Okay, so I admit I was a bit cranky in my last post, but my Microsoft Vista problems have been very frustrating. That said, I was surprised by some of the comments my post got. I was not arguing yesterday that Microsoft is evil incarnate; I find the whole MAC/WINTEL/OPENSOURCE holy war boring and beside the point. Instead, I am arguing that the computer industry can and should hold itself to a higher standard of PC quality, reliability, and ease of use and that Microsoft—as the 800-lb gorilla in the game—should lead the way. I think its size and monopoly power have kept it from pursuing this goal as aggressively as it might.

Continue reading "Really? Microsoft Should Get a Pass on Quality?"

It has been 62 days since I first blogged about my travails with my new Dell laptop with Microsoft Vista. Think I went quiet because Service Pack 2.5678896040230456 solved all my problems? Think again. My machine has continued to hiccup, burp, and fart over the past two months—so much so that I had an IT professional strip off Vista and rebuild it using Windows XP. Keeping my fingers crossed.

The whole thing has probably cost me a thousand dollars extra (not counting the cost of the laptop and the software), and at least a hundred hours of lost productivity. After my last post, suggesting that Steve Ballmer should worry more about building products that work than about buying Yahoo—he has redoubled his efforts to buy Yahoo.

If my GE refrigerator shut down several times a day, causing melted ice cream to drip from the door and food to spoil, you can bet that I'd buy another brand next time around. If several times a day my Maytag washer burped dirty water all over my floor and flooded my downstairs, I'd be done with Maytag. But in the world of computing, I'm kind of stuck, aren't I? I can go to Apple (too late now—I just bought Dell hardware), or I can just spend my time wiping up the melted ice cream and dirty water that Microsoft so reliably produces.

When the Justice Department was going after Microsoft a few years back, I was on Microsoft's side. It seemed to me then like a case of government out of control. Microsoft's fancy lawyers and slick PR hacks effectively made the point that they were at risk from competition from the likes of Google—so the government should lay off. But now I think that the Europeans have it right—Microsoft is a de facto monopoly. There are simply not enough choices out there when it comes to day-to-day computing. Microsoft has the power to force Vista onto all of the major platforms, forcing us to move to it, and forcing us to deal with its shortcomings until they get around to fixing it.

Let's be honest, there is nothing in Vista's pretty (and confusing) interface changes that we need. Certainly nothing worth $400. So let's start calling Microsoft what it is: A Monopoly. And I can't believe I am saying this, but let's follow Europe's lead and make it painful for Microsoft to continue its uncompetitive practices.

My wife and I and our two young boys recently made a hotel in Miami our home base for a week while our kids were out of school for Spring Break. When my five-year-old got up in a particularly cross mood one morning, a five-minute time out in the bathroom did the trick—he emerged happy as a clam.

I'm a big believer in time-outs in parenting, but for the life of me I can't figure out what Hillary Clinton means when she suggests that she will declare a time-out on NAFTA—which I assume means that she plans to send the American economy to its room until it cools off. Problem is, Hillary, the economy has already cooled off, and a move toward protectionism is the surest way to make guarantee the gears seize up completely.

One of the most dangerous developments this year on the political scene is the predictable but potentially destructive turn against free trade by the two remaining Democratic candidates. Despite all the grief Obama has gotten for the alleged meeting in which one of his advisers told Canada that Obama wouldn't dismantle NAFTA, if he were elected—I would actually hope that such a meeting had taken place as reported. (Same idea with the recent meeting of Hillary adviser Mark Penn and representatives of Colombia.)

I hope Obama is a smart enough student of history to know that a major contributor to this country's early twentieth century depression was a decidedly protectionist turn. Protectionism is the last thing our economy needs right now.

Timeouts are for kids, not economies (By the way, ditto for do-overs).

I flew from Sydney to Chicago where I had dinner with the CEO of a company that manufactures parts for electric motors. What keeps him up at night, I asked?

Continue reading "The China Train May Have Already Left the Station, Part Two"

If you have thought that taking advantage of China's low costs might be the answer to all your problems -- better look again. The game is getting much more complex.

While in Australia I met a businessman based in Hong Kong whose company makes plastic baby products in China. He is looking to open a manufacturing plant in -- of all places -- the U.S. What gives? It turns out that a leading European retailer has indicated that it intends to include a carbon tag on all of its products. According to this businessman, a product made in China might have a carbon tag of 18 (due to China's heavy use of coal) -- compared to a two for the same product made in some locations in the U.S. The retailer has indicated it will give preference to the product with the lower carbon tag (the one that has the least negative impact on the environment) -- passing along the additional costs to European consumers who will reportedly pay the extra 10 percent cost.

While in Australia recently, I had a chance to chat with a German businessman who gave me some insight into forces that are pulling Germany in a decidedly socialist direction. Perhaps you have already heard about the use of questionable tax dodges by prominent German businesspeople. In the U.S., the perpetrators would simply be tried and, if found guilty, go to jail along with the likes of Bernie Ebbers of Worldcom. In Germany, it has to turn into a populist movement. Look for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to back down from her pledge to privatize key industries and make the country more business friendly. The rumors in Germany are that she is considering requiring business leaders in private and public companies alike to disclose their annual earnings. German businessmen are reportedly jumping into the ditches—they say the lower the profile the better. So much for private enterprise.

Imagine this: You have just signed on as president of a company that, despite having no experience building motorcycles -- has decided to take on the likes of Harley, BMW, etc. The first models are released during your first week of work, so you drive out to the factory to watch the first ones come off the line. But when you ask a production supervisor how much the company makes on each bike, he sheepishly informs you that the company loses about $3,000 per bike. "Aye," you think, "well, I hope they are at least good motorcycles." And then J.D. Powers & Associates ranks your firm dead last in quality.

Sound like an impossible situation? It is exactly the situation that Tom Tiller faced when he joined Polaris Industries, which previously had restricted itself to making rough-and-tumble products like snowmobiles and ATVs -- far from the fit-and-finish precision required to build trophy bikes.

Continue reading "You Think You Have It Tough?"

After my visit to Winona, my two compatriots from Winona State University and I made a late night drive back to Minneapolis so that I could speak early the next morning to the Twin Cities chapter of the Young Presidents Organization. For those of you who have read my book, you know that I analyzed the performance of every company ever to make the Inc. 500, and I selected the nine top performing companies in terms of growth and profitability over a 22-year period. Amazingly, four of the top nine performers (which I refer to in the book as “breakthrough companies” were either founded by or run by YPOers.

The twin cities chapter of YPO is a particularly strong one -- around 300 members and their managers showed up for a four-hour workshop I led entitled “Getting Breakthrough Performance.” What an amazing group of people -- literally the who’s who of the Minnesota growth company community. They were, of course, proud to learn that their state was the only state in the U.S. that contributed two companies to my list of nine top performers. Tom Tiller, the CEO of breakthrough company Polaris was in the audience, and we had a chance to chat briefly. He is one of the most gifted leaders I have met.

Every time I am with Bob Kierlin (founder of Winona, Minnesota-based Fastenal), I am more impressed with him as a person and as a business visionary. We got a chance to spend some time together again while I was in Winona. Here’s a guy who started and built Fastenal into one of the powerhouses of American industry, and he is about as soft-spoken a person as you will ever meet. He is legendary in town for his habit of purchasing second-hand suits and for his staggering generosity of spirit.

Continue reading "The Nuts and Bolts of Entrepreneurship"

This week began for me in Winona, Minnesota, right after a cold snap that had given at least one location in the state a new record low of 40 below zero. Yes, I did question the sanity of scheduling several days in Minnesota in February. But Winona is a poster child for one of my favorite rants -- that the media are far too focused on what goes on at Google and Microsoft and what happens in New York, Seattle, and on Sand Hill Road. For my money, the truly great stories of American business and business people can be found in places like Winona.

Continue reading "It's Not All About Google and Microsoft"