Second Life

I just completed my first, and probably only, Second Life experience. For those who have not tried it yet, I recommend having a window open with a tutorial or other guide handy. (You will stand there with no idea of what to do next.) I found that there are people who will talk to you in the opening scene, but once I left there, I was pretty much on my own. Which is sort of good, because I was worried about stumbling into a "red light district."

I really had no idea where to go. I spent a lot of time both in SL and elsewhere on the Web looking for places to teleport to. I finally found the art galleries, and that kept me busy for the whole night. I recommend the Dresden Gallery - that was definitely my favorite.

I was taken aback by the fact that I would teleport from one place in broad daylight only to be in the dark a second later. Then I realized that they were probably trying to mimic the globe, where obviously half of the world is dark half the time.

Another note to my classmates: I recommend doing this at school unless you have an exceptionally fast broadband connection at home. I spent a lot of time waiting for things to load. When I first arrived at the Dresden Gallery, all I found when I spun around was fountains and flat land. Then the buildings slowly started to develop. Slooooooooowly.

Consulting Club

Wipfli gave a presentation to the Consulting Club last week, and they did a sample case. The case they presented was a client who called them in for IT integration, and they ended up doing a lot of strategy consulting. Essentially the company was using the IT issues to cover up poor leadership and strategy. That made me wonder how often technology issues get blamed for problems that are really much deeper. Or, perhaps technology becomes the alternative to having a solid strategy, and it thus becomes a souped-up band-aid.

Ad Agencies and the Web

I'm watching MadMen right now, and the presentation last Thursday got me thinking about traditional advertising agencies. If the Internet has upset the traditional advertising methods/media, then how have the ad agencies responded? Have they adapted by opening their own IT centers for internet advertising? Did they just fill in their gaps by acquiring internet start-ups? Did any of them actually die?

According to the IbisWorld report on advertising agencies, the largest agencies have become one-stop shops for all their clients' needs. They did this through both internal growth (perhaps by luring away tech talent from other companies) and acquisitions. However, their profitability has been affected substantially by the fact that their clients are seeking cheaper ways to reach customers, such as through direct e-mail. (This is problematic because of the agencies' reliance on commission revenue.) They also got larger by acquiring smaller agencies around the world to provide further one-stop shopping for large multi-national companies.

The smaller niche agencies are also thriving, especially those that specialize in online advertising. This leaves very little work left for the medium-sized firms. Some of those have thus been casualties of the internet age.

It was really interesting to see the impact that the internet has had on the industry. There were even things I had not thought of, like clients demanding more accountability for the results of advertising - something which is easier to measure on the internet.

Retail Value Curves

I thought the retail value curves from the Powerpoint deck were interesting. I could really see how technology would drive that. Early on, technology was not available for personalization, so the only way a company could really differentiate themselves was through operations (either quantity or quality). Then, technology changed things in two ways - first, it made operational excellence easier, and second, it made mass personalization possible. And once operational excellence was easier to attain, companies needed to use personalization to differentiate themselves.


Generally speaking, personalization and a shopping "experience" cost more, though technology has certainly lowered the associated costs. I would usually wonder if the overspending of the last several decades and current recession would lead consumers to pull back on spending and thus lower the demand for these. However, given the way that technology has enabled mass personalization at cheaper prices, I wouldn't be surprised if consumers don't cut back as much as they would have, say, fifty years ago. And I think companies will be loathe to diminish a customer's shopping experience at the risk that the customer will spend his small shopping allowance somewhere else.

Random thought: It's so nice to see green grass in my yard. I know it's only early February and we haven't seen the last of the snow, but I enjoy it anyway.

Info Systems for Finance

After the Finance Club meeting, I was wondering what information systems exist to simplify financial decisions and monitoring. Aside from Excel, which is pretty much second nature to most finance professionals, of course. Is there software that can simplify investor relations and compliance?

I hate this gray, dreary weather, but love that the temperature has stayed above freezing!

Management Information Systems

I was at a case competition last weekend, and the case included information about the company's MIS that they use for performance reviews and goal-tracking. I am really interested in learning more about how to use information systems to make managerial systems. I definitely believe that computers should make our lives easier, and it sounds like a good MIS can help to organize all of the information that managers have to deal with. I hope we talk about something like that in this class! (hint hint)

Outsourcing as a Threat to National Security

We all know that business alliances are based on trust, and the trust is backed up by contractual obligation. Thus, if one partner takes advantage of the other and violates its trust, the aggrieved partner has legal recourse to make it whole. The problem with international alliances is that the same legal recourse may not be available.

Fuji-Xerox, for example, is likely to be covered. If either party sues the other in either the U.S. or Japan, then the losing party likely does enough business in that country to be legitimately hurt by the lawsuit (i.e., the judgment would be collectible).

That probably is not true of alliances between small companies. Even if a small international company is sued successfully in the U.S. by an American company, there is a chance that the American company will never be able to collect the judgment. Thus, the company may be hurt (e.g., have its intellectual property stolen) without any recourse.

And, of course, not all U.S. companies may be able to sue their alliance partners in the U.S., especially if the contract and activity all occurred in the partner's home country. Then the American company would be subject to that country's laws, which may not afford the same protection.

Random thought: The city-driving tax would not be legal in Minneapolis for the same reason the red light cameras got shot down by the courts.