In recent years, we have seen well-established companies such as Kodak, Blockbuster, Nokia and BlackBerry pushed to the brink by smart competitors and changes in their industries. In each case, there were opportunities to act before a crisis engulfed the organization. At Kodak, for example, CEO George Fisher attempted to move the company into the digital era in the 1990s. However, he was unable to change course quickly enough. Fisher had an opportunity; his successor had a crisis.
Many companies have a conflicted relationship with the data they gather about themselves and their customers. They undertake dozens of analytical information-gathering initiatives—on cross-selling, upselling, customer acquisition, new product introduction, or inventory management. Novel and ambitious projects at the outset, they tend to have very short shelf lives. Each remains isolated from the rest, providing only glimpses of insight for narrowly defined purposes. In the end, despite years of investment in data analytics programs and technology, most business leaders would admit that these initiatives have not yet improved performance in any sustained way.
It’s been a dozen years since the original Roomba hit the market, and the floor-hugging autonomous vacuum is still the biggest-selling product for its manufacturer, iRobot.
That hasn’t come without some trying. Ever heard of the Scooba? How about the Looj? The Mirra? Those are all iRobot products that followed the Roomba, aimed respectively at cleaning floors, gutters, and pools.
None of them has taken off like the oversized hockey puck that started it all. As CEO Colin Angle told analysts on a recent conference call, “our biggest challenge for continued strong growth is overcoming skepticism.”
Real, practical wireless power is still more fantasy than fact for most, but Ossia has a new strategic partner that could help accelerate its transition to wider availability and usefulness. Japan’s KDDI, the country’s second-largest wireless carrier, has participated in Ossia’s recent $10 million raise, which will help Ossia spur the development of its Cota wireless power technology.
It’s an established fact that the life cycles of companies and many products have been shrinking. But what’s often not appreciated is that culture also has a life cycle and that it, too, is getting shorter.
Culture is often associated with the individual at the helm — so much so that the return of a former chief (Steve Jobs returning to Apple, A.G. Lafley going back to P&G) is often intended and viewed as a kind of restoration. However, true culture turnaround requires a complete psychological shift across the entire organization. It is relatively easy for new organizations to start with a clean sheet of paper in creating a culture. But for organizations that have been around for a while, the shift involves quite a bit of shedding and rewiring.
he rise of the on-demand economy means you can order a cab with your phone and have just about anything delivered quickly — as long as you live in certain big cities. To help the rest of the country get goods delivered same day, start-up Roadie just raised $10 million.
The mobile app, which launches today on both iOS and Android, uses the vast number of daily commuters on the road to create a person-to-person shipping network. Opening the Roadie app reveals a map of people driving to and from various destinations, as well as delivery requests.
l Ejecutivo Vasco obligará a lo largo de los próximos 365 días a que existan desfibriladores en los principales espacios de uso público e instalaciones externas al ámbito sanitario. La inversión correrá a cargo de los responsables de las instalaciones afectadas y el Gobierno no tiene previsto financiar esas inversiones. Un desfibrilador automático cuesta unos 1.200 euros y el Gobierno se ha comprometido a dar formación para su uso a través del 112. La empresas quedan fuera de esta normativa y el uso de instalación de desfibriladores lo definirán los comités de salud laboral en el trabajo.
Like its West Coast cohort One Medical, Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Iora Health is trying to take some of the age-old hassle out of primary care, and it’s raised $28 million in new funding to do this.
Iora’s system uses telemedicine platforms to reach remote patients. It also reduces wait times for office visits. The end result of these things, it believes, is a better patient experience, better clinical outcomes, and a reduction in overall health care costs.
Combatir la depresión, reducir el colesterol y bajar la tensión arterial, hacer frente al dolor, la gripe y los resfriados, y artículos absorbentes diseñados para la incontinencia urinaria. Aunque las ventas de medicamentos se estancaron el año pasado, los españoles acudieron a la farmacia para adquirir 1,62 millones de unidades de fármacos y otros productos comercializados en las boticas, con un gasto de 17.966 millones de euros.
IBM ha ido perdiendo protagonismo en el mundo de la tecnología y aunque sigue presente en muchos sitios, su imagen no es la de años atrás donde era toda una referencia. Esto no hace más que evidenciar un problema más grave: se han quedado atrás. Desde hace tiempo se habla de que van a sufrir una reorganización interna y parece que finalmente será así, al menos así lo señalan fuentes cercanas a la empresa.
