2010-05-03 (Monday) by Gregory Tucker.

Endagdget has reported today that Apple has sold its millionth iPad just 28 days after its release. Way ahead of my prediction, Apple will sell 2 million of these in less than 6 months, and there is little evidence they are cannibalizing sales of its other products. Hooray for Apple, but Endadget also reported that Apple’s licensing restrictions on 3rd party tool kits may draw anti-trust scrutiny from regulators. (In the darkest days of Microsoft’s dominance, I never imagined two competitors–Apple and Google–and I never imagined one of them would begin with an A.)

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2009-10-18 (Sunday) by Gregory Tucker.

I am currently reading Jim Collins’ latest work, How The Mighty Fall. It concluded with the interesting quote:

There’s a provocative lesson: beware the hubris that can rise in conjunction with missionary zeal…Whenever people begin to confuse the nobility of their cause with the goodness and wisdom of their decisions… they can perhaps more easily lead themselves astray. Bad decisions made with good intentions are still bad decisions.

How many leaders, in business or government, have succumbed to the failings born of hubris, and is there any student of business more qualified than Jim Collins to point us in the right direction?

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2009-06-26 (Friday) by Gregory Tucker.

http://blogs.bnet.com/intercom/?p=2478&tag=nl.rSINGLE

• University of Phoenix Online enrollment up 20%
• Twice as many people took online courses compared with 5 years ago

I graduated from the University of Phoenix Online program in June 2008, and I have no shame in admitting so. The instructors were knowledgeable and experienced, the coursework was challenging, and I learned a great deal.I believe the traditional programs have a number of challenges:

• Costs: it costs a lot to maintain campuses and facilities.
• Tenure: the tenure system serves only to protect academics from the real world. Tenure is specifically not designed to serve the interests of the students.
• Purpose: In many disciplines, the purpose of obtaining a Ph.D. is to go on to teach other Ph.D.’s. It is a self-fulfilling cycle that serves little purpose.

It is interesting that Jack Welch has decided to start his own online MBA program. I believe it will be a raging success.

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2009-03-07 (Saturday) by Gregory Tucker.

Business rags consistently report on the market share Starbucks is ceding to McDonald’s McCafe. I have a love-and-hate relationship with Starbucks, which a year ago I started calling McStarbucks in honor of its sterile, flavorless coffee drinking experience. Once consumers started preferring the McCafe experience over Starbucks, they should have known they were in trouble.

But I believe returning CEO, Howard Schultz, is devoted to fixing the Starbucks brand. I am not a big fan of their Tea Time focus, which I believe is failing, but other moves to improve the quality and flavor of their coffee are welcome. Their attention to timing of delivery has provided me a few free cups of decaf–just make sure to ask if the pot is fresh.

Despite the firm’s shortcomings, I am still a loyal customer. My preferred coffee drinking experience is Stumptown Roasters, a Portland-based company with a location near the kids’ school. But Stumptown is often inconvenient from home or at the Portland airport. In both locations I have a choice of Starbucks and Seattle’s Worst. That choice is easy.

Nevertheless,  on two occasions I decided to try McCafe. The first was on a hiking trip. The coffee was just so-so, not very good tasting, and $0.20 more than the same size cup from Starbucks. The second time I was waiting while Aya attended a classmate’s birthday party. The decaf I received was lukewarm, almost cold, and another disappointment.

So I ask, how is McCafe competing with Starbucks? It is not on price. It is certainly not on quality. It is not on product consistency, which is what I always associated with McDonalds. My advice to Schultz is to avoid overrating the competitive threat of McDonalds. Spend instead more time at Stumptown, where the coffee is real and the experience is palpable, if low-budget. McCafe cannot compete with a revitalized Starbucks brand. And while Schultz is working on revitalizing the brand, take a second look at Organic–why Starbucks doesn’t yet own the Organic market I have no idea.

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