Articles by Rob Enderle

A few years back, when it was one company, HP made a huge mistake that cost a number of people their jobs and forced the replacement of many of its board members. The company suffered through some nasty litigation and several top executives almost landed in jail. The mistake was tied back to something the board authorized, which at the time was ca...

I'm writing this before Thanksgiving, which I used to hate and now don't -- largely because I no longer spend the day arguing with family. I've been listening to a lot of friends and relatives dread this year's event because of political discussions that are likely to occur, and the equally annoying comments and critiques from those who supported both candidates. ...

I had a fascinating experience last week. I got to see and experience the new Jaguar I-Pace, the company's electric answer to the as-yet-unannounced Tesla Y SUV, long before I'll actually get to see the prototype. I didn't just get to see the car -- I got to understand intimately why the car was created and what went into its design. I got to experience aspects of the vehicle viscerally, without actually getting into it. ...

Years ago, I worked as one of Rev. Robert Schuller's body guards (it was something to do on Sundays, I wasn't particularly religious) and one of his sayings was "when given lemons, make lemonade." Personally, I wasn't excited about either presidential candidate, but I actually think Trump could be a better technology candidate than Clinton would ha...

In a few days, we will either be inundated by ISIS terrorists in our homes right after the U.S. government takes all of our guns, or we will be at nuclear war with the world, based on my Twitter feed. Women no longer will be allowed to vote, and global warming will turn us into crispy critters. After watching all three debates and some of the cra...

What I think is funny in this market is that most people can look at two companies, see the difference in their performance, and not learn the fundamental lesson -- even though it has been repeated over the decades. Microsoft and Apple are cases in point, because Apple was very successful under the initial founders, then was unsuccessful after th...

One of the things that has made Dell World very different is that at the end, one or more controversial speakers take the stage and provide an incredible amount of insight for the folks who haven't left early All three of the last three speakers were fascinating, but it wasn't until I wove all three speeches together that it became clear to me why ...

Not that it isn't scary enough -- but if you look at both candidates, who have had their images destroyed largely by technology (tapes and emails) -- there is a huge warning inherent in the process. Email really wasn't a big thing until the late 1990s and even having your own email server wouldn't have been likely before 2005, let alone thinking ...

This almost sounds like a plot for a novel. Microsoft creates a successful strategy called "Embrace, Extend, Extinguish" and then promptly forgets it, resulting in a string of failures. Google, which up to now seemed happy to repeat Microsoft's mistakes, accidentally picks up a successful Microsoft practice and uses it against Apple -- likely ta...

One of the problems facing the technology industry right now is the critical lack of strategic thinking. Hedge fund managers and activist investors increasingly are directing companies, forcing tactical decisions that raise stock prices over the short term, largely by destroying the firm's long-term viability. What makes this trend particularly problematic is that most top executives don't seem to understand they are destroying their companies until it's too late...

Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Apple are very different companies this decade, having shifted their models from a strategic customer/innovation focus to one that's more tactical -- and tied far more closely to quarterly profit. They are hardly alone, and this speaks to why Michael Dell and Joe Tucci worked so hard to take their companies private, because this unfortunate trend is not tied to any one industry or any one country. ...

Colin Powell's hacked email once again showcases that what people in office tell us and what they actually think are two very different things. Politicians work for us -- we are supposedly their employers. Yet we seem to know far less about what they do and think than what we need to know in order to vote intelligently. Powell's comments are actu...

Nvidia and Baidu recentlymade an announcement with regard to self-driving cars that deserves closer attention. China currently is behind the U.S. in automotive technology, but ithas passed the U.S. and Japan in automobile production. (I actually thought Japan was still ahead.) ...

I've been involved in mergers and acquisitions for decades, and I used to run an acquisition cleanup team while at IBM. I've seen so many bad acquisitions that it is generally far easier to point out the good ones. What is somewhat ironic, given my background, is that the best largely have been executed by Dell, using a process initially developed by IBM. ...

I think there's a legitimate argument for removing one category of folks from the gene pool, because they spend the little time they are given on Earth making other folks' lives miserable. Back when I was playing MMOs, some twisted folks -- known as "griefers," would lie in wait to mug lower level characters and find creative ways to destroy the fun in a game, often eventually killing it. ...

There were three stories that caught my eye last week that I think deserve some additional discussion. One is the alleged robbery of U.S. Olympians followed by questions of whether it really happened because their phones weren't stolen. There may be a legitimate reason for that, and it's one that suggests a lot of folks will be getting huge cellphone bills next month...

Most analysts earn their daily bread by focusing on a particular subject area and following that direction. However, I rebelled against that established pattern -- and as a result, I tend to look between the lines more than many of my peers do. That means when major news media outlets focus on a story, I'm more likely to see what they missed. In ...

Apple last week reported earnings, and with the exception of a strong showing from the iPad Pro, the key financial metrics were all down -- and for the third quarter running. So what's wrong with Apple? The company had been growing alarmingly well until last year, but growth suddenly has become elusive. It isn't going out of business, but it a...

As we approach the end of the free Windows 10 upgrades this month and get used to the anniversary edition, it suddenly hit me the Windows we knew died with Windows 8 -- what we got with Windows 10 really isn't what we've come to know as Windows. Hell, looking at Microsoft's latest financials, Microsoft really isn't Microsoft any more, either. Bo...

I've been watching the Clinton email scandal closely, because I not only have been in and out of law enforcement and security for much of my early life, but also was an internal auditor for IBM and one of the leading email experts in the 1990s. I think this is the only time I've seen an investigator channel a prosecutor in making a recommendation, and give someone a pass without addressing why crimes were committed. ...