Complacency
Businesses come and businesses go. Those that were once market leaders soon fall behind the upstarts, and often disappear altogether. It is a rare company that perseveres in this competitive market, so rare that they stand out because of their persistence: Microsoft is the obvious one, having been the leader for as long as many of us can remember. There are a number of other examples, but as we have seen in the past couple of years, far more have come and gone. Competition is fierce, and the battle for market share becomes all-encompassing. It is clearly not safe to assume that being #1 now will ensure that you remain there a year from now. Read more
Software Evolution
We can learn a lot about software development by observing how people manage their e-mail inboxes. For years, even though I would diligently move important information into specific folders for later retrieval, control of my inbox had escaped me. Despite all my best efforts, it was almost impossible to cull it down below a threshold of hundreds of messages. The effort required to regain control was beyond me. I’ve seen others that don’t manage their mail at all, and the number of messages in their inboxes number into the thousands – retrieval of any relevant information is a daunting task. Read more
