E-Commerce Blog

Steve Jobs may not be sure how much the economic slump will hurt Apple, but he’s clear on this: It won’t be as bad as pessimists predict. And for the first time in eight years, he got on an analyst conference call to discuss quarterly results to make sure the point wasn’t lost on anyone. “We may get buffeted by the waves a bit, but we’ll be fine,” Jobs said on the call, following the release of Apple’s fiscal fourth-quarter results. Evidence of the buffeting may already be showing up. Apple reported $7.9 billion in sales, below the average estimate of analysts.

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Steve Jobs: Apple Will Be ‘Fine’

These are, to cite the old Chinese curse, ‘interesting times’ for organizations seeking to outsource their contact center services and for business process outsourcers alike. That is because serving end-customers has never been more challenging. Today’s buyers are savvy, proactive, quality conscious but price-sharp, unimpressed with brands unless they consistently deliver, and whose loyalty is as good as their last interaction. These individuals also utilize a growing and bewildering array of channels.

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Injecting More Value Into Business Process Outsourcing

Why do your best laid plans often go unfulfilled? You have put the right people in the right jobs, empowered them to achieve, drafted an excellent plan, and got the necessary buy-in and funding. Yet somehow things went into the ditch — and now the project is late and over budget, delivering a poor return on investment. The fact is, knowing the path and walking the path are not the same thing. For example, many of us know how to lose weight (exercise, eat better, etc.). Yet knowing how to lose weight and actually losing it are two totally different things.

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Project Execution: Silencing the Big Guns

The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear Dish Network’s appeal of a decision that found EchoStar had infringed TiVo’s patent for its Time Warp software, which allows users to record television programs while watching a different channel, and also to skip over commercials. The appellate court ruling now stands, requiring Dish to pay $104 million in damages to TiVo, an amount that includes interest that accrued as the 2006 court case made its way through the appeal process. A pending related matter could cost Dish Network even more money.

Dish Stuck With $104M Tab in TiVo Patent Case

Apple’s former chief attorney will pay $2.2 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit that accused her of illegally backdating stock options for top managers, including herself and chief executive Steve Jobs, and altering company records to conceal the alleged fraud. Without admitting wrongdoing, attorney Nancy Heinen agreed to a settlement that appears to end one of the highest-profile cases in a wave of options backdating investigations that shook Silicon Valley companies in recent years.

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$2.2M Settlement Ends Chapter in Apple Backdating Scandal