Well, Twitter’s back….I haven’t noticed anything revolutionary. In fact searching for new stuff still has Twitter blocks as the latest development. Sadly I still can’t work out if there’s any actual use for blocks as it’s too clunky to be entertaining, and doesn’t have any practical purpose. But at least it fills a space sponsored by a major mobile phone company.
Incidentally, I was discussing the response of large companies to the internet recently and came up with an appropriate analogy – and one I want to share.
Large publishing firms aren’t blind to the opportunities and challenges of the internet. But their size makes it like changing the direction of the Titanic, surrounded by the speedboats of start-ups.
And the very people that have the ideas and enthusiasm to make the difference – the engine room stokers, the luggage handlers etc, are so stunned and surprised if the Captain asks their opinion, that any ideas they do have disapear…
The answer?
It seems to me that large companies need to be built like websites. They need to be modular. if you have small units, with autonomy, then they can respond quickly. All the company needs to do as a whole is provide resource and remove red tape and limitations. The advantages of economies of scale etc should provide a benefit, not a handicap.