Doomed. That word was my conclusion leaving a recent San Diego event on cyber-security. My city is exceptionally well organized around this topic, which makes my feeling all the more compelling. We have a non-profit to advance awareness, education, and preparation. A collaborative center for researchers exists. An economic cluster for cyber-security and the Internet of Things has been organized to attract money, established companies and talent to San Diego to further strengthen our security. And still another group is solving the workplace shortage of security experts. We are building a community more secure from a cyber attack of significant impact than most other cities. But listening to the speakers at the symposium, I observed a passionate group of do-gooders holding their fingers in an increasingly fragile dike. One speaker captured our reality in a single sentence, “It will take one huge crisis…
Profiting From Free
Can a free offering and a financially sustainable business model co-exist? Look at the evidence. Wikipedia. National Public Radio. Mozilla’s Firefox browser and the LINUX operating system. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Gawker. The Moodle software platform for on-line educational experiences. All free and all appear to be financially sustainable. A free offering and financial success succeed when leadership is thoughtful about how it monetizes the free offering. Let’s explore why an organization may want a free offering and then how the organization can make money in other ways. Why free? First, your target market may not be able to afford to purchase what you want to offer them, the case for most non-profits. UNICEF serves truly poor children around the world. Or you may want to build volume to gain network or economies of scale effects. It is doubtful that Facebook would…