Dirk Riehle's Industry and Research Publications

Category: 1.1 Industry (General)

  • Cargo cult startup incubators

    Cargo cult startup incubators

    The continued creation of me-too startup incubators reminds me of the (South Seas’) cargo cult. Richard Feynman tells the story this way: The cargo cult people were natives of the South Seas who, during the world war, benefited from Western civilizations bringing cargo to their land. After the war ended, and the cargo stopped coming,…

  • Contractions and expansions in organizing software development 2/2

    Contractions and expansions in organizing software development 2/2

    When compared with hardware, software has been only a recent addition to products. Companies have been reorganizing ever since to better deal with software development. Initially, software developers were part of the department that created and brought to market the overall product, with software initially being a small, later a large part of it. The…

  • The Meaning of “Digitalization” 1/2

    The Meaning of “Digitalization” 1/2

    My engineering colleagues are sometimes sarcastic about the (many) on-going “digitalization” initiatives: “Didn’t we do this 20-30 years ago, when we switched from analog to digital?” I guess, they are talking about digitization, not about what is currently meant with “digitalization”. Different from digitization, today’s “digitalization” initiatives are about giving software an equal seat at…