Posts tagged: management
Asymco:
Today Apple announced both a dividend and a share re-purchase plan which, when combined, will consume 45% of Apple’s current US cash reserves.
The dividend will be $2.65/share/quarter and the buyback will cost $10 billion over three years. The dividend will therefore cost about $2.5 billion per quarter (starting next quarter) and the re-purchase will cost about $833 million per quarter (starting next fiscal year).
However, note that Apple’s cash has been growing far more quickly. It increased by $16 billion last quarter or $37 billion over the last year. This rate of increase is itself increasing.
…
This means Apple’s total cash should still grow by more than $35 billion this year.
TL;DR—Apple’s cash inflow grows at an increasing rate, that even this cash dispersion strategy will not dampen.
So, it has come to this. They’re earning so much money that they can’t spend it anywhere else, and fast enough. While I’d think that Steve Jobs might disapprove of this measure, but after some thought, I think this move might actually take some pressure of managing such a huge cash-pile off the CFO’s back.
In fact, it is said that Apple’s CFO can probably be considered as a large hedge-fund manager.
Hopefully with this move, we would finally see the market value Apple’s stock appropriately, after so many years of undervaluing AAPL.
Fortune Tech:
From Steve Jobs down to the janitor: How America’s most successful - and most secretive - big company really operates.
Quite an interesting article. It speaks of a paradigm of management that is very different from what most business schools teach, including mine.
iOS powered devices generate more revenue than all of Microsoft’s products put together
Looks fantastic for a company which was dying less than 10 years ago.
Jeff Kreeftmeijer:
In January of this year, @nvie published “A successful Git branching model”, in which he explained how he keeps his Git repositories nice and tidy. In addition to that, he released git-flow; a bunch of Git extensions to make following this model extremely easy.
I’m astounded that some people never heard of it before, so in this article I’ll try to tell you why it can make you happy and cheerful all day.
Git-flow is an awesome add-on to Git that helps with @nvie’s “A successful Git branching model”.
In this post I present the development model that I’ve introduced for all of my projects (both at work and private) about a year ago, and which has turned out to be very successful.
A very good and recommended read if you do version-controlled code development.
In 1999, I think right after the iMac came out in a range of colors, I happened to sit in on an internal meeting at Apple, one in a large theater filled with employees.
A case of leadership, so well exemplified.
If you don’t understand the motivation behind Git’s design, you’re in for a world of hurt. With enough flags you can force Git to act the way you think it should instead of the way it wants to. But that’s like using a screwdriver like a hammer; it gets the job done, but it’s done poorly, takes longer, and damages the screwdriver.
A very good read for a feel of an ideal Git workflow. Saves you a lot of pain in the future when you need to go digging within the depths of history.
RIM is still delusional. Where shall I begin?
Co-CEO Jim Balsillie said that there would be several devices “within rapid succession” in the next month.
Clearly, at the rate and quality that they are delivering their new products, I can tell that they are stretched to the limit in terms of engineering (and possibly design, if any) resources. 7 within a couple of months? That is just insane.
RIM would really do better if they’d just focus all their resources in perfecting a single, or a few products. 7 is way too many, not to mention the various carrier variants.
In terms of long-term strategy, RIM reasserted that they’re doing awesome but are “not perfect” and that they’re poised to leap a whole generation thanks to the time they’re investing in development now.
Really? I think they are a good three generations behind and being poised to leap a whole generation isn’t enough.
The leadership structure is staying the same despite threats to the contrary, and from the sounds of the investors, they’d rather have it that way. There’s been a lot of talk about internal ire from staff, but Balsillie seriously doubted the legitimacy of the anonymous letters criticizing RIM, and thought that most employees would not condone that format as a way of delivering feedback.
Do they ever listen to feedback from anyone at all? The management still isn’t fired yet?
Let’s see, if RIM can’t cough up a QNX-powered device “in the next month”, I honestly doubt their prolonged existence. Even with QNX, it is far from the holy grail, but it re-positions them with a fighting chance.
The two public transport operators, SBS Transit and SMRT, have submitted applications to the Public Transport Council (PTC) seeking bus and rail fare adjustments.
Both cited cost pressures despite increased efforts to lower costs and increase productivity.
Don’t you just love their justifications? So innovative right?
Seriously, I wonder if their employees can make the same requests to their management for salary hikes citing “cost pressures despite increased efforts to lower costs and increase productivity” at such frequencies.
It’s ironic, and perhaps tragic, that in responding to a letter in which it’s called out for not listening to its employees, RIM completely dismisses the matter altogether and tries to paint itself in a flowery manner. Nothing was learned or resolved, and certainly conditions there can’t expect to get any better. RIM seems to not believe the letter is truly from one of its own fold — we can’t be completely certain either, to be honest — and instead of directly addressing the criticism, insists it already is working to resolve many of these issues discussed at length. The company is optimistic about how everything will turn out at the end of this “major business and technology transition,” but unless the fine folks in Canada ditch the rose-colored glasses, the outlook could have a very different hue.
This is an epic failure on RIM’s part at all levels. Its response is the case in point for the open letter. It’s is very very clear that RIM is stuck in its own grave, refusing to admit that it’s in one, and brushing off calls to climb out of it.
How great CEOs keep their teams connected
A rather interesting read.
(I apologise that I’d lost the via link to this, but thanks)
As a veteran designer, developer and project manager for more websites than I can count, I’ve identified a common problem with many Web projects: failure to plan. The same issues come up repeatedly in my work, so I’ve written this guide in order to help clients, other designers, businesses and organizations plan and realize successful websites.
Quite a good read, if you have IT projects to handle.
It’s very evident in whatever products that they come up with, iPods, iPhones, and now, the iPad.
The latest theory of Time Management I heard has actually caused me to stop and think about how I run my entire life. This kind of thing doesn’t happen very often, and no I don’t mean thinking, cheeky readers! The theory that was recently taught in a Leadership course I’m enduring is called the Pickle Jar Theory.
It’s an interesting theory which you may want to take a look.
Hidden inside the skeletons of high-rise towers, extra steel bracing, giant rubber pads and embedded hydraulic shock absorbers make modern Japanese buildings among the sturdiest in the world during a major earthquake. And all along the Japanese coast, tsunami warning signs, towering seawalls and well-marked escape routes offer some protection from walls of water.
A nation that is very well prepared for eventualities. Think about Singapore, our weather web site goes down during heavy rains. There has yet to be an island-wide flood warning system, given the potential and frequency for floods of 1-in-50 years in magnitude.
Should any calamity reach the shores of Singapore, I’m confident that our civil defence infrastructure is woefully inadequate. Even Hong Kong is better prepared.
