I agree wholeheartedly that innovation is a must for all companies, no matter how long you’ve been playing the game… Does Playboy and Blockbuster ring a bell?

What I found particularly interesting was the 6 Levers Model of Innovation. A company must innovate to create not only its future, but also to coexist in its present and to release itself from its past.

6 levers model of innovation

1) Centralize – Bring operations under a single authority to reduce overhead and create a single point of control to manage mission critical risk

2) Standardize – Reduce the variety and variablity of processes delivering similar outputs to eliminate costs and minimize risks

3) Modularize – Deconstruct the system into its component subsystems and standard interfaces for future cost reductions

4) Optimize – Eliminate redundant steps, automate standard sequences, streamline remaining operations, substitute lower cost components or otherwise cost and resource reduce.

5) Instrument – Characterize the remaining processes in terms of the variability of key parameters and develop monitoring control systems to monitor their performance

6) Oustource – Drive processes out of the enterprise entirely to further reduce overhead, devariabalize costs and minimize future investment. Incorporate vendor use of monitoring control systems into service level agreement.

Who is Manuel Antonio Noriega?

For those of you who don’t know, Manuel Antonio Noriega is a former Panamanian politician and soldier. He was military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He is often called “Pineapple Face”.

In the 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States he was removed from power, captured, detained as a prisoner of war, and flown to the United States. Noriega was tried on eight counts of drug trafficking, racketeering, and money laundering in April 1992. Noriega’s U.S. prison sentence ended in September 2007; pending the outcome of extradition requests by both Panama and France, for convictions in absentia for murder in 1995 and money laundering in 1999. France was granted its extradition request in April 2010. He arrived in Paris on April 27, 2010, and after a re-trial as a condition of the extradition, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years in jail in July 2010. A conditional release was granted on September 23, 2011 for Noriega to be extradited to serve 20 years in Panama.

You can read lots more here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manuel_Noriega

The absolute best way to learn more about this period of Panama’s history to is talk with Panamanians…

Zed’s North American Master Service Content Provider

Zed currently possesses 30 global deployments of the platform live, giving partners the ability to offer entertainment storefronts and CRM-driven marketing activities across mobile, web and social media.

Zed’s North American Master Service Content Provider Functionalities

•    Multi-content types including music, videos, games, and rich-media apps
•    Cross-platform Web, mobile Web, HTML5, and native applications
•    CRM, user segmentation, and social media integration
•    Full range of business models including a-la-carte, subscription, discount prices, bundling, freemium and ad-based
•    Real-time business reporting and analytics
•    Advertising management
•    Customer care support

Greg Levy, director of product management at Zed, said:

With mobile technology standards rapidly evolving, the challenge is delivering solutions that will provide mobile operators and media brands support for their extremely large and assorted base of customers.

Our MSCP enables our partners to readily monetise their content delivered via mobile.

New Zed HQ and team established in Silicon Valley

The Spanish firm was one of the most visible of all the first generation D2C firms, and still has operations in 62 countries. But it has worked hard to re-engineer its business for the new ecosystem of apps and the open mobile web.

This explains the US expansion, which should enable the firm to be closer to the Google/Apple matrix and all the many start-ups defining the new shape of mobile content.

The new office in Redwood City, Califonia will sit alongside existing Zed operations in Los Angeles and Miami.

John Foster is president of Zed USA

John Foster has been named president of Zed USA. He was previously SVP of corporate development at Infospace, and also worked at RealNetworks and NextLink.

Michalia Negri is Country Manager and COO of Zed USA

Zed has formally confirmed Michalia Negri as country manager and COO of Zed USA. Negri has been in the role since early summer after heading Zed’s operations in the UK, Ireland and China.

Javier Perez Dolset, CEO of Zed, said:

“With the emergence of connected devices such as smartphones and tablets, new disruptive business models and the explosion of social media, we are growing our presence in the US and putting in place a management team with a proven track record to ensure that Zed continues to be at the centre of mobile innovation.”

Zed USA powers mobile content platform services for U.S. Cellular and Tracfone Wireless, and distributes mobile content through ATT, Verizon, T-Mobile and Cricket.

Source

No doubt that Boo the Facebook dog is living the high life! It’s true, beauty (and ridiculous cuteness) does get you somewhere in life!!!

Cats are cute, though they hold no candle to the world’s cutest dog Boo! I must admit, I am the proud owner of a 22 pound street cat, and I do often wish that he was on a rainbow, in my bed and that we would roll around, and around, and around. Sadly, I’ll have to settle for his fat a** lying on my stomach while I watch TV!

Can’t Hug Every Cat YouTube video, by Debbie

Here it is everyone… Watch it and laugh!

Overcome by her love of cats, Debbie the Online Dater conjures an interspecies love song, danceable by all creatures.

Download SONGIFY, the app to songify your life!: http://bit.ly/songify

Can’t Hug Every Cat – Original eHarmony video

She’s Debbie, a cat lover looking for a soulmate!

Cara Hartmann

Can’t Hug Every Cat YouTube Video has saldly been debunked. Although the world is undoubtedly populated with some crazy-ass cat lovers, Debbie isn’t real, but rather Cara Hartmann’s representation of how our cute little feline friends can lead us to a life of solitude (at least from humans…).

Like her Facebook Page here – Cara Hartmann I gather that she’s an actress, so I’m sure that any like will be much appreciated to sky rocket her towards the lime light. Imagine how many cat nip you could be while making 6 figures a film!

Can’t Hug Every Cat Lyrics

CHORUS

I love cats

I love every kind of cat

I just want to hug all them

but I can’t

can’t hug every cat, can’t hug every cat

so anyway

I am a cat lover and I love to run

I’m sorry – I’m thinking about cats again

I really love cats

I’m thinking about cats again

and again

and again and again

and again and again

and again and again and again

and again and again and again and again

I think about how many don’t have a home

and how I should have them

I think about how cute they are

and how their ears

and the whiskers and the nose

I just love them

and I want them

and I want them in a basket

and I want little bow ties

I just love them

and I want them

to be on a rainbow

and in my bed

and I just want us to roll around

sorry – I’m getting emotional

CHORUS

I love cats

I love every kind of cat

I just want to hug all them

but I can’t

can’t hug every cat, can’t hug every cat

so anyway

I am a cat lover and I love to run

I’m sorry – I’m thinking about cats again

I really love cats

but I can’t hug every cat

can’t hug every cat

can’t hug every cat

I have a pretty great set up at my home in Panama… Between the the TIVO-esque device, Video On Demand and Apple TV, Netflix seemed like a natural amongst my other home entertainment odds n’ ends. What’s best, no VPN required!

After a couple of days enjoying NFLX movies via the PlayStation, here are my first impressions.

NFLX Film & TV Selection, Latin America

To be expected, the latest, most recent films aren’t available, like they are on Apple TV. However, the selection is decent.

NFLX offers the following categories:

• Action & Adventure, 75 movies
• Children & Family Movies, 75 Movies
• Comedies, 75 movies
• Documentaries, 16
• Dramas, 75 movies
• Foreign Movies, 46 movies
• Horror Movies, 56 movies
• Independen Movies, 58 movies
• Romantic Movies, 75 movies
• Sci-Fi & Fantasy, 75 movies
• Thrillers, 66 movies

So, you’re looking at almost 700 movies and 75 TV shows… Not bad for their Latin American debut.

What I enjoy most about their selection is that the movies are a bit older… Flipping through the titles and seeing Pretty Woman, Half Baked, and Enemy of State makes me happy, especially since it’s difficult to find those titles in Panama.

NFLX Film & TV Language

All NFLX movies are available in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Some movies also have subtitles… I think it depends on the year, but I’m not 100% sure. Regardless, you can watch the movies in your language of choice.

NFLX Film & TV Quality

The NFLX movies aren’t the highest quality, but I can’t complain…

I’m happy with the service and watching Bobby Z right now! I watched Running Scared last night… Must be on a Paul Walker spree.

100 million active users around the globe turn to Twitter to share their thoughts and find out what’s happening in the world right now,” explains the post. “More than half of them log in to Twitter each day to follow their interests. For many, getting the most out of Twitter isn’t only about tweeting: 40 percent of our active users simply sign in to listen to what’s happening in their worl

All in all, approximately one billion tweets are posted on Twitter everday. In January, Costolo said that 40% of tweets came from mobile phones, so if that proportion has remained the same, there are currently 400 million mobile tweets every day.

Regardless, my *totally healthy* obsession with dogs constantly has me perusing YouTube and Google Images.

Recently, I stumbled upon the White Pomeranian Puppy, which may be one of the cutest things I have ever seen in my life!

White Pomeranian Puppy

Pomeranians are one of my favorite breeds because they look like miniature smiling foxes, like Boo the Facebook Dog!

However, I recently stumbled upon White Pomeranian Puppies, and they are SO cute! Check ‘em out!

White Pomeranian Puppy Videos

A cool 2 million plus views for this adorable white male pomeranian puppy!

Behr is getting there!

She also goes by Sug Nut, Nut Meg and the Nut!