It's amazing how, in the modern computing world, an average workday can go to hell with no apparent warning. Check this out.
I woke up this morning with the usual list of 30 things I needed to get done, knowing full well that I wouldn't get to most of them. Just another day in the working world, right? Not exactly. ... Read more
Corporate fraud didn't start with Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom and it didn't end with them, either. Fraud is rampant in the technology industry. What most employees, investors, and consumers don't realize is how much it costs them.
Excuse me for stating the obvious, but you'd be surprised how many people think there's some magic pile of dough somewhere that pays for companies to comply with investigations, contest charges, and remedy issues. In fact, the costs are born primarily by the corporation. That means it comes right out of shareholders' and employees' pockets. Consumers also pay, albeit indirectly.
And yes, we're talking about costs that materially impact earnings, balance sheets, and cash flow. We're talking about internal and outside lawyers, accountants, consultants, crisis PR, D&O (directors and officers) insurance, Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, exit packages, and even recruiting costs to replace executives.
Of course, the biggest cost is in terms of loss of market capitalization. ... Read more
- Topics:
- CEOs,
- Governance,
- Scandals,
- Executives
- Tags:
- corporate fraud,
- CEOs
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If you've ever been involved in any sort of home construction, you know it always takes longer than the contractors say it will. For the past 10 weeks, the Tobaks have been doing a swimming pool project. So far, so good.
Last night, as the Bay Area cooled down from a three-day heat wave, my wife said, "It would sure be nice to get water in the pool in the next two weeks."
"What do you mean?" I exclaimed, "You know the pool company is scheduled to come out tomorrow and fill it up on Tuesday. Two weeks? We'll be swimming in two days!"
"Uh huh," she said.
The next morning, my wife pulled the pillow off my snoring head and announced, "We have no water."
I replied with a blank, bleary-eyed stare.
"The pool guys are all here and we have no water."
"Okay," I replied, "I'm getting up."
Apparently, a stuck check valve in our irrigation system had been dumping precious water faster than our well pump could pump it. Our holding tanks were dry.
No water meant the pool guys couldn't do their thing. An hour later, the whole gang packed up and left.
When you live in a rural mountainous area, this sort of thing happens from time to time. That means every few years.
So I'm sitting here trying to figure out how my wife knew something was going to happen. She couldn't possibly have known. Wait, I know. She sabotaged the irrigation system just to appear prescient. Nah, that's just crazy.
When I asked her about it, she said she'd just had a feeling.
That got me thinking: Is there such a thing as intuition? And if so, what is it and how does it matter to you and me? ... Read more
- Topics:
- CEOs,
- Governance,
- Strategy
- Tags:
- Intuition,
- evolution,
- Yahoo,
- Jerry Yang,
- Microsoft,
- Bill Gates
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One of the benefits of being a consultant is that you sometimes get to see really cool stuff before it hits the market.
I recently visited Kerner Optical--the stealthy special-effects unit that split off from Industrial Light & Magic a couple of years ago.
Retro 3D glasses
Among other things, Kerner is now focused on developing disruptive technology for a broad range of 3D applications. Without getting into specifics (because I can't) or technical gobbledygook--which you can get by checking out the company's research website--this stuff goes way beyond the current state of 3D movies, video games, virtual reality, and TV. ... Read more
Nestled in the redwood trees of Northern California's Santa Cruz Mountains is one of the most beautiful office facilities you'll ever see. The impeccably landscaped grounds include ponds, tennis courts, a swimming pool, an auditorium, a fitness center, a large outdoor eating area, and loads of light throughout the open-style architecture.
The facility even has its own exit-entrance ramp off the northbound side of highway 17.
Enterprise Technology Centre (former Borland headquarters)
(Credit: loopnet.com)Philippe Kahn, the French-born CEO of Borland International, spent nearly $120 million of capital to build the Scotts Valley campus for Borland's 1,200 employees. When the new corporate headquarters opened in 1993, it was full to capacity. It was all downhill from there, but I don't think Kahn knew it at the time.
You see, in September of 1991, Kahn acquired Ashton-Tate for $440 million. To say the merger would prove to be the biggest mistake of his career would be a gross understatement. It was disastrous, as both company's product lines stalled and Ashton-Tate's dBASE database management program completely missed the transition to Windows.
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In case you've been in a sensory deprivation tank for the past few days and missed the news, Henry T. Nicholas III, founder and former chief executive officer of chipmaker Broadcom, was indicted on securities fraud, conspiracy, and federal narcotics charges on Thursday.
Henry T. Nicholas III
One of the indictments was related to options backdating, the cause of a $2.2 billion charge Broadcom took last year. But it was the sex and drug-related indictment that captured the media's attention.
If you read the indictment (PDF), you'll understand why one report said, "You can't make this kind of stuff up," .
Rarely does a billionaire and technology industry legend self-destruct in such dramatic and flamboyant style. But there's more to this human tragedy than meets the eye, and it almost surely extends beyond Nicholas. ... Read more
- Topics:
- CEOs,
- Governance,
- Scandals
- Tags:
- CEO,
- corporate governance,
- fraud,
- options back-dating,
- Henry Nicholas,
- Broadcom,
- human tragedy
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Last week, my wife's Dell Inspiron decided to stop printing to our wireless HP all-in-one. It was apparently a problem with the spooler, whatever that is. At that point, I had two choices: leave it alone and hope for a miracle, or fix it and perform some upgrades I'd been putting off.
Let me back up and explain something. I hate working on my wife's computer. Whatever I do inevitably screws something up, it takes way longer than I would like, and well, let's just say, my wife is impatient when it comes to technology.
It's OK for a doctor or dentist to poke and prod her, but when I poke or prod her computer, she acts as if I do it for the pure sadistic enjoyment of screwing up her peaceful existence. ... Read more
- Tags:
- Apple,
- iPod,
- iTunes,
- Steve Jobs,
- IT manager,
- Wintel
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Every so often, I wonder if Silicon Valley is all it's cracked up to be. Sure, the confluence of venture capital, universities, and lawyers make it a veritable petri dish for the formation of technology companies, but there are a lot of other great places for innovation, right?
Well, if you go strictly by market capitalization, and look at the top 10 information technology companies, 6 of them are based in Silicon Valley: Cisco Systems, Google, Intel, Hewlett-Packard, Apple, and Oracle. In fact, if you map these company's headquarters, they'd all be inside a circle with a radius of just 10 miles. Amazing, when you think about it.
And these companies are far from just "headquartered" in Silicon Valley.
Google and Apple are very much centralized from a product and technology development standpoint.
Intel has research-and-development facilities in Oregon, Arizona, and Israel, but a significant amount of its R&D occurs at or near its Santa Clara, Calif., headquarters. The same is true of Cisco, though the networking giant owns several large subsidiaries--such as Scientific Atlanta--that are based elsewhere. Likewise for Oracle.
HP is somewhat more diversified, with product development for its Compaq unit in Houston, plus R&D facilities in Idaho, Oregon, and additional cities around the globe. But still, more of its R&D occurs in northern California than anywhere else.
Three of the four companies not based in Silicon Valley have research and development consolidated near their corporate headquarters: Microsoft in ... Read more
Occam's Razor essentially says that all things being equal, the simplest solution is the best. The principle has implications in virtually every field of science, not to mention philosophy, aesthetics, marketing, business, you name it.
If for some reason you don't buy the word of a 14th-century Franciscan friar, it might interest you to know that Albert Einstein also believed the universe loves simplicity. I don't know about you, but I'm in no position to argue with that guy.
You'd think that keeping things simple would be the easiest path, but that's not necessarily the case. Sometimes it's downright impossible. Look at the personal computer, for example. The need for backwards compatibility with legacy programs and interfaces has forever rendered the PC more complex than any of us would like. ... Read more
- Tags:
- Occam's Razor,
- Albert Einstein,
- Lou Gerstner,
- CEO,
- Jerry Yang,
- David Filo,
- Google,
- Yahoo,
- IBM
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A long time ago - I think it was 1995 - I was seated at a long dinner table in a rather nice home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Around the table were all the officers and directors of Cyrix - the microprocessor company that was later acquired by National Semiconductor.
One of our directors was Jack Kemp, quarterback and politician extraordinaire. Jack, who can really work a room, eventually turned the conversation to politics. The question put to the table was whom did we like in the upcoming Republican primaries and why.
I instantly panicked. I didn't even know who the candidates were. I wasn't a Democrat; I just didn't care much about politics. Back then, my opinion of political candidates was based solely on the effect they would have on my taxes.
Thankfully, the inquisition went the long way around the table. By the time it got to me, I was able to fudge a pretty good answer.
I'm more politically astute these days - which isn't saying much - but I'm still not sure if it matters to the technology industry who wins the upcoming presidential election.
(Credit: Greg Sandoval/Declan McCullagh/News.com)A March phone survey of 600 technology employees had Obama and McCain tied.
I also checked out the CNET Technology Voters' Guide, which had Barack Obama's and John McCain's answers to a questionnaire. There was some good content regarding specific issues there, but it wasn'
... Read more- Topics:
- Governance,
- intellectual property
- Tags:
- Jack Kemp,
- Barack Obama,
- John McCain,
- Cyrix,
- global economy
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