23 Jun DEMOletter's Summer Reading List
As Father’s Day and commencement ceremonies give way to summer heat, long weekends and beach vacations, we turn our attention to that pile of books on the nightstand and imagine that we’ll have just enough time before Labor Day to catch up on our reading.
Recently, I had occasion to ask a number of tech executives what they were reading. I’ve gathered up their responses – both classic business texts and insightful new offerings – in this DEMOletter Summer Reading List:
“A Short History of Nearly Everything,” by Bill Bryson
“Managing,” by Harold Geneen
“Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game,” by Michael Lewis
“Beyond the Core: Expand Your Market Without Abandoning Your Roots,” by Chris Zook
“Getting to Great: Principles of Health Care Organization Governance,” by Dennis Pointer and James Orlikoff
“TechTV’s Catalog of Tomorrow,” by Andrew Zolli\
“Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done,” by Larry Bossidy, Ram Charan and Charles Burck
“Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies,” by Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras
“Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap. . . and Others Don’t,” by Jim Collins
Thanks for these selections goes to Howard Morgan of Idealab; Karl Jacob of Cloudmark; Bob Bozeman of Silicon Valley Angels; Jim Breyer of Accel Partners; Michael Dell of Dell Computer; Dan’l Lewin of Microsoft; and John Patrick.
What are you reading this summer? Send me the title and author at chris@demo.com and we’ll add your selection to the DEMOletter Summer Reading List.
End notes
I’m a huge online card game fan – you know, the ones that come with your PC. Never got into the PlayStation or GameCube action. Why? It sounds like a stereotype, but they all seem ridden with violence and scantily clad women. But a recent report by an MSNBC
columnist says that change is coming. The game developer community is trying to lure in women developers to create more games that would appeal to women. One developer says she’s focused on creating a Greek myth inspired game. In the gaming industry they cite the ever-popular Sims as an example of crossing the chasm. But frankly, I think Myst and Riven are better examples. I remember calling my sisters and brothers to see how they were doing in navigating the mysterious world created by Rand and Robyn Miller. Here’s hoping that more all-inclusive games are on the way. The MSNBC report can be found at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5113554/ . . . Is it possible that the acquisition momentum is back in swing? I’ve been bringing news of various buyups for the past few weeks. Now, Cisco has picked up Procket Networks for $89 million. Cisco will use the company’s routers and routing intellectual property as well as its architects to add to its own portfolio, according to my colleague Network World Managing Editor Jim Duffy . . . IBM is getting into the message filtering game. Big Blue will partner with MessageLabs to provide a managed security service for email. Aptly titled E-mail Security Management Services, the solution will feature anti-virus, image filtering and anti-spam components.
The search is under way to find the 50 products that will launch at DEMOmobile 2004, September 8-10, 2004, in La Jolla, California. DEMOmobile is a high-visibility launch platform that will set your company on the path to success. It’s the best venue for positioning new mobile and wireless products and establishing strategic relationships with the players who will lead you to success. The conference’s stringent selection process and excellent reputation serves as an endorsement for your product as it comes to market. DEMO events have helped companies like Palm, Handspring, IBM Pervasive Computing, Logitech, Mirra, Tapwave, Macromedia – even Microsoft – launch their products, create critical business relationships, and sell to thought-leading early adopters.
DEMOmobile 2003 demonstrators benefited from more than 162 million media impressions before, during, and long after the event.
Chris Shipley is the executive producer of NetworkWorld’s DEMO Conferences, Editor of DEMOletter and a technology industry analyst for nearly 20 years. She can be reached at chris@demo.com. Shipley, has covered the personal technology business since 1984 and is regarded as one of the top analysts covering the technology industry today. Shipley has worked as a writer and editor for variety of technology consumer magazines, including PC Week, PC Magazine, PC/Computing, and InfoWorld, US Magazine and Working Woman. She has written two books on communications and Internet technology, has won numerous awards for journalistic excellence, and was named the #1 newsletter editor by Marketing Computers for two years in a row. To subscribe to DEMOletter please visit: http://www.idgexecforums.com/demoletter/index.html.
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