Tale of two visionaries

There are some people who come up with amazing concepts, change the industry landscape and never get any credit. We always talk about the likes of Henry Ford, Bill Gates, and Steve Jobs but I have not heard people talk about contributions of Preston Tucker and Adam Osborne - two amazing guys. Both were ahead of their time but a few strategic mistakes cost them dearly. Well, it is always easy to look back and analyze what went wrong but that's beside the point.

Tucker ran into a very powerful "Detroit Big-3" lobby and in hindsight should have managed government relations better. The automobile he designed, "Tucker Torpedo", was way ahead of its time in terms of elegance and safety features. "Tucker: The Man and His Dream" is a movie made on Tucker's life and is a must see if you are interested in history of business.

I don't remember where I first read about Adam Osborne but his story prompted me to write this post. An amazing visionary who arguably changed the computing world by creating a mass market for portable computers. He led a very interesting life - started his career as a chemical engineer and then got into computers. After Osborne Computers went bust he started another company to create software for the masses. A patent case caused this company to go under as well, but this probably was the first attempt to create software for people like you and me. Osborne, in 1984, thought that India will become an engineering powerhouse. Amazing foresight!!

If we look at the two industries now we can appreciate these two visionaries even more. Auto industry tries so hard to make automobiles safer and more elegant. Tucker thought this was the way to go way back in 1946. And I don't need to discuss the market for software/hardware for the masses.

Free Speech and Social Responsibilities

The cartoons of Prophet Muhammad have outraged muslims all over the world. I have been wondering if I should discuss this issue at all. To me the whole thing sounds ridiculous. In principle I agree with the point of view that we have to protect the right to free speech at all cost. But like everything in life, nothing is that black and white. Did the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, really want to have a public discussion on this subject? I am not so sure. How is depicting Prophet Muhammad’s turban having a bomb promote free speech? I think we have to draw the line when it comes to dealing with sensitive issues. We, in India, have a course in high school called “Social Studies” and one thing that is grilled into our heads is that rights and responsibilities go hand in hand. I think the Danish cartoonist had every right to publish these cartoons but he did not act in a responsible way. The foundation of free society should be “responsibility” towards each other. And any form of free speech that disrupts the social fabric and leads to public disorder or violence has to be considered irresponsible. We live in a world where the traditional walls (social, religious, and racial) are crumbling and commerce is truly global. There are so many important issues we have to think about and discuss – WTO, AIDS, global warming, poverty/economic disparity, education, WMD etc. And a bunch of cartoons drawn in bad taste adds very little value in this climate of distrust and socio-economic tensions.

Google - Under pressure?

Google has been getting a lot of bad press since they came out with the Q4 results. I don't care much for the Wall Street consensus estimates. But there are few interesting things that Amr Awadallah (a Yahoo employee) discussed in his blog that make me wonder if things are getting tough for Google from a growth standpoint.

There are a few interesting patterns:
1. Pressure to maintain growth - This is indicated by the increase in the number of sponsored results above the search results. Now there are three instead of their historical two. Also, according to Amr, they have increased the font size of the ads. Google now sets a min for keyword bids instead of letting the market dictate the price, This could be as simple as optimization of pricing mechanism. But it could also indicate that Google is infact feeling the heat to maintain growth.
2. Competitive pressure on Adsense - It is difficult to predict the success of YPN but it is sure to put pressure on one of the main revenue streams of Google. Adsense had a virtual monopoly is this space with revenues close to $2 Billion coming from this offering.
3. Weak product/feature pipeline - Well, "weak" is too strong a word. Google has not be able to come up with new ways of monetizing content and diversifying their revenues. I read a blog posting somewhere that was criticizing Google for coming up with a feature to save bookmarks. Not too much should be read into this but makes you wonder what is in the pipeline.

All said and done, Google is still a great company and I believe that it will continue to innovate and come up with good products. The challenge would be in monetization. I will wait for at least 6 more months before I form an opinion on Google.