Now & Z/Yen - January 2001
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Now & Z/Yen - January 2001
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© The Z/Yen Group of Companies 2008
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"Zest for Enlightenment" The Irregular Newsletter of Z/Yen Limited 24 January 2001
Z/Yen Move On Up
Buy-Side / Sell-Side – More City Buzzwords.
Questioning Frame Of Mind
Salmon Charted Evening
Sold for 200 Camels
'Great Mistakes in Technology Commercialisation'
And a Belated Happy New Year
Finally, we’d all like to wish you a very happy New Year and a very prosperous millennium. |
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Yes
at long last we’re moving! - to 5-7 St Helen’s Place. Sounds familiar doesn’t
it. Actually we are expanding upstairs into number 5, to get more space and hope
to move in February. So come and see us then!
Z/Yen
has just completed a major study into the market for Buy-Side Customer Needs for
a major financial organisation. The team comprised Jeremy Smith, Vivienne
Cassley, Helen Leale-Green, Robert Pay, Giles Wright and Rakesh Shah. Over the
last few months, Z/Yen interviewed 50 organisations from hedge funds to pension
funds and now knows just what the market needs. Those of you who are interested
in this subject are welcome to a copy of the published results. Please contact
Jeremy Smith.
Towards
the end of November, the Z/Yen Office was humming to the sound of photocopiers
whirring, and cries of 'was that 250 or 300' as we went into production on a
benchmarking survey on the governance of IT in the not for profit sector. If you
have ever wanted to know what best practice is within the sector, this is the
survey to find the answers. It covers everything from the Internet and ASPs to
the more prosaic e-mail and voicemail. The results will be incorporated into a
Best Practice Guide for The Institute of Chartered Secretaries &
Administrators (ICSA). If you would like to know more,
give Sarah-Jane Critchley a ring.
"Happy
Talk" - Z/Yen is delighted to have won several intriguing assignments with
the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). The MSC aims to reverse one of the world's
most urgent environmental problems - the destruction of the marine environment
through overfishing. Z/Yen is helping the MSC in various ways, including
clarifying its mission, aims and values, reviewing the MSC's governance
structure and increasing the MSC's profile within the not-for-profit community.
Ian Harris and Michael Mainelli are thus ensuring that the MSC "is Nothing
Like a Tame" NGO. In addition, our in-house actuarial scientist-to-be
Rakesh Shah, who is "Younger Than Springtime", is busy using
correlation, regression and real option theory to help prove the cost-benefit
justification for the MSC's certification scheme for Alaskan salmon. As Rakesh
is busy finishing his dissertation at the moment, he is producing his tables and
charts for the salmon work in the evenings (hence the headline). Before you all
write in complaining that we don't know our North Pacific from our South
Pacific, we have ascertained from our long-term Aussie-temp, Mishel Vitlov, that
some species of salmon are also indigenous to the South Pacific. "Bali Ha'i".
Z/Yen's
growing reputation in E-Business and E-Procurement issues has spread to the
Arabian Gulf. Following several highly successful London events, Michael and
Mary were invited to share their expertise at a major E-Commerce conference in
Dubai. Tales of visiting 1001 Arabian Bars were highly exaggerated, although the
establishments offering free drinks to the "Ladies" will be concerned
to note that Z/Yen have been invited back in March. The E-Procurement Roadshow
rolls on in the New Year for the MoD Disposal Services Agency. Any event
organisers from warm and sunny locations, are urged to contact Mary O'Callaghan
to discuss how the workshop can be adapted to their needs.
No
we’re not talking about Z/Yen’s old email system - this is Kevin and Michael’s
latest article – So what goes wrong? This paper examines typical failure
factors in technology commercialisation projects from their inception,
development, financing, market studies and market launch. Liberally spiced with
anecdotes and quotations from a number of failed projects, the paper attempts to
draw some wry and specific lessons from the hard-won experience of the
participants. The project failure factors are usually quite independent of the
science involved. Copies are as always available from Z/Yen.