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Digitalisation, Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management

Three ways to solve the growing problems of Cloud scale-up

Once online technology services have been built and tested, attention shifts to delivering to customer, and Operations becomes the name of the game. Lots of new workloads must kick in to ensure that performance is up to scratch, services are resilient and robust, and all service problems and issues are identified and fixed quickly to…
Digitalisation, Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Strategy, Trend Spotting

Cloud vendors are taking us back to the 1960s

Trousers were flared, and flowers and funny smelling smoke were everywhere when Gene Amdahl worked as a computer architect at IBM in the 1960s. Back then, designing and building hardware was a big deal and very expensive. Only a few companies produced such equipment, and each was different from the rest. Software was big, complex,…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Organisation, Strategy

What Tim did after Steve

There were a lot of naysayers about the future of Apple when Steve Jobs died in October 2011. Few were confident about the Company he’d created and its future under Tim Cook, who’d just been promoted up from Chief Operating Officer to CEO. Even fewer had any idea about the rocket ship that the business…
Covid-19, Investors, Strategy, Trend Spotting

Covid climbs into the ring with the rioters

Authorities across Europe have been increasingly nervous about accelerating Covid infections. The German health minister told his public that “…Germans would be vaccinated, cured or dead by Christmas”. Populations are tired of pandemic restrictions, though, and many are taking to the streets, rioting in Holland, France, Belgium, Austria, and elsewhere (Reuters). Not to be outdone,…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Organisation, Strategy

Why business leaders must forget about normal and thrive in the unknown

I’ve been in business a long time, and big events have come and gone: the oil crisis and inflation of 1972; the crash of ’87; a couple of recessions and a few wars and 9/11, you get the picture. Sudden technology changes have done their bit as well. I’m not really sure when it was,…
Covid-19, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Organisation

How to stop Cloud costs strangling business

Once the tech is running, it’s the business that matters in the Cloud Once the devs have worked their magic and the tech is running and doing what it should, the challenges move to business: getting the service to customes and users reliably, at scale, and profitably. This is where the business challenges begin as…
Digitalisation, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Organisation, Strategy

How stretched tech teams can raise their game in the Cloud

The pool of talent in ambitious tech firms always seems too thinly spread. We used to think it was like a small duvet: you can have your shoulders warm or your feet, but not both. Almost all ambitious tech businesses have too few tech specialists that have the depth of skills and a real understanding…
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Strategy

Is Cloud separating the quick from the dead?

A recent research study by Accenture surveyed some 4,000 executives and concluded that their companies fell into two categories : those that viewed Cloud as “…a launch pad for innovation and new operating models.”, and those that see it as a tool for cost saving and operational efficiency. What caught my eye was that they…
Covid-19, Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management, Strategy, Trend Spotting

Everything is normal already

Last week’s first in-person business meeting came and went, and Friday’s “first evening dinner at a restaurant with friends in ages” did too. Family round for lunch in the garden yesterday was very good, and today’s Sunday lunch with different friends at another restaurant will be, as well. Next week is already full of scheduled…
Entrepreneurs, Executing, Investors, Management, Organisation

Face to face meetings are a whole new thing

I’ve just agreed my first face to face business meeting for almost fourteen months. I’m looking forward to the familiar, productive push and shove that you get when you get into open debate and press the search for the right idea or solution. None of that stuttering audio as Zoom or Teams tries to make…
Covid-19, Investors, Management, Strategy, Trend Spotting

The Five Forces of Endemic Covid-19

It’s becoming clear what the future will be like. We know what we know, we know what we don’t know, and the main features are now coming into focus.  It’s going to be a balancing act. The first thing that we know that is highly unlikely to change soon, is that Covid-19 is endemic, globally….
Entrepreneurs, Investors, Management

Why astute Tech Start-ups have the edge on success

Language does lose its way from time to time.  We all knew that Uber wasn’t a start-up; well, it was a start-up but it isn’t one now, even if the tag has stuck.  Sifted, the well respected group of journalists backed by the Financial Times to report on start-ups, lists a load of firms they…