51–60 of 105 posts
The author harps on "networks" too much. In general, brick and mortar retail sectors which can be done better on line have tanked. From Sears to Radio Shack to Toys-R-Us, that's happened. Malls in general are hurting badly.
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The idea of “Enron Broadband” seemed ridiculous to me at the time.
Enron didn't have any last mile broadband capability. How did this deal get done?
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Enron didn't have any last mile broadband capability. How did this deal get done?
The same way all of Enron's deals got done. Lies about capabilities/offerings and then shady accounting to cover up reality.
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Antioco tried launching a dvd by mail and streaming service around the same time Netflix did. They were behind, but not that far. The problem seems to be this > While he convinced the board to back his plan, one of his lieutenants, Jim Keyes, led a rear guard action. Had they actually listened to Antioco, they may have survived. I subscribed to Blockbuster Online because I could return things to the store and get mov…
Has there ever been a successful large scale pivot by an American technology company that wasn’t founder led? All of the successful FAANG companies successfully managed transistions led by thier founders. Even though Microsoft’s recent turn around wasn’t founder led, I don’t think the current CEO could have done it without Bill Gates’ support.
The company has massive problems now, but many of the larger scale pivots in its history were not the work of Moore or Noyce. Now, we can debate whether Andy Grove counts (and I tend to say no, because though not technically a founder, he was employee number 3 and there from the day the company was incorporated), but looking at someone like Paul Otellini, who most definitely helped turn the company around, I think that's a good example.
Otellini missed mobile, a massive, massive problem -- but I don't think there is any evidence to suggest that Grove would've necessarily done better. It's hard to say.
And if we want to go further back, I would argue that IBM was never led by its founders. Watson wasn't a founder; he came into what became IBM as a hired manager. One could argue his son was "more" of a founder because he grew up seeped into the culture of what IBM became and he definitely helped lead the company to greatness.
But subsequent CEOs like Frank Cary and Louis Gerstner really did the big turnarounds and pivots.
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The same way all of Enron's deals got done. Lies about capabilities/offerings and then shady accounting to cover up reality.
Another video talks about Enron using mark-to-market bookkeeping to record $100 million in revenue from the 20-year deal. https://youtu.be/hwollZoVmUc?t=4m44s
The author harps on "networks" too much. In general, brick and mortar retail sectors which can be done better on line have tanked. From Sears to Radio Shack to Toys-R-Us, that's happened. Malls in general are hurting badly.
Toy-R-Us had a business that was doing quite well. Their downfall was a result of a leveraged buyout of which they couldn't afford the debt payments. If there were no LBO, they would still be in business today.
In the same year that Reed Hastings was laughed out of the conference room, Blockbuster announced a partnership with Enron for Videos on Demand. https://www.forbes.com/2000/07/20/mu4.html#545092873541 The partnership lasted a single year. I wonder which event happened first? If they met with Enron first, it seems the morale is to move fast and never underestimate what the future holds. If they met with Netflix first,…
It seems so bizarre - a rental company would stream video, through an energy company's fiber optic cables. Didn't this seem incongruous to anyone at the time? https://youtu.be/5sMXR7rK40U?t=6m8s
Blockbuster used to have a really crappy selection of mostly mainstream movies, but often it was one of the closest video rental stores around, as they seemed to be everywhere. They also censored and cut their movies, which was really annoying. I don't know what their agenda was on that front, and why they couldn't just let mature adults watch the full films. My friends and I used to much prefer going to independent…
I'm still on the disc-by-mail plan because I get the full quality the disc has. No dropouts, no (additional) compression artifacts, no reduced resolution because of network congestion.[1] I will say that their long-tail catalog isn't as long as it used to be. About a third of my queue is titles that they recognize, but do not have in stock -- presumably they used to have them but don't anymore. Still better than the…
I'd rather go back to renting VHS tapes than deal with DVDs.
Blockbuster used to have a really crappy selection of mostly mainstream movies, but often it was one of the closest video rental stores around, as they seemed to be everywhere. They also censored and cut their movies, which was really annoying. I don't know what their agenda was on that front, and why they couldn't just let mature adults watch the full films. My friends and I used to much prefer going to independent…
> Many of them rarely realize how crappy the selection of Netflix streaming is, as they've been brought up on a diet of crap, and are only vaguely aware that there's a whole world of fantastic movies out there beyond Hollywood blockbusters and TV shows. I like science fiction and well done period dramas (i.e. historical fiction or alternative history). I am not really into high-brow art movies, as I don't really have…