Subway Edification

New Strategies in Consumer Goods -- CPG companies have survived in the past due to strong brands and productivity improvements. The landscape for CPG is changing however. Customers want lower prices; retailers are getting the upper hand on CPG companies and are selling their own brands; CPG companies have reached the limits of what productivity they can squeeze out of their operations; and competition is coming from the emerging markets. How will CPG compete in the future? Build capabilities in their core functions; serve emerging markets better; improve execution -- market and innovate better; sell value, not just brands; leverage their scope and size; and offer new services.

2005 Innovation Awards -- from Network Magazine comes another award. It's a rundown of the innovative network companies that developing new products to help IT deliver on business needs. More and more, companies have to do more with less and do it cheaply. Forget wasted CPU cycles, under-utilized storage and bandwidth. Say hello to collaboration tools, web services, business process automation, virtualized CPU and storage, real time applications and intelligent networks. For a crystal ball view into the future of what's coming to the datacentre, check out InformationWeek.

Sony Picture Goes Digital -- Sony has partnered with Ascent Media Group to utilize HP's Digital Media Platform to convert its entire catalogue of films to a digital streaming format. Sony is already building high capacity fibre connections to Ascent, who will be responsible for delivering the digital content to theatres and television stations. Sony's Jeff Hargleroad says, "This project marks a significant step towards the future of file-based digital-content delivery." Hey Sony -- use BitTorrent!

Digital Force -- and on the note of digital movies, check out this article from InformationWeek regarding the movie industry's transformation from an industry of celluloid to one of bits and bytes.

Tech Powerhouse -- the next IT powerhouse will be Asia -- China and India know it. Despite their sometimes strained relationship, China's Prime Minister recently visited India for talks and more of a relationship building exercise. While they have border disputes, business is still business, and China is setting itself up to focus on hardware while India focuses on software and services. To the US this means that the current stranglehold they have on global standards and clout in the IT industry is about to change. Control and leverage is about to be lost -- call it a benefit of globalization.

Taking Video Games to the Next Level -- cell phones will soon be able to cook your food and do the laundry. I'm convinced that mobile phone makers will get them to do unimaginable feats shortly. But, before we get there, let's play some video games.

Wanted: A Big Broom For China's Banks -- as China develops rapidly and gains acceptance on the world's business stage, they're having to deal with a troubling problem -- their banks. In the past, China's banks were there to prop up state companies, and self serving executives helped themselves and friends -- causing the government to repeatedly having to bail them out. Now China is looking for regulatory controls and audits. Welcome to the world.

Pakistan: Better Late Than Never In Outsourcing -- Pakistan is trying to join India in luring IT work away from the developed nations. Like India, Pakistan has a huge English speaking population, are hungry for work and has a budding IT industry. They're a few steps behind India, but watch out world -- here comes another outsoucing pain.

Argentina: Reversal Of Fortune -- a middle class is returning to Argentina due to a surge in middle class jobs and higher than average Latin American education levels. It's interesting to watch as the developing world emerge to join the ranks of the first world countries. Unlike the first world nations, they're not going to achieve prosperity and success by pillaging poorer countries. Work for success -- what a concept.

How The Net Is Remaking The Mall -- the rate of big boxes opening up in the retail industry is shrinking -- thanks, believe it or not, to the internet. It's not that ecommerce retailing is stealing money from the bricks and mortar stores -- although they are -- more significantly, they're changing the concept of shopping. Consumers are now more educated and savvy in their shopping thanks to the internet. To bring in consumers, the new trend in bricks and mortar retailing is towards "lifestyle centres."

Lenovo and IBM: East Meets West, Big-Time -- here's an update on how IBM and Lenovo are doing on the post sale integration of two quite different cultures and operations. It's an interesting read from a social science perspective.