This is the personal blog of David Dekel elaborating on his daily life as an interim manager in Amsterdam and on his role as the CEO of Endeavour Enterprises N.V. The idea is to illuminate managerial aspects and challenges with a fresh view at daily events, blended with criticism, a little cynicism and some humor.
An old Chinese saying claims that even the longest voyage starts with a simple step forward. Let’s just hope this is a step in the right direction.
Enjoy the ride.
Looks like there is no learning effect when it comes to managing inventory.
Amazon is out of kindle after cutting its price to USD 189.
This is not the first time this happens to Amazon with the same product. Oprah Winfrey advertised in October 2008 that the Kindle is her favourite gadget. As a result, all Kindles were sold out. That was the second time preceded by another incident back in 2007.
Ok, maybe forecasting Oprah’s move is out of Amazon scope, but this is the third time and the influence of 25% discount should have been taken into calculations. Naturally, there could always be another reasoned that is not revelled to us, as many firms are adopting the frustrating top-secret approach in order to create an artificial buzz.
It will take few more days or weeks to restore it I believe, anyway, the good news are that the new Kindle DX is a much better version of the original Kindle. This Kindle has better performances, is bigger and cost USD 379.
I do not know about you, but I am waiting for the next generation where colour will be incorporated, and while they are at it, maybe they can add some apps.
Europe is finally resuming its flights. Reports are coming in from many European airports.
A continental airspace closure took precedent in September 11, 2001 when the US had to close its airspace in order to neutralize potential further attacks.
The eruption of Icelandic Mount Eyjafjallajokull and the resulting volcanic ash cloud over Europe have caused severe flight disruptions since last week, grounded millions of people, tones of cargo and disrupted international air traffic over Europe and the Atlantic.
The above had enormous affect on trade, business and insurance. Not to mention convenience. The ecological effect is too soon to evaluate, however has a destructive potential on climate in case of severe eruption.
Europe is operating several airports and KLM has started today a gradual procedure in order to restore its flight schedule.
The continental boycotting due to the volcanic ash over Europe is gradually removed today in order to allow the millions of passengers and tones of cargo to start flying again.
It is amazing how such a simple incident could have grounded Europe traffic for few days and cause such damage.
Speakers: Shari Thurow, Founder & SEO Director, Omni Marketing Interactive Alan Perkins, Head of Search Marketing, SilverDisc Limited
Description:
This is a very concise description of the session:
This session is about how successfully architecting sites for search engines and how specific page elements and design technologies may impact your ability to gain good organic listings.
Subjects: Directory and file structure, server-side includes (SSIs), 404 error trapping, JavaScript, robots.txt use, frames, and secure area usage Read the rest of this entry »
Search Engine Strategies London, aka SES London is the leading search marketing conference in Europe gathering each year world’s professionals in the area of search engines strategies and marketing.
Renowned SEM professionals are gathering in London this week for this conference.
SES London 2010
Where search engines issue is a key success factor in today’s any marketing plan the expectations that its importance is growing.
With that in mind and with the experience Endeavour gained in the area of search engines (SE) I headed to London to participate, this is my second year I am following SES.
Topics such as: online marketing, search engines optimisation, search words and phrases, conversion, links directories and crawlers are all to be discussed here.
I am blogging on the latest in the search engines field from the conference as it happens and hope to bring you in real time the latest on SEO. Read the rest of this entry »
Long ago, we named our company after Captain Cook’s historic ship the Endeavour. The space shuttle Endeavour is named after the same old famous ship and for us down here, it is a major event every time the space shuttle caries our name and spirit to space.
Final frontier, as James T. Kirk used to call it.
Today, Endeavour space scuttle took off again in one of its last missions as the whole shuttles project will be terminated by the end of this year. The space shuttle Endeavour has set off for the International Space Station (ISS) on a repair mission and the video can be seen below.
The famous Heineken brewery museum in Amsterdam just gained a new item. So far, the museum was dedicated to beer brewing related issues and the process of making it. About a year ago, the whole building went under constructions and today presenting enhanced audiovisual beer experience.
However, as from last night, there is an unusual additive to the building: the Dutch brewery started brewing browsers… Google Chrome to be exact. Slides of the browsers logo are projected on the outside wall of the Heineken building to be seen by nearly frozen by passers.
The following story would have been amusing if it wasn’t real.
It depicts the growing power social media gained in public opinion, access and usage. Just as much as it can contribute to a firm or individual PR, it can make a nightmare as well.
The story is a simple customer care issue that evolved via social media into an overnight nightmare, goes as follows:
An American guy named Dave Carroll flays United Airlines and in the process his guitar gets damaged in the cargo process. Carroll applies to UA, asks for covering his damage and the company takes few months to reply with a decision. Once they do take the decision it is not other than sorry, but no compensation, in so many words.
Retail bankers are letting consumers down,” said Meglena Kuneva, the European commissioner for consumer policy. This statement is published after a survey done by EU commission exposing that EU banks’ transparency and business conduct is much below expected level and is bordering violation of EU laws.
EU banking basic fees were reported to fluctuate from 27 Euros annual fees in Bulgaria, via 46 Euros in the Netherlands and up to 154 in France and 253 in Italy.
The EU report covers prices of various banking fees of 224 banks, accounting for 81% of the EU market.
I was invited today to the IBC award winning ceremony in Amsterdam. Someone must have thought I’d look good in the crowd. The ceremony was interesting, but first thing first. A little about IBC in general:
