Ronald Reagan and the Belgian law dealing with subsidy conditions Ronald Reagan used this old Russian proverb (“Doveryai, no proveryai”) when referring to his relationship with the Russians in the context of the nuclear disarmament in the 1980’s. In essence, the proverb refers to the understanding that any agreement needs to be accompanied by some … Continue reading Trust, but verify
Category: opinion
Minimal requirements
If you have ever played a video game, you must have noticed the “minimal requirements” explicitly mentioned on either the package the game came in or the description on the game store site you purchased the game from. These minimal requirements are an indication of what your system needs to be capable of in order … Continue reading Minimal requirements
Consulting commoditization – a follow-up
I just discovered this article by Garrett Gitchell on his Horizontal Change blog. It mentions an article I've written a while back and provides a set of highly relevant comments in reaction. The site provides good, concise and wonderfully opinionated (I should recognize opinionated when I see it, right) writing on consulting and other interesting … Continue reading Consulting commoditization – a follow-up
The greater the contribution
Watching a TEDx talk I was watching this TEDx video a couple of months ago, when I suddenly was halted by a very profound statement by the presenter. Rodney Mullen talked about context shapes content. As a world champion skateboarder, he is in an excellent position to comment on that. After all, as he described … Continue reading The greater the contribution
Apple’s maturity – Ubiquitous and imperceptible interoperability
I am assuming (most) analysts are not stupid A lot has been said about the markets' reaction to Apple's financial statements for the past quarter. It's quite interesting and even a bit baffling if you take in account that this is one of the most successful companies ever, if not the most successful. And yet, … Continue reading Apple’s maturity – Ubiquitous and imperceptible interoperability
About muscle memory and luck
Admiration and jealousy We admire people who appear to be able to perform certain feats as if with no considerable effort. And where there is admiration, there is often jealousy. We tend to get jealous of people whose life is apparently without effort. We look at these people, and we compare their baseline competenties to … Continue reading About muscle memory and luck
Killing our local heroes
From extraordinary to commonplace The evolution in which we are caught, for lack of a better word, has brought us many an advantage ... I, for example, grew up in a day and age that computers were not widely available nor used in the household. I remember being awed by them. But if I now … Continue reading Killing our local heroes
Some further thoughts on professional service (de)commoditization
This is more than likely the last I will write about the challenge for consultants in differentiating their offerings from other offerings, but I wanted to share a couple more lines on the subject. This is again a revisit of an article I wrote a couple of years ago, with some ideas I developed further. … Continue reading Some further thoughts on professional service (de)commoditization
Exploring The Black Box 