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Where leaping to conclusions is my primary form of forward motion.
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Monday, April 30, 2007
Private CIAs
John Robb, independent military analyst, futurist, and author of “Brave New War,” on Friday posted this interesting tidbit on Friday regarding the move by GlobalCos into the intelligence and security space:JOURNAL: Private CIAs
A strong sign that the nation-state is in decay is the frequency we see announcements of companies that are replicating some of the most sensitive government services. The most recent mover is Walmart, which is in the process of putting together its own intelligence arm (it's being built by a former CIA/FBI officer Kenneth Senser). For those unable to afford their own global intelligence unit, Blackwater's Cofer Black is building one called Total Intelligence Solutions.
If you want to get up to speed quickly, the background for this is available in BNW.
This makes sense, of course. As these companies plan long-term deployments across the globe they can little afford not to know the risks involved. And the intelligence fiasco of Iraq WMDs showed how unreliable government intelligence can be. This looks, to me, like another area where oligopoly control of a market makes sense. I wonder how the potential for shared intelligence organizations, and perhaps shared risk, will alter the oligopoly landscape?
Terry Frazier at 10:22 AM
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Thursday, February 9, 2006
Antergy
What’s the opposite of Synergy? It’s Antergy. Oligopoly Watch coins a new term for the cyclic stupidity of the corporate world. And, as is always the case, CxOs and consultants make beaucoup bucks on both ends – buying up things that don’t work together under the pretense of synergy, later selling them off on the pretense of releasing value. One metaphor for this is the human body. The body takes in various foodstuffs, holds onto them for a while, strips out the valuable components, and excretes the remainder. Somewhere in the process energy is created and we, the owners of the body, benefit from the process with health and life. So it is with corporations, except the CxOs and consultants are the ones who absorb all the energy in the form of bonuses and fees. The customers, employees, and shareholders often get only the excrement that comes out at the end.
Time-Warner sells book unit
One day after we note the frantic rush by the media oligopolies to spin off non-core assets then it happens once again. Time-Warner, under heavy pressure from a small group of determined investors, announced it has sold off its book division, to France's Lagardere, in a $538 million deal.
This is no big surprise. Time-Warner shopped around the book division three years ago, but has not until now found a buyer at an agreeable price. Reports are that the book division had a record year in 2005. Imprints owned by Time-Warner include Warner Books; Little, Brown & Co.; Arcade; Back Bay; and Bulfinch Press
Time-Warner was a second-tier player, #5 in the US publishing industry, considerably smaller than Bertelsmann (Random House) and Pearson (Penguin). That industry shows little added growth, making opportunities for growth without acquisitions unlikely.
Lagardere is best known for publishing magazine like Elle, Car & Driver, and Paris Match through its Hachette Filipacci division and books through its French-based Hachette division. The company has some online and newspaper interests as well. It also has minority holdings in such unrelated industries as aerospace and cable TV. It will become the #3 book publisher worldwide after the deal. Lagardere bought British publisher Hodder Headline in 2004.
For Time Warner it's yet another sell-off of a division. The company has sold off the Warner Music Group, its share of Comedy Central TV station, and some sports teams. It entered into an alliance over AOL with Google, and rumors are always strong that it will sell off the whole AOL division (if it can find a buyer). In addition, it recently combined its WB network with Universal's UPN in a 50/50 split.
The Time-Warner proxy rebels led by Carl Icahn have announced they want the company split even further, into four new firms, namely Time-Warner Cable, motion pictures and TV networks, magazine publishing, and AOL. As with Viacom, the idea is to "release" a lot of pent-up value, the very opposite of synergy, namely antergy.
Terry Frazier at 12:34 PM
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Thursday, December 8, 2005
Survey Your Customers Early and Often
Short article on the using low-cost customer surveys over at CNNMoney. Made me think. [via TP Wire Service]Customer surveys on the cheap
Want to find out what your customers are thinking for less than what a Madison Avenue consultant spends in a year on his lattes? Consider the case of Konstantin Guericke, the co-founder of LinkedIn, an online network that professionals can use to find new clients or pick up leads on jobs.
Terry Frazier at 9:33 PM
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Eliot Spitzer's Golden Rule
Cover story in the current issue of Business 2.0 is My Golden Rule, where 30 leaders offer their best one-liner pieces of wisdom. NY AG Eliot Spitzer's is:Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail.Ummm.
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