Tuesday, June 30, 2015

A Recommended Sunzi Book: Mark R. McNeilly's Sun Tzu And The Art of Modern Warfare


The Compass360 Consulting Group highly recommended Mark McNeilly's interpretation of Sunzi Art of War.

We will post our book review sometime in the future.








Sunday, June 28, 2015

Spring 2015 IPTV Trends (3)


Will Netflix Dominate Domestic OTT Market?
BusinessKorea
The company has recently completed domestic market research and is discussing cooperation in the domestic media market with IPTV service providers of three ...

Transforming Video Delivery Behind Every Screen: Thomson Video ...
Broadcasting & Cable
... satellite, cable, IPTV, and OTT services. Through its innovative Behind Every Screen(R) approach, Thomson Video Networks combines both on-premises and ...

Major US pay-TV providers post weakest ever quarterly additions
Rapid tv news
IPTV providers actually added 140,000 video subscribers in Q1 2015, yet this was still down compared with Q1 2014 that saw 251,000 net additions. That said ...


Satellite revenues overtake cable
Broadband TV News
Meanwhile, IPTV – the fastest growing platform – will climb from a 10% share in 2014 to 13% by 2020. Satellite TV revenues will reach $94.8 billion in 2020, with ...


Vendor content strategies push retail OTT past IPTV box shipments
DigitalTVEurope.net
The content strategies of vendors will lead to global sales of OTT TV retail set-top boxes exceeding telecom IPTV set-top shipments this year, according to


Big data set to warm up video screens
CMO-21
This month, Telstra announced that it had made an equity investment in Taiwanese- based Gorilla Technology Group, to amplify its growing IPTV and OTT ...

Global displacement of traditional pay-TV services
TelecomsTech
IPTV revenues are set to more than double between 2014 and 2019, rewarding Network Operator's investment in Triple and Quad-Play Services. Do you think ...

27% of US broadband households own streaming media device
IPTV News
Parks Associates announced new research today showing 27% of US broadband households now own a streaming media device and nearly 90% of these ...

76% of Brits consume news digitally
IPTV News
As much as 76% of Brits now consume their news digitally, a recent study from 72Point has revealed. Online is playing a greater part in the way we get our news ...

Gaming to fuel $150bn digital content market by 2019
IPTV News
A new report from Juniper Research has found that the value of the global digital content market will reach $154 billion annually by 2019, an increase of nearly ...



Report: 4K to grow 45% from 2015-2019
IPTV News-14 hours ago
Technavio, a tech-focused research firm, has published a new report on the global ultra HD TV market, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 45% from ...


NSR Report Finds Linear TV via Satellite Still Strong Despite OTT ...
Satellite PR News (press release)
The research firm's new report “Linear TV via Satellite: DTH, OTT & IPTV, 8th Edition” projects an increase of more than 21,000 channels across both ...


NanoTech Acquires Mobile Application Developer UpLink.to
PR Newswire (press release)
With seven technology business units, focusing on 3D, Content, Media & IPTV, Mobile Apps, and Manufacturing, the company has a unique business model.

TV Connect prepares to open its doors
Broadband TV News
... as showcase software-based video processing up to 4K, support for exciting new trends in OTT and Bring-Your-Own-Device (BYOD) TV, and end-to-end IPTV.

Orange sees strong Q1 adds, slows decline in sales, EBITDA
Telecompaper (subscription)
Among fixed broadband customers, IPTV and satellite TV customers rose to 7.41 million from 6.64 million. Orange had 188.2 million mobile customers at the end ...


Most OTA cord cutters come from satellite
IPTV News
TiVo has released the findings of an in-depth survey of Over The Air (OTA) TV consumers revealing that a materially higher percentage of cord cutters are ...

Internet drives Swiss cable growth
Broadband TV News
... customers through their internet access services, but can't halt the loss of classic cable TV subscriptions caused by the strong competition with IPTV providers.

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Spring 2015 IPTV Trends (2)




OTT Sub Revenue Seen Reaching $31.9B in 2019
Broadcasting & Cable
And it says that IPTV revenues are set to more than double between 2014 and 2019. The research shows that consumers like OTT services because it allows ...


Home automation market to top $6bn by 2020
IPTV News
The market for home automation packages and individual smart devices (sensors, actuators, cameras, etc.) is predicted to grow at 30-35% for the next 5 years, ...

OTT TV Market Expectation: Four Years, Fourfold Growth
Techzone360
The report expects connected televisions to represent over 84 percent of OTT subscriptions by 2019, and IPTV revenues will more than double in the time frame ...

Global web TV market 'to grow fourfold': Netflix, Amazon and ...
Netimperative
IPTV revenues are set to more than double between 2014 and 2019, rewarding Network Operator's investment in Triple and Quad-Play Services.

Check into the futuristic hotels that push technology beyond free Wi-Fi
Digital Trends
Because the hotel is completely wired, it can deliver loads of information to the IPTV televisions, VoIP phones, and iPod Touches carried by housekeeping staff.

The TV Story - How OTT Video Services and On-the-Go Content Are ...
PCC Mobile Broadband
Traditionally, TVs are connected to either the broadcast TV, cable, the satellite or the IPTV service. These traditional TV services require dedicated connectivity ...

Juniper Research Reveals An Anticipated 4x Market Increase By ...
SatNews Publishers
The new research, Mobile & Online TV & Video: OTT, IPTV & Connected Markets 2015-2019, observed that OTT services are seeing a rapid uptake by ...

Cord Cutting Continues in Canada as Cable Companies Lose ...
Techvibes (blog)
The seven largest cable, satellite and IPTV providers lost a total of over 24,000 subscribers between Aug. 31, 2013 and Aug. 31, 2014, according to disclosures ...


On-demand to drive global pay-TV in 2015
IPTV News
Improving broadband infrastructure and greater penetration of connected hardware will ensure that OTT and pay-TV will flourish globally throughout 2015, ...

TV everywhere app usage revealed
Broadband TV News
Research in the Netherlands shows that the TV apps from broadcasters are by far more popular than those from the cable and IPTV platforms, including UP{C's ...


App revenue to reach $99bn by 2019
IPTV News
Annual revenues from apps accessed via mobile handsets and tablets are expected to reach $99bn by 2019, new research from Juniper Research has found.


Televisa claims 60% of Mexico pay-TV market
Rapid tv news
Satellite accounts for the largest access type, 55%, while cable and IPTV account for 45%. Among Televisa's total number of subs, Sky Mexico owns 39.2%, ...


BBC Worldwide: “Asia is now getting into OTT.”
IPTV News
IP&TV News: Hi David, can you give us an overview of BBC Worldwide's involvement in the Asian market? David Weiland: We have a number of different ...


Eastern European pay-TV households hit 40%
IPTV News
These subscribers are rapidly converting – mostly to digital cable but also to IPTV, satellite TV and DTT.” Tags: Digital TV Research, Eastern Europe.

GfK: big data will unlock the future of TV
IPTV News
While companies are offering more subscription-based and registration services and collecting vast amounts of data about their users, most of the potential is ...

Research and Markets: Digital TV Asia Pacific Forecasts 2015
Benzinga
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst, said: The number of homes paying for IPTV will overtake pay satellite TV subscribers in 2018. IPTV revenues will climb to $7.13 ...


TV Everywhere is still used by a minority of pay-TV users, says Adobe
FierceTelecom
TV Everywhere may be a growing phenomenon in the pay-TV industry, but according to a new study from Adobe, only 12.5 percent of cable, satellite and IPTV ...


Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Spring 2015 IPTV Trends (1)


Netflix content spend outstrips BBC, HBO, Discovery
TBI Vision
Within the overall TV market, cable's share has fallen from over 70% to just over 40% within a decade, under pressure less from OTT than from IPTV and, ...


Wireless Analyst Jeff Kagan on AT&T Beating Verizon on Wireless ...
Virtual-Strategy Magazine (press release)
He follows wireless, telecom, Internet, cable television, IPTV, Mobile Pay, Cloud, Internet of Things or IoT, M2M and more. Kagan has been called Technology ...


TiVo study: 1.5 million U.S. consumers plan to ditch pay-TV
FierceCable
... report damning bundled pay-TV viewing on Wednesday, concluding that around 1.5 million Americans have plans to ditch their cable, satellite or IPTV service.

IPTV to overtake pay-TV in Asia Pacific by 2019
IPTV News
The number of homes paying for IPTV in the Asia Pacific region will overtake pay satellite TV subscribers in 2018, according to Digital TV Research. However ...


Du to invest in terrestrial networks if network sharing does not happen
gulfnews.com
But it will take a longer time,” Ahmad Al Muhaideb, vice-president of broadcasting and Internet Protocol television (IPTV) service operations at du, said on the ...


Spanish pay-TV: Subs up, revenues down
Advanced Television
IPTV, especially Telefónica's IPTV service Movistar TV, took the lion's share of the growth with 369,000 new subs out of the total rise of 399,000 in the third ...

HDTV penetration reaches 81% of U.S. homes
FierceCable
... have an HDTV display also have pay-TV service. Only 69 percent of homes that don't have an HD display subscribe to cable, satellite or IPTV video services.


25 Game-Changing Hard Trends That Will Create Disruption and ...
Business 2 Community
The increasing use of Internet Television (IPTV) and an increasing number of quality programs produced by streaming companies such as Netflix and Amazon ...


US Pay TV operators added 101000 subscribers in Q4 - study
Telecompaper (subscription)
IPTV operators in the US added 1.16 million new subscribers in 2014. Verizon added 387,000 new subscribers and AT&T, which sold its Connecticut assets to ...

Pay TV uptake in Asia Pacific to reach 68%
TBI Vision
“The number of homes paying for IPTV will overtake pay satellite TV subscribers in 2018. IPTV revenues will climb to US$7.13 billion by 2020, up from US$4.43 ...


Google raises TV pricing to cover programming costs
Rapid tv news
Google, which is in a handful of markets like Kansas City, Austin and Provo, said that it has been forced to raise prices because of increased programming costs.

Asia Pacific pay TV revenues to climb by $10 billion
Broadband TV News
Simon Murray, Principal Analyst at Digital TV Research, said: “The number of homes paying for IPTV will overtake pay satellite TV subscribers in 2018.



Dutch TV market growth driven by IPTV
DigitalTVEurope.net
The Dutch TV market added 20,000 net additions during the fourth quarter of 2014, driven by mainly by growth in IPTV delivered via DSL or fibre, according to ...

Call for integration of cellular and satellite infrastructures
gulfnews.com
“Linear channels [IPTV] are putting a lot of pressure on the terrestrial networks. The industry is now realising that they need to look at hybrid systems between ...


Wireless Analyst Jeff Kagan on T-Mobile 'Uncarrier' Event March 18
Virtual-Strategy Magazine (press release)
He follows wireless, telecom, Internet, cable television, IPTV, Mobile Pay, Cloud, Internet of Things or IoT, M2M and more. Kagan has been called Technology ...

European TV production market competitive landscape & forecast
WhaTech
Today concepts like IPTV are changing the game forever. The increasing competition among the creators of the TV Production houses has benefited the ...

Google picks TV Connect to tell story of Android TV
IPTV News
Google's Thomas Riedl (Global Head of Android TV Partnerships) has been confirmed as a speaker at this year's TV Connect (28 – 30 April 2015 ExCel,

'Cord Cheating' on the rise among US streamers
IPTV News
More than 20% of adult broadband users that stream video from an online subscription service are 'cord cheaters,' according to new research from The

Hawaiian Telcom's Q4 broadband, TV growth offset by managed ...
FierceTelecom
Hawaiian Telcom reported that despite ongoing gains in IPTV, broadband and data center colocation service growth in the fourth quarter, these gains were offset ...

42% of UK home buyers put off by slow broadband
IPTV News
Just under half (42%) of UK broadband customers would think twice about purchasing a property if it had poor broadband, according to a survey of 2,000 UK ...

Digital to make up over 25% of ad spend by 2016
IPTV News
Powered by a dramatic rise in mobile ad spending globally of +50% and online video of +21.1%, digital will is set to account for more than a quarter of all ...

Smart TV Market 2015-2019
Consumer Electronics Net
This TV allows users to install and run advanced applications based on specific platforms, but should not be confused with an IPTV that only provides access to ...

Global Pay TV Subscriber Base to Surpass 1.1 Billion in 2020, Says ...
Business Wire (press release)
Cable and terrestrial TV markets had weaker growth rates in 2014 compared to satellite and IPTV platforms. However, high definition (HD) penetration is ...

Sunday, June 21, 2015

An Excellent Podcast on the Life of Napoleon



Andrew Roberts's Napoleon: A Life  does a superb job in delineating the "unique" mindset of the late Napoleon.

An associate bumped into this book while listening to John Batchelor's show and told us about it 

Click here for the first hour of the interview and click here for the second hour.  

Click here for the third hour and click here for the final hour

Click here for a NYT's review of this book and click here for WSJ's review of this book.

Happy reading. 

Thursday, June 18, 2015

One of The Many Key Factors to The Golden State Warriors's NBA Championship


(Are you a warrior?)

From SFGate.com
To celebrate the Warriors NBA Championship over next few days, sfgate will isolate key turning points in the Warriors march for a title. Here’s the first installment.
Turning point #1, Warriors decide to be revolutionary
When Warriors coach Steve Kerr was hired a year ago, he did what all coaches do, he looked at how to improve his new team. The first thing he and his assistant coach Alvin Gentry wanted was to push the offensive pace.
“I felt like if we played faster and got more possessions (we would score more) because of our shooting and the dynamic play of Steph (Curry) in particular.”
However, increasing pace is a risk. It puts huge pressure on a team’s defense because a faster pace also means more possessions for the opposition. In the history of the NBA, no team has led the league in pace and won the title.
But Gentry was adamant that being more up-tempo would benefit this team.
“Alvin Gentry was really the biggest proponent of the pace,” Kerr admitted.
The Warriors realized that the league had changed enough away from slowed-down, low-post play to accommodate their style. Still, when a team adopts an approach that has traditionally been questionable (just ask Charles Barkley), it takes courage.
It also takes a team that is in tremendous condition and has an outstanding defense. On the last point, Kerr credited former coach Mark Jackson.
“The defense was in place,” Kerr said. “Mark Jackson and his staff the last couple of years, they really built a defensive juggernaut. I felt like if we played faster and got more possessions, our defense will still hold up.”
This is a concrete example of how Kerr took what Jackson built and made it better. However, even Kerr didn’t anticipate that the quicken pace would be so outrageously successful.
“I thought it would work,” he said, “But I would be lying to you if I thought we would win the NBA title.”
By quickening the pace, the Warriors are also ushering in a new NBA, based on creating space for 3-point shots, switching on defense, and quickness over size. It’s a change that ultimately had the Warriors’ first-year coach drenched in champagne on Tuesday night and wearing a non-stop smile.
Click here for the original source


ANALYSIS 
Innovation prevails when or if the chief decision makers have the right components within their framework.  They must be able to inspire the team to offer their perspective before accepting the presented plan. 

Regardless of the sports, offense win games but defense win championships. (In the game of cyber warfare,  this strategic concept is slightly different for the apparent reason of competitive darwinism.  We will focus on that topic in a future post.)


From the pages of Chinese strategic classics, this " Big Picture" principle (from JTG) declares that the quality of the leadership constitutes the quality of tactics (the approach, the means and the modes). The choice of tactics determine the resources (economics, manpower, etc.)  The quantity of  quality resources ascertain the technology (and the infrastructure).   Conclusively, the quality of technology systems establishes the category of "efficiency and adjustability"  within the strategy.


In the field game, the quality of the warriors determines the grand tactical approach/ formations. The grand tactical approach determines the type of field tactics.


Transposing that Grand Principle to Basketball

The quality of players determines the grand tactical approach. The grand tactical approach determines the quality of plays. 

That perspective concludes that the coaches usually lose the games on bad decisions while players usually win games on talent, teamwork and persistence. 

Thoughts From the Compass Desk
We will continue this topic in a future post.

Saturday, June 13, 2015

A Question For The Sunzi's Reader" How Does One Moves Like a Wind and Be Quiet as a Forest?


" Let your rapidity be that of the wind, your silence that of the forest. In raiding and plundering be like fire, be immovable like a mountain...."  -  Art of War 7

Without understanding the configuration of the situation and having the zero mastery of the adjustment tactics, how does one performs the following:











  • Move like a wind;
  • Be silent as a forest; 
  • Burn the competitor with fire; and   
  • Possess the fortitude of a mountain.
Click here for more information on this quote.

Some aspects of Chapter Seven of Sunzi's essay is focused on maneuvering with speed. We preferred to view that portion of the chapter from a psychological perspective. 


Our Compass Suggestion

                                                    

One can only move like a wind if the strategist understands the configuration of the terrain or possesses the economics, the logistics and the team to achieve that intent. It also helps if the team has the proper preparation to maneuver as a team.

One can only be quiet as a forest if he and his team are properly prepared for all tactical situations.

One can only effectively burn (or influence) the competitor if he knows what is the specific target while having the proper preparation for that tactical situation. .

One can only be quiet as a forest and have the fortitude of a mountain if he and his team are properly prepared for all tactical situations.

Click here for more on the insight relating to our suggestion.


Lesson
Proper planning and preparation prevents pissed poor performance.

Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Comparing the Basics of Jiang Tai Gong's Six Secret Teachings to Sunzi's The Art of War


In the business world, there are some MBA executives who loved to recite the quotes from the Art of War for the purpose of motivating the troops.  Some of these motivators are just bi-polar salesmen who are seeking new ways of motivating themselves by "pumping up" their troops.

Most of these chosen ones do not know how to use the Art of War principles in a sequential mode.   It tells us that these wanna-be's are not strategists in the purest sense.



(updated 06/03/15  15:15 hrs)

The serious strategy professionals usually preferred to read Jiang Tai Gong's book that teaches the readers how to view the Big Tangible Picture from the perspective of a chief level officer.

The book starts by delineating the grand perspective of an organization by profiling the circumstances behind the chief-level officer (chapter one and two) to their choice of field leadership (chapter three).  The last three chapters (chapter four, five and six)  accentuate the fundamentals of understanding the tactical preparation and implementation for subjugating the competition .

By gathering the correct quantity of quality intelligence, one can conclude the strategic state of that organization.

Conceptual Difference #1
While the gist of Sunzi essay is focused on understanding the current strategic  situation from ground up, the Jiang Tai Gong's classic is focused to understanding the grand strategic situation from the "top down" perspective.

Conceptual Difference #2
Chapter one and two of this strategic classic are focused on the fundamentals of advising a client

Conceptual Difference #3
Each chapter teaches the consultant on how to influence the client with am improved perspective.


Comments From The  Compass Desk
From ancient China until now, this classic has been used to enlighten those who are seriously involved in the profession of strategic consulting and competitive intelligence gathering.

We will discuss more on the differences between the fundamentals of Jiang Tai Gong's Six Secret Teachings to Sunzi's Art of War in a future post.