Paul Wallbank – Brilliant Communications

Tag: business

  • Electrocuting elephants – the cost of competing standards

    Electrocuting elephants – the cost of competing standards

    A constant theme when new technologies appear is the inevitable war about standards that often sees bitter arguments over how the new methods should be used.

    Over the centuries we’ve seen fights over railway gauges, video tape formats and even the shape of lighting conductors.

    The struggle over lightning rods between the English and French camps in the eighteenth century was parodied by Jonathan Swift in Gulliver’s Travels where the two tribes fought over which end of a boiled egg should be broken.

    Probably the nastiest dispute in modern times was the battle over DC and AC electricity transmission between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse, a fight made worse by Edison’s former employee Nikola Tesla taking his patents over to Westinghouse.

    The fight became so fierce that Edison actually electrocuted an elephant to illustrate how dangerous AC electricity would be to householders.


    Tesla and Westinghouse eventually won the argument, but it came at a cost to Topsy the Elephant.

    While we may draw the line at electrocuting elephants in these enlightened days, we aren’t much better at settling standards. That’s why it’s fascinating watching how technologies like the smart car and the connected home will evolve.

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  • Small business and big data defines the digital divide

    Small business and big data defines the digital divide

    One of the questions about the development of Big Data has been how small businesses can use all the information pouring into their operations.

    The New York Times this weekend has a feature illustrating some small business applications for big data.

    In one of the case studies Brian Janezic, a 27 year old owner of two car washes in Arizona, created his own application that automates his business and monitors consumable levels.

    The story further highlights how businesses like The Serbian Lion that haven’t done the simple basics like online listings are being left far behind more nimbler operations like Janezic’s.

    Contrasting the two operations illustrates the digital divide between businesses. The sad thing is that many of the baby boomer owned enterprises not embracing the new technologies are further compromising the assets their proprietors are depending upon for their retirement.

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  • Startups as a dream job

    Startups as a dream job

    “It’s my absolute dream job” says Melanie Perkins of her role as CEO and co-founder of online design app Canva in the latest Decoding the New Economy video.

    Since being set up ten months ago, Canva has grown to over a half a million people using the tool to create graphics for applications such as books, marketing banners and website logos.

    The idea for Canva came out of the difficulties Melanie found in using design software while lecturing at university and it’s growth has been as a result of the idea catching the imagination of investors like Lars Rasmussen, one of the driving forces behind Google Maps, and Guy Kawasaki, Apple’s original Mac evangelist.

    “We’ve got some great things coming in the next few months,” says Perkins. “So stay tuned.

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  • Jumping the queue

    Jumping the queue

    Reservation Hop is a good example of many of the current breed of parasitic startups that want to create a new class of middleman.

    The hospitality industry is tough work and something guaranteed to irritate restauranteurs are reservations that don’t show up.

    One startup that seems almost certain to attract the ire of the restaurant industry is Reservation Hop – “We make reservations at the hottest restaurants in advance so you don’t have to.”

    Reservation Hop makes table reservations at popular restaurants and then sells them through their website.

    We book up restaurant reservations in advance. We only book prime-time restaurant reservations at the hottest local establishments, and we mostly list high-demand restaurants that are booked up on other platforms.

    This is probably one of the worst examples of the middleman culture that dominates much of the current startup thinking.

    Almost certainly there’s a market need for proxy queue jumpers – although one wonders how profitable it is when the transaction fees are under $10 – but this service will deeply irritate restaurant owners and diners who are crowded out by these ‘parasite’ services.

    In many ways, Reservation Hop illustrates the problems with this phase of our current startup mania; the rise opportunistic businesses that are more akin to parasites than services that add value.

    The Reservation Hop website assures patrons that there’s a 99% chance their booking will be honored by the restaurant on the night, we can expect establishments to start messing with that statistic as they wise up to the business.

    Many in the startup sector speak about how new technology improves the world, services like Reservation hop illustrate that not every idea is a step forward.

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  • Living in a changing world

    Living in a changing world

    “We’re looking at a future where every aspect of our lives could be utterly different to how it is now,” declared ABC Radio host Linda Mottram in our semi-regular technology spot on Monday.

    Linda’s concern was based around our talk on 4D printing and the future of design and she’s absolutely right – life is going to be totally different by the end of this century.

    We won’t be the first generation to experience such massive change to society and the economy, our great grandparents at the beginning of the Twentieth were born into a world without electricity, the motor car or antibiotics.

    Those who survived the two world wars and lived to a ripe old age in the 1970s saw life expectancy soar, childhood mortality rates collapse and the western economies shift from being predominately agricultural to mainly industrial and service based.

    From our position, it’s difficult to comprehend just how radically life changed in western countries during the Twentieth Century.

    When we wonder where the jobs of the 21st Century will come from, it’s worth reflecting that many careers we take for granted today didn’t exist a hundred years ago and the same will be true in a hundred years time.

    The technology we’re using may be new, but adapting to massive change isn’t.

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