Weekly Links (Week of Jan.4, 2010)

During our program, I used to annoy my classmates by constantly sending emails pointing to various links, stories and other content that related to the topics being discussed in class. In hopefully a less annoying manner, I plan to bring that content to this blog on a weekly basis.

One of the things Ram Baliga told us was that analytics would become one of the cornerstone technologies that MBA's should master in the 21st century. Here is a good write-up on the proliferation of data that is now available for analysis and how it will shape the future of business.

With Chet Miller we evaluated various employee evaluation models, including GE's A-B-C player model. This link explores NetFlix model of trying to hire, retain and compensate almost all "A" players and whether or not that is a good thing.

Following up from our case discussion about NetFlix and their eventual migration to a streaming model. Many elements at play here: short-term vs. long-term profits; customer input vs. decisions that lead to eventual business model changes; decisions that could lead to loses due to digital piracy or alternative models solving a customer demand.

This article explore the Nexus One phone from Google, in the context of how it will impact Google's overall strategy. VC Brian Gurley does an excellent job of looking at the broader impact of this device, but more importantly the strategic impact of the new business model. The Nexus One was an area of highlight in the final Global Strategy paper that I wrote with Ric Freeman and Wendy Perry.

Here's another Nexus One link that follows-up some of the cases we analyzed, including strategic challenges for HTC, Taiwan Semi-Conductor and Google. At least within the technology world, the spread of coopetition and partner/rival scenarios will continue to expand as the value chain is twisted in all sorts of new ways.

Stan Mandel taught us the underlying structures for funding and operating and entrepreneurial venture, but more so he focus on the mindset needed to be a successful entrepreneur. VC/Entrepreneur Mark Suster explorers his views of the characteristics of successful entrepreneurs.