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Showing posts from December, 2006

Dual-Mode Vehicle Takes to Road and Rail

This from Gizmodo: Execellent concept. Is it a bus or a train? This dual-mode mini train is both. The JR Hokkaido Railway Company in Japan has been testing a bus that can switch between steel wheels and street-ready rubber tires, tooling around on the train track as a solo vehicle and avoiding accidents with satellite assistance, and then driving on city streets just like any other bus. After its successful test run last month, the company vows to make its first trip with paying passengers next April. In addition to its versatility, the vehicle's $150,000 cost is just a seventh of the price of a conventional diesel rail car, and it's easier and cheaper to maintain, too. When these babies hit the road, every street wil be a potential train station. – Charlie White

Bedouin Companies

"Bedouin Companies" is a term that's been floating around for some time, and I wish I could give the writer a credit because it really captures the idea of a truly distributed company. According to a famous book by the name of " Discipline of market leaders " there are only three legitimate company styles, the Walmart-ish market share model of centralized expertise and minimal wage workers, the Nike-ish expert-driven market share model and the IBM customer centric model. A Bedouin Company represents in my mind the ultimate expert driven market share business.... in today's climate, expertise is diverse, specialized and powerful... so powerful that it is impossible to employ a guy (even a very smart guy) and expect him learn some specific field of expertise when, in a connected world, finding the specialist is a web search and two web sites away... as long as you are set up right... When the term Bedouin Company was first coined it referred to a decentralize
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