In this TED Talk, Salman Khan talks about how and why he created the remarkable Khan Academy, a carefully structured series of educational videos offering complete curricula in math and, now, other subjects. He shows the power of interactive exercises, and calls for teachers to consider flipping the traditional classroom script — give students video lectures to watch at home, and do “homework” in the classroom with the teacher available to help. Think about it!
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First Steps for an Idea
Apart from key Upstarta questions like “are people already trying to solve the problem that my product/service aims to address?” you’d aim to move ahead with your idea while spending the absolute minimum in money and time. So how do you do this?
I had an idea yesterday – quite different from other stuff I’m involved in, and it’s an actual product not a service. In modified form it had been lingering for a while but discussion with some people brought up additional aspects. Yep I know, quite vague… but the exact nature of the idea isn’t relevant to this story.
After a quick chat with a friend this morning for some additional detail, and a google search for raw materials, I’ve ordered some samples for a mere few dollars. So right now I don’t need to spend any more time on this idea. I did some very quick math based on the listed prices to confirm that in theory what I want to do could be economically viable.
When the samples arrive, I can assess them, and if that looks ok I can order some minimal amount of stuff to create one or two items, and possibly have them tested by someone else (good for feedback).
If at any point the idea proves unworkable (production cost or difficulties, whatever) I can ditch the idea and only have spent minimal time and a mere few dollars. But then I’ll have explored it and my mind won’t keep pondering a “what if”.
I haven’t even registered a domain name or spent time on an e-commerce site, I just did a brief check for available domain names. While the cost of a domain is minimal ($10-15) in this case it doesn’t appear necessary to quickly grab a name.
As usual with Upstarta ideas, I’m aiming for strict focus and “customisation”, not large scale production. This to easily be unique and be impervious to potential competition by large manufacturing and retail companies (I call that “the China threshold”). Apart from scale, I’ve noticed that many companies struggle to maintain focus – the pull towards diversification appears very strong, but often makes little sense.
Borders bookstore (US) nears bankrupcy
See http://techcrunch.com/2011/02/11/borders/ (TechCrunch)
Borders (US company, unrelated to for instance Borders in Australia) is trading at 86 cents a share and has a market cap of USD 16 million. It has around 700 locations valuing them at less than $100,000 per store. Amazon has a market cap of about 85 billion.
I reckon there’s plenty wrong with public share trading and deriving company value from that, however in this case I think it’s quite indicative. It’s very clear that Amazon has been a huge disruptor to “brick & mortar” stores and other aspects of the book publishing industry.
Amazon allows you to browse a huge selection, and in many cases your order (at least on US mainland) can get delivered the next day. There’s also reviews, relate books/recommendations, and so on. The only thing you don’t get pre-sale is the feel of holding an actual book, but since you can browse the content online anyway not too many people seem fussed about that. I personally do love the feel of books, but I find myself mainly browsing around second hand book stores rather than those for new books.
Most likely, only book stores that occupy a niche or those that have a sane online presence will have a future. The online component will cannibalise the brick&mortar part, but depending on the setup (separate management/budget) this can coexist within a single organisation and work out alright (that is, stores may not survive but the company can transform successfully into a mainly online entity).
Business Process gone silly
(old email joke, but you can sometimes observe situations like these for real)
A fellow stopped at a rural petrol station and, after filling his tank, he paid and bought a soft drink. He stood by his car while drinking, and watched a couple of men working along the roadside.
One man would dig a hole slightly less than a metre deep and then move on. the other man came along behind and filled in the hole. while one was digging a new hole, the other was about 8 metres behind filling in the old. The men worked right past the fellow with the soft drink and went on down the road.
“I can’t stand this”, said the man, tossing the can in a rubbish bin and heading down the road towards the men. “Hold it, hold it”, he said to the men. “Can you tell me what’s going on here with this digging?”
“Well, we work for the county council”, one of the men said.
“But one of you is digging a hole and the other is filling it up. You’re not accomplishing anything! Aren’t you wasting the council’s money?”
“You don’t understand, mister”, one of the men said, leaning on his shovel and wiping his brow. “Normally there’s three of us – me, Joe and Mike. I dig the hole, Joe sticks in the tree, and Mike here puts the soil back.”
“Yeah”, piped up Mike. “Now just because Joe’s sick, that don’t mean we can’t work, does it?”
Dilbert – cause or effect?
I often refer to Dilbert for fabulous examples of how companies shouldn’t work, and note that people particularly identify with Dilbert because you can often see things going on at your own or another business that appears to come straight from there. Dilbert is brilliantly descriptive… or is it?
At this month’s Upstarta meeting in Brisbane, Peter Lock postulated that some real life Pointy-Haired-Bosses actually use Dilbert as a management handbook, which would of course explain why their department or company looks like it did.
What do you reckon? Could Pete be right?