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Hardcover
238 pages
ISBN 9781401302375 Published July 2006
Hyperion Books
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Posted July 5, 2006 5:32 a.m. by jack
The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business Is Selling Less of More
By Chris Anderson, Hyperion, 256 pages, $24.95 hardcover, July 2006, ISBN 1401302378.
Back in 2004, my partner in crime Todd ran into my office holding a "Wired" magazine article that I absolutely had to read. That article introduced the term "The Long Tail." Shortly there after, Chris Anderson created a blog to continue the discussion around his ideas; the buzz continues to grow. This month Anderson's book on the same subject lands on store shelves.
For those unfamiliar with the idea, let me explain. The economy is changing. In the past, there weren't a lot of choices. For entertainment you chose between one of your three television channels or your local movie theater with a similarly limited selection. This created a blockbuster-driven culture. Everyone watched the MASH finale and saw Star Wars in the theater. Everyone accepted what was offered.
The variety of choices has since started to multiply. Why? The Internet. It has created a whole new way to distribute content. No longer are we limited to products carried in our local stores. Now we can find something to fulfill even the smallest niche desires.
Before, we went to Blockbuster to rent movies. Their shelf space limits them to carrying 3000 titles. Now we have 15 times that choice through Netflix which aggregates the demand for niche titles across the country. 21% of the movies rented through Netflix would never be found in a physical store. Yet, Netflix is competing with more than Blockbuster; it's competing with and contributing to the growing market for film.
On another end of the spectrum, there's YouTube, the exploding website of amateur videos. With professional production tools available to the masses, all you need to create a video is a webcam and iMovie. The content found on YouTube is what the Long Tail is all about. People can now find and "consume" content that matches their niche interests.
This concept is not limited to videos. Consider the king of the colored toy block--LEGO. 90% of their products are not available in retail and that represents 10-15% of their annual revenues. In the spirit of consumer production, LEGO has created a factory program. With simple software, customers can create their own kits and upload them back to the website for others to order.
Ultimately this means that there is a market for nearly everything out there. Someone somewhere will be interested in it.
Where is your long tail?
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Jack Covert Selects: More Than You Know
Posted June 7, 2006 5:10 a.m. by jack
More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places
by Michael J. Mauboussin, Columbia University Press, 288 pages, $27.95 Hardcover, June 2006 ISBN 0231138709.
For the past two years, I've said that the new business book explains big ideas; it shows us how to look at the world differently. The Tipping Point, Freakonomics, and The World Is Flat all fit that bill. What if one book could give you a flavor for all of them? More Than You Know comes pretty close.
Author Michael Mauboussin, the chief investment strategist at Legg Mason, believes the investment community is overly influenced by its way of thinking. The book is a collection of 30 essays he wrote as a newsletter titled "The Consilient Observer". You won't find consilience in the dictionary; it means the "jumping together" of knowledge. Maubossin hoped to better understand various stock market phenomena by studying other disciplines for clues.
Each essay starts with quotes from his sources. He then spends a few pages talking about key elements of the source. In one essay, he talks about ant colonies, in the next its world class chess, followed by the concept of "herding" for psychology. The chapters end with how each topic applies to investing.
The strength of the book is its wide breadth of sources. The concepts of "affect", behavioral finance, and power law distributions, are some of the concepts for Blink, The Wisdom of Crowds, and The Long Tail. Because each idea is boiled down to its essence, you'll spend a little more time contemplating their broader applications.
Check it out and find out how everyday life influences financial logic.
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