Mary Meeker 2014 Internet Trends Thoughts

Tried to post this in a discussion online, but the comments widget bombed out. I figured I'd post it here instead, since sadly it's a bit of a ghost town.

KPCB Internet trends 2014 from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers

Mary Meeker just released her annual internet trends report. As a huge nerd I look forward to this every year. In this year's report she predicts that one of the next areas ripe for disruption is Education. As someone married to a teacher, and a parent. I am excited by this.

What exactly might that disruption look like?

While a completely vague prediction. It will be access to information. The overriding driver of all the major internet driven disruption of the past 30 years has been the democratization of access to information (and resources).

From Google giving everyone the worlds knowledge at the click of a mouse to Amazon EC3 offering every entrepreneur with an idea access to enterprise class infrastructure also at the click of a mouse.

"Good" education. That is access to the best teachers and best techniques was once the domain of the privileged. A networked world, combined with easy distribution and free-er access to information "evens the playing field" so to speak. In theory a kid in rural Africa "could" get the same quality of eduction as a kid in suburban Connecticut.

If that happens an interesting side effect could be disruption to the network value of higher eduction. The most valuable thing about getting a Harvard MBA is knowing all the other people who got a Harvard MBA along with you. With an even playing field, along with a theoretically open communication network in education, that could change. Disruption to education is arguable THE THING that can change the world THE MOST.

Sorry for the ramble.

I watch NASCAR for the crashes... revisited

The following is my most read blog post.  This was written 2 years ago - almost to the day - and to date has had over 2500 views.  A lot had happened since then.  Novell was acquired by Attachmate and I've since moved on to a new opportunity at Empathica.

As I read it I reflect back on how daunting a task something that sounds as simple as re-branding is.  I recently saw an article about HP having had an opportunity to update their logo for which they passed on. This sparked much uproar online about the opportunity they missed.  Well, if my experience tells me anything it's that re-branding and changing the world's perception about you takes much more than a new logo.  Or even a new vision statement as with what Novell tried to do.  It takes a full company effort, and the new brand you want to create needs to be compelling enough to have widespread adoption in the market at large.   Very few companies have been able to do this successfully, particularly large ones.

In fact in 2012 we can all watch in real time how this same exercise will unfold at RIM.  Once having defined the smartphone, they now struggle to change the world's perception of what they do and why they do it.  I'm sure some will suggest a logo change, or a new vision or mission statement, but the reality is it will take much more.

Maybe they can even pick up a lesson or two from NASCAR...

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I watch NASCAR for the crashes...

I have been reflecting on Intelligent Workload Management and Novell these past few weeks. I won’t go in to details on the strategy, as there is plenty of material on that from much better sources than myself.

My brain instead tends to work in tangents. Intelligent Workload Management has gotten me thinking about NASCAR. Yes, stock car racing. Not long ago, NASCAR was a niche sport, relegated to popularity in the south, and frankly having very negative stereotypes associated with it everywhere else.

Then a guy by the name of Brett Yormark came along to run NASCAR sales and marketing. Yormark had a sole focus: to change the most important thing he saw about NASCAR… PERCEPTION. By bringing in a major sponsor Nextel, to replace RJ Reynolds, along with other changes to the brand. Yormark took NASCAR to a new audience, up market, with a new public perception.

NASCAR has now become the second most profitable professional sport in North America just short of the NFL. Not bad for a bunch of guys crashing in to each other.

Here at Novell, we are in the process of a similar evolution. Our products have always been loved by our customers and our engineers have consistently delivered market leading technology. Our biggest challenge is perception. Intelligent Workload Management is a fresh way of looking at how our products and solutions fit together for a powerful vision. Both the engineer and salesperson in me are extremely excited by the possibilities this market holds, and the ways that IWM can change the role of IT in helping business run.

We have the products, and more importantly the people here to deliver on this vision. Intelligent Workload Management can do for Novell what Brett Yormark did for NASCAR.
Lucky for us, we can do it, without all the car crashes…

Who runs product marketing at RIM?

As a Canadian working in technology one issue that I'm quite passionate about is the innovation gap that is happening between Canada an our peers.

I watch with an almost personal fascination with the challenges being faced by Research in Motion. Being Canada's biggest global success story, their struggles act both as an interesting learning experience and a local soap opera.

As a marketer I can't help but feel there is a profound lesson to be learned by product managers and product marketers by watching what hopefully will be the rebuilding of a Canadian icon.

Now that RIM can no longer rely on the capabilities of their products to sell themselves, they seem to have fundamental issues around the marketing 4 Ps (Product, Price, Promotion, Place). The market no longer knows what differentiates them, most assume it’s enterprise capability of some sort, but their own messaging does not reinforce even this, their legacy killer feature, Their pricing, due to their carrier strategy is all over the map, again because of the carrier strategy also no promotion consistency, and most importantly they no longer know where to position themselves. Are they still a premium phone, an entry level, mid range? Too many questions.

The breadth of devices they carry on their price list is too big, which exacerbates all the core marketing issues just mentioned. One aspect of Apple strategy that I've always greatly admired is the strict discipline they show in maintaining a very small and focused product portfolio.

They can be fixed, but it remains to be seen whether or not time is still on their side...

Get off my lawn – The new rules of marketing

I am old.  It’s official, I don’t understand music today.  When I turn on the music video channel or listen to the radio, I hear myself saying the same things my father used to say.  Then I saw this.

“There’s nothing quite like the feeling, when you’re listening to a song, written by someone you don’t know, who you’ve never met, who somehow manages to describe exactly how you felt at a particular moment in your life…”

What a wonderful introduction to a modern hit that I actually like.  I was thinking about this quote in the context of what I do for a living.  I’m a marketer.  As a marketer perhaps I should aspire to something greater.

Traditional marketing was about interruption.  Interrupting your favorite TV shows, interrupting the newspaper articles, interrupting the landscape you see on your commute to work.  Surveys will say that people hate marketing.  Marketing interrupts your day and yells at you.  Marketing tries to sell you things that you don’t need.

As long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated with technology, and fascinated by what it can do.  I believe that innovation in technology can make people’s lives better.  Even something as frivolous as social media has proven this year, that it can transcend simply being just a medium to distribute lolcatz images.  That new channel for communication showed that it could be a catalyst for revolution and real change.  That’s pretty amazing if you think about it. 

I think perhaps the new marketing can be about that.  It can be about teaching the world the value of new innovation.  Teaching the world about how tomorrow will be a better place and the role technology can play in paving that road.  Maybe the new marketing can be like this song by Adele and deliver messages that resonate with people beyond a catchphrase and help them understand how something simple might just make the world a bit better…

Even delicious beverages need product management!

I came across this great video today.  In it Dr. Jim Anderson discusses how product managers at Coke keep track of their 450(!) Different brands of products.

I find it refreshing to learn about how companies outside my own domain (enterprise software in my case) tackle various issues.  At the end of the day there are many universal truths to running a business, no matter what markets you play in.  Seeing how an organization like Coke (who sells delicious beverages rather than enterprise software) tackle some of the universal challenges of product management helps me to spur some new thinking, and get myself unstuck from the occasional ruts I find myself in.

This behavior oddly tends to be particularly prevalent in the summer months J

Enjoy…