Mike's take on IEG's new online sourcebook
When markets lack competition, consumers are harmed. The unchallenged competitor faces no countervailing force to keep prices down and keep customer service value up. In this situation there is no opportunity for a competing viewpoint that may serve a market more efficiently, to take root. Worse, without competition in a market, innovation is stifled. On the flip side, new ideas – even ones that that go against conventional wisdom – can ultimately lead to much greater choices and services to the market, and often times be the catalyst for economic growth for an entire market or economy.
Just look at the PC market with Microsoft as the dominant force before the Internet. If Microsoft had its way, we’d still be installing software locally on our desktops. The Internet, as we know ...
Not only is it no convenient, it requires a certain level of "uncomfortness." Without that people just do what they have always done. I tell the students everyday to find a way to stand out. In marketing if you are not being innovative & trying new things you WILL be left behind.
Welcome to 1996. This is strange given IEG's recent interest in social media. Has the print publication provided value at the $400 price? If there's one thing we've seen over the past few years, you can't take offline models and dump them online. Doesn't work. Square peg, meet round hole.
I skimmed the article and want to offer a quick reply. I may have more to offer later.
Admittedly, I have not spent much time looking at the new version of the SourceBook, nor am I exceptionally tech-savvy. However, conceptually, the idea of all that information being available for free on the internet is exciting to me and a valuable resource. The complaints that I had heard about the print and CD versions were that as soon as they were sold, they were outdated. My understanding of this database is that properties can update them, so we will all have free, real-time access to the information. The downside is that the position of the information is subject to advertising spend as opposed to relevance.