Business of Software

The *business* of software

Phil Factor

Phil Factor's Blog (4)

Clinging to the Flotsam. A survivor's tale.

I sharpened my metaphorical pencil and brooded. I decided to write some simple tips on how a software company could survive in a recession, and make best use of it. As always, I sat down in front of a blank screen and stared at it. I waited for the muse to whisper inspiration in my ear. “Phil”, came the old familiar voice of inspiration in my ear. “This subject is a dead cert. Your company was founded in the nineteen seventies, and has been in business ever since. You’ve done well, generally sp… Continue

Added by Phil Factor on January 12, 2009 at 9:45am — No Comments

A Chilling Prophesy

When I was a schoolboy with fantasies about being a successful businessman, I went to a lecture given by one of the most successful entrepreneurs of the time. The white-haired gentleman who gave the lecture was the complete antithesis of what I had expected a successful businessman to look like. He was quiet, courteous, respectful and reflective. He proceeded to spell out the qualities he looked for in young people aspiring to make a success in the rough and tumble of the City. He emphasized ov… Continue

Added by Phil Factor on December 17, 2008 at 3:03pm — 3 Comments

To the next generation

Whenever I try out software, I always, out of habit, send the vendors a report that says exactly what I thought of it, in a considered and, I hope polite, way; but frank. Often, I'll add my opinion of their marketing efforts, and, nowadays, the impression I get of the website. Often, it is just little more than a 'thank-you' note, but if I feel that a company could actually benefit, I put more time into it. The response varies according to the rich diversity of human behaviour, but I haven't be… Continue

Added by Phil Factor on October 7, 2008 at 11:55am — 3 Comments

On Being Paid in Trousers

It was so long ago that I got fed up with the glacial slowness of commercial software development, and wrote a public-domain text-processing program. The premise was that spreadsheets were namby-pamby things, and that what one really needed was something that would process text as if it were a spreadsheet. Everybody knows that numbers in a column in a fixed space font are a column. Why bother with a spreadsheet? It was much easier to produce data and formulas as a text file and get a nice little… Continue

Added by Phil Factor on October 2, 2008 at 10:55am — No Comments

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