David Lidsky's Blog, page 4610

What Surprising Number Will Change Your Business?

Numbers are the universal language of business. We use them to attract investors for our startup ideas, to win approval for product introductions, to make the case for expanding into new markets or entering new categories. In other words, numbers, when used well, tell a compelling story. So why is it that so many of the numbers we encounter in business--from endless Excel spreadsheets to bloodless calculations in business plans--make our eyes glaze over rather than set our minds racing?

Voices From E3: A Look at the Financial Future of Gaming

While the world economy is rocky at the moment, there are specific issues at play for companies in the game industry including unending spread of piracy, to the absence of compensation for game makers on used game sales, to possible government regulation coming from the California case going to the Supreme Court. I asked notable execs in the game industry which of these are the biggest threat to gaming's financial future.

Ben Feder, CEO, Take-Two Interactive:

Every industry has its issues...

Adidas: We're Beating Nike in The World Cup Brand War

Nike may be tooting its horn about the brand awareness buzz it's stirring up as part of the World Cup, but Adidas has just fired back in the war of words with some hard figures: Its sales will near $2 billion from football in 2010 alone. 

Adidas CEO Herbert Hainer couldn't be more direct: "After the first ten days it is already clear that this World Cup will be a great success for Adidas. We will not only achieve our ambitious goals in football, we will over-achieve them." And though Nielsen...

How Do You Collaborate From Different Locations?

Associate Professor of Business Administration at Dartmouth's Tuck School of Business answers this week's 30 Second MBA question.

Infographic of the Day: Wine Is a Better Recession Investment Than Stocks

It also tastes better.

The Financial Times just published a fantastic infographic about wine, which basically tells you everything you'd ever want to know about grape varieties, wine regions, and good wines.

But buried in all the superb information is a remarkable nugget: A chart of the Liv-ex 100, which is the wine equivalent of the S&P 500: 

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By itself, that's not remarkable. But then, take a look at the actual S&P 500. In the last three years, it's down 26%. The Liv-ex 100, by contrast, is...

Chevy Volt and Microsoft Kinect Join for Virtual Test Drive Advergame

Today in Cannes, Microsoft and Chevrolet announced a pretty spiffy campaign for its electric vehicle, the Volt. Users will be able to take a virtual test drive--something
we beat them to in the real world a couple months back--in Kinect Joy
Ride, Microsoft's controller-free racing game. The advergame works with Microsoft's forthcoming motion-control gaming hardware, the . The slight downside is that, rather like film advertising on DVDs, you have to watch a Chevy Volt ad before you...

Why Walk Though a Museum, When You Can Drive?

Just when you thought -- or at least hoped -- the Automobile Age was sputtering to its inglorious end, China went and planned itself a car museum.

Just when you thought the Automobile Age was sputtering to its fateful end, China comes along with a car mania that easily beats anything that's ever been seen in the West. And if you needed any more proof--other than the fact that China's automotive fleet is expected to rise nearly 400% in the next 10
years, to 217 million--China is planning a...

Adobe's Smartphone Flash Player Launches on iOS4 Release Day: Take That, Apple!

Adobe has just released its Flash Player for Mobile 10.1--empowering certain smartphones to play flash content on the Web. Curious timing, since Apple's just shipped its new Flash-free iOS4. Is Adobe trying to make a point?

The software is available for Apple-competing Android platforms, including smartphones from a broad spectrum of manufacturers like the Nexus One Motorola Droid, Samsung Galaxy S, and HTC Evo, and Adobe says it's shipped the code off to BlackBerry, Palm, Microsoft, and the...

iFive: WikiLeaks and the Whistleblower, BP Heckled, Google's for Shopping, Intel-FTC Talks, Times Square Bomber Pleads Guilty

You may have had an early night, but innovation was not in hiding. Oh no, sirree, it's been waving banners at oil conferences, shopping online, and appearing in court while you were asleep.

1. He's been under the radar for a month now, but Julian Assange, the guy behind the WikiLeaks Web site, has popped up in Brussels to speak at a conference on freedom of information. He's been advised by his legal team to steer clear of the U.S., but this morning Assange told the BBC that lawyers...

Show Me the Honey: Sainsbury's Hive Network Aids Bee Crisis

Bees are the buzzing guardians of the food chain--without them, some of our favorite fruits and vegetables (strawberries, almonds, watermelon, and cucumbers, to name a few) would never get pollinated. That realization--along with a deepening of bee crisis --has prompted British grocery chain Sainsbury's to build a network of bee hotels across London.

The move comes after Sainsbury's tested eight pilot bee hotels (aka bee hives) at a store in Dursley, Gloucestershire. The 38 new hotels, which...