Edward Cone

Eastman Kodak Co. has a really big problem. The photographic film business that sustained one of the world’s great brands for more than a century is headed the way of the daguerreotype. Digital cameras and images are the new mass market; in order to survive, Kodak must transform itself into a digital products and services […]

Information technology organizations are headed down two different paths, says Graham Waller, an analyst at Gartner Inc. “One type of company is seeing IT that is more commodified, even marginalized, as it focuses on traditional cost and efficiency. The other set is going in another direction, where IT is viewed as critical to the company’s […]

Jimmy Wales used the simple database software known as a wiki to launch a kind of open-source knowledge project called Wikipedia in early 2001. Today, thousands of people around the world contribute to the free, collaborative encyclopedia, which has become a staple of Web-based research. Wales, a former options trader, says wikis—which are written in […]

It’s more than a bad pun to say that Wild Oats Markets Inc. is pursuing organic growth. The Colorado-based chain, which sells natural and organic food, wants to double in size from its current 111 stores by building new retail outlets. But chief information officer Jon Payne is heading in the exact opposite direction in […]

The theft last month of $350,000 from citibank customers via Indian outsourcer MphasiS BFL might be just the beginning of bad news in the offshore call center market. There is nothing unique to India about criminals talking people out of their passwords, and the thieves in this case—16 people in all, including current and former […]

The loan business is as essential to the automobile industry as advertising and assembly lines. As such, the finance arms of the world’s four largest automakers—DaimlerChrysler Services Group, Ford Motor Credit Co., GMAC and Toyota Financial Services Corp.—pooled their resources three years ago to create a Web-based joint venture called RouteOne LLC, a software start-up […]

It sounds a little dry, the Bain & Co. “Management Tools and Trends 2005” survey, but behind the numbers lurks enough drama for a full season of Desperate Housewives. Self-doubt, broken trust, fads and popularity contests—the report has them all, says David Shpilberg, leader of Bain’s Global Information Technology practice. The 2005 edition, Bain’s tenth […]

By one measure, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has a perfect record: Nobody has lost money on insured deposits since it was chartered by Franklin Roosevelt to help rebuild confidence in Depression-strapped banks. But in an era of bank consolidation, deregulation and globalization, the FDIC’s technology organization was “drifting” and falling behind the times, says […]

Suddenly, Weblogs are Everywhere. Millions of the easy-to-publish online journals have been created in the past three years, and their impact has been rapid and widespread. Bloggers helped drive Dan Rather from the anchor desk at CBS, and they played a prominent role in the 2004 elections. Corporate culture is no exception to this trend, […]

Boyd Rogers went to work in the blue jean business when that industry was synonymous with his native North Carolina. Three decades later, he manages global technology for VF Corp., the multinational apparel company built upon Wrangler and several other famous brands. The $6 billion enterprise buys textiles from countries around the globe and sells […]

Think of it as The Da Vinci Code for policy wonks. Released in December by the Washington, D.C.-based Council on Competitiveness, “Innovate America: National Innovation Initiative Report,” a 68-page plea for government support of innovation, has already been downloaded more than 115,000 times from the Council’s Web site, and cited approvingly in Congressional budget testimony […]