Guy Kawasaki presents another in his series of "10 Questions", this time with Scott Berkun of the University of Washington, author of the newly released The Myths of Innovation. In this book Berkun explores the reality of innovation vs. popularized notions, and Kawasaki's questions revolve around this. For example: How long does it take an 'epiphany' to occur in the real world, Are innovators born or made, and What are the primary determinants of the speed of the adoption of innovation? Read more on Kawasaki's blog.
An article in the May 6, 2007 New York Times Magazine features a conversation with two medical scientists about how the body ages, and the research presently in the works to extend a healthy life. They touch on one substance that shows special promise: resveratrol -- happily, found in red wine. Resveratrol seems to reverse the effects of a high fat diet in mice, increasing their life span. A longer life? Maybe. Regardless, lift your glass of red wine, and here's to health !
"We have a double standard in our society: If you are poor and you abandon your kids, you are a bad parent. But if you are rich and you abandon them to run a company, you are profiled in Fortune magazine." Thus saith Penelope Trunk ( Brazen Careerist ) on Arianna Huffington's business blog, mentioned by GSB Professor Bob Sutton on his blog. The subject? CEOs rewarded for abandoning their children,while ordinary people in similar circumstances are denounced as lousy parents. Double standard? You be the judge.
Debora Spar wrote a book in 2006 titled The Baby Business. In the book the author argues that it is time to acknowledge the commercial truth about reproduction and to begin thinking about ways of governing it. In this remarkable behind-the-scenes account, she combines pioneering research and interviews with the industry's top reproductive scientists and trailblazers to provide a first glimpse at how the industry works. Taking readers on a fascinating journey inside controversial market segments such as stem cell research, surrogacy, egg swapping, "designer babies," cross-border adoption, and human cloning. The Library's copy is currently shelved in the Popular Business Books collection. For availability, check the library catalog record.
With the price of Goggle stock trading at $500+ per share, the company made over 700 people the millionaires with the minimum worth of $5 millions. And what some of these people do with their new wealth is the topic of the “Close to the Vest” article in July issue of Forbes magazine. Some people, like Craig Silverstein, continue to work for Google, though in Craig’s words “economically you are volunteering to be here”. Others are up to their own enterprises. For example, Bismarck Lepe who’d started a company which creates high-definition video sites or Alberto Savoia whose software-testing company Agitar was valued between $50 and $100. Is it good for Google? In the words of Laszlo Bock, VP of people operations at Google: “If we seed the next 200 great start-ups, that’s no bad thing.” Read the whole article in the journal located in the Library’s periodicals section.
The business world has been abuzz for weeks about the IPO of The Blackstone Group, one of the world’s largest private equity firms. Morgan Stanley estimates the IPO to happen this week a week earlier than expected, and the ticker is expected to be BX. There has been much speculation about what this means for the future of PE.
Update – Blackstone’s IPO was the biggest in five years and the eighth largest by a company ever, as reported by Reuters.
It is known as crowdsourcing, companies have been farming out work once done in-house to cyberspace to cut cost, tap on new expertise, and to free company employees to do what they do best.
For example, two teenagers started their T-shirt business seven years ago with each chipping in $500 and ran the business out of an apartment. They solicited designs from thousands of Internet users and then had them vote on which to manufacture. The company, now called Threadless, is one of the country's hottest T-shirt retailers, with estimated annual revenue of about $15 million.
Similarly, Fortune 500 companies now turn to the Internet to solve some of their research problems. They post them on a Web site called InnoCentive, which links up companies and scientists, promising a reward often worth tens of thousands of dollars in exchange for the best answer.
Do you know that Amazon.com (AMZN) has become a broker for the Internet labor force? Its Mechanical Turk service enables "requesters" to post tasks online and facilitates payment once they're finished.
Story at washingtonpost.com.
Google uber alles? Michael Hirschorn in the June 2007 Atlantic offers up observations on Google. In 'The Hapless Seed' he takes note of prevailing anxieties that Google is morphing into some kind of universal publisher, upsetting the traditional publishing applecart and devouring everything in its path. Citing Jacob Epstein in The New York Review of Books, Hirschorn quotes "for the first time in human history ... the theoretical possibility that every book ever printed in whatever language will be available to everyone on earth with access to the Internet." But HIrschorn is unshaken. Encouraged by an apparent resurgence of book reading among teens, he highlights a new scenario with future "book ATMs", called Espresso. In fact, Espresso is already a reality. Read more in the issue in Jackson Library, or online.
An article in yesterday's New York Times Magazine talks about the life of some Chinese workers who play World of Warcraft for a living. They work 12 hour shifts, 7 nights a week with two or three days off a month. The workers earn (real) money by collecting the (virtual) gold coin that you can win in the game. For every 100 gold coins he gathers, the workers makes 10 yuan, or about $1.25, earning an effective wage of 30 cents an hour, more or less. The boss (the supervisor) in turn, receives $3 or more when he sells those same coins to an online retailer, who will sell them to the final customer (an American or European player) for as much as $20. It's a very interesting article about a different kind of night job!
The Summer 2007 Stanford Social Innovation Review is out. Included in the current issue: 'Microfinance Misses its Mark", questioning the hype about microloans, "Crushing Corruption", on how official audits dig out more graft than grassroots monitoring, "From the Bottom Line of Our Hearts", on why businesspeople don't mention values when discussing social responsibility, "Learning from Government", on what the public sector can teach the nonprofit / business sectors, "Uniting for Survival", about Chicago-area cancer support centers pooling their strengths, and "Unselling Meth", on how graphic ads shock teens away from drugs. Read more online, or in the Current Periodical racks at Jackson -- or subscribe to the SSIR yourself.
Check out the list of Top 100 CIOs compiled by the editorial staff of eWeek magazine. The basis for selection included such criteria as tangible record in IT industry, person’s scope of influence outside his or her firm, the individual’s ability to effect change and more. The list is lead by Patricia Hewlett of Exxonmobil, followed by Rick Dalzell of Amazon.com. Check the June issue of eWeek in the Periodicals section of Jackson Library to view the complete list and to read the description of each individual’s contribution and interviews with some of the CIOs.
New research suggests that forgetting irrelevant memories may help the brain remember what is truly important. GSB Professor Bob Sutton ( The No Asshole Rule , Weird Ideas That Work ) notes on his blog how Stanford research is using fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to evaluate this quirk of the human mind. An encouraging note for those of you who can recall detailed ideas discussed at an academic conference a year ago but couldn't find your car keys this morning.
It starts with mortgage brokers selling exotic mortgages such as no-doc loans, which don’t require evidence of income or savings to buyers with weak or subprime credit. A record of $805 billion of subprime mortgages were originated in 2005. Big banks buy the subprime loans and then bundle the debt and sell it to Wall Street firms. Wall Street banks then package subprime loans into mortgage-backed securities and collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Sales of new MBSs soared to $2.5 trillion in 2006. The banks divide the CDO into pieces so that they get the desired rating for each portion. CDOs include a mix of bonds and securities backed by mortgages and home equity loans. In 2006, an estimated $100 billion of subprime debt went into the $375 billion in CDOs sold in the U.S. CDOs were sold to banks, insurance companies and pension funds. Bankers refer to the bottom level of a CDO as toxic waste because as more borrowers default on loans, these investments would be the first to take losses and could be wiped out.
By the way, the rating companies, Moody's, S&P, and Fitch ask that you do not base any of your investment decision on their CDO ratings.
Story at Bloomberg Markets.
BusinessWeek (June 4) brings us their special report on 100 Hot Growth small companies. But the list may surprise you. Not all the firms are young hot-shots. For example, the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, founded by pneumatic brake pioneer George Westinghouse in the Nineteenth century. Or Sotheby's, the venerable world-famous auction house founded in 1744. Sidebar sections tell the story of selected firms, such as Kinetic Concepts, Huron Consulting Group, and Smith & Wesson, among others. Read the issue in Jackson Library, or check out the article and list online.
What do a Texas oil billionaire and a NBA star have in common? They both receive farm subsidies even though they are not farmers. New Agriculture Department data makes it easier to see exactly who benefits from the nation's generous farm subsidy program. Formerly if you wanted to find out who exactly received farm subsidies you would have to sift thru detailed corporate information, now you can get a list of which names the money goes to.
The Environmental Working Group, a public interest group that has pushed for more equitable distribution of farm subsidies, has compiled the data and will post it online for users to view. You can search the EWG 2007 Farm Bill Database, which was launched today, by person or business name, county, state or view national data.
You may read more about the 2007 Farm Bill database at the EWG's president's blog Mulch.
Japan is back -- but are its workers? BusinessWeek (May 28) describes the suffering of the so-called "lost" generation, millions of young Japanese working as temps or contract employees for corporations. Despite their education, in Japan's hierarchical culture they are definitely lower on the socioeconomic ladder than their predecessors. There is even a TV drama, Haken no Hinraku (The Dignity of the Agency Worker), describing the plight of a female temp who must endure office humiliation from full-timers, despite her excellent qualifications. During Japan's downturn, many of these workers, fresh out of college, took menial jobs to survive. With the economy bouncing back, companies are turning to new grads to hire, rather than these older workers, who feel left in limbo. The phenomenon has even coined neologisms like 'freeter' = people who flit from one low-paying job to the next.
"What's the most extreme emerging market on earth?" asks the May 28th BusinessWeek. The answer may surpise you: Colombia. The country's stock market has soared since 2001, foreign direct investments have more than doubled, and real estate prices have tripled in many areas. When Americans think of Colombia, images of drug dealers and death squads come to mind, but the new global interest in investment in Colombia is phenomenal. The article highlights some of the young movers-and-shakers in Colombia, such as Fernando Arbelaez, 32, Vice-Minister of Agriculture, Nicolas Santos, 29, major restauranteur, Cristina Plazas, 29, Bogota city council member, and Federico Jimeno, 26, the Government point man for visiting investors. Medellin, once associated with liberation theology denouncing the rich and rampant murder, is now hosting offices for Phillip Morris, Toyota, Renault and many other multinationals. Problems remain, but it's not your father's Colombia any more.
We invite any of the GSB community who have not yet seen our display in Jackson Library commemorating the Fortieth Year of Professor Jim Van Horne's tenure at the GSB to do so now. This summer the exhibit, which has stood for several months, will be replaced. Located in the glass display case near the Library entrance, the material highlights the legendary career of Van Horne, the Giannini Professor of Banking and Finance, who is retiring after having taught over 8,000 students, including many prominent GSB alumni and business leaders around the world. Also included in the display is a reminder of the Tenth Anniversary of the Center for Entrepreneurial Studies (CES.)
Akamai Technologies, iMergent, CyberSource, Ceradyne, Apple, Varian Semiconductor, Digital River, Netflix, Lifecore Biomedical. What do these companies have in common? They're all in the Business 2.0 100 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies (June 2007.) The annual list highlights a cluster of companies whose sales grew by 33% and profits by 90%. In addition to the ranking, the editors tell us revenue, earnings, operating cash flow, stock return, employees -- and just why the company is heading for the stars. Scope out the issue in Jackson Library, or see a version of the list online.
"China is rising, and so is Hu, both abroad and at home: people-in-the-know in Beijing say he may sweep the entire Standing Committee of the Communist Party's Political Bureau clean of rivals." So says Asia Inc (March - April 2007), whose cover story highlights China's economy and the presumed final ascension of Hu Jintao to power sometime later this year as fourth 'emperor' of the modern Communist dynasty. Hu is likely to consolidate his power at the 17th Party Congress this Fall. The article also features cameos of other top power brokers in China, such as Wu Bangguo, National People's Congress Chairman, Huang Ju, Vice-Premier, and Luo Gan, National Security Chief. "Hu Jintao has held his cards close to his chest in the past, but he may begin to show his true self when he fully ascends to the throne" one Beijing analyst speculates. Also in the issue: the potency of venerable Chinese brands, such as Tsingtao Brewery, Kweichou Mao Tai liquor, and Hengshun Vinegar, China's 'Heinz', dating back to 1840. Included is a piece on Chengdu, the large metropolitan city in southwest China, an interview with Zhang Chunjiang, Chairman of China Netcome Group Corporation, and some good blogs to keep up on the latest. China is expected to become the world's largest economy within a matter of years. Read more about key political and business currents in the issue in Jackson Library.
I felt compelled today to blog about the Sopranos. As a relatively new viewer of the show I must say I was sucked in to the story line. More importantly, what will HBO come up with to fill the gap in programming. I searched a few blogs today and there wasn't a very enthusiastic response to "John from Cincinnati" the inheritor of the Sunday 9-10 time slot. Only time will tell.
In searching Nielsen's ratings I did see that last night the winner for viewers 18-49 was the Simpsons within the broadcast TV segment. Maybe HBO needs to develop a Simpsons clone to lure viewers to their side? Just a thought.
May issue of Fortune magazine published Andy Grove’s Open Letter to the presidential candidates where the founder of Intel and our very own GSB professor, Andy Grove, makes his suggestions on improving the health care system. Rather than approaching the problem fundamentally, Andy Grove suggests to take one (or to be more exact two steps) at a time and implement two programs: fix the “emergency room emergency” and “keep parents at home”. Find more details in the article.
Stanford President emeritus Donald Kennedy and GSB Faculty member Margaret Eaton have co-authored a new book on medical ethics and practice titled Innovation in Medical Technology: Ethical Issues and Challenges. Watch these two distinguished scholars tease out some of the more interesting aspects of their work, as well as fascinating anecdotes in modern medical history, in a lively video session co-produced by Jackson Library and GSB Instructional Technology.
Japan Close-Up magazine (May 2007) targets the Shibuya district of Tokyo, with its cover story, 'Cool Tokyo'. Known for its landmark Shibuya 109 building, its crowds of trendy young Japanese women and girls and its famous statue of Hachiko, the devoted dog who waited at the station for a master who never returned, Shibuya is teeming with energy, edginess and fashion savvy. Another article highlights '@akihabara', about the area of Tokyo called Akiba, birthplace of Japanese anime, manga, video games and a "cool culture" of 'maid cafes', the Comic Market and anime-style robot contests. Interesting factoids mention the possible European origin of Japanese tempura, as well as the fact that it did not snow in Tokyo this winter -- for the first time in 47 years. And for the adventurous among us, a piece on a record-setting monster cuttlefish, 3.5 meters long, captured for the first time on video. Read all this and more in the issue in the Current Periodicals rack at Jackson Library.
"If you had told me that a company could succeed by running weekly t-shirt design contests and then selling the winning designs, I would have told you that you’re nuts." So says Guy Kawasaki about the firm Threadless. On his blog he recently asked ten questions of Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Chief Creative Officer of skinnyCorp / Threadless, probing him about his business model, how he views his company, who was their venture capital investor, who his business heroes are, and more. Take away quote? "We have this ethos at skinnyCorp: 'Your project is not good enough.' We’re constantly striving to make all our projects as great as they can be ... "
Change.org makes it possible for young donors to make small contributions together for a social cause and/or for politics.
“People care passionately about social issues, but many — especially those under the age of 40 — have a hard time figuring out how to translate that concern into practical action, says Ben Rattray, the 26-year-old chief executive officer of Change.org.
Change.org has raised no venture capital to finance the site. But its founders are starting to look for socially minded investors that will be more focused on the site's mission than on getting high returns quickly.”
Story at The Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Two Stanford students, one from the GSB and the other from the school of engineering, just launched a new service called Techtain. The idea is to bring people together in a social network and encourage them to exchange valuables regardless of price differences, provided they know one another intimately. The aim is also to help the environment by cutting down on waste and pollution from transportation by connecting you with people located geographically near you which have an item they no longer need but another person might. There are private and public TtCircles, and owners of private TtCircles could restrict membership to family members and close friends. You can post products you want to sell or swap and Techtain will connect you with those wanting to sell or swap similar items geographically close to you. So if you are a student and are interested, just sign up at www.techtain.com
The New Global Cinema is the leading topic for the Spring 2007 New Perspectives Quarterly (NPQ) magazine. Appropriately, the table of contents leads off with "Hollywood Must Portray Point of View of Others" with Oscar-nominated film director of Babel Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, and "Shock and Awe vs. Hearts and Minds at the Movies" with NPQ editor Nathan Gardels and Phoenix Pictures CEO Mike Medavoy. Take away quote? "Hollywood is a dinosaur that has destroyed and occupied our minds for too long" (Khan Lee, Taiwanese indie film director.) Other pieces in the issue, featuring mostly interviews, include "North Korea Accord is a Model for Iranian Crisis" with former UN weapons inspector Hans Blix, "The Cost of the Last Six Years, From North Korea to Kosovo" with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, "China's Satellite Missile Strike Raises Worries About a Pearl Harbor in Space" with former Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen, "Global Outlook: The Poor Will Get Richer" by World Bank economist Francois Bourguignon, "If US Picks a Fight With China, It Will Be 'Very Big Trouble'" with Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, "The Challenge of Positive Freedom" with historical philosopher Francis Fukuyama, and more. Find the issue in our Current Periodicals racks at Jackson Library.
"If you think the Chinese will never catch up in creative fields like design, architecture, advertising, and fashion, you're kidding yourself." Thus saith Fast Company (June 2007) which features 'The Next Cultural Revolution' by Aric Chen. Chen wants to wake the world to the dynamic creativity bubbling up in China. The piece starts with Jennifer Wen Ma, at 33 the youngest member of the 2008 Olympics Creative Committee who, says Chen, "wants to smoke out your cliched ideas about her country" with the Beijing Olympics. Other up-and-coming stars highlighted include Ou Ning, filmmaker and designer, Lin Jing, furniture and ceramics maker, MAD Design architects Ma Yansong and Qun Dang, and trans-Pacific film icon Ziyi Zhang. As Wen Ma says, "Everyone wants to project a very modern image -- one that will stun the world. ... Everyone, it seems, is ready for a renaissance of creativity." And in a country that by 2020 will have a larger highway system than America, we may not have long to wait.
Congratulations to GSB Faculty Hau Lee and Keith Krehbiel, for winning this year's MBA Distinguished Teaching Award and PhD Distinguished Teaching Award, respectively. These prestigious awards are given out each year to GSB instructors who inspire, as well as educate. Read more.
I came across a book today in the library called "From Wall Street to the Great Wall: how to invest in China" by Jonathan Worrall and Peter O'Shea. It talks about how China is emerging from decades as a controlled economy and the financial markets are also emerging and are poised far great things. If you are in the local area and want to come in to the library and check this book out, the call number is HG5784 .W67 2007.
The article in June issue of Inc. magazine is based on the exclusive interview with Jonathan Abrams, the founder of social online networking concept and its flagship Friendster. The article follows the story from the glorious debut of Friendster through the events that eventually led to the total fiasco of that promising startup. Quite ironically, Jonathan Abrams sees the root of the problem in the fact that he himself turned the control of the company to the best of the Silicon Valley venture investors and management team. Read the article to learn the whole story and also to find out about Abram’s latest enterprise, the Socializr, the invitation site where its creator tries to accomplish what he failed to achieve with Friendster.
Fascinated with all things New Yawk? Or just a Brooklyn expat on the West Coast, pining for home? Check out Gothamist blog, which tracks odds-and-ends of life in New York City, past and present, from a pavement-level view. In addition to highlighting interesting restaurants and bars, it notes entertainment and events and the occasional (?) New York curiosity -- such as an entry on the mysterious murder in the Hotel Chelsea of Nancy (of the once-famous punk rock couple Sid and Nancy), or a recent stolen vehicle chase which caused an accident in the Village, or a raid on Middle School 54 on the Upper West Side, where -- say it ain't so! -- prohibited cell phones were seized en masse by the NYPD. Da Bronx is up and da Battery's down. Even hardened Westerners like Barry Goldwater might enjoy this slice of life from the Eastern seaboard. Read all about it -- at Gothamist.
iMedia reports that what is different from the 2004 campaign is that the candidates are utilizing blogs, RSS feeds, videos on YouTube, podcasts, and social networking sites such as MySpace, Facefook, etc. to create "candidate-generated" content.
The table below illustrates interactive media adoption by some of the leading candidates.
Official Candidate-Generated Content
Supporter stats by platform for the top candidates are available at the Tech President blog. … and of course it remains to be seen whether the impact of interactive media will actually translate into votes.
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