1) Mind the Product Life-Cycle

Companies simply can’t afford to be afraid of cannibalizing their existing products with innovative solutions. Kodak had digital photography before anyone, but their cash cow film product led them to sit on the technology. Products age, now faster than ever, and if you do not update your offerings, it is very difficult to catch up. Apple, for example, had no real qualms about hurting iPod sales when they launched the iPhone. If Kodak had ushered in the digital age of photography, maybe they would still be industry leaders.

2) Be Skeptical of the Company Line

Loyalty to your company is important, in and out of the workplace, but it is prudent to formulate your own judgments in the interest of self-preservation. You can be a good employee, investor, or speculator without blindly taking the company’s PR releases as indisputable fact. In the era of transparency, Kodak was almost laughably quiet about their true performance or future expectations. There was a constant corporate shout of a “return to profitability at date X after our strategy shift.” It was complete and utter bullshit, most people knew, but you can bet that someone out there picked up what management was putting down and loaded up on some $EK stock. Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire.

3) The Customer is Always Right

It is easy advice, but foolish to diminish. Businesses often become preoccupied with competition, meeting quarterly expectations, maintaining efficient operations, or securing more cost effective supplier relationships that they forget what is most important. No customer means no sales, which means no operations, which means no cash flow- it happens quickly. Kodak largely ignored consumer preferences and trends. Their digital cameras were late, their software was bloated, their online store was cumbersome, and they put their future in printing pictures at home when very few people care about physical photos. You can’t stop systematic risk events, but idiosyncratic signs need to be defended against, and Kodak failed to keep their eyes open, maybe due to arrogance.

4) Don’t Focus Just for the Hell of It

Focus is a very common bit of advice in business. Steve Jobs told Google’s co-founders to quit screwing around in 50 businesses and stick to what they do best. In the Saunders Summer Startup program, I was told by mentors to “focus” almost every single day. If a company does one thing better than anyone else in the world, they will probably be successful, Kodak just picked the wrong thing. They banked on film and spun off entities like Eastman Chemical and healthcare imaging divisions. Kodak is now in Chapter 11 and those divisions are quite successful. You can’t be afraid to evolve your business model, especially with a century-old firm.

5) Don’t Hang Your Hat on IP

Patents and trademarks are advisable and all, but when it comes down to it, they will not save your company from consumer preference. Kodak has desperately tried suing Apple, Fuji, HTC, Samsung, and probably others because it was the only hand they felt like they could play; “If we can’t beat em’, let’s try to at least get them to pay us a little to stay afloat”. Now more than ever, especially in America, patent reform is necessary and I believe is on the cusp of radical change. So consider it a necessary step in your company’s process, but don’t expect a letter from a corporate lawyer to stop anyone else from offering the public a great product. The fight is now, the courtroom battle can be kicked down the road.

I do not want to bang on Kodak or remember it as a failure, because it was not a failure. Kodak and its founder, George Eastman, gave so much to my hometown and really helped build the city into the great place that it currently is. People can put Rochester down, but I love it here. I have no doubts that this will be a successful hub of entrepreneurship and innovation, as so many small companies (many led by former Kodak people) are already proving.

The titan of industry Kodak is forever gone, but it was one hell of a run.

Now when I see a wishbone, I can clearly see which side will hold up to pressure. It is very slightly larger, it has more girth at the “flex-point”, and simply, has become second nature to visually detect.

Why am I sharing this experience? It relates to a lot of our lives; business, relationships, shopping, etc. “Hell, I either make it or I don’t”, or “I either get lucky with this or I miss”. It’s a bullshit philosophy. We see many signs over the course of our lives’ experiences to enhance the positivity of our decisions. We learn what works, we realize what does not, and we gradually evolve to become better at living in this society.

My kindergarten teacher, (If you’re out there, find me! I’d love to buy you dinner) taught us “to do our homework”. Funny thing is, my 1^st grade teacher (You get dinner too!) had a large sign up that exclaimed, “Knowledge is Power.” I have heard the phrase, “All you need to know in life, you learned in kindergarten”- I think that meant sharing and generosity, but these two other lessons prevail. If you do your homework in life, you’ll be rewarded with knowledge, both directly and indirectly. Read, study, analyze, watch, listen, be humble, practice, persevere- you must do all of these things. The knowledge gained will allow you to choose the right side of the wishbone in life. Trust that all of the ups and downs will eventually correlate into positive decision-making when it really matters.

Life, in rare instances, is indeed left to chance and ends in arbitrary results, totally regardless of our input, but not often. We have the power to frame our lives based on proper decision-making. Make a plan. Trust your intuition. Be confident in your choices. If you know what is going to happen (or at least can make an educated-guess) before you make your choices, it makes life an awful lot easier. Make the right decisions, and those decisions will take care of you.

I was recruited to the team to write a business plan for the Dell Social Innovation Contest, where we finished in the Top 20 of over 1400 applicants. We were also a member of RIT’s startup pilot program, where we were mentored by industry experts and counseled with angels and VC’s about funding options.  Things have pivoted over the course of the year (as they do in almost every startup), but it has been a rewarding experience thus far, and we’re just beginning to start some really exciting new things.

I could write 20,000 words on the issues and details, but if you’re interested in learning more about the project, head over to KosovoWind.com, and if you’re feeling extra ambitious, we’re trying to crowd-source some capital as a part of another competition. If you’re interested in learning more, get in touch.

So couple my interest with my long-time sports fandom and I bring data analysis to athletics. Baseball has been the best sport at doing this in my lifetime, mostly led by Bill James and his sabermetric revolution. The “Sports Guy” Bill Simmons wrote a really good introduction to baseball sabermetrics last year that’s definitely worth a quick read. Basically, baseball had been overvaluing the wrong statistics for far too long. The ironic part about baseball being the first major sport to adopt more reflective stats is that baseball has long been considered the aging dinosaur of American sport, as football and basketball have become more popular events. The stat school of thought has even left the front office and entered into play for managers. The best indication of this movement really having significant traction in the baseball community was when Seattle Mariners’ pitcher Felix Rodriguez won the AL Cy Young award last year on a team that was very bad. Traditionally, MLB awards go to players on teams that finish well. The writers who voted recognized, through more indicative statistics, that Rodriguez was the best pitcher in the American League last year (and he was), and justly awarded him with the honor. For more stat porn, check out Baseball Prospectus.

But now that baseball is playing ball, why aren’t other sports utilizing their data more effectively? I know that baseball has a greater sample size and is largely a 1-on-1 game of statistical probability, but there are indicative figures that give you reasonable assumptions in other sports. Take for example the +/- stat (originated in hockey) in basketball. It’s really simple- if a player’s team outscores the other team while they are playing, whatever the differential in the game’s score while they are on the court is that player’s +/-. This is accumulated all season long, and ultimately tells a very strong story of what happened that season and who were the most valuable players. It’s widely believed that the Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose is going to win the NBA MVP award this year for leading his team to 1st place in the tough Eastern conference, but I believe the true most valuable player is either LeBron James or Dwight Howard. If you look at the NBA’s +/- for this season, you see that Miami’s Big Three take up three of the first four spots, likely because they’re so much stronger than the rest of their team. If LeBron is able to make his team that much better through his passing and defense, that should make him the most valuable. Rose is arguably the best PG in the NBA, but LeBron took the Cavaliers to the #1 seed and look at them now. The Bulls would very likely still be a playoff team without Rose.

Additionally, the NFL needs to better recognize  and develop some more quantitative stats, especially for QB’s. For example, incorporating completions:attempts for routes within certain yards down field, some kind of production-per-play metric for defensive players, and better analyzing the success rate of offensive lineman. There are so many eyes and ears plugged into NFL games on Sundays that this wouldn’t be hard to initialize. As a society, we are getting smarter, so there is no reason why other professional sports leagues can’t begin to give their fans a clearer view of what’s actually going on during the course of play, besides the mundane figures that we are used to.

Before you say that it’s too complicated and that fans won’t want better statistical data, remember that it was also said about stats in baseball. And the stat revolution brought the Red Sox a long-awaited World Series (still haunts me) and a SP on a terrible team, the recognition that he certainly deserved. So just keep an open mind about advancing athletic statistics, and let one stats nerd dream for more in the future.

He was right. The iPhone was amazing. Tech history. The iPhone alone pushed our society toward the post-pc computing era. Jobs also said that Apple was five years ahead of everyone else in mobile. Not quite. Google’s Android is now the market share leader in the mobile space.

I’m writing this because I’m bothered by the super smug ads that Apple recently ran (1 2 3). No Apple, I don’t have an iPhone, but I do have an app store, I do have my music, and I do have my books (let’s face it no one reads books on their phone).

I didn’t get the first iPhone (Too expensive, EDGE network sucked). I did get the second edition, the iPhone 3G. Boy, was that thing good. Everyone wanted to play with it, know what it could do, test out features and apps. The overwhelming consensus was that they wanted one. So I had the iPhone 3G from the summer of 2008 to the summer of 2010. I decided not to update my contract at that point for a few reasons.

I was pretty sure that the iPhone was going to go to Verizon soon (I was correct), I didn’t want to thus re-sign with AT&T again for two years (I love being on Verizon now), and most importantly, I really wanted to give Android a shot. I have been using Android for almost a year now, and I really, really love it. There are a few nitpicky things that I preferred on the iPhone, but the results have been way more good than bad.

• Customization: Pluggable launchers on Android are reason enough to leave the iLife. Set how many screens you want, how many rows and columns on each screen, how many docks and apps in the dock you like, and nifty expose-like functionality between screens and fun screen transfer animations. Not to mention live wallpapers, customizable widgets, themes, custom ROM’s, lockscreen replacements, different keyboards (Swype is my jam), and lots more to explore. With Android, you make your phone work any way you like.

• Notifications: The notification system on Android is brilliant. It’s not obtrusive or annoying, it’s simple and organized. The notification system in iOS is horribly invasive. It’s so bad that I’d be shocked if it isn’t updated in iOS 5 (Which will probably be released at WWDC in June). If I’m reading an article or my Twitter feed, I don’t want to be interrupted by an email like iOS does, I want it to show up in the top bar and let me get to it when I want.

• Hardware: The iPhone is sexy and all, and I wouldn’t mind a better screen on my Droid X, but I could never go back to the 3.5″ screen on iPhone after using a 4.3″ screen for a year. In comparison, the iPhone feels like a little toy. There are some reports that iPhone 5 has some size envy and will bump up to 4″, but that remains to be seen. The big screen really makes web browsing and video playback a much better experience. Speaking of hardware…

• Buttons: Buttons? Buttons suck. I thought so too, but I don’t know if I could go back to a phone that doesn’t have a universal back or search button. Back doesn’t just go back a page in the browser, it goes back through apps, emails, and games. It’s a de facto multitasking client without even trying to be one. Search is also great. Any app, BAM search, super convenient. Menu is maybe the biggest change going from iWorld to Android. In iOS the app’s menu is buried deep (at least a few clicks), on Android you just hit the Menu button within any app for instant settings control.

• Flash: Look it’s not perfect, but it largely works well. There have been many times when I clicked a link from the Twitter or Facebook apps that brought me to a site with Flash video, and I love knowing that I can play that video. It’s the whole web in your palm. I know HTML5 is advancing, but there is still loads of Flash online, and I’m really thankful Android allows its users to experience the full web.

NSFW language in the vid. Funny though. <cough> headphones </cough>

Not to mention, Android stands for openness in their platform. Which means developers don’t get their apps blocked or pulled from the app market. The app market itself is quite good, it’s improved a lot in the past year and still getting better. Every app I had on iPhone is now on Android, equal in quality or sometimes better (And largely free!). I’ve made the same points that many others have regarding Google as the Microsoft of mobile platforms going against Apple, which means developers will eventually prefer the Android platform and push more innovation in the ecosystem.

I’m in a weird place. I still admire Apple (Love my 15″ MBP and will buy an iPad when it gets a retina display). The iPad will be king of tablets for at least two more years until Android catches up (Honeycomb tablets already look great). Jobs is one of my entrepreneurial idols. Woz is a man I wish to emulate in so many ways. It’s just that when it comes to mobile phones, I’m with Android for the time being. And since it doesn’t look like there is going to be an iPhone 5 this summer, I think many others will also jump to Android (especially those with LTE).

As an iPhone-loving ATT employee friend recently told me after testing out Android for a few days, “I like Android a lot. iPhone is still #1 to me but it’s much closer that I thought.” If you’re thinking about making a switch, you probably won’t be disappointed, I wasn’t.