This news is another example of why you could not understand the stock market….

Apparently this is bad news for Yahoo, but the news resulted in an almost 5 percent jump on its stock — apparently, when a door close, another window opens….

The stock price rose because it is becoming more possible Microsoft might make an offer for Yahoo again….  But personally, I think the price will not be high, and it is unlikely that Microsoft will be interested in getting the whole company.

Yahoo’s fate unclear as Google abandons ad deal - Yahoo! News

Facing a legal battle that would have illuminated its widening market power, Google Inc. turned its back on its struggling rival Yahoo Inc. and pulled the plug on an Internet advertising partnership that had been conceived to keep Yahoo out of Microsoft Corp.’s clutches.

Stanley Bing, famous business writer, produced a book about Crazy Bosses. Readers write about their experiences. Many of these are in this website…

Just saw a blog that recommended this book.  It looks interesting, and I will try to get a copy.  So far, I agree with waht it puts in the review….

Amazon.com: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t: Robert I. Sutton: Books

This meticulously researched book, which grew from a much buzzed-about article in the Harvard Business Review, puts into plain language an undeniable fact: the modern workplace is beset with assholes.

 Sutton (Weird Ideas that Work), a professor of management science at Stanford University, argues that assholes—those who deliberately make co-workers feel bad about themselves and who focus their aggression on the less powerful—poison the work environment, decrease productivity, induce qualified employees to quit and therefore are detrimental to businesses, regardless of their individual effectiveness. He also makes the solution plain: they have to go. Direct and punchy, Sutton uses accessible language and a bevy of examples to make his case, providing tests to determine if you are an asshole (and if so, advice for how to self-correct), a how-to guide to surviving environments where assholes freely roam and a carefully calibrated measure, the “Total Cost of Assholes,” by which corporations can assess the damage. Although occasionally campy and glib, Sutton’s work is sure to generate discussions at watercoolers around the country and deserves influence in corporate hiring and firing strategies.

Bizdrivenlife was cited and featured in the following blog carnivals:
-Carnival of Financial Planning - February 21 2008 Edition
-COB-20: bureaucrats’ devotion-
-Venture Capital Carnival vol. 3
-Corporate Cultures
-Carnival of Leadership Development
-Carnival of Tech News, Twelft Edition

I have just finished a book called Our IceBerg is Melting by John Kotter.  The main characters are penguins, much akin to the movie Happy Feet.

It is fun to read, in the tradition of  Who Moved my Cheese whose main characters were mice.  It uses the fable to introduce how a problem or potential issue is discovered, how to go about reacting to change, and who are the variuos people in an organization who you can count on to embrance change or resist it.

In this time and age where knowing how to adapt and change is paramount, this book makes good reading and is good food for thought.  It is light, and yet thought provoking, and is only 160 pages with plenty of pictures.

High recommended!

Now, as technology  touch every inch of our existence, how much we think and to what extent should we allow them into our lives?

The reason I am reflecting is that I read a book entitled The Giver which  is written by Lois Lowry.  This book actually is for a book for children, and in fact have won a good number of awards, including the John Newbery Medal for most distinguished contribution to American Literature for Children.  It was originally read by my son who told me it was good, and I took it. Incidentally, it is always good to take an active interest in what your kids are reading, and ocassionally won’t harm much if you actually read it as well.  That i believe, always create good talking points with your kids.
The story is quite thought provoking, and basically centers on a community in which the people, years into the future, use technology

Read the rest of this entry »

One of the great books you should read, especially if you are in an industry which thrives and dies with innovation, is the Innovator’s Dilemma by Clayton Christensen

It chronicles how seemingly rational decisions ( like listening to the customer) may still fail the company in the face of other company’s innovations which may be disruptive. In short, what the author is saying is that you have to be very intuitive and perceptive on the rules of the game. If you master the rules, and make decisions on how to maximize returns based on such rules, it is still important to keep your ears very closely to the ground as these rules slowly change because of new technologies or new business models.

There are various disruptive technologies, like computer and communications convergence, the slow evolution towards wireless vs wired, the shift from flash memory as a storage tool vs the hard disk, the shift of hard disk vs tape as storage backup , the shift from paper based news to internet, the shift of rich desktops to web based solutions, and others.

A free excerpt of the book can be read here in Businessweek’s Page.

Five stars out of Five.

Just saw the film “Rocky Balboa”, a film by Sylvester Stallone that is the latest installment of the Rocky Series that begun about 30 years ago.

It came in a little bit late in the franchise (after more than 15 years since the last one), and Sylvester as a fighter that is fighting an undeafeated world champion that could well have been his son stretches the story a little bit too far….  Coming in the twilight of his career, it is hardly something that would have been credible enough to be enjoyed… but it did.

The story is about an aging fighter who wants to fight again purportedly to exorcise his past.   As usual with the other Rocky movies, it is a feel good movie with fight sequences well orchestrated.  But I believe the best part is actually the subplot of his son.

His son is blaming Rocky.  He is finding it hard to live in the shadow of a former heavyweight champion, and people compare him to his father too much that he is having problems.  The scene where the dad gives advice is a classic, and if you can take this advice to heart, it would be well worth the whole movie.  Here’s roughly the advice from Rocky.

When you finally grow up, you find that the world will start  hitting you from all directions. Life is not all rainbows and roses.  And if you can’t take it, you start looking for something, or someone (like a long shadow) to blame.  Cowards do that, and you ain’t a coward.

Let me tell you something…. No matter where you are, life is going to pummel you down to your toes.  It will beat you down, and if you don’t have the confidence to take it, you will be kept down.  Its not how hard you hit, but how hard you can take the hits, and still keep moving forward that is going to make you a winner…

Great fell good movie.  4.5 stars out of 5.

Brought the whole family to see this movie. Superbly entertaining, plus some lessons in life. Mumble, the hero does not know how to sing, and is practically booed out of a normal life for lack of that talent in spite of his strength elsewhere.

He goes on to show he is made of sterner stuff with determination, and finally achieves his objectives. Great sideshow on the awareness of preserving the environment, and understanding the damage we do to our ecology. Great choice of songs, and well developed storyline and choreography. Also some original and funny wisecracks.  My six year old enjoyed it and I enjoyed it.
Five stars out of five.

I am currently going over a book entitled, ” Giants of Enterprise, Seven Business Innovators and the Empires They Built.” This is a business biography of Andrew Carnegie, , George Eastman, Charles Revson, Robert Noyce, Sam Walton, and Henry Ford. But more than just a mere enumeration of positions and accomplishments, the author, Richard Tedlow, went his way to explain business decisions and also analyze their impacts on the individual businesses and also to the economy. It is a worthwhile read, and it was called by BusinessWeek as one of the top ten business books of 2001. I may be quoting and sharing some insights of it in the next few days from it.