Posts Tagged ‘Yahoo’

SXSW #2 – BOOK READING

Sunday, March 22nd, 2009

The grapes of Austin and SXSW Interactive have fermented into the wine of memory.  As I sip it, here are a few of the many flavors that emerge:

My book reading on Friday at 2:30 PM is the first official event of  SXSW Interactive, which is like playing in the jayvee game before the varsity takes the floor.  I play a good game, though.  At the start of my session, there are maybe a hundred people in the audience, including Brian Murphy, who is the first person I introduced to the concept of improvisation in business, six years ago.  More people arrive during the reading, including my friend Lin Su, who works in Search Experience for Yahoo.  The audience is with me.  I sell ten books afterward, not bad.  Ray Nichols from New Orleans, whose business card introduces him as a ‘Gonzo Volunteer’ says he’s going to invite me to conduct GameChangers workshops for re-developers there.   I hope this happens, it will be an honor.  For the rest of the conference, three or four people a day come up to me and strike up conversations about GameChangers.  One, Michael Moss, a video producer from Atlanta, greets me with, “It’s Mr. Yes-And!”

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Five Business Scenes Analyzed

Friday, May 30th, 2008

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Scene: Microhoogle. A strong player like Microsoft will usually dominate a scene with a weaker player confused about its identity like Yahoo is. By being the more aggressive player, Microsoft has painted Yahoo’s ‘character’ in their scene as, by turns, a ‘collegial acquisition’, ‘a hostile takeover’, ‘an unfaithful tart’, ‘an overpriced stock’ and, as of this week, ‘just friends who talk on the phone a lot but there’s nothing serious going on between us, swear…no seriously, you guys, swear!’ Yahoo tried to ignite a bidding war by introducing Google to the scene, but all it did was diminish Yahoo’s status in the eyes of the audience by reminding everyone that this scene is really about Microsoft vs. Google. The best Yahoo can do is control the timing and style of the edit (i.e. the selling strategy). When a confused player is onstage too long, an edit is inevitable. (more…)