"The bloody sport of mixed martial arts is about taking down your opponent with style. Outside the battle cage, it's about winning your audience with fashion". So begins the article A Roundhouse Kick in the Pants in the May issue of Entrepreneur magazine. Apparently in addition to blood and bruises, MMA is generating a style statement, spearheaded by clothing firms like Affliction. Based in southern California, Affliction has teamed up with Donald Trump to market to the growing MMA fan base, which has leaped 11% since 2000 according to the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association. Other companies hoping to springboard off MMA culture include Bellator Fighting Championships, which in addition to producing a TV fight series also sells apparel -- T-shirts, hoodies and skull caps. Ralph Lauren it ain't, but it seems to be a growing market.
The discussion about electric cars is heating up as is the push to develop cutting edge batteries to use in areas other than consumer electronics, as mentioned by Andy Grove in an article for Fortune magazine. Grove makes a case for the United States to be leaders in this area and outlines ways in which this might happen. At the same time Nissan announced that it will develop small electric vehicles for sale by 2010. The San Francisco Chronicle goes on to explain that the Nissan developed cars will be able to charge their batteries to 80% in 26 minutes and will cost between $20,000 - $30,000. The article entitled All-Electric Cars About to be Resurrected outlines the history of electric cars and what car manufacturers are planning for the future.
Raising venture capital? Guy Kawasaki blogs about a free online term sheet generator, available through the kind offices of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati, one of Silicon Valley's key law firms. The tool will generate a venture financing term sheet based on your responses to an online questionnaire. It also has an informational component, with basic tutorials and annotations on financing terms. Check it out.
Biochar ia a highly porous charcoal made from organic waste; the source can be any forest, agricultural or animal waste. Some examples are woodchips, corn husks, peanut shells, even chicken manure. The waste -- called "biomass" -- is cooked under intense heat, sometimes above 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and in a few hours organic trash is transformed into charcoal-like pellets that farmers can turn into fertilizer. Gasses given off during the process can be harnessed to fuel vehicles or power electric generators. Biochar's high carbon content and porous nature help soil retain water and nutrients, while protecting soil microbes and ultimately increasing crop yields. It acts as a natural 'carbon sink', sequestering CO2 and locking it into the ground. Scientists are now looking to biochar to improve our planet's future.
 The SF Giants baseball team's net worth is down 5 percent. I guess if I were in the market to buy a team, that would be a steal!
Read more about it.
 As part of the View from the Top series Andy Stern head of the SEIU (Service Employees International Union) came to speak at the Stanford Business School. Stern, who has been president of the SEIU for thirteen years, became active in union work after stumbling upon a flier for a meeting which also offered free pizza. As head of the SEIU he works and manages close to 1000 employees with a membership of about two million. He spoke about how meaning matters, passion/heart matters and humanity mattes in managing from the top and that the role of leaders is to provide context for followers. A big part of leadership and what matters is planning, Stern defined planning as “planning back from victory” in other words try to create something new which he described as “building a bridge to the 21st Century.” Planning has three different components evaluating, imagining the world you want and making decisions within your control. On his desk is a plaque which reads The Best Way to Predict the Future is to Create It.
What do Morgan Stanley, Peter Drucker, Earth Day, and Fishermen’s Wharf have in Common? They are all in this month’s JacksonLine, of course! Check it out.
Are we 'naturally good'? Stanford Professor Bob Sutton blogs about the book Born To Be Good: The Science Of A Meaningful Life by Dacher Keltner, which argues that people are hard wired to be good and generous, not greedy and selfish. Sutton notes that while many economists may bridle at this notion, the author does an interesting job of presenting his case, drawing on research into facial expressions and body language. Not sure what the implications for capitalistic theory will be if this argument is accepted; guess we'll wait and see if it makes more than a ripple.
A Berkeley firm, Vaska Products that develops plant-based detergents and cleansers for industrial laundering operations and cleaning companies, hopes to receive some of the federal stimulus cash. Julia Fry, the founder of the 17-person company, "hopes to boost her bid for stimulus funding with the help from the Bay Area Council Economic Institute, a public-private partnership group."
Read more about it.
This week the news has been gripped by the attack and subsequent hostage taking on a U.S. ship off the coast of Somalia. In reaction to this many shipping companies are starting to move ships around the Cape of Good Hope instead of through the Suez Canal. However the trend to detour has also been fueled by the economy as observed in the NPR report Tying Together Coats, Ships And Pita Bread. The Independent in an article entitled World's Ships Held to Ransom by Pirates' Growing Greed estimates that the trip around the African continent adds an additional 12-15 days to a ship’s voyage and costs an extra $20,000-$30,000 per day.
The SF Chronicle asked readers to send their best ideas for startups, then chose a dozen from more than 250 submissions and ran them by some venture capitalists.They list a few of the finalist in today's article.
Do you have that next great idea?
In this time of suspicion and anger over the current economic meltdown, the airwaves are a-crackle with emotion. Talking heads on TV fulminate daily, economic pundits shouting for executive blood. As mentioned in this blog earlier, there has even been debate on the Harvard Business Review site over the culpability of business schools in all this mess.
Need a change? Get away from the roar of the mob and read the reflective column of our Stanford Business School Dean, Robert Joss.
You might be interested in the opinion of chief economist Dr. Richard Buczynski, and senior industry analysts from IBISWorld on the current economic situation. In the briefing paper, Economic Crisis: When will it End?, the economists present the macroeconomic analysis and give their forecast for the duration and risks of today’s recession, and discover some opportunities which emerge in the present circumstances. Stanford users can access the IBISWorld database and find a link to the report right on the Home page. If you use the database, please also note that each of the 700+ industry reports is supplemented with the new section: Recession 2009: Update.
The Environmental Protection Agency is responsible for working together with the Department of Justice to prosecute criminals who have violated environmental laws. In many cases those they are trying to track down are not just blue collar workers but business owners who have broken the law by brining illegal chemicals to the U.S. or dumping toxic substances into the environment (which could very well be your back yard). The EPA’s Criminal Enforcement division now has a list of EPA Fugitives, in the article A List of the Most Wanted, by the E.P.A. read more about the list’s history and members.
Self-reflection is an ancient tradition of the Lenten season, so this is an appropriate time to ask if business schools should meditate on possible complicity in the latest scandals of this new 'Gilded Age'. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton notes the current debate taking place at the Harvard Business Review site over how much b-schools have contributed to our financial meltdown. He cites a comment from the Dean of the London Business School, Sir Andrew Likierman, as symptomatic of the reluctance to accept culpability for the creation of the leaders that got us into this mess. Quoth Sutton: '[Author F.M.] Cornford has a lovely line about academic politics: "There is only one argument for doing something; the rest are arguments for doing nothing." In the great tradition of academic politics, Sir Andrew offers us an argument for doing nothing.' Should educators be putting on the hair shirt and getting out the whip? Or is that unfair? Read Bob's blog and decide for yourself.
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