"In Search of Stupidity" by Merrill "Rick" Chapman is a must read for anyone in technology sales and marketing. It is laugh-out-loud funny, while at the same time accurate and factual. If you were in business, any business, in 1982 you read "In Search of Excellence: Lessons from America's Best Run Companies" by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman. It was the "feel good" book for business managers and we, the yellow-power-tie wearing business managers of that era, carried it around the...

I've been in business for about 25 years, as a middle or senior manager for about 20 of those years. I've worked for some pretty successful organizations and some unsuccessful ones. Successful organizations have a number of qualities in common, whether in healthcare, finance, telecommunications or technology. When I worked for Henry Ford Health Systems, managers received training in the Edward Deming method of Total Quality Management or TQM for short. I've been through a lot of training semi...

Yesterday, Wal-Mart launched its on-line music store. Offering songs for download at $.88, below the $.99 price of iTunes, Wal-Mart is hoping to lure customers by offering cutomers "Value. Selection. Simplicity." When the world's largest retailer enters a market, you have to take notice. Some quick comparisons lead me to call the Wal-Mart store the "budget" store for on-line music purchases. Lacking a user interfce as slick as Apples, Wal-Mart instead relies on customers having Microsoft Wind...