January 6 2004: Day 2 of my journal is drawing to a close, and as I start writing, am happy that this initiative hasn't turned out to be one-day wonder !

In the latest issue of Fast Company, the lead article talks about Apple as an innovator that hasnt really been able to capitalise and make money on its innovations. Today, more than a quarter century after its founding (The launch of Apple II created the Personal Computing Industry in 1977), Apple controls only 2% of the 180 Billion $ worldwide market for PCs, being # 9 after, lagging behind Acer (7) and Legend (8). In its history, Apple has issued 1300 patents, more than 1.5 times that of Dell, and half as much as Microsoft, which makes 145 times more money). The author of the article argues that oura "heedless" reverence for innovation is blinding us to its limits, misuse and risks. It is possible to innovate pointlessly, to choose the wrong models for innovations, and pursue innovation at the expense of other virtues that are atleast as important to lasting business, which is consistency and follow-through. The author also goes on to argue that most real innovators are bureaucrats, and in virtually any industry, business model innovators rather than technical innovators have reaped the greatest rewards. Examples of business model innovators are Amazon, eBay, Jet Blue, and of course Dell, which is held up a as a glowing example of what innovation is all about. This is my take after reading the article:

While Apple's failure to capaitalise on some of its its innovations are poor decisions, poor follow though and so on, holding up Dell as a glowing model of innovation sounds rather absurd. Sure their business model has made PC's marginally cheaper, and Dell shareholders are a warm happy bunch, but Dell is actually an anti-innovator. By very clearly regarding itself as a market taker and not a market maker, Dell kills the initiative for others to innovate. If it werent for the persistence of the Apples and other foolhardy idealists of the world, we would live in a far uglier , maybe cheaper place. Moreover, I see limits on Dell's approach to innovation: Cheap clone PC's sold direct. What next ?

CEREBERUS: The Three headed dog guarding the gates of Hell !

On the issue of Dell DJ which is a 2-year late follower of the APple Ipod, there is an article in Fortune that compares SUperman to Bizaaro: Here is the gist of the story: The evil scientist Lex Luthor used his duplicator ray to try to clone Superman, but something went terribly wrong. The result was Bizarro, a good-natured but ugly and backward version of the Man of Steel. Bizarro was the antithesis of cool; his home planet, Htrae, was square.

When Bizarro had good news to announce, he would say, "This am terrible!"

Which leads us into a discussion of Dell's new Bizarro version of Apple's iPod, called the Dell Digital Jukebox Music Player, or Dell DJ for short. Coming from the square world of Dell instead of the hip world of Apple, it's bigger, heavier, and clunkier than Apple's sleek, suave, elegant iPod, which arrived on the scene two years ago and quickly became the most popular portable digital music player on our home planet, Earth. Even worse, the Musicmatch-backed Dell Music Store is the clumsy, Bizarro counterpart to Apple's brilliant iTunes Music Store.

[...]

Bizarro, the pathetic wretch, was driven mad by constant comparisons with the handsome, smart, and sexy Superman he was meant to emulate. So too must the DJ suffer from inevitable comparisons with the iPod, with its two-year headstart. If the iPod did not exist, the DJ might even lay claim to the title of Best Portable Music Player Since the Sony Walkman.

But the iPod does exist, and so do Apple iTunes and the Apple iTunes Music Store, and thus the Dell DJ is doomed to be merely the second-best player on the market.

Words are flowing out like endless rain into a paper cup
They slither while they pass they slip away across the universe
Pools of sorrow, waves of joy
Are drifting through my opened mind
Posessing them caressing me.......
Jay Gurudeva.....
Nothing's gpnna change my world
Nothings gonna change my world

Across the universe, thats how expansive I feel !! Today, Jan 5 2004 represents a giant leap for myself in many ways. Today I have STARTED A BLOG !! I have also started to MEDITATE, having stopped Tobacco, alcohol and non-vegetarian food for most of the past 3 weeks.... Now if only I can control my mind to order my body to wake up early before sunrise, I will be king. Today is also the first day of me writing a journal - the fact that happens to be online is not as important, actually. Why start a journal ? Keeping a running narrative of my life helps me do many things - it helps me memorialize the past, envision the future, celebrate life. Having said these fancy sounding phrases, the words "running narrative" means that it has to be regular. That means there has to be a commitment. What is the definition of commitment ? Commitment is one's best gift to oneself. WIthout commitment, one's life is frivoulous, desultory and frittered away in serach of amusement, which as I'm fond to say, is the happiness of fools. The importnat thing about the narrative is not how exciting or profound it is or how well it is written - what matters is that it is written EVERY SINGLE DAY. Everything else will take care of itself.

The latest issue of Business World talks about the best and the worst managers of 2003. One name that struck me is that of Yun Jong Yong, CEO of SAMSUNG. Years ago, when Samsung had partnered with Videocon to make TV's and other stuff, I had resolved that I would never buy a Samsung for the rest of my life. AT that time, there was truth to the stereotype I had of Samsung of a cheap, low end, mass producer of flaky consumer durable that I wouldnt be seen with - in stark contrast to Sony, which epitomised cool. Today Yun Jong Yong has changed that stereotype - Samsung products are pretty good and radiate sex appeal. Yun Jong Yong says: "Our future will depend on our Brand Equity - If we keep selling low-end products, it damages our corporate image.

Interestingly, I also read that Samsung has recently displaced Motorola as the 2nd largest manufacturer of Mobile Phones by Value, although Motorola is still Nr 2 by Volume.Samsung is also the global leader in the memory-chip business - it controls 2/3rd of the market for NAND flash memory, used in Removable Cards. Sales in 2003 are expected to be 36 Billion USD, with profits to reach 5 Billion USD.

One of the worst managers is listed as SONY Corporation's CEO Nobuyuki Idei. Sony products now are passe - Korean products typically pre-empt a Sony launch, Sony TV's are not that cool anymore (remember waht a big brand the Trinitron was), and Sony is strugglig to keep itself afloat making me too MP3 players that even Singapore local hero Creative does a good job of. Why didn't Sony invent the iPod ? I thought they'd be the logical people to do it having invented the Walkman more than 20 years ago, but it was Apple.

Speaking of Apple, Steve Jobs has been named as another great manager. Pixar Animations 2003 hit Finding Nemo, apparently is the highest grossing animation movie ever. It also wasn't a flash in the pan - Finding Nemo was Pixar's fifth blockbuster in 5 tries ! Steve Jobs also found a way to get consumers to pay for music rather than swipe it off the net. While this is not a big deal in itself, the iTunes music store , which enables the whole purchasing expereince has done wonders for sales of iPod - I just bough an iPod in December of 2003, and its one of the best gizmos I have bought in my life.

I'll conclude Dig a Pony journal today by copying something that I read by Eckart Tolle:

Many people are waiting for prosperity
But prosperity does not happen in the future
Gratitude for the present moment and the fullness of life now is true prosperity