Disqus - Latest Comments for tspeirs

Re: Blockbuster: A Cautionary (but repeated) Tale

tspeirs — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 14:25:58 -0000

Seth Godin provides a great article looking at another management group that has failed to adjust to new industry realities - the New York Times.

Re: Blockbuster: A Cautionary (but repeated) Tale

tspeirs — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:15:45 -0000

Great comments Allan!
You astutely point out that the trend of streaming video places a whole new
dynamic in this industry for which Netflix must account. Personally, I am
not for predicting success or failure - too many unknown variables will
influence the outcome, but I will evaluate their efforts.
By entering full video streaming very early, Netflix demonstrates that they
were aware of how their industry was changing. By integrating it into their
current subscription packages indicates they considered what was the best
strategy to enter this market. Right or wrong, they recognized the threat
and devised a strategy on how to respond. All I could ask and certainly more
than what Blockbuster did.

My uninformed two cents: At the end of the day, the studios will license
their movies to where the eyeballs are because that implies more revenue.
Each studio could try to go it alone and solely stream their content, but
that would demand consumer acceptance of multiple sites and subscriptions to
consume the content. My guess is that people will prefer to stay with a
handful of sites and few will tolerate more than one subscription. If so,
Netflix has done the best it can to position itself as one of those
subscription portals.

Thanks for the comment.

Re: The VC model is broken

tspeirs — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:50:14 -0000

Not sure the model is broken. It is just going through traditional economics of supply and demand.
During a period, VC funds offered higher than average returns. This drew in additional capital. As you pointed out, this increased the fund sizes and dollars chasing deals, thus reducing the returns.
As the returns drop relative to other asset classes, we will see money leave these funds. Over time, the market will stabilize.

Re: Continue Fighting Your Powerpoint Urges

tspeirs — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:46:06 -0000

Lauren,
To your follow ups:
1. You can track down conferences by reading blogs in your field of
interest, tracking down professional associations of field of interest, or
often if you have a target company they will highlight which conferences
they go to on their web page (or just do a google search).

2. Many students do a study abroad and it is a fantastic experience. You
will be behind on job search if your primary field of interest is consulting
or working with a large company with an established MBA hire program.
Otherwise job search doesn't ramp up until February onward. I used my Q1
Year 2 to ramp up my networking in order to hit the ground running in Q2.

Good luck.

Re: Continue Fighting Your Powerpoint Urges

tspeirs — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:42:06 -0000

Lauren,
Thanks for you kind words.
Some honest answers to your questions.
1) Job placement was tougher this year due to the economy. I think we may be
lower than last year for placement before graduation, but I expect we'll be
equivalent for placement after 3 months. The interesting thing about hiring
this year was that despite the down turn there were a number of very high
profile jobs posted - so companies are still making strategic hires at
Merage.

2) Average starting salaries are a distorted measure used by ranking
systems. It is difficult to talk about average starting salaries without
first talking about the job type. As an example consulting generally pays a
higher salary due to the life demands it puts on its employees (so schools
who produce a higher ratio of consultants will have their average salary
inflated). While I don't necessarily think 20K lower is correct, you are
right to note that salaries from Merage are generally lower than similar
ranked programs. This is because a high percentage of its students remain in
Southern California. Salaries in the OC are often subject to what I call the
"lifestyle tax". Because it is such an attractive area to live, there are
more candidates for jobs, pushing down wages. This "lifestyle tax"
artificially lowers Merage's average starting salary. I hope you get my
drift why I say the average starting salary is a skewed school indicator. I
will say as a person who grew up with humid summers and cold winters the
lifestyle is wonderful and I am willing to accept the "tax".

3) Interestingly, this year we have a number of students going to work up in
the bay area (5-10% of the class). The companies range from start-ups to big
companies like HP. Last year, we had a student get into google. I won't say
trying to find a job in the bay area is easy. You will be mostly on your own
and will need to actively network with people in the area starting now if
you want to go back with a great position. I suggest find conferences that
suit your preferred industry/job function that are hosted in the bay area.
That raises the chances of people from the area attending. Then network and
stay in contact with those people. The conferences worked out real well for
me this year (I had three solid job opportunities arise) and I recommend
start doing it as a first year.

Re: Can Innovation Exist In Today’s World?

tspeirs — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:27:03 -0000

Thanks for your comment!
These new insights on the motivations of creators does warrant a review of
the patent system. That said, we must recognize that many inventions do
require the expenditure of time and money which merits a form of reward for
great inventions. It may be that your clients, research faculty, are less
motivated by financial aspects of their research because their research is
funded by research grants and collecting a university salary.
I think that this week I will be writing a second post about what does
replicability mean for commercialization strategies.

Re: Three Reasons To Use Disqus

tspeirs — Sat, 10 May 2008 18:55:01 -0000

I definitely agree with all that is said. I use it on my blog. I love the layout and the fact that people can register once and comment anywhere that uses disqus comments

Re: Marketing Buzzword: Transparency

tspeirs — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:37:29 -0000

No, I haven't. I not the type of person to waste my time trying to navigate corporate bureaucracy. I just note the incident and adjust my future behavior accordingly. In this case, not knowingly (there is always a possibility with Hotwire or Priceline) stay at a Wyndham hotel again.

Re: Social Networking Advertising – It Will Be Even Harder than we Think

tspeirs — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 21:00:05 -0000

Great post, Charles!
I think you are bang on with your assessment that it will be near impossible for SN to track most transactions that will originate on the network.
Likely they will need to focus on opt-in beacon-like ads (maybe offer brands subscriptions to access tools to contact/engage profile users) or focus on similar metrics used for TV advertisements (price by impression to target demo and verify results using brand recall and intent surveys before and after campaigns,
How is Gaia approaching the sensitive issue around advertising to young people?