Hints and tips:
...“I love what I do and I think that would be tilting at windmills,” Dimon told a longtime investor who entreated him to toss his hat into the ring....
...Amazon this week became the latest consumer tech group to take a tilt at the windmill, along with allies JPMorgan Chase and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway....
...However, many sank without trace and, until a few months ago, Nest itself seemed to have lost momentum after the departure of co-founder Tony Fadell last year....
...Two years ago, the hype around the “smart home” was deafening: all the leading tech companies bet big money that consumers would want to connect lights, security cameras and thermostats — or even lawn sprinklers...
...“These exiles met and drank in an old windmill just outside the walls of Ibiza Town,” writes Stephen Armstrong in 2004’s The White Island....
...Lowe’s uses the AlertMe technology to offer a smart home solution called Iris that connects to everything from sprinklers to garage doors to smoke detectors....
...But, our investor friends are not given to tilting at windmills. There is a bull case, based on releasing trapped value....
...GE especially has made a dramatic strategic move, building a value proposition based on sensor-based data streams, instead of positioning the specifics of a new engine or windmill....
...Chief executives such as Mr Löscher now talk about concepts such as total lifecycle costs or guaranteed uptime for products such as windmills....
...… Eric Schmidt Executive chairman of Google and co-author of ‘The New Digital Age (John Murray) An economist wrote in 1971 that, “in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth...
...Armed with at least $15.5bn in state-backed credit, China’s biggest windmill makers Sinovel Wind Group Co. and Xinjiang Goldwind Science & Technology Co. won their first major foreign orders in the past...
...One example is a very large windmill producer....
...Are you offering a windmill or [also its] up-time? It is a major differentiating factor, especially against emerging-market competitors,” says Mr Löscher....
...Tilting at windmills That hefty thud is the sound of the electricity bill landing on the mat....
...Only after the fire is squelched, do you redesign the sprinkler system....
...The ethos was co-operative rather than competitive; Brand had initially conceived the games as a counterpoint to Vietnam, a way of channelling physical aggression into play....
...He is co-author with Linda Bilmes of The Three Trillion Dollar War: the True Cost of the Iraq Conflict...
...“I would rather be dealing with some of these fundamental issues than tilting at windmills,” he said. These included the need to inc-rease energy efficiency and develop new energy sources....
...For example, it will use a windmill to produce the energy for its bottling plant. That may help the company’s guilt, and ours, just a bit....
...Like Don Quixote mistaking windmills for evil giants, many are fighting phantom bids in their desperation to do deals. Take a look at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts....
...Perhaps the next government will favour windmills, or bio fuel, or decide to reopen the coal mines. Mr Coley is right to say that nuclear does not need subsidies....
...In response FedEx has called UPS the “Don Quixote” of the case for tilting at windmills and accused its rival of seeking to create a “pseudo- hub” rather than invest in genuine infrastructure....
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