Think small

There’s an interesting article on cnet about What the Fortune 1 million can teach the Fortune 100. I’m posting this now before I forget, and will add comments later today.

Dot-Coms Second Coming

This time they’re serious. No more business plans written on napkins, and strange doodles that represent strategy. They’re taking this one to the bank.

“Recent deals include Dow Jones’s acquisition of MarketWatch.com ($519 million) and The New York Times’s purchase of About.com ($410 million).”

Rupert Murdock, one of the largest players in these recent acquisitions, comments on the News Corp. plan in this Newsweek article.

Pushing Productivity Forward

As anyone is already aware, bad design kills. So do long meetings. In fact, they are slow and painful. I think that there are remedies, though–including expediting the process by standing up the entire time.

It seems that in many areas, small teams are coming together to expedite things. For instance, we all know that RFPs and proposals can take up a lot of non-billable hours. Along comes Approven, to try and automate the process. What about billing? What a nightmare that can be. Enter, stage right, Blinksale, by Firewheel Design (originally known for interface design). Guess they got sick of chasing after clients, too. It’s great to see web-applications, and design in general come about from necessity–answering a call for help or solving a problem, instead of pushing wares on consumers that they don’t need.

Mental Spillage

I think it takes someone in the communication design industry to really appreciate this site, The International Database of Corporate Commands.

And a good find, even though it’s from 03— Time For Change by Clement Mok. Another good find, and a good laugh over at The Blacklist, 10 Tips to a Prosperous Client/Designer Relationship. Although if asked, I would admit that ‘I am Jack’ did it better (www.iamjack.com- which I think is no longer up). In my opinion ‘Ode to the Client’ is right on the money.

If you found The Tipping Point to be a good read, you might be interested in Freakonomics, written by Steven D. Levitt and Stephan J. Dubner. Puts an interesting spin on things.