1. Ok, this is an over stated example, but its Gmail.

Google have a policy of the 20% rule. Every employee is required to devote this time, to personal innovation time. Gmail was one outcome of that rule. Its still in beta, but already has 1 million users. Functionality is being added still, such as "Google Talk" integration for chatting in your mailbox and "web clips" to bring in RSS feeds but its a safe assumption this email system will challenge Yahoo Mail and Hotmail.

This followed the rule #10:

The voices of the community, your employees and your competitors are more valuable than anything you could ever say. Listen. No...really...listen.

Despite Gmail's success, Microsoft continue to build out Windows Live mail in an Outlook paradigm and its terrible. This is a case of not listening and watching. Just because it worked well in an old applicaiton environment (Outlook) doesn't mean it works well in a new AJAX/browser environment. Yahoo are having similar usability challenges with complexity as they also opted for a Outlook-style model, and they have flashing ads in their prototype. Gmail is simple, yet rich.

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