Staying on Task with RRWolfgang

It doesn’t take too much imagination to ascertain the subject behind The Search by John Battelle. Search engines have profoundly affected the way people locate information on the Internet, and The Search goes into significant detail to drive that point home. For a person of a more technical background, some of the elements discussed in The Search may seem a bit novice-oriented. Items such as the origins of Google, the indexing of the web, and the ever-invasive Google-bots may be little more than tired school material for some, but from a business perspective, The Search serves to demystify the science behind page-rank, querying, and whatever happened to Alta Vista?
These days, it is difficult to ignore the value of search engines, with the price of one share of Google presently being in excess of $600. Battelle underlines the importance of the search engine in the first chapter where he references a Silicon Valley engineer characterizing search as the “…attempt to make sense of all the information that is now possible to get” (Battelle 4).
Battelle is able to emphasize the significance of search engines quite easily thanks to his de facto example of Google, which serves as the subject matter for the majority of The Search. It is difficult to ignore a company that can go from “next to nothing to more than $4 billion” in less than five years (Battelle 4).
In a time in which getting your information to the public is of paramount importance, understanding the logic behind meta-tags and search criteria is more significant than ever. The Search is a solid tool for people who have a weak grasp how search engines affect their business. In addition to that, it’s also a pretty entertaining read, which is nice.

Posted by Ryan Wolfgang at 07:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

For such a deceptively small book, Mark S. Walton’s Generating Buy-In had plenty of useful content. The main thrust of the book was to explain to the reader how to sell an idea, a message, and their very selves. The point is that, as a leader, you have to be able to deliver a vision that those around you will able to identify with and support. If you can get people to buy into what you stand for, then there’s no telling what you can accomplish.
Walton begins the book by placing the reader in a very familiar environment: sitting at home, relaxing, just watching a little television. He goes on to explain how this unspectacular activity is made possible by the “Masters of Television” trying to decide in what fashion that they wish to generate buy-in (Walton 4). In this instance, Walton is referring to commercials and the science of advertisement that goes on behind the scenes, trying to divine what would make the watchers of a particular program “buy-in” to needing a new car, or a sweater, or a different kind of insurance. Using this device, Walton is able to convey to the reader just how pervasive the notion of generating buy-in really is.
Walton does well to provide clear and easy to read examples to illustrate the different circumstances in which people may find themselves faced with generating buy-in. As evidenced in the first chapter, Walton presents examples of normal people dealing with everyday situations. However, as a former CNN reporter, Walton has had the opportunity to witness, firsthand, the strategies and methods of a number of executives and business leaders and the book benefits from it.

Posted by Ryan Wolfgang at 07:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ted C. Fisherman’s China Inc. is an illustrative narration on the up and coming economic nova that is China. Fisherman makes the point that, in addition to the powerful force of low-cost labor for which China is traditionally known, the country also possesses over a billion potential consumers to keep their economy performing well.
The way the China conducts itself in the international arena has undergone a dramatic change in recent years. Fisherman makes the point that the Chinese government warned its people against the outside influences of capitalism and consumerism as late as the 80’s. Fisherman goes on to make the connection that the very “pollution” that the government would have staved off is now the life blood of the Chinese economy (Fisherman 88).
Though China is opening up and expanding, Fisherman made it fairly clear that there are still areas in which China has yet to open up completely and play by the rules by which the rest of the world pretends to abide. The fact that Fisherman chose to title the ninth chapter “Pirate Nation” should serve as some sort of clue of this. This chapter discusses China’s rather large bootlegging market. The lucrative nature of this market is evidenced by the aggressive fashion in which it is protected, but it has negative economic effects as well. Fisherman provides the example of Tsinghua entrepreneurs searching out other markets in which “their talents can be rewarded and protected rather than stolen” (Fisherman 242).
To conclude, China Inc. was a solid source of information for those who trying to make themselves better informed about global business and those who are concerned for America’s place in the 21st century markets. Fisherman’s book, though far from being a page-turner, is not short on pertinent information.

Posted by Ryan Wolfgang at 06:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

People reference culture and society as both the cause and the result of the way people behave. Psychologists ponder the paradox of "nature vs. nurture" to try to gauge just how profound the effect of society really is. The European Renaissance is an interesting study because, among other things, it is an example of a very radical and aggressive reconfiguring of culture. In its very name, meaning "rebirth" (Wikipedia), signifies its extreme significance. Why was this dramatic rethinking of art and science so effective in overtaking Europe? To oversimplify almost to a fault, it may be suggested that there is something about good ideas that is contagious. No doubt the underlying optimism of the previous statement misses the mark of its vaunted brother realism, but in a way, it is reflective of the way the business world seems to work. Buyers and users won't flock towards products and services that are sub-par or unintuitive. Meanwhile, history is fraught with evidence to suggest that bad ideas can be contagious as well. It is the hope of humanity then, that the ideas that ultimately stand the test of time are those that edify and not destroy, create, and not devolve. You know what ideas I mean: "good" ideas, of course.

Posted by Ryan Wolfgang at 01:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)