 100X, or even 1,000X, but 10,000X.

Napoleon

A leader is a dealer in hope.

Field Marshall Bernard Montgomery

The leader must have infectious optimism. The final test of a leader is the feeling you have when you leave his presence after a conference. Have you a feeling of uplift and confidence?

NEWS: neutrality....no, it can't be!

[via LeDanois via Russell Beattie]

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in time of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.

-Dante Alighieri

One of the first posts of October for an important topic: I know that the US citizens will choose in about one month. Bush or Kerry? Umh, I am not a US citizen but I am a citizen of this world and I would like to clearly, and without any doubts, vote blog for Kerry! The worst is surely ... neutrality!

I already posted two times about that here and specially here. A lot to read in the blogosphere but you could find some clear inputs and statements for Kerry (or against Bush ;-) by LeDanois, Rodrigo, and Dragos.

So let's express your vote intention too!

NEWS: Despair, Inc. - Part II

I'm sorry, I really couldn't resist! Three other examples from Despair, Inc.