One of the spending cuts in last nights Federal Budget 2008 was the Commercial Ready program. Thankfully the R&D Tax Concession is still available, but this relies on the inventor having the capital upfront. The axing of this program will stifle innovation in Australia, particularly when our venture capital system is so underdeveloped relative to the US and other places. Looking down the Commercial Ready page it is clear what a success the program was. Surely keeping Australian innovations in the hands of Australians should be a priority? Now inventors will be forced to take their goldmines offshore to be exploited elsewhere. I also feel sorry for the many supporting consultants who relied on these grants to help themselves and their clients.
Year: 2008 Page 11 of 12
The video interview that I did for Microsoft TechEd 2008 is now online:
http://www.microsoft.com.au/teched/default.aspx
I am the third person speaking, in front of the orange “Explore” banner.
I was referred to this article by Seth Yates, and the bullet points covering the priorities of management execution struck me as being a nice focused summary:
- Do enough, no more (at least for this release!)
- Get it right, quickly – not necessarily the first time
- Build a firm foundation for growth
- Be able to add a steady stream of new features
- Delight your customers!
- Be better quality than anyone else (stability, ease of use, performance…)
- Scale gracefully
Of course trying to achieve these things in a competitive market is always going to be tricky. It does summarise how companies like Google execute well; get a Beta out, progressively update, scale and aim to be the best.