Every week, we put together a list of our top 5 articles of the past week. Happy reading!
The Mining of Media (or The “Streaming Wars” are Just a Battle) Matthew Ball (reading time: 13 minutes)
I signed up to Disney+ this past week as a way to learn about the “streaming wars”. I have to say that Disney’s offering is quite impressive and will be a strong alternative to Netflix. I signed up mainly to understand what Matthew Ball keeps talking about. He is my go to resource to understand the media landscape and in this latest post is outstanding. It is US centric to be sure, yet understanding the dynamic of technology and media are applicable globally. Understanding media consumption and changing habits of consumers is useful to predict the winners in the space.
Achieving Strategic Agility By Seeing Around Corners Steve Denning, Forbes (reading time: 6 minutes)
Strategic agility is a relatively recent concept and something we’ve been talking about at our firm with our customers. The basic premise is that the old world of top down planning and predicting the future is incongruent with a fast paced world. Rita McGrath’s book, Seeing Around Corners talks about the power of strategic agility and the role of leadership.
The inside story of Binance’s explosive rise to power Decrypt (reading time: 20 minutes)
We haven’t covered crypto in a while in this newsletter and that is my fault. I loved this story about Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange. This is a genesis and growth story. The company is trying to build the future of finance and isn’t afraid to take massive risks to get there.
Every Tech Company Wants to Be a Bank—Someday, At Least Wired (reading time: 6 minutes)
As the large technology companies gain maturity, they are starting to look for profits in other areas; namely financial services. They are examining a foray into partnering with banks to provide services to the consumers they serve. This story is familiar, Wal-Mart tried a similar endeavor in the early 2000’s albeit unsuccessfully. This article explores the strategies employed and the potential pitfalls.
Status Update, and How Everyone IPO’d in the 21st Century Eugene Wei (reading time: 19 minutes)
I’ll read anything that Eugene Wei writes. In his latest post, he builds upon this epic Status as a Service blog post. He discusses how updating our status online has trapped us in this perpetual prison loop. There’s an exploration of what it means for social networks and marketplaces but also for regular users. I highly recommend this article if you’re interested on the effects & future of social media.
