My previous post “Who Killed Nortel?“, featured columnist James Bagnall presenting a very balanced view of the contributing factors to Nortel’s demise.  Time now for the corresponding ‘unbalanced’ view:

I think many people saw the original ‘Downfall’ youtube video, but many apparently didn’t know there was actually 12 of them! While these videos don’t express my personal views (do I have to say that again?), they are really funny, and the production values are pretty slick. They are based on the 2004 movie “Der Untergang” (German for ‘The Fall’), which provided a great canvas for this topic because it contains many profound Hitler rants (adeptly ranted by Bruno Ganz).

For those of you not familiar with the names referenced, Mr. Bagnall’s articles linked above are good background.  You will also be confused by both Hackney and Mike Z. both looking a lot like the Führer.

Part 1 – The Original: “There Will Be No New 3-5 Year Plan”

Part 2 – “Those Lousy Stinking Peasants!”

Part 3 – “Synergy My Ass”

Part 4 – “The ‘Free Press’ Won’t Let Us Do Our Jobs in Secret!”

Part 5 – “I Say: To Win You Must Quit!”

Part 6 – “Get In Line Behind the Other Creditors”

Part 7 – “Business Made Simple”

Part 8 – “Unfortunately, You Are Not a GE Man.”

Part 9 – “Who Are They to Tell Us What to Do With Their Money?”

Part 10 – “The Price You Ask For is Way Too High!”

Part 11 – “I believe… in Executive Bonuses.”

Part 12 – “Don’t You Understand? Nortel is Bankrupt! It’s Over!”

Canadian Content laws, the reason why it often seemed Canadian radio stations in the 80’s only had a box of 45’s containing Kim Mitchell, Corey Hart, Rush, Honeymoon Suite & Bryan Adams, to fill the airwaves with music. At times it seemed ludicrous, even painful, but over the years something amazing happened: Canadian music got better.

Basically, Canadian stations were told, if they wanted a license, they had to play X% of their songs to Canadian acts. Also written into many of the station approvals were dollar amounts to be used to help Canadian talent (ever wondered why the stations gave away $100K’s for winners of talent contests?).

The ‘pure capitalists’ amoung us would decry this as socialist intervention, but it seems this is one government initiative with a happy ending.

Canada now has the pool of talent required: musicians, producers, promoters, recording studios, etc., to produce really world-class talent.

While you will undoubtedly have different taste, for me some of these include: The Arcade Fire, Metric, Matthew Good, The Hip, Sam Roberts, Rush (hey I’m a drummer) & The New Pornographers. There are also several obvious ones I am forgetting that I will kick myself later for. There are also certainly some (arguably Rush, Leonard Cohen & Neil Young) that would have made it without the help.

I believe CanCon, and some great Canadian radio stations, have created an environment for Canada to develop it’s own unique cultural music heritage that all Canadians can be proud of.

If you shop online (and if you’re reading this, you probably do) when was the last time that you purchased something that wasn’t 5 stars?

The online shopping world abounds with star rating systems, or their ilk.  If you buy on eBay, you probably wouldn’t even consider buying from someone who had less than a 99% feedback rating. If you look at reviews on CNET, Consume Reports, etc. you hesitate on that purchase if it isn’t an ‘Editors Pick’ or a top rated product in its category.  Considering buying that album from iTunes? Going to see a movie? Finding a contractor…  This list could go on.

The fundamental driver of this is the notion everybody has that they deserve the best.  But when you pick something with 5 stars, is that what you are really getting?

Aside from blue jeans (the one thing the human race has perfected), its hard to imagine that there is one product that satisfies everyone.  5 stars just means the people that take time to rate stuff online, and arguably find this rating valuable, rate that product very highly.  This is a very small percentage of the online population IMHO.  Accuracy here is fighting a large selection bias.

But if you have a product, and you can’t get to first place, is there any benefit to trying to be second?  I don’t think so.

The people that use ratings as their primary decision criteria will not buy your product.  Why would they?  You can offer a lower price than the #1 option, but then you really are just giving away money –and potentially a lot of it– to grab a few people that are willing to take second best because of a lower price.

If you are faced with this situation, you are better off instead selling to the audience that isn’t buying stars.

As usual, Malcolm Gladwell says it best:

James Bagnall of the Ottawa Citizen has been covering Nortel for a long time, much longer than my time with the company.  It was with great interest that I heard from a co-worker that James was doing an 8-part series called “Who Killed Nortel?”.

Would it tell me things I didn’t know?  Would it point the finger at people I respected?  Would it conclude the collapse was due to bad luck, incompetence, or something more sinister?

Even knowing the series was on the Ottawa Citizen, I found it horribly hard to find the articles and then to navigate them (its improved a bit now that the series is complete).  To save you the same frustration, I collected them here:

• Investigating the death of a global titan
• Part 1 - Last things first: Bankruptcy protection
• Part 2 - A group of retired executives sign up for one last battle to save their former firm
• Part 3 - The beginning of the end
• Part 4 - Looking for a turnaround
• Part 5 - On the road to ruin
• Part 6 - The silence in the boardroom
• Part 7 - ‘The world turned upside down’
• Part 8 – The Man Who Wasn’t There
• After Nortel: Tech’s last chance

I found the series very enlightening.  It points to leadership apathy, a board that lacked knowledge of the telecom industry, bad luck, incompetence, and -of course- the well known financial scandals as contributing causes.

Now that you have seen the ‘balanced view’, you may want to check out the ‘unbalanced’ view for a laugh: Nortel’s Downfall – The Mini-Series

As I was growing up, the only way I could get introduced to new music was listening to a few select stations that I could pick up in our back-woods log cabin.   Aside from one musically enlightened friend who gave me guidance (thanks!), I was at the whims of these stations DJ’s and program managers for the music I was exposed to.

What is the dynamic today? What brings to my attention the hidden gems that would otherwise hide in my thousands of songs? What tells me what new music I could listen to?

Of the several options I have tried I find myself returning to the Genius Playlist Creator and Genius Recommendations on iPod/iTunes. I suspect that many others of the other iPod/iPhone users out there have done the same.

In some ways this is a great thing:

• The music is tailored to your tastes (the ‘demographic of one’)
• It fits with your schedule, and not some time slot defined by radio listener demographics
• Its location independent (well, ok satellite radio offers this too)
• You don’t have to hear ‘popular’ songs multiple times a day
• While the radio station was keen to appeal to everyone they risked pleasing nobody
• As your mood changes, so can your music
• You can easily try new music and buy

But there are drawbacks:

• Your music is now controlled by an algorithm; while its amazing, I notice many song show up VERY often (almost like iTunes is trying push certain artists… hmmm)
• You are only pointed to new music in iTune’s library; it makes me wonder what I’m missing… does iTunes bother with fringe artists?
• There is always the risk that Apple decides to actually manipulate the results to promote music not based on taste, but who is paying more to be promoted (hey – this sounds familiar)

I’ve tried the new forms of radio: internet-based, satellite radio, even a brief foray back into local radio, but they are all basically the same formula…  I think they have finally lost me to the ‘demographic of one’.