The winds of change…
Okay, the MyDoom virus has now cost corporate America an estimated $22..6 billion (yes, that’s a “b”) in lost productivity. The only virus to cost more–the Sobig virus–sported an even-more-terrifying price tag of $37.1 billion.
What’s going on?
I think it makes sense to write again about a brilliant entrepreneur whose amazing new proprietary method of writing software has been facing the typical NIH (not invented here), ostrich-head-in-the-sand attitude that many of us take when confronted with the idea of having to change our comfortable habits. Dr. Steve Belovich kept trying to solve the same problems over and over for his clients–a lot of them related to security. So one day he just decided to invent a new way to write software–that would prevent the old ways of getting infected with viruses and getting broken into by hackers
Trouble was, nobody wanted to hear about it. Throw out our tried-and-true hardware? Throw out Windows? Are you crazy? people said. Well, as the security issue takes on ballast and becomes a major force upsetting the even keel all the way to top guys who don’t normally have much of a clue about technology, the doors of resistance and ignorance are being forced open. EWeek writes in the latest edition that a top IT executive puts it bluntly: security isn’t just a good idea anymore. It’s an imperative.
With Linux making inroads and companies losing billions to viruses, it’s clear the time has come.
Marketing the new weapon for bioscience money
San Francisco is putting on a big-deal conference to attract attention to its suitability as a bioscience hub. It wants a piece of California’s bioscience honeypot of $7.8 billion in revenues.
City governments are getting ever more creative about how to attract this incredibly lucrative industry. Let’s look at what a bioscience company normally wants:
– easy access to resources (physical and human)
– large pools of suitably educated workers from which to hire, and re-hire, solid employees
– other companies for employees that don’t work out to go to for new learning
– other like-minded companies to network and potentially partner with
– affordable housing for employees of all levels
– superior quality of life for owners, executives, and workers
So if all these things are equal (which seldom happens, of course), then it’s about who gets the most creative with incentives (who uses better marketing techniques). Based on all the wisdom of social networking, my guess is that for most business owners, the quality of life will rise to the top as the biggest decision factor (though clearly if everything else is right and owners are persuaded to move somewhere, the quality of life in that location could well improve dramatically just from that influx).
But the key is, if city marketing tricks are powerful enough, the decision could be swayed. This is how marketing makes the world go round.
City governments are getting ever more creative about how to attract this incredibly lucrative industry. Let’s look at what a bioscience company normally wants:
– easy access to resources (physical and human)
– large pools of suitably educated workers from which to hire, and re-hire, solid employees
– other companies for employees that don’t work out to go to for new learning
– other like-minded companies to network and potentially partner with
– affordable housing for employees of all levels
– superior quality of life for owners, executives, and workers
So if all these things are equal (which seldom happens, of course), then it’s about who gets the most creative with incentives (who uses better marketing techniques). Based on all the wisdom of social networking, my guess is that for most business owners, the quality of life will rise to the top as the biggest decision factor (though clearly if everything else is right and owners are persuaded to move somewhere, the quality of life in that location could well improve dramatically just from that influx).
But the key is, if city marketing tricks are powerful enough, the decision could be swayed. This is how marketing makes the world go round.
