FedEx announced the purchase of Kinko’s for $2.4 billion in cash. This move seemed inevitable if FedEx is to compete with UPS and its UPS Store footprint after the Mail Boxes Etc. purchase in 2001….
Category Archives: Business
Business Week : The Rise Of India
Business Week reports on the rise of India in the services sector. Venture capitalists say anywhere from one-third to three-quarters of the software, chip, and e-commerce startups they now back have Indian R&D teams from the get-go. “We can barely imagine investing in a company without at least asking what their plans are for India,” says Sequoia Capital partner Michael Moritz. Nandan M. Nilekani, managing director of Bangalore-based Infosys Technologies Ltd.: “Just like China drove down costs in manufacturing and Wal-Mart in retail, India will drive down costs in services.”…
HBS Working Knowledge : Employee Retention
HBS Working Knowledge has a good article on the importance of employee retention. In an August 2003 study by Accenture, 48 percent of U.S. middle managers surveyed said they were looking for another job or planned to do so when the economy recovered….
John Mack: Demand to be Managed
In a speech to the Harvard Business School, John Mack emphasized different management approaches on Wall Street. He admits that Wall Street is a money culture, a lone wolf atmosphere, and companies use money as excuses to not care about employees….
Wired News: FedEx Delivers New Tech Lab
Wired reports on the FedEx Institute of Technology, a joint R&D effort by Federal Express and the University of Memphis….
Career Anchors
What is your career anchor?…
Spidering Hacks goes live
Spidering Hacks is now available for pre-order around the world. $20 adds these 100 tips and hacks to your library. 400 pages. Currently ranked 432,937 at Barnes & Noble. ISBN is 0-596-00577-6. UPC is 636920-00577-3. ASIN is 0596005776. As previously mentioned, I wrote a hack using Java to gather traffic statistics from Alexa. It will most likely come out in November, not October, but it’s still cool to see it hit the virtual shelves as a pre-order….
Spidering Hacks
I have been busy over the past week writing for a new O’Reilly book. Look for me in chapter 4 a to be released book named Spidering Hacks, part of the O’Reilly Hack Series. Interestingly enough I was the only person to author to use Java. I have a feeling this is going to be a book full of a lot of Perl. There is only one Python example. I wrote a hack that gathers data about Alexa toolbar users traffic to your Web property on a daily basis. Alexa collects subdomain information as well as property rankings, and I…