Category: Uncategorized

Zooming ahead of the supply chain

China’s control of the supply chain gives its manufacturers a powerful advantage

One of the least understood, but most important factors in modern industry is the logistics of moving supplies to manufacturers and goods to market.

Mastery of the supply chain is one of the key advantages Chinese manufacturers have says PCH Industries’ CEO Liam Casey in an interview with Fortune Magazine.

Fortune describes how Casey has become the ‘go-to’ man for companies wanting to outsource their manufacturing to China, a process that can be steep learning curve for an inexperienced startup team.

Since first travelling to China twenty years ago, Casey has been studying how the country’s manufacturers operate and he believes they are “light-years ahead when it comes to the supply chain.” 

That strength is something that shouldn’t be underestimated by China’s competitors and western countries hoping to rekindle their manufacturing industries as Chinese costs increase, getting goods to market is as much an value add as making the products.

Are small businesses too old and slow?

Does an aging small business population pose a risk to the economy?

Yesterday I hosted the second day of the CPA Australia Technology, Accounting and Finance Forum that looked at how the accounting profession is being affected by the changing technology landscape.

There’s plenty to write about from the day and how the accounting profession is facing technological change which I’ll write up shortly but one theme from the day was striking – that older small businesses owners are struggling to deal with adopting new tech.

Gavan Ord, the CPA’s policy advisor warns older practitioners are opening themselves to disruption and  the Australian business community is in general is at risk as older proprietors aren’t investing or embracing technology at a rate comparable to their overseas competitors.

Older small business owners

That older skew in small business operators is clear, in 2012 The Australian Bureau of Statistics found 57% of the nation’s proprietors are aged over 45 as opposed to 35% of the general population.

Even more concerning is many of those small business owners expect to retire with a 2009 survey finding 81% were intending to retire within ten years – it would be interesting to see how those ambitions changed as the global financial crisis evolved.

A risk to the broader economy

This blog has flagged the risks of an aging small businesses community previously, but Gavan Ord’s point flags another risk – that older proprietors being reluctant to invest in new technology means a key segment of the Australian economy is unprepared for today’s wave of technological change.

A key message from the CPA forum was that the shift to cloud computing is radically changing the business world as sophisticated data management, analytic and automation tools become easily available. Companies, and nations, that don’t take advantage of modern business tools risk being left behind in the 21st Century.

Breaking the ennui – thoughts on new projects

Five projects to get minds working again.

To snap myself out of the current ennui that has swamped me, I’ve a few ideas for a crowdfunded project. I’m interested in what people think of them, the first two are Australian focused while the others are more international.

All five of them revolve around the changing global economy and its effects upon societies, communities and individuals.

These are the ideas and I’d be delighted to hear some thoughts on them.

True Australian stories

Australia is in a time of transition. The upcoming Federal election may well determine the nation’s development over the next half century.

The idea of this project is to get out into the regions and suburbs which aren’t being covered – if not outright ignored – by the mainstream media and talk to the communities, people and businesses about how their worlds are changing and what they are doing to deal with it.

Re-inventing Australia

After a quarter century of continuous growth Australia has to make decisions on where its economy goes next. Successive governments have identified resources, agriculture, tourism, finance and education as the ‘five pillars’ of the economy.

This project talks to the people trying to make Australia’s five pillars work along with looking at those trying to build alternatives.

The future workforce

How does the global future workforce look? Will we be all contractors for Uber or Upwork or are there other models developing around the world.

What does the next phase of the industrial revolution look like for workers in both the developed and emerging economies? This idea is inspired Sebastião Salgado’s work.

The Second City project

Every major city has a less prosperous neighbour – Sydney and Newcastle, Melbourne and Geelong, London and Birmingham, Beijing and Qingdao, San Francisco and Oakland are examples.

How are those second cities faring in a global economy that’s increasing the wealth of the rich? What are the leaders of those communities doing to reposition themselves.

The next Silicon Valleys

While we’re focused on today’s global centres like California’s Bay Area, London and Shanghai there are other emerging industrial centres that will be the next generation’s Silicon Valleys. Who are they and what do they look like?

I’d be delighted to hear readers’ thoughts on these projects and any other ideas for similar ventures.

Will Apple kill the startups?

Apple’s entry into new markets doesn’t mean doom for the companies already there

Earlier this week Apple announced a range of new services at its annual World Wide Developers Conference ranging from Music to News.

The reports were bad news for companies like Spotify and Flipboard with some reports claiming Apple could destroy $1.8 billion of investors funds.

History though suggests otherwise, industry giants like Microsoft and Google have failed in the past to crush smaller competitors when they’ve entered a market despite the minnows expecting to be crushed.

The reason for this is the smaller company is often more focused on the problem at hand while for the larger organisation the revenue at stake is tiny. For a big organisation to properly execute on a project it has to have the support, if not being actively driven, by senior management.

So it may turn out those startups are not as greatly at risk as first appears. Certainly the reviews of Apple Music haven’t been good.

Changing hospitality and search

Urbanspoon was one of the original restaurant review sites and it was a good resource for figuring out was good in an unfamiliar neighborhood.

Over time it fell behind and became irrelevant as other sites took over and it was neglected by its owners.

Now it’s been taken over and will be shut down by Indian startup Zomato.

The hospitality industry is tough and complex, something that’s not getting easier as keen young startups from unexpected places are entering the market.

Acting beyond the law

Startups need to be careful about being too arrogant in the face of laws, conventions and plain old good manners

Uber and other car services are claiming US disability laws don’t apply to them The Daily Beast reports.

It’s hard to think of how Uber can do more to alienate the community with the service pushing legal boundaries in many cities, avoiding taxes and trying to skirt employment laws.

The danger for all the new wave of companies in their trying to dodge laws is they are inviting restrictive legislation, particularly if they’ve alienated the community and electorate.

It may well be time for companies like Uber, SideCar and Lyft to start showing a bit of humility and tact. Hubris and arrogance may come back to haunt them.

RIP David Goldberg

With the passing of Survey Monkey CEO David Goldman the tech industry has lost one of the smart, good guys

The sudden and unexpected passing of Survey Monkey CEO David Goldberg at age 47 yesterday is a genuine shock.

Last year we interviewed David for Decoding The New Economy and found him to be a gracious and intelligent interviewee – a genuinely nice guy who wasn’t fazed by me constantly confusing Survey Monkey with Mailchimp.

With the passing of David the tech industry has lost one of the smart, good guys. Condolences to the his loved ones.

Hacking medical devices

Security researchers show how easy it is to hack a medical robot

Security experts have hacked a teleoperated surgical robot Security experts hack medical robot.

In a recently published paper, a group of academics showed how they had been able to change the instruction sequences, override commands or even take full control of the Raven II medical robot.

That such a lack of security isn’t in the least bit surprising is a sad commentary on the world of connected devices and the Internet of Things.

At the root of this problem is the software running this equipment has security added, at best, as an afterthought given the designers work from the assumption operators are in the room with the equipment,

If we’re going to connect these devices to the public internet then security has to be built into them from the beginning.

Whether we’re discussing remote medical equipment, driverless cars or the smart home, hardening and securing IoT devices is going to be of today’s industrial challenges.

Microsoft, Google and global astroturfing

Microsoft are running a global legal campaign against Google

Over the years Microsoft has been on the receiving end of regulators’ investigators, the New York Times reports the company is now using that experience to run a global harassment campaign against Google.

That Microsoft are funding various groups to make complaints about Google shows how regulators, and reporters have to be careful about such campaigns.

Building the next Internet of Things network

Investment in French networking startup Sigfox shows the need for the IoT to develop new networks.

Earlier this week we looked at Cisco’s claim that Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) networks will handle much of the world’s mobile data traffic by the end of the decade.

French company SIGFOX showed how investors are looking at the opportunity in these systems with a $115 million funding round two days ago.

What’s particularly notable about SIGFOX’s investors is how many of them are telcos themselves with Spain’s Telefonica, Japan’s NTT DoCoMo and South Korean SK Telecom being key shareholders.

Along with the telcos, who SIGFOX hopes will help them expand their footprint outside Spain, France, the UK and the Netherlands, there’s also a collection of industrial companies including Air Liquide and infrastructure giant SDF Suez.

That a diverse range of companies are moving into the LPWA market shows how important the stakes are for providers in securing a position in the the technologies that will define the Internet of Things as industries brace themselves for the massive rollout of connected devices.

The tension between creative and business

One of the ongoing tensions in the new media landscape is that between the demands of advertisers and content creators.

This isn’t a new thing as a 1959 interview between Mike Wallace and TV pioneer Rod Stering shows.

Sterling describes how pressures from networks and advertisers created often weird compromises along with a fair degree of self censorship among TV writers and producers.

Little that Sterling describes would surprise today’s online journalists, bloggers and social media influencers who find themselves subject to identical pressures today.