As regular readers of this site will know, I’m unhealthily fascinated with Bloomberg (the company, not the mayor). Maybe that’s why this Slate article on the company’s continuing success in a market — news — that most people think is broken is so intriguing.
The Bloomberg obsession with giving traders what they want sometimes vectors to the absurd. The Bloomberg Terminal is marketed as a money-making machine, which it is, but it’s also presented as something as racy and exclusive as a BMW. Who does the dressing? The Bloomberg sales force has a reputation for being staffed with a lot of good-looking women.
Related posts:
Living and working in NYC with a BB machine for more than 12 years, have yet to see all the good looking woman in BB sales….. not saying they are not here as we have a plethora of smart gorgeous woman in the city… and the mayor is doing a great job… we could use his skills at a higher level. once Bush goes back to the ranch…. would do wonders for our country if we could have a president with a brain; that is not beholden to special interest groups…..
I would add that Bloomberg correctly identified two service aspects that were not good enough for the many financial industry professionals using Reuters and Telerate. Bloomberg focussed on this:
* Ability to collect, manipulate and compute financial data;
* Ability to communicate instantly with colleagues, whether fellow traders, brokers, bankers or analysts inside or outside the organization;
That is a classic case of disruptive innovation. And Michael Bloomberg, to me, looks like a serial disruptor.
More on the disruption of mainstream media:
http://www.ondisruption.com/my_weblog/media_meltdown/index.html