Managing a Bestseller

There are a couple of bookstores in my neighborhood. They could not be more different from one another. The first is known to focus on best seller lists, to promote popular books, and use displays and traditional retail techniques to drive business. They seem to do well, year in, year out. The other bookstore is more of a community treasure, beloved by the neighborhood, with a focus on the (thoughtful) insights of their staff. Those insights are delivered via small note cards appended to shelving throughout the store, where books are displayed alphabetically, with library-like neutrality. The first store is very market focused, changes with the season, and seems to be quite succesful. The latter store, beloved though it may be, struggles to stay in business. Now you might consider that an awkward introduction to a discussion of datacenter storage devices, but it was the best I could muster after reading yet another week's worth of horrible economic headlines, dominated by multi-billion dollar losses and bailouts for some of the world's largest corporations. But I (really) don't want to talk about the economy (or the irony of a Wall Street analyst with a sell rating on Sun asking me for a job). Nor do I want to talk about the economics of selling books. I do, however, want to talk about storage and flash memory, far more scintillating topics (to me, anyways). As you're aware, flash memory is making its...

Date: January, 18 2009
Url: http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/entry/managing_a_bestseller

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