How Sony lost their lead in consumer electronics…

longreads:

There’s more to Sony’s problems than acts of God and currency traders. The maker of the Walkman and the Trinitron hasn’t driven pop culture for years. Sony thrived in an era of stand-alone electronics. When the Internet arose and digital began to mean connected, iPods became the center of people’s entertainment lives, then smartphones and tablets—which Sony was late to produce. Even the quintessential Sony product—the TV set—has become a millstone. Sony has lost nearly $8.5 billion on TVs over eight years and expects to keep losing at least into 2013. Samsung, Vizio, and other upstarts have driven prices so low that one Sony executive says the company charges less for some TVs than it cost to ship them a few years ago.

“What Is Sony Now?” — Bryan Gruley and Cliff Edwards, Bloomberg Businessweek

“There is no one in this country who got rich on their own…” - Elizabeth Warren

Because an idea is just your opinion without the data to back it up…  Looking forward to business schools taking the plunge into big data, as the biggest business opportunities over the next decade are making sense of this data.

via smarterplanet:

Business Schools Plan Leap Into Data - WSJ.com

Faced with an increasing stream of data from the Web and other electronic sources, many companies are seeking managers who can make sense of the numbers through the growing practice of data analytics, also known as business intelligence. Finding qualified candidates has proven difficult, but business schools hope to fill the talent gap.

This fall several schools, including Fordham University’s Graduate School of Business and Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, are unveiling analytics electives, certificates and degree programs; other courses and programs were launched in the previous school year.

International Business Machines Corp., which has invested more than $14 billion buying analytics industry companies such as Coremetrics and Netezza Corp. since 2005, has teamed up with more than 200 schools, including Fordham, to develop analytics curriculum and training.

“The more students that graduate knowledgeable in areas we care about, the better it is not just for our company but the companies we work with,” said Steve Mills, IBM senior vice president and group executive of software and systems. “It really comes down to what clients and customers need most.”

Data analytics was once considered the purview of math, science and information-technology specialists. Now barraged with data from the Web and other sources, companies want employees who can both sift through the information and help solve business problems or strategize. For example, luxury fashion company Elie Tahari Ltd. uses analytics to examine historical buying patterns and predict future clothing purchases. Northeastern pizza chain Papa Gino’s Inc. uses analytics to examine the use of its loyalty program and has succeeded in boosting the average customer’s online order size.

What does Apple have that Google doesn’t? An Auteur of design, name Steve Jobs.  Do you think design decisions are best reached by a unfied personality or through consensus emerging through a committee?

Why your toilet paper is shrinking