This year, I am requiring that all presentations regardless of the source code be cloud-based . This is the direction the cutting edge of business is headed, and my classes will be ahead of the curve. And yes, Wix and Prezi are cloud-based.

To see what’s going on in the presentation world, see the embedded SlideShare Zeitgeist 2011 below: Hank

Apple, especially in their iPad pricing, drives the tablet industry. Here’s what James Kendrick in “The double-edged sword facing competitors of the iPad” stated 2/1/12:

Apple’s current gross profit margin is 44.1 percent, a large part of that due to high iPad sales. There is no way any company can compete with that performance, especially with tablet pricing already a dicey proposition. It’s as if Apple is telling competitors it will price the iPad at a level that will guarantee them trouble, and still make 2-3 times the profit on each one sold. That’s what Android tablet makers face, and who knows for how long they’ll be willing to do so? In the same article, James states: “no one can match Apple’s position in the supply chain to get things built as cheaply.”

We’ve previously blogged about Apple’s supply chain strategy, especially involving Foxconn. The bottom line is without a significant breakthrough in price/performance, the majority of competitors are just pissing in Apple’s tablet strategy’s wind. Not a good place to be. So how do you compete in this market, if at all? Hank

JC Penney

Retail stores as late as the 80’s had only two big sales per year:   Winter Clearance in January and Summer Clearance in July.  The clearance “cleared out” the merchandise they couldn’t sell at regular price.  Then some retail executive came up with the great idea of running discounts all the time.  By marking-up their merchandise 200% and sporadically running a 50% off sale, they’d fool customers to flock to the store and buy up the sale merchandise, at what used to be the regular price.  It worked, and many retailers scrambled to follow the same pricing tactic.   For years customers fell for it, but they finally got wise to the game.

Now customers wait for everything to go on sale before they make a purchase from stores like JCP.  If Jockey underwear isn’t on sale at Penney’s this week, it will be next week, or it’ll be 50% off at Kohl’s, and JC Penney just missed a sale.   It took awhile, but retailers finally figured out that the customer wised up to their price gimmicks.  So, JCP is going back to the way it was, hoping that their customers, who have become fed-up trying to keep-up with the “what’s on sale this week” game, will start buying the things they want when they want them.  They won’t have to wait for it to go on sale or buy it from JC Penney’s competitor, because Penney’s will always have it at the lowest price.

Will the new/old pricing strategy work for JCP?  And if it does, will other stores follow?  Will the coupon craze (Groupon, Foursquare, Tjoo’s…) fade away, too, if retailers always price their merchandise at the lowest price?  I love change – it keeps us on our toes!   Beth Carroll

Lets break his definition down into its components:

• Pursuit-Doesn’t mean you ever catch and put the genie in the bottle
• Opportunity-Generally recognized by others who are also in pursuit
• Without regard-Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead -> or naysayers drop dead!
• Resources-The Men, Material and Money required to start most businesses
• Currently Controlled-You don’t have men, materiel and money lined up – but you’re working on it

Kind of says it all, doesn’t it? Hank

Some would say Apple’s foray into such publishing of “books” is “Disruptive.” Some would say it’s good business. Some would say their business model (Apple’s silo and closed systems) absolutely suck. From my perspective, I have mixed feelings. My wife and I own a iPad (first edition) and an Asus Transformer. The iPad sits unused on its charger, and the Transformer is used every night to read news, email etc. It is used on our sailboat for weather and navigation. It is used in our car as a large driving GPS. My point is there are several devices that are superior to the iPad in just about every way, including PRICE/Performance.

My second point is useability. One winter I spent countless hours authoring a wiki on entrepreneurship which I used to teach Maymester ENTR200. All the students liked it b/c it was free, but only 1/2 would chose it over a textbook for a host of reasons, albeit not all that valid. Hitting the K12 target market with the iBook concept has a chance of conditioning students and eventually a population away from thinking dead-tree is the only vehicle upon which to facilitate learning. You be the judge. See below for more input. Hank

PS: Installation of iBook Author requires 10.7 op system on your Mac. I have chosen not to go there b/c of reported problems with it so I haven’t checked out Author myself as yet. I doubt that the world will shift off its axis one way or the other once Author lands.

As entrepreneurs, you are in competition with everyone for everything, be it ideas, patents, skilled people, money, getting products to market acceptance, anything and everything is competition-based. As suggested in this past Tuesday’s blog on Apple’s use of Foxconn to manufacture most/many of its products for world-wide consumption, they do this not out of a sense of fairness, but competition and maximization of profit potential for their shareholders. Make no doubt about it: Apple’s manufacturing is NOT “FAIR” to American workers.

Let’s face it, we are in global competition with the rest of the world for everything, be it energy, doctrine, policy, or business-based. The rules in this competition are NOT BASED on a President Obana Doctrine of Fairness, but whatever it takes to win the competition.

Please don’t sit complacently by thinking “Yeah, right on Mr. President, lets be “fair” about taxes, health reform, income equality, and give everyone “a fair shot.” That’s not the way the world turns, and certainly not a basis on which entrepreneurs compete on a global basis. Rather, the name of the game is whatever it takes. Let’s be fair about fairness. Hank