35th Anniversary of Gartner Inc.’s Founding
Gartner Inc. (originally called Gartner Group) was born on April 1, 1979, together with a chap named David Stein. I had just predicted that the estimated $200 million ‘Information Industry’ (information about the realm of computers) would continue growing at an annual rate of 30%, and that we should attempt applying our knowledge, in order to share the expected growth. At the time I was 44 years old, vice-president + head of technology research at Oppenheimer&Co. Dave Stein and I were lucky to rapidly find financial partners:...
read moreOh My Darling Clementine
My three year-old grand-daughter Clementine is very smart. While she’s never taken any piano lessons yet, I was impacted by this most recent one (of many) videos. Here’s why: on her own, she maintained a reasonably constant rhythm, while composing a song in her head in ‘real-time’.
read moreNetanyahu’s Dilemma
In a Jerusalem Post article (http://wapo.st/vvfGKI), the poor relationship between Israel’s Netanyahu and the leaders of France and the U.S. is discussed. In fact, Obama and Sarkozi were caught unaware when a reporter’s microphone caught segments of a private chat where they essentially crucified Israel’s prime minister. Netanyahu is in a tough place because his government is a coalition which includes Israel’s religious right party, a very difficult group which operates dangerously in matters affecting Israel’s success...
read moreMetropolitan Opera: A star
For years I’ve read about German tenor Jonas Kaufman, even before he sang at New York’s Metropolitan Opera (the ‘Met’). I first heard him at the Met in Verdi’s La Traviata , and again last year at a small group concert put on by Barry Tucker (son of tenor Richard Tucker, one of the 20th century’s opera greats). Kaufman sang and acted beautifully, and last year I heard him singing even more beautifully as Siegfried in Wagner’s Die Walküre. Yesterday, 10/30/11, my wife and I were lucky to obtain tickets...
read moreMeteoric Business Innovation at MIT
Many (or most) of my mechanical engineering learning experiences at MIT, bored me to tears. One exception was an undergraduate course called “Creativity,” which possibly influenced my entrepreneurial future. The experience was clearly designed to push our class beyond the framework of standard thinking, and it likely influenced my future thinking processes. On day one of this course, our professor handed out a 150-page manual, which he had written to describe a planet called Arcturus IV. We immediately assumed that this planet was...
read moreFor Innovators: Focus Narrowly First, Accelerate Later
To begin, here’s an excerpt from my ‘Harvard Business Review App’ (the full article by Walter Isaacson was published in the March 2012 issue) which ironically refers to one of my favorite management issues: innovations using 2×2 quadrants in order to manage better! Isaacson: ‘When Jobs returned to Apple in 1997, it was producing a random array of computers and peripherals, including a dozen different versions of the Macintosh. After a few weeks of product review sessions, he’d finally had enough. “Stop!” he shouted. “This is...
read moreBrazilian Dance Company Cisne Negro Visits Aspen, CO
On August 12, I discovered and attended the Brazilian Cisne Negro dance troupe performing in Aspen CO, one week before it would visit and perform for a week at at the Joyce Theater in New York City. Author Tonya Plank has documented the forthcoming New York visit, at her site: http://www.tonyaplank.com. This dance company was founded over thirty years ago, and while other ballet company’s talents might seem smoother (with quite a few having specialty features of one sort or another), this one seemed different to me. It had certainly...
read more“Have You Spoken to Gideon Lately?”
IBM vs. Gartner During the 1980s, Part 4 As we moved forward, our responsibility was to continue analyzing the IT industry objectively for all our clients, and not about IBM in particular or for its benefit. Throughout the decade our company’s mission continued the education of all players in the IT marketplace, including those vendors who were meaningful, the large users and investors, and even the press itself. Despite our unfortunate experience with Big Blue, we did recognize its strong points; but we also felt our continuing...
read moreWho Ever Sues the Press?
IBM vs. Gartner During the 1980s, Part 3 Here’s how the drama continued to unfold: In early March 1993 I was shocked to receive a call followed by a personal visit in my office by two people associated with IBM: Tom Barr and Nicholas Katzenback. Tom Barr was Cravath Swaine & Moore’s most famous lawyer and was handling the entire IBM account. Nicholas Katzenbach is a Rhodes Scholar, former professor at Yale and the U. of Chicago, a former U.S. Attorney General, and now General Counsel for IBM! Imagine how nervous I felt as...
read moreTrade-Secret Witch Hunt?
IBM vs. Gartner During the 1980s, Part 2 Several months passed after having spoken to IBM’s Don Otis I received another critical phone call, this time an indirect call from Ron Rolfe of Cravath Swaine and Moore, IBM’s counsel and the acknowledged heavy hitter of the entire U.S.’s legal profession! So once again the lawyers were getting into the act, always persistent, always a serious development. Ron and I had crossed paths before, but positively. Now, he confided that the O.A. issue with Dean Witter was about to blow,...
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