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The Risk of Wasted Time
Have you heard this before: If you don’t miss a plane now and then you’re spending too much time in airports.
The Freakonomics blog took a brief moment to reconsider the oft-repeated adage that "if you don't miss a plane, you're spending too much time in airports." While I think this sentiment made sense 10-20 years ago, when all you had to do in an airport was have a drink and read magazines, in this day and age most intelligent people can be just as productive -- if not more so! -- in an airport than in an office. When I travel, I always have a laptop with a 3G card, iPad, iPhone, noise canceling headphones, and a few back issues of the New Yorker stuffed in my briefcase. Killing time in an airport is far from miserable - it can even be the most relaxing part of my day.
On the other hand, missing a flight? Good luck with that. When you have a wife and child at home who care very much that you make it home on time, missing a plane "now and then" is a fairly big deal.
Did RIM just concede defeat in the smartphone wars?
Fred Wilson has an interesting perspective on RIM's stock buyback announcement yesterday, as if it's almost a concession of defeat from the maker of BlackBerry. Obviously, he says, they have nothing better to do with their money than to return it to their shareholders as a buyback.
So when I saw the headline this morning that RIM was doing a buyback, I was saddened. I've been a Blackberry user since 1997 or 1998. RIM has been a great company that has driven so much innovation in the past fifteen years that has made my life better and the lives of many others better. I have to believe that if they got aggressive, they could find uses for all of that cash they are sitting on. I wish they would do that instead of buying back their stock.via avc.com
Of course, it's probably just a coincidence that they announce this on the day that iPhone 4 goes on sale, to throngs of fans foaming at the mouth, lines down the block, stock-outs, etc. But Fred raises an interesting point about the future of RIM, and I have to agree wholeheartedly. If I were the kind of guy who traded individual securities, I would consider a short position in RIMM.
There are only two things keeping RIM afloat right now:
- Corporate security policies that mandate Blackberry usage
- iPhone's exclusivity on AT&T
Both things will end soon. The iPhone and Android devices continue to become more enterprise-friendly. Users will start to demand that their companies allow them the ability to bring their own devices to the office. For companies to stay competitive, they'll have to let employees use iPhones and Droids. And of course AT&T's exclusive strangle-hold on the iPhone is bound to run its course someday, and once Verizon gets its paws on the device, RIM's market share will drop like a rock.
The only people I know who have Blackberries are people whose companies mandate it, or who refuse to leave Verizon. Nobody has a Blackberry because they're passionate about its cool functions, or its cool apps. This is probably because, as the Wall Street Journal reported yesterday, developers hate developing for the Blackberry.
After all, as I said yesterday, when was the last time RIM launched a new Blackberry, and fans were camped out overnight to get it?
UPDATE: Wow, I should have made that trade.
“Just avoid holding it in that way.”
Crazy hipsters with their Tumblr. Still, this is pretty brilliant, in light of Steve's head-scratching decision to tell iPhone users to stop holding their phones by the bottom-left corner (which is precisely what he seems to be doing in this picture).
Delight your customers with generosity
A few days ago, my 18-month old son was playing around with our remote control, trying to watch Thomas or something, and ordered Cinemax. Or, as my wife and I like to call it, Skinemax. Obviously, this is not an appropriate thing for an 18-month old to order (nor is it an appropriate thing for the parents of an 18-month old to order, incidentally). But I couldn't figure out how to cancel the order using my cable box, so today I called up Fios to cancel the order.
First of all, I should say that I have never hated a company more than I hate Comcast. I was a Comcast customer for three straight years, and never had a single good experience with them. Every time I interacted with them I was disappointed. In fact, the only time I completely lost my cool on a customer service agent was with Comcast - after a Comcast customer service representative insisted that their technician had come to my house and performed the planned service, even though I had taken the day off from work to stay home and wait for the tech that never showed up. Good times.
Since signing up with Verizon Fios, I have never been disappointed. I am not used to loving a cable company. But I kind of love Fios. Case in point: the conversation I had yesterday to cancel Cinemax.
After waiting on hold for 30 seconds, a human voice picks up
Fios: Hello, Mr. Meyers, how may I help you?
Me: Well, my son accidentally ordered Cinemax, I'd like to cancel.
Fios: No problem, I can take care of that. While I'm doing that, why don't I check out our bundles to see if I can move you over to a plan that will save you some money on your monthly bill.
Me: Wow, that would be great, but unnecessary.
Fios: Hmm, it doesn't look like I can save you any money today. But how about I give you three months free of HBO?
Me: Wow, sure.
(Hangs up, proceeds to catch up on Entourage, True Blood, and The Pacific)
I wasn't calling to change my cable package, nor was I calling to subscribe to HBO. But Fios views every interaction with their customers as an opportunity to wow them, apparently. And wow me they did.
Nice work, Fios. I'm still not sure how I feel about paying $100/month for a cable package on which I only really watch two channels (ESPN and NESN), but until Apple TV or Google TV or Boxee or whatever gets their act together, I'm happy to support you.
PS - another company surprised its customers with generosity today. Can you guess who it was?
Entrepreneurs: Are you passionate about your product? Prove it
I enjoy reading about various start-ups on Techcrunch or Mashable, and am always jealous of my friends that leave the cushy workforce to start a cool new company. Many of my HBS classmates have chosen the road less taken and are running their own show at start-ups like Rent the Runway, ThredUp, LearnBoost, and Triangulate. I know the CEOs of all of these companies personally, and I am convinced that they are passionate about their products and literally jump out of bed every morning itching to change the world. It inspires me, frankly.
One of my former colleagues, Greg Pope, started up a company called eRelyx, that will eventually be a place where users can buy and sell used watches online. One of my entrepreneurship professors at school taught us that venture capitalists often invest in the person more than the idea - if this is the case with eRelyx, I have no doubts that Greg is going to get gobs of money. I have never met a guy more obsessed with luxury watches than Greg, and the guy's a walking encyclopedia.
I have taken to testing him. I sent him this picture of White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, and asked him to identify what watch he was wearing.
Greg responded within about five minutes with a link to the black ceramic J12 by Chanel. Amazing.
The best thing about Greg's start-up, though, is following the blog he has been keeping. The guy rarely misses a day without a post, and his posts are usually funny, well-written, and most importantly, they make me want to buy expensive watches. Seriously, I was never a watch guy (picture of my current watch below), but now that I'm reading Greg's blog, I'm starting to get into them. I blame my future bankruptcy on him.
But, by reading his blog, I have no doubt that Greg is absolutely 1,000% committed to eRelyx, and to luxury watches. I have no doubt that luxury watches are probably the first thing he thinks about when he wakes up in the morning, and the last thing he thinks about when he goes to sleep at night. He's a walking, talking luxury watch machine. And that's why I would invest in him.
So entrepreneurs, if you want a tip to impress potential customers? Write a blog. Put something up there every day that makes me realize that you love your product. Even if I'm not a customer, maybe I'll like your blog so much that I'll become one. That's what Greg has done, and that's what more people should do.
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