Author Archives: Gary R Schirr

The Lonely Whistle-blower

Posted on January 23, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

Several loyal readers have suggested that I stay on topic — service innovation — and not revisit the Madoff tragedy. They are correct: it is best not to dilute the brand on this blog. However… one quick link for those interested. I … Continue reading →

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Entrepreneurship by Necessity

Posted on January 14, 2009 by Gary R Schirr

  Tragedy to Entrepreneur of the year I had the great fortune to study entrepreneurship in a seminar led by Gerry Hills at UIC. Gerry has widespread interests: entrepreneurial marketing, opportunity recognition, and who became entrepreneurs. I remember being interested with studies that … Continue reading →

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Fiduciary Responsibility and Due Diligence

Posted on December 18, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

The big story is not how Bernie Madoff with the money; Ponzi schemes are not that uncommon although the scale of this one is awesome. The BIG story in the Madoff affair is the role of fiduciaries.   At first B.M. fit model of the standard Ponzi … Continue reading →

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Creative Finance and Bernie

Posted on December 17, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

This is a bit far afield for this blog, but I suppose B.M. was engaged in “creative finance” as well as “creative accounting.” I spent a couple decades in finance before joining academia so I knew the Madoff name and am … Continue reading →

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Online Communities — Replacements for Focus Groups

Posted on December 16, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

A recurring theme of postings on customer involvement methods is that traditional market research methods such as focus groups and brainstorming  kill ideas and creativity; there is a need for better ideation techniques that truly engage users. J. Scott Armstrong … Continue reading →

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Mass customization and co-creation

Posted on November 10, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

I would like to refer this community to an excellent blog on mass customization and co-creation: http://mass-customization.blogs.com/mass_customization_open_i/

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Weird Al Update

Posted on October 23, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

The Internet Changes Everything The internet changes the song parody business. Through digital release of a song or video an entertainer can parody a song that is still on top of the charts… Weird Al’s first release on iTunes sold … Continue reading →

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Weird Al and the Internet

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

Wired magazine has an interesting article about how the internet has affected the career of Weird Al Yankovic. Weird Al is impacted by two trends from the internet: Fragmenting of the market into small segments (Long Tail?) A surplus of amateur … Continue reading →

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Why do users collaborate??

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

Every firm has an IP unit that is looking to protect and harvest the ideas generated within the organization. Patent Trolls are infamous in software and other high tech areas. Why then are users willing to collaborate with firms and … Continue reading →

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All marketing IS service marketing

Posted on October 12, 2008 by Gary R Schirr

A business absolutely devoted to service will have only one worry about profits: They will be embarrassingly large.                                    Henry Ford An interesting article … Continue reading →

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