In the 80’s and 90’s Virgin Atlantic and British Airways locked horns in a demographic war. Virgin’s youthful ‘yuppie’ vibe Vs BA’s dependable reliable persona. As time went on they each segmented a market share and friction, whilst still apparent, wained from its original intensity. Now, 2 decades on, we the consumer, are on the verge of demographic warfare once again. Today BA announced intentions for a joint deal with American Airlines for transatlantic travel which could effectively monopolise the routes between them. They have filed for exemption from competitive legislation in both Europe and America citing: “It will improve customer choice by enabling the oneworld global alliance, of which American, BA and Iberia are key members, to compete more effectively around the world with other global alliances.”
Richard Branson recently argued quite the opposite stating: “What is before the regulators today is the future of a competitive international aviation industry. I firmly believe that allowing American and BA to proceed with their plans will irrevocably damage an industry that is already on its knees. “This alliance will mean less, not more competition. It will mean increased domination by BA and its oneworld alliance partners at Heathrow. An AA/BA alliance would be blatantly anti-consumer and anti-competitive. This will be doubly true when taken with the proposed Star Alliance immunity application for UK-US services.”
And so the battle commences, Virgin’s Richard Branson standing his ground and by proxy the ground of all transatlantic travellers around the world. If this alliance is allowed to form unchallenged, speculators will rightly question whether foul play is at work. And so they should!
The north, south divide in the UK is alive and well. 2 Pieces of news yesterday proved that fact. Firstly a government think tank urged northerners to move to the south to be able to benefit from the prosperity southerners enjoy, and secondly A-level results showed that students in the south east are 50% more likely to get A grades that those in the north east. In the early days of new labour, the buzz word was ‘decentralisation’, a focus on empowering Newcastle, Manchester and Liverpool to ensure that their inhabitants enjoyed the same prosperity as their southern counterparts. Is this news a declaration that their efforts have failed?
Ebay has launched its bid to buy a 37% share of the Korean auctioning site Gmarket from Interpark. As the major players in the online market space broaden their international reach, there are significant market differences that need to be taken into consideration. Certainly the similarities between consumer online behaviours in the USA and Europe outweigh their differences, but the further east companies look, the further they will have to shift their core value proposition to meet the markets needs. Integration of Asian online companies is notoriously difficult. Take for example buying an airline ticket. In China it is expected that you buy your ticket online and the ticket is delivered to your door, once delivered you pay the delivery person in cash for the ticket. Such a ‘high touch’ value proposition wouldn’t stand the cost benefit analysis of European organisations. Therefore deals such as Ebay and Gmarket have a hidden element which needs to be taken into consideration: Integrate and shift the buyers core value proposition, or segment and miss out on the economies of scale.
I read this post recently questioning why electric car’s are so successful in India but not in the US or Europe. I think there are several reasons:
- Having driven in Indian Cities myself, the pace is slow to say the least. This lends itself to small economical cars that can squeeze down narrow lanes and between cars.
- Europeans like size. In europe we measure everything, torque, CFC, MPG, Top speed. Electric cars currently can’t compete with their fuel guzzling counterparts.
- Most importantly, electric cars, currently just aren’t sexy enough.
In the UK the current shortage of IT graduates is beginning to bite. Levels have fallen 20% since 2001 and continue to decline. The reasons cited are often around the ‘attractiveness’ of IT roles, however I fail to accept that argument - One look on a job posting site will show the salaries that are currently available for IT professionals, and if this truly is a hedonistic society obsessed with bling then surely being in IT should be the perfect stepping stone. However, I feel that the true reason behind the lack of IT skills being generated within the UK, is the collective view of the IT industry in general. IT, from an organisational perspective is seen as a service, an enabler and very little more. With this mindset, even the highest levels of CTO or CIO potentially yield comparatively little power from an organisational perspective. Organisations are just waiting for the boom in IT professionals in Poland, Argentina, India and China so that they can outsource - The problem is, they are seeing slow downs too. My solution to this problem is relatively simple - Hug a techie. Business people need to integrate their technology teams within the business, they should be one, with the same or greater levels of training and development available to them, outside of the IT skills. Enabling IT professions with business skills makes for a significantly more attractive career proposition.
lastminute.comtoday announced trial mobile restaurant booking technology. As a consumer using this function, you can search restaurants close to where you are, make a booking and even see how to get there. This is just one of a number of developments in the pipeline from the ever innovative lastminute.com team. Having see this service working, I can confirm - It’s awesome.
The best developments meet a genuine consumer need, even if the consumer isn’t fully aware that the need exists. With this, lastminute.com have once again set themselves apart as the best online consumer travel and leisure site in the world.
When does the line between social networking and business networking get crossed? I feel that too often business colleagues add you to their Facebook contacts, and quickly you realise that you just know too much about them. The lack of control over the displayable content makes it a genuine business decision for senior managers. Do I allow my subordinates to view my Facebook profile, and limit the content available or do I draw a clear line between business and social networking. Reuters have this great video discussing just that, with an interview with Linkedin CEO on how they can fill this need.
It never ceases to amaze me how crazy prototypes look. Already we’re starting to see the commercial benefits of the ‘Mars Missions’ just as the Moon Missions brought us microwaves and alike. Sometimes, technology just rocks!
What never ceases to amaze me in business these days, is how acceptable failure is. This is never more apparent than in the toxic manager. Everyone’s had a toxic manager in their past, and some of you will be unlucky enough to be working for one now. What’s probably running through your mind every day is: How on earth can my company employs someone like this? There are common traits in toxic managers that enable us to answer this question. The fully answer is too long for a simple post - but I will add it to the essay section soon:
1 - Toxic Managers can handle their managers very effectively 2 - They manage information within their team very successfully 3 - They are often exceptional sales people 4 - They take credit for their subordinates work 5 - They create a climate of fear that prevents their subordinates complaining
A recent survey by temenos shows that tech budgets in the coming years are likely to rise. One key drive is compliance, such as Sarbanes Oxley, PCI, and Data Protection. These terms strike fear into the hearts of many product managers and technologists, as they detract from the ultimate aims of enhancing the business and innovating against the product. However it seems that compliance may be the saving grace that will see technology ride the Credit Crunch wave all the way to safety.
In the 80’s and 90’s Virgin Atlantic and British Airways locked horns in a demographic war. Virgin’s youthful ‘yuppie’ vibe Vs BA’s dependable reliable persona. As time went on they each segmented a market share and friction, whilst still apparent, wained from its original intensity. Now, 2 decades on, we the consumer, are on the verge of demographic warfare once again. Today BA announced intentions for a joint deal with American Airlines for transatlantic travel which could effectively monopolise the routes between them. They have filed for exemption from competitive legislation in both Europe and America citing: “It will improve customer choice by enabling the oneworld global alliance, of which American, BA and Iberia are key members, to compete more effectively around the world with other global alliances.”
