Part three of a four part take on the end of Ferrit. We started with Market Space, then site idea and execution, and governance failure will finish things off. The economics The business result had to be razor thin commissions, if any. The site depended upon the larger stores providing volume of products, which they …
Author Archives: Lance Wiggs
Final Ferrit: The site idea and execution
Part two of a four part take on the end of Ferrit. We started with Market Space, and business economics and governance failure are next. The idea of the Ferrit site So while there was a space, the proposed way to address that space was flawed. The problem was that the proffered solution didn’t offer …
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Final Ferrit: The market space
Design flaws led to Ferrit’s downfall sings out the Independent, but it’s a bit more complicated than a pithy headline. I’m quoted in the article, and so am providing a bit more background to those quotes. I also promise that these are the final blog postings on Ferrit. Really. So here is a four part …
BHP Billiton SSM job loses – WA and NZ impact
Nickel prices are very low, and so there are some big cuts just announced for BHP Billiton Stainless Steel Materials. As rumored the $2 Bn Ravensthorpe laterite plant is going to go flat, and about 2,100 jobs in total will go across Nickel West and Yabulu. A total of 6,000 will go from the entire …
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Business lessons from the Kiwis World Cup victory
Over the weekend I finally managed to watch the New Zealand – Australia rugby league world cup final. The Kangaroos were expected to crush the Kiwis, but the Kiwis won, and won in style. Much has been written about the petulant response from the Australian camp after the match, but I want to focus on …
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Time to update the airline safety procedures
Notice anything? That’s right – nobody is wearing a lifejacket. I’ve always been amused at the traditional picture of a plane floating gently in the water on the safety briefing cards. Now that we finally have one after billions of flights we can see that the safety policies based on flying 50 years ago are …
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More commentry on Ferrit’s rise and demise
Perhaps we will never know, but some details are emerging on the likes of Twitter and personal emails. I’ve also had a conversation with Ralph Brayham, which is sadly confidential. All I can say that I won’t be purchasing Ferrit. Let’s start with the most interesting ones: Telecom’s own press release Telecom has decided to …
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The blog and twitter comments on Ferrit closing
Here are what other commentators are saying about the Ferrit closure. It is certainly a popular topic, and the themes are recurrent and certainly entertaining. Everyone brings a slightly different perspective, and it is worthwhile checking them out. This is also makes a snap nice survey of the New Zealand internet/business blogosphere, including a couple …
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Ferrit should not close down
While it is very clear that Ferrit has failed as a business, I do not believe it is as clear that it should be closed down. The reasons for the business failure are usability, costs and strategy. All three can be worked on, and from the evidence, I don’t think any have been given a …
The reasons Ferrit failed
Ferrit’s failure has been tipped enough times in these pages – so to make it easy here are the main posts over the past 2 years. I believe that Ferrit failed for three main reasons: Very poor usability, with the site proving far too difficult to use, especially at launch. This turned away customers, and …
Want to start a business to reduce the road toll?
Mathew Sanders raises an interesting point is comments to the last post. It is very difficult to report poor driving in New Zealand. It seems it is also difficult to do so in Australia. In other countries there are a few non-governmental sites that are sites in this space: betterdrivingplease (UK, 18000 reports, activists, plate based) …
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Alcohol and driving: make it 0.0% or forget it
Good news – the NZ Government wants to look at reducing the drink driving limit from 0.8 g/l to 0.5 g/l. It’s been 0.5g/l in Australia for years – folk over 40 will remember Peter Brock always had had 05 on his car, as that was the limit for drink driving. But is it the …
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Bush’s tombstone
Is it just me or does the cover of GW Bush’s end of administration report seem a little morbid? The stark white on black makes it look like some sort of tombstone or perhaps a report on some tragedy.
Less death on the roads, but more to do
A huge reduction this year in NZ road fatalities, continuing a fantastic series. What’s stark is the reduction since 1987, which is around about the time, as I recall, when the advertising campaigns really stepped up, drink driving was finally perceived by most people as a bad thing and random stops came in: These stats are …
Will the iPhone be the new Nintendo DS?
Over at MoGeneration they have made some predictions for the iPhone in 2009. Nothing too radical, but clearly what happens with the iPhone is crucial for developers. Top of the list is a subscription payment model. I’m not so sure – perhaps that is wishful thinking, but developers and users would love it. With iTunes’ excellent payments …
Lance Wiggs 