Business Archives - Page 45 of 72

Dunn-less HP Still Has Baggage

Posted on September 22, 2006 ·

So finally Pat Dunn is gone. Completely, immediately. This is definitely better than the lame half-steps the board originally took, keeping her as Chairman for 4 more months, and as Board member even longer.

Too bad she (they) waited long enough to get her inducted in the Bay Area Business Hall of ~~Fame~~ Shame. How pathetic. But wait, there is more. ZDnet reports that HP is the “sole corporate sponsor of the Privacy Innovation Awards that are going to be handed out next month at a gala event in Toronto.”

“Insert your own punch line: Hewlett-Packard Co., the Palo Alto-based technology company facing federal and state investigations over spying on board members and journalists, is cosponsor of an award for “privacy innovation.”

Lovely. I guess in HP-speak Spying=”Privacy Innovation”. Talk about HP in the post-Dunn period, I still maintain what I said before we knew that Mark Hurd may be involved, too:

“Mark Hurd will be the new Chairman while keeping his CEO position. He may be the savior of HP and untainted by the current scandal, but the separation of CEO and Chairman roles is a fundamental principle of good Corporate Governance.”

Messr. Hewlett and Packard are still turning in their graves.

Tags: HP, HP+Scandal, HP+Board, HPGate, Dunngate, Patriciagate, corporate+governence, business+ethics, Hall+of+fame, Hall+of+Shame, Privacy+Innovation+Award, privacy

Filed Under: Business, Misc, Technology ·

The Crush Goes On: Much Ado About Nothing

Posted on September 22, 2006 ·

TechCrunch crushed TechCrush, reports Stowe Boyd. But wait: Mike “TechCrunch” Arrington says it’s just a friendly conversation. TechCrush themselves report all is clear…

Oh, well… back to business. Crunch on .. or crush on?

Tags: techcrunch, techcrush, /message

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Startups, Technology ·

Who Needs the $100 Laptop? Just "Borrow" one from the Government

Posted on September 22, 2006 ·

The Federal Government seems to be in the business of giving away free computers… how else could we explain that “More than 1,100 laptop computers have vanished from the Department of Commerce since 2001” ? (source: Washignton Post).

The second part of the quote is even scarier: “including nearly 250 from the Census Bureau containing such personal information as names, incomes and Social Security numbers, federal officials said yesterday.”

Gee. I don’t even want to think trough the privacy implications. Scott McNealy was right.

How Does Government Lose So Many Laptops?

Tags: laptops, notebooks, $100+notebook, $100+laptop, government, federal+government, privacy, Social+Security, Census+Bureau, +Scott+McNealy

Filed Under: Business, Misc, Politics ·

Blogs and Wikis Are the New Web

Posted on September 22, 2006 ·

Traditional web sites are so 20th Century – Blogs and Wikis bring them to life, and they are easier to set up. Perhaps not surprisingly, a Web 2.0-focused VC, Union Square Ventures was one of the first to replace their entire Web site with a blog – read the rationale of the switch. Corporate web sites soon followed suit, just look at Architel and Return Path as examples. Now, for some shameless self-promotion, my earlier tips on the subject: Blogs To Replace Personal Web sites.

In Wikis are the Instant Intranet I also talked about how companies can set up a living-breathing Intranet, one that people can actually use, not just passively read by deploying a wiki: ” in the large corporate environment a wiki can be a lively collaborative addition to the Intranet (see the wiki effect by Socialtext CEO Ross Mayfield), but for smaller, nimble, less hierarchical business a wiki is The Intranet.” (note: I am not just speculating on this: been there, done that in my prior life).

Now Sydney-based Customware raised the bar:

The entire web site (not only the Intranet, but the customer-facing web) is built on a wiki – Confluence by Atlassian. (hat tip: Mike Cannon-Brookes)

Update (9/28): The Atlassian Blog points to several other wiki-powered sites that look-and-feel like traditional websites.

Update (9/22): Just as soon as I posted this article, I saw this pic on Rod Boothby’s blog:

Itensil, short for “Information Utensils” builds “a self-service technology that we’re calling Team Wikiflow that captures collective intelligence and delivers it as reusable team processes.”

I have to admit I haven’t heard of Itensil – it will be exciting to meet them, as well as Atlassian, Socialtext, Zoho, ConnectBeam, EchoSign and many other companies in the collaboration space at the Office 2.0 Conference.

Update (4/12/07): Here’s a list of corporate websites powered by CustomerVision’s BizWiki.

Filed Under: Blogging, Business, Collaboration, Enterprise Software, Software, Technology · Tagged: atlassian, blogs, cms, confluence, ConnectBeam, content+management, CustomerVision, EchoSign, instant+intranet, intranet, itensil, Office20con, socialtext, web+design, websites, wiki, wikis, zoho

Bay Area Business Hall of Shame

Posted on September 20, 2006 ·

(Updated)
This is NOT a joke: on the heels of the widening HP Spy Scandal deposed (?) Chairman and Chief Spy Patricia Dunn is still scheduled to be inducted into the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame at a $500-a-piece Gala Dinner at the Westin St. Francis. The other inductee is former Chevron Chairman & CEO George M. Keller.

I don’t know Mr. Keller, but I don’t believe he is involved in any dishonorable activities, and frankly, if I were him, I would feel very-very inconvenient right now. Perhaps to the point of rejecting the “honor” of sharing the pedestal with HP’s Master Spy.

Fellow Hall of Famers, HP Founders William Hewlett & David Packard must be turning in their graves now that that the Executive who did the most to destroy their company’s reputation is being honored along with them. Other business legends in the Hall of Fame must feel the same: Eugene Kleiner & Thomas J. Perkins, William Hambrecht, Charles Schwab, Gordon Moore, George Lucas, Larry Sonsini. As we know, at least Mr Sonsini and Mr Perkins were subject to HP’s pretexting – this must make for cozy dinner company 🙂

If Patricia Dunn had any decency left, she would not provoke further attention and public outcry by accepting the honor and attending the Gala, But for all we know now, she plans to.

Perhaps the other participants will save the day and boycott what would otherwise become the Bay Area Business Hall of Shame… (?)

Update (9/21): Apparently no-one “saved the day” Patricia Dunn was toasted and inducted yesterday.

Tags: Bay+Area+Business+Hall+of+Fame, Bay+Area+Business+Hall+of+Shame, Hall+of+Shame, HP, Hewlett+Packard, HP+Scandal, Pat+Dunn, Patricia+Dunn, Gala+Dinner, Boycott

Filed Under: Bay Area, Business, Politics, Technology ·

Lame Executive Search "Matches"

Posted on September 12, 2006 ·

Long ago I’ve established a profile on BlueSteps.com. It’s dormant, I did not bother to go back and de-activate it, the occasional email does not bother me. This morning I am ROFLMAO having received the following “match against my profile”:

Function:  Finance and Accounting/CFO
Industry:  Hospitals
Region:  Augusta, GA, Georgia, United States
Salary:  $100,000 – $150,000

There’s not a single bit in this search that would match my profile. This is simply pathetic.

Tags: executive+search, bluesteps, bluesteps.com, job+search

Filed Under: Business, Software, Technology ·

Lame Half-steps at HP

Posted on September 12, 2006 ·

Patricia Dunn continues as Chairman of the Board for 4 months. She should be out immediately.
She will remain on the Board as Director even after January. What a joke.
Mark Hurd will be the new Chairman while keeping his CEO position. He may be the savior of HP and untainted by the current scandal, but the separation of CEO and Chairman roles is a fundamental principle of good Corporate Governance.

Bad. Bad. Bad. I guess Robert is right: HP still has a major ethical problem.

Update (9/12): Management guru Tom Peters weighs in:

“Your watch. Your responsibility. That’s the whole damn point of a chain of command—in Iraq or Palo Alto.
Step down, Ms Dunn.”

(hat tip:Paul Kedroskyy)

Tags: HP+Scandal, HP+Board, Board+of+Directors, Corporate+Governance

Filed Under: Bay Area, Business ·

SVASE VC Breakfast Club in San Francisco

Posted on September 11, 2006 ·

I’ll be moderating another SVASE VC Breakfast Club meeting on Thursday, Sep 14th in San Francisco. As usual, it’s an informal round-table where up to 10 entrepreneurs get to deliver a pitch, then answer questions and get critiqued by a VC Partner. We’ve had VC’s from Draper Fisher, Hummer Winblad, Kleiner Perkins, Mayfield, Mohr Davidow, Emergence Capital …etc.

Thursday’s featured VC is John Parsons, General Partner, The Halo Funds. The Zvents post has all the info and a map, and if you plan to attend, please register here.

These sessions are a valuable opportunity for Entrepreneurs, most of whom would probably have a hard time getting through the door to VC Partners. Since I’ve been through quite a few of these sessions, both as Entrepreneur and Moderator, let me share a few thoughts:

It’s a pressure-free environment, with no Powerpoint presentations, Business Plans…etc, just casual conversation, but it does not mean you should come unprepared!
Bring an Executive Summary, some VC’s like it, others don’t.
Follow a structure, don’t just talk freely about what you would like to do, or even worse, spend all your time describing the problem, without addressing what your solution is.
Don’t forget “small things” like the Team, Product, Market..etc.
It would not hurt to mention how much you are looking for, and how you would use the funds…
Write down and practice your pitch, and prepare to deliver a compelling story in 3 minutes. You will have about 5, but believe me, whatever your practice time was, when you are on the spot, you will likely take twice as long to deliver your story. The second half of your time-slot is Q&A with the VC.
Last, but not least, please be on time! I am not kidding… some of you know why I even have to bring this up.

Here’s a participating Entrepreneur’s feedback about a previous event.

See you in San Francisco!

Tags: Venture Capital, VC Breakfast, Funding, VC Funding, Startups, Entrepreneurship, SVASE

Filed Under: Bay Area, Business, Social Networking, Startups ·

Size Matters

Posted on September 9, 2006 ·

Apparently Katie Couric is not the only one who can easily lose 20 pounds by some photo-processing wizardry. The magic is available to anyone, and it does not even require a conspiring press department, or even Photoshop knowledge.

The slimming goodness comes to you thanks to HP, the company that introduced a line of digital cameras that can slim anyone’s waistline.

The demo video on HP’s site is worth watching. (hat tip: Ho John Lee).

I see unlimited potential here: if you can slim, why not add, too, at the right places? We can all have a custom-tailored body. And to be PC and balanced, yes, guys could use some “enhancement” too… no, not *that* ..Were talking about decent pics here…although reading this, who knows what the norm is anymore….

Well, since you brought it up, how about 9 inches? Isn’t that too big?

(Seeing the photo of The Swiss Army Giant Knife) I think we can agree that 9 inches are too big to be useful…

Back to the HP cameras, this is the kind of enhancement I had in mind, but without the steroids or hard work. Oh, and not in 12 weeks, but 12 seconds.

Warning to journalists, writers and corporate Board members: if you received a camera as a gift from HP, have it *de-bugged*. According to leaks from usually well-informed sources, some units included HP’s experimental feature: the camera may listen in on your electronic communication and secretly report back to HP HQ.