The people around me all seem to be discussing this wonderful post about Amazon.

The Secret to Amazons Success Internal APIs

There is a trap in all of this. This is not THE secret. It’s one of many. Let’s look at the things that have been presented and THE secret about Amazon…

• Internal APIs.
• Vertical Integration.
• Exploitation of warehouse workers.
• Automation.
• Going for growth not profits.
• Failing fast and often.
• A/B Testing in production.
• Agile Development.
• Predatory Pricing.
• Real-time measurement of employee’s productivity.

So if I had a company to run, what are the three things that I’d prioritise from the list of secrets.

• Internal APIs. Yes it makes the list after all that. Once a company reaches scale it needs to expose it’s parts so that it can be broken down into solvable problems.
• Continuous Improvement and LEAN production. The machine that changed the world.
• Agile Development and Automation everywhere.

All three of these things lead to feedback loops of improvement.

Things that don’t make the list, Stock Options, a big HQ, a good logo, a great TV ad, and many others!

If you didn’t know, there is an election in ten days. In the next 12 months there are many more around the world. A lot has been written, here is my 2 cents. This is a view heavily influenced by the recent death of Allister Sparks and the wonderful book he wrote about South Africa.

Remember that everyone involved is a real living breathing person capable of thought, compassion, and change. Real deep profound change.

So as we all vote in the next 12 months, in the US, Germany, France, and Spain. Remember to vote for the world that you want; independently of the obstacles and dangers along the road.

Looking only at the obstacles would have left Mandela as a political prisoner on island.

You’ve watched this and been amazed by planet earth.

Now spend a second to think that this is filmed. It’s a work of art enabled by some amazing technology.

How amazing? This was the biggest hit of 1916…

Finding it difficult to decide but this almost looks like iPhone sales are returning to a linear growth path that existed before the iPhone 6…

Apple Financial Results: Live coverage – Six Colors

Oh great. Now almost everyone has launched a collaborative digital board. There must be at least ten versions of the same product and no way of interfacing them all.

The newest addition to G Suite, Jamboard is a collaborative, digital whiteboard that makes it easy for your team to share ideas and create without boundaries.

Jamboard — the whiteboard, reimagined for collaboration in the cloud

It seems to be some sort of sport to agree that it’s difficult to work with the millennial generation.

They can’t, think, plan, execute, concentrate, multi-task, (fill in your own comment here).

Personally, I believe it’s all rubbish and watching this changeover that required planning, cool heads, teamwork and the foresight for someone to film it, I think that the facts are on my side.

Watch this insanely fast high school theater costume quick change / Boing Boing

Microsoft Azure, Office, Windows, Xbox revenue growth: CHART – Business Insider

These are seriously good results and a massive confirmation of their strategy.

In the last few weeks; Microsoft, Amazon and IBM have all knocked the ball out of the park. I get the feeling that we know what the B2B market will look like for the next decade.

Quantifying Netflix’s Catalog Quality + Subtraction.com

Until the coverage of the major video sites comes close to those of the music sights the fees are not going to be worth it for me.

Twitter is in takeover talks with Google, Salesforce.com, and other potential buyers

Twitter is in takeover talks with Google, Salesforce.com, and other potential buyers

If it’s just Twitter on the block then Disney is the right home for Twitter.

However, what really makes sense to me is that Google basically hires Jack Dorsey. This means buying Twitter and Square. Google has a poor payments system and has struggled for years trying to build a social network. Jack is the answer to both.

How long till I can prototype my manufacturing processes with Lego on a tabletop?