What hides behind 'Customer Focus'

http://www.paulgraham.com/13sentences.html
Startup in 13 Steps

Two that caught my attention - ‘Focus’ and ‘Let it evolve’

• There are lot of great ideas, especially the ones from customers – keeping focus involves a quick objective look at them and dismissing or absorbing them into the current plan.
• Let it evolve – do the minimum, but find a balance to have a foundation strong enough to build on!

401K investment rewards long timers - so NOT!

http://www.ebri.org/pdf/march%205,%202009%20update%20full%20universe%20since%20jan%201,%2020092.pdf

A close friend of mine sent me this link. We both have a common Indian and Singapore upbringing and used to be puzzled about the consumer economy of US.

After more than a decade now, we are right in the middle of it! We enjoyed the bountiful days of the market and now sitting like a duck and watching the vapor ware investment disappear as well.

Like most Americans, we strongly believe in the entrepreneurial spirits here and how a mix of good policy and freedom and security of small business makes the economy rebound.

Good luck • Hard work • Honesty - Let us work together to lead us out of this disturbing economy!

Why TV Lost

http://paulgraham.com/convergence.html

Live show, against audience interest?

What the article implies

• TV Networks want to focus on existing predictable business model – PrimeTime+Viewers = Ad Revene
• For this, they want to make sure people are glued to their signal between 6 and 8pm.
• Hence, they are thinking ‘Live Show’ is the answer.
• This is wrong because this is not what the users want

My take

• Yes, business is flawed if ‘Live Show’ is introduced because they want to attract users to watch their signal during prime time
• Yes, business is flawed because ‘Live Show’ of any other TV shows is the most appropriate show for interactive content consumption (people have a need to talk and listen to others feedback during a Live show more so than a recorded old show). This is so NOT broadcast TV material
• No, ‘Live Show’ is indeed a good approach because most people today expect media to show the world around them instantly (not just news, but sports, human interest stories etc). Very few if any are interested in knowing details unless it is core to their life style. There are just too many content people want to get their hands on and hence very limited time. ‘Live Show’ is ‘Instant Gratification’. Why should TV Network be an exception. In fact, traditional movies and traditional books are next in line for demise – watch out!

Big business fails because…

Good observation. Typical reason why established companies fail – they fail to change with the market demand!

Most business go through a slow death, where they try to force users to still use their service or change too slow.

Technology driven companies fall in this trap more often than marketing driven companies. Market driven companies have a favorable mind set to acquire new startups to change their direction.

Regarding ‘broadcast business’…

The article suggests that TV Networks are falling in the same trap as newspaper where they are assuming a common interest across a big demographic!

Comparing it with restaurant industry will make it easy – imagine there are only 3 restaurant chain in the US which has 10 entrées each – that is a total of 30 types of food for 300M people!

People will be desperate for more choices!

However, the article seems to ignore the fact that there are 1000s of channels for the consumer to select from (and they are indirectly owned by TV Networks) – it is not one signal to everyone – it is 6 broadcast signals to everyone who doesn’t want to pay for selective signal through cable!