Two centuries ago Robert Burns famously wrote "The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men, gang aft agley". Words to be heeded, perhaps, by top dogs at Disney today. According to an article in the New York Times, the corporation is embarking on a risky remake of its pop culture fixture Mickey Mouse. A new, more cantankerous and cunning Mickey will make his appearance in a coming video game. For decades Mickey has been carefully preserved in cultural formaldehyde, but the market for mouse momentos has been shrinking, so Disney execs feel it is time to update their icon for a new generation. They know they are treading on thin ice. Remember 'New Coke'?
The Small Business Administration has its own YouTube channel, where you can view video interviews with successful entrepreneurs who share the lessons they've learned about owning a small business. Pick the topic that interests you or sit back watch all the videos.
Soon Twitter is going to launch two new features called "Lists" and "Retweets" which were created by Twitter engineers who watch "how people use the service and which ideas catch on. Then its engineers turn the ideas into new features." A New York Times article talks about how other companies have "morphed" their orginal business idea into to something different and have in turn been more successful.
Read about it.
After weeks of speculation about who would buy McGraw-Hill’s publication BusinessWeek word came down today that Bloomberg will buy the publication which started circulating in 1929. Although no one has disclosed how much was paid for the print and online edition of BusinessWeek speculation is that it’s around $5million. Bloomberg has a few publications it puts out such as Bloomberg Markets and other legal journals however this is its first foray into mainstream business reporting. It has been reported that the publication will be renamed Bloomberg BusinessWeek. Although some layoffs are expected Bloomberg intends to build the publication.
I'm talking about those independent bookstores who refuse to go under despite the recession. In the San Francisco Chronicle there is an article about the bookstore chain "Books Inc." and it's strategy for survival in these tough economic times.
Read more about it.
Netflix realized that in order to keep customers and improve the Netflix experience they would have to provide movie suggestions that more closely matched what the user was borrowing. With that in mind Netflix offered a $1 million prize to anyone or any team that could bring about a 10% more accurate set of results. The winners of the prize were a multinational team made up of people in the field of computer science, electrical engineering and statistics, none of whom met in person. Read more about the contest and the big final face-off that happened.
Even the armaments industry has suffered under the economic downturn, however the U.S. production of arms has grown so much that it is now the leading supplier to the world as noted in a New York Times article. For years it was the Russians who were considered the leaders in arms sales. It is now estimated that up to 68.4 percent of the industry in global arms sales is dominated by the United States. The report outlining this was published by the Congressional Research Service, an arm of the Library of Congress.
A start-up company in Colorado is hoping that making fuel from algae and reducing emissions of heat-trapping gases will result in "the next billion-dollar energy boom".
A Colorado State University professor, Bryan Willson recently introduced a strain of algae that loves carbon dioxide into a water tank next to a natural gas processing plant. The water is already green-tinged with life. The professor who is co-founder of the three year old company Solix Biofulels, has a major investor, The Southern Utes.
Read more about it.
An article in the New York Times reports that the first time since the Depression, the private sector has almost added no jobs in the last 10 years. The article reports that there is hope that when the recession is over, the jobs will return but it's the authors contention theat the US job market has been substantially altered.
Read more about it.
Are you interested in purchasing the new iphone 3GS? Then make sure you are on the AT&T network -- or are prepared to switch. And if you are thinking of purchasing the new Palm® Pre™, you must be a Sprint customer. Cell phone service providers have exclusive agreements with manufacturers that seem to be detrimental to the average consumer looking for the best service and best phone for their needs.
According to an editorial in USA Today, the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Communications Commission and the Congress are currently looking into whether these agreements violate U.S. antitrust laws. FreePress.net is currently sponsoring a petition directed toward members of Congress and officials at the FCC, hoping to show public support for the freedom to choose network providers, phones and services.
In my internet travels searching for business research, I came across BusinessWeek's site titled "Video View's".
This site features interviews with newsmakers, discussions of current topics such as housing prices, financial crisis or the current state of healthcare costs.
The crowd I'm speaking about is "crowdsourcing". Crowdsourcing is the practice of using large, distributed and minimally directed groups to accomplish tasks.
Is this the new way to innovate business and will it last once the recession is over?
Read more about it.
Five companies: Cisco, Corning, IBM, Intel, and Schwab are the topic of the feature article in June issue of Fast Company magazine. All big five are pursuing strategies that are focused into the future, in after-recession time. Find out which action plan each corporation is following now, and what the rationale behind its strategic choices is. Read the article in the magazine in Jackson periodicals section or online.
One of the first IPOs of 2009 was Opentable.com trading under the ticker OPEN. Originally called EasyEats.com this company allows people to make restaurant reservations online as well as through any mobile device. Investors seem to like the fact that OpenTable is not dependent on advertising for revenue instead pulling in revenue from the restaurants participating in their service. Read more about some of the challenges facing OpenTable in the San Francisco Chronicle article. Analysts are hoping this IPO is an early indication that Silicon Valley and the IT industry are showing some signs of life.
I learned something new today about the telecommunications market. There is a deal in the works announced in the NY Times today to create the third largest telecommunications company.
Bharti Airtel of India and MTN Group of South Africa would create an entity that would have $20 billion in annual revenue and 200 million subscribers.
It's interesting to note that while many companies in developed economies are focused on cutting jobs and costs, some firms that rely on developing economies like India or Africa for the bulk of their sales are still prospering. Both Bharti and MTN crossed the 100 million-customer mark in recent weeks.
Read more about it.
The June 2009 issue of Fast Company has published a list of the 100 Most Creative People in Business 2009. In constructing their list staff looked for "dazzling new thinkers, rising stars and boldface names that could not be ignored". Jonathan Ive, for example, Apple Senior Vice President of Industrial Design, who took the Numero Uno spot. In the past Ive brought flash and sass to the clunky computer, then moved on to music with the iPod. Apple’s success today is the result of blending business with design, and Ive is the design part of the equation; he was instrumental in designing the iMac, iPod, iPhone and -- the first titanium laptop. Result: Apple design recognition is now the gold (titanium?) standard. Check the issue in Jackson Library to see if you agree with the other 99 choices.
Social networks have been transformed by Facebook, Twitter, etc. These new technologies are lettting individuals and companies interact at the speed of light and sound. Read more about it in a SF Chronicle article.
Wanna co-author a book? You don't even have to write it ! Just join John Winsor in updating his book Flipped: How Bottom-Up Co-Creation Is Replacing Top-Down Innovation. In the spirit of the title, Winsor is inviting people to join in revising and updating his book on a wiki. He apparently already has had at least 75 'co-authors' enlist. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton, who mentions all this on his blog, asks "Is this the first crowdsourced book?" (Apparently it's not).
I'm talking about small businesses in California. An article in the San Francisco Chronicle has reported that, since 2001, the state has lost about 500,000 manufacturing jobs because those jobs were being outsourced overseas.
A small plastics factory in Santa Rosa have been getting inquiries from other "small U.S. companies looking to bring some manufacturing back from China."
Read more about it.
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.
Last week I watched an interesting Frontline program called "Ten Trillion and Counting". This program talked about our massive national debt and what has happened in the recent past to make it ballon.
From Frontline's introduction:
"All of the federal government's efforts to stem the tide of the financial meltdown have added hundreds of billions of dollars to an already staggering national debt, a sum that is expected to double over the next 10 years to more than $23 trillion. In Ten Trillion and Counting, FRONTLINE traces the politics behind this mounting debt and investigates what some say is a looming crisis that makes the current financial situation pale in comparison."
Tesla Motors announced it's newest electric car, the Model S, this week. This sedan targets more practical buyers and will (hopefully) potentially transform the San Carlos, Calif., company from a fringe player to a mainstream automaker.
Read more about it in the San Francisco Chronicle, and see it in action at Scientific American.
It's being heralded as the next big rivalry of Silicon Valley according to the SF Chronicle. The two companies offer different services but they do overlap in social networking.
Facebook last week unveiled changed to their site which makes it a "destination for real-time posts, turf the Twitter is famous for."
So the question is will you twitter or Facebook?
I came across an article at Seeking Alpha and the first sentence is, "When it comes to the U.S. financial crisis, it’s tough to know just what to think or who to believe these days." The author goes on to compare the different opinions and scenarios to "Goldilocks and the 3 bears" and the movie "The Good Bad and the Ugly".
I suppose you could view the current financial crisis as a dream (or nightmare) or a fairy tale and one day you will wake up and it will all be over.
The auto industry is taking on water and needs to be balied out? Mayday is the cry of the big 3 automakers.
An article in the NY times states that "President Obama's decision to act as his own “car czar” means that in the next few months he faces decisions no American president has made since the invention of the automobile."
The President's chief concerns, "whether two of America’s three surviving domestic carmakers should be forced into bankruptcy, how many more concessions should be extracted from unions that helped propel him into the Oval Office and, perhaps, even what kind of cars will be produced in the United States."
For those who have lost money as a result of the Madoff affair, relief is now available. Sort of. For $99 you can vent by purchasing a smashable Bernie Madoff figure. OK, so maybe you didn't lose any money, but still want to express your ire. The figurine is on display at the 2009 Toy Fair in New York City. Uhh, just don't get any ideas if you spot the real Madoff on the streets .....
If you are a news hound, there is a site you must check out. It allows you to scroll over different cities on a world map and get the most recent headlines of selected local papers everywhere. Double click and the page gets larger. You can then read the PDF version, or click through to the paper itself through the upper right corner. Omniscience ... at your fingertips. And it's free !
Has YouTube gone mainstream, or is the New York Times looking for a Second Life? Although the venerable paper has not invested in the virtual world, they have invested in video content via YouTube. Check in daily to watch new videos from the producers and editors of the Times. And instantly comment on video content. No more waiting to see if your editorial comment will get published, ha ha. A few keystrokes, and your opinion reaches around the world.
Carol Bartz, former head of software firm Autodesk, was named chief executive of Yahoo! on Tuesday, ending a two-month search for a new leader at the Internet giant. She comes to Yahoo! with a winning personal record of beating breast cancer and turning Autodesk into a profitable company. Has she been hired to save the firm -- or clean it up for a quick sale? Many are banking on Bartz to win for a third time at Yahoo!
In the December 2008 In Vivo journal are two articles that highlight the medical devices industry.
One article is titled "The Top Device Stories of 2008" which reports "the device industry did not seize up like the credit markets or auto industry: business is carrying on apace."
The other article titled "Medical Device/Diagnostics Quarterly Deal Statistics" looks at medical device and in vitro diagnostics/research dealmaking for the 3rd quarter of 2008.
The journal In Vivo is available in print in the Periodicals collection. Stanford users may access the e-version at Jackson Library's Information Desk.
With the acquisition of Wachovia, San Francisco based Wells Fargo Bank now has more branches than any other U.S. bank.
CEO John Stumpf was interviewed by the San Francisco Chronicle recently as to what the future may hold for Wells Fargo. Read the story.
We direct your attention to two of our hot topics pages that seem particularly hot these days: the Madoff Scandal and the Financial Crisis and Bailout. Learn the basics about both and keep abreast of the latest developments and news with these two pages.
Well, not just Edward Norton’s personal project; it’s a family business called Enterprise Community Partners. However, the actor plays a lead role in this company. This year he was presenting the Social Enterprise of the Year award to none other than his grandmother, Patty Rouse. Mrs. Rouse received this high civic award for her role in Enterprise Community Partners that she cofounded with Norton's grandfather, real-estate developer, James Rouse.
The Enterprise is a hybrid of for-profit and non-profit. It is dedicated to the development of low-income and middle-class affordable housing, and revitalizing decayed neighborhoods. Edward Norton’s first job was with the Enterprise, and his latest contribution to the family business, the Solar Neighbors program, is the route the company adheres to in order to continue with affordable housing construction. The Enterprise is highly influential, though not known in general circles.
To learn more, read the article in the December/January issue of Fast Company in Jackson's periodicals collection or online.
Everywun, the website that allows you to support a worthy cause by simply clicking online, pulls communities and resources together for great causes. For example, pick a charity badge of your choice from Everywun and post it to your blog as follows. Each subsequent click on the badge by your visitors generates income from a corporate sponsor that has contracted with Everywun in an effort to support that charity. This badge is for US Education & Connectivity: using technology and the Internet to support education in the US.
Lack time and money to do good work? Everywun is a great solution.
SFGate, December 5, 2008
China is the fastest country in the world outside of the U.S. to reach the milestone of 1,000 restaurants. McDonald's has focused heavily on growing its operation in China over the last four years but lags behind its chief rival Yum! Brands' more than 2,200 KFC outlets in about 450 Chinese cities.
McDonald's has also started rolling out drive-through restaurants, helped by a 20-year deal with China oil giant Sinopec to build restaurants at its 30,000 petrol stations across China.
AdAgeChina, November 2008
 Yahoo! (YHOO) announced today that Jerry Yang, who helped build the company and has been its CEO since June last year, is stepping down. Upon the appointment of his successor, Yang will return to his former role as Chief Yahoo! , and will remain on the company's board.
"Having set Yahoo! on a new, more open path, the time is right for me to transition the CEO role and our global talent to a new leader. I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo! realize its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation," said Jerry Yang. Read the story in New York Times .
 Sallie L. Krawcheck gained national attention in 2002 when Fortune magazine put her on its cover. She was a largely unknown research director at Sanford C. Bernstein then, and the magazine called her one of the “last honest analysts” — at a time when Wall Street was plagued with conflict-of-interest scandals.
She was recruited to Citigroup in 2002 in a bid to burnish the bank’s tainted reputation, her $15 million-plus pay package made headlines. She gained even more prominence two years later when Citigroup, then the world’s biggest bank, appointed her its chief financial officer. A subsequent reshuffling landed her atop the wealth management group.
Ms.Krawcheck left Citibank in September 2008. Read more about it.
Th!nk began in 1991 in Norway. By 1998, it produced 1,000+ electric runabouts sold in Norway. In 1999, it was bought by Ford to meet California's Zero Emission Vehicle mandate. By 2003, EV program ended in the US and Ford sold Think. In 2006, a group of investors purchased Think for $15 million. Now Think's chief executive, Willums has raised about $93 million, much of it from Silicon Valley, to help lift Think off the ground.
The company opened an office in Menlo Park, Calif., earlier this year with plans to sell cars statewide in 2009.
Seattle Times, 7/18/08
Related news
Eric Schmidt was recently interviewed by James Manyika at McKinsey on Google's view on the future of business. It is part of McKinsey’s ongoing work exploring technology's evolving impact on business management and the economy.
You may view the video at the McKinsey site.
 An article in the NY Times reviews a book written by Stephen Baker titled "The Numerati".
Maybe you’re the kind of person who doesn’t believe that the kind of person you are can be deduced by an algorithm and expressed through shorthand categorizations like “urban youth” or “hearth keeper.”
But the kind of people — “crack mathematicians, computer scientists and engineers” — whom Stephen Baker writes about in “The Numerati” clearly see things differently. In fact, they probably regard such skepticism as more fodder for the math-driven identity formulas they’ve created to satisfy the consumer-product companies and politicians who hire them.
Read more about the book.
For availability of The Numerati in Jackson Library, check the catalog record.
Kiwibox, the first social networking destination and online magazine where teens produce, discover, and share content while connecting with friends, announced that the company has signed a deal with Burst Media to launch the Kiwibox Teen Network, a premier online advertising network for marketers looking to reach teens. The network is comprised of a select group of teen focused web sites - and is anchored by Kiwibox. Publishers within the Kiwibox Teen Network have the opportunity to share ideas, content, tools, partnerships and marketing opportunities across both the web and mobile.
PR Newswire 10/29/08
Related news: Ypulse Interview: Lin Dai, CEO, Kiwibox
In a race to unlock the mobile platform market, Google's Android software used on G1 is a variant of Linux, a free open-source operating system which will allow programmers to write future applications for Android. G1 costs $179. The good news is that consumers are expecting handset-makers in the very near future to come up with Android-based phones at much lower prices.
View related WSJ announcement on YouTube
The Wall Street Journal is by far the most popular website for high net-worth individuals according to the Luxury Institute. This as reported by Market Watch, spots two and three are taken by Fox Business News and Harvard Business Review respectively.
"Tactical philanthropists" are a part of a growing group of socially conscious givers in the Bay Area. These philantropists log into Paypal and and then donate online and redirect their wealth to their favorite charities.
Otherwise known as "charitable checking," or "giving while living," donor-advised funds are quickly becoming the most popular way to invest social capital.
Read more about it.
There is an interesting article in the NY Times comparing the roles of JP Morgan and Warren Buffett in times of financial upheaval.
Their times and personalities are vastly different, of course. But J. Pierpont Morgan’s role in the Panic of 1907 has its echo in Warren E. Buffett’s actions during the current financial troubles.
“What Buffett is doing is similar in ways to what Morgan did in 1907,” said Richard Sylla, an economist and financial historian at the Stern School of Business at New York University. “It’s what you might call profitable patriotism.”
Read more about it.
In these most challenging economic times the prospects of funding IPOs is grim. In an article from the SF Chronicle, it was reported that for the first time since 1978, there were no venture-backed IPOs at all in the last quarter, and the pace has barely picked up since. Read more about it.
Thoreau Center for Sustainability (Photo courtesy of the National Trust for Historic Preservation)
I find it an ironic twist of fate that on the site of the ex-army post know as the Presidio, the Thoreau Center for Sustainability, a campus for nonprofits run by San Francisco's Tides nonprofit network now occupies part of the historic fort.
Thoreau is like a utopian community for its tenants, who get synergies with similar enterprises, below-market rate rents in a beautiful setting, and access to shared amenities, such as the conference rooms and educational programs, plus utilities, janitorial, maintenance, free parking, bike lockers and showers.
But more importantly, the Thoreau Center is an exemplar for other nonprofits that want to replicate its shared-space model to create their own stable homes.
Read more about it.
While in cosmetology school, hair stylist Najah Aziz participated in a class assignment to give free hair care to teenage girls at a juvenile-detention center. The experience left an impression that would inspire her to incorporate community-service work when she opens her own salon.
Ms. Aziz made good on her commitment later at her Like the River Salon in Atlanta where she offers free beauty services to homeless women every quarter.
Story at The Chronicle of Philanthropy, September 18, 2008
There is an interesting profile of Sun Microsystems in the SF Chronicle that states in part that while Sun has been a Silicon Valley technological
innovator for the last 25 years, things are changing at the company. |
 |
"The stock is down almost 50 percent year-to-date," said financial analyst Bill Kreher with Edward Jones, as Sun shares closed at $9.39 Friday, up 3.6 percent. "But management credibility has taken a bit of a hit," Kreher said, adding that whether the Santa Clara company shines again or slowly dims "is more or less a coin toss." Read more about it. |
In a new book written by Judy Estrin “Closing the Innovation Gap,” which will be in bookstores next week, she writes that the Silicon Valley is facing an innovation crisis and that the problems are symptomatic of a crisis in innovation facing the country as a whole.
Ms. Estrin traces Silicon Valley’s troubles to the tech boom. She said that’s when entrepreneurs and venture capitalists started focusing more on starting companies to turn around and sell them and less on building successful companies for the long term.
Read more about it.
The Library has ordered a copy of this book. Check our library catalog for the latest status.
HP, Intel and Yahoo are building a cloud computing global project that will consist six distributed computing centers around the world. The trio has partnered with the Infocomm Development Authority in Singapore, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the U.S. and Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany each of which will host one of the six “centers of excellence.” The other three will be hosted by Yahoo, Intel and HP.
The idea of cloud computing is that large-scale computing tasks can be handled as efficiently, if not more so “in the cloud” meaning by thousands of Internet-connected servers stationed in data centers around the world. Instead of spending truckloads of cash for servers and the space to house them and the personnel to run and maintain them, why not lease the capacity you need from providers in the cloud?
Story at businessweek.com
Watch YouTube's What is Cloud Computing?
The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), the country's largest lender, said on August 21 its first half after-tax profit totaled 64.88 billion yuan (9.47 billion U.S. dollars), which made it the world's most profitable bank.
The earnings marked a year-on-year increase of 56.75% during the first six months, ICBC, the world biggest bank by market value, said in a statement.
The bank said the biggest profit came on greater fee income and better operations to evade risks from the U.S. subprime crisis, which had ravaged profitability in many of ICBC's international competitors.
news.xinhuanet.com 2008-08-21
What is globality? According to the authors of a new book titled: Globality: Competing with Everyone from Everywhere for Everything, globality is not a new or different term for globalization it's what comes next.
The Boston Consulting Group has put together a webpage highlighting the book. Take a look.
The Tesla, the 100% electric car by Tesla Motors, opened a store last month in Menlo Park at 300 El Camino Real, just north of the Stanford Shopping Center. It's designed as a showroom and partly as a museum type exhibit, showing prototype models used in designing the company's electric car. -- San Francisco Business Times
The car was conceived by Martin Eberhard, and was named after Nikola Tesla, an eccentric late 19th century genius inventor. Driving the streets of Palo Alto in 2003 when Eberhard was looking for his next project, he began to notice that the same driveways that held a Prius often also had a Porsche 911 or other luxury sports car. "It was clear that people weren't buying a Prius to save money on gas - gas was selling close to inflation-adjusted all-time lows," says Eberhard, "They were buying them to make a statement about the environment." So why not, he reasoned, allow this deep-pocketed clientele to make that statement driving a car that exceeded the performance of a Porsche?
Read the Tesla story in Fortune Magazine
Watch YouTube's Tesla Electric Car with Eberhard and Elon Musk, Chairman of Tesla Motors.
Also, The unveiling of the Tesla Motors Electric Car and Interview With Elon Musk Tesla Motors
Medicare's trust fund will spend more than it receives from taxes this year. The event marks the beginning of what Bush administration officials predict is the start of a slide toward possible bankruptcy for Medicare's Part A Trust Fund, which pays hospital expenses for about 42 million beneficiaries.
A report from the Social Security and Medicare Trustees predicts that in 2019 the trust fund would no longer be able to pay all of its bills. That's unchanged from last year's prediction.
WebMD Health News 3/25/08
Related articles:
Medicare Trustees Report Shows Serious Financial Status of Medicare Program
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services News Release (3/25/08)
GSB Research News: Health Care
Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs
A SUMMARY OF THE 2008 ANNUAL REPORTS
Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees
2008 Medicare Trustees Report
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
Social Security Program Fact Sheet @ Social Security Online
Statistical Tables @ Social Security Online
Gas prices fell below $3.70 a gallon yesterday at some central Ohio stations as the drop at the pump kept pace with the rapidly falling price of crude oil.
"We think it's going to harden out at $3.50 and not go below that," said Gary Lewis, general manager of the Dayton-based gas-price Web site GasPriceWatch.com.
Source: The Columbus Dispatch@dispatch.com
Mapquest's National Gas Prices page reports the lowest and the highest prices nationwide as follows:
the lowest:
#1 CHEVRON 201922 - CHEVRON
Regular: $2.98 (7/22/2008)
565 E MAIN ST, COLQUITT, GA
#2 ON CUE EXPRESS #103
Regular: $3.44 (7/23/2008)
5920 S WESTERN AVE, OKLAHOMA CITY, OK
#3 COLEMAN'S CAR TECH
Regular: $3.48 (7/23/2008)
118 HAMILTON ST, CALHOUN CITY, MS
and the highest:
#1 CANTWELL FOODMART - CHEVRON
Regular: $5.65 (7/22/2008)
MILE 211 GEORGE PARK HWY, CANTWELL, AK
#2 Highest Price $5.61
PEBBLE BEACH, CA
#3 Highest Price $5.16
SPRING VALLEY, NY
The “locavore” movement encourages consumers to buy from farmers’ markets or even to grow or pick their own food, arguing that fresh, local products are more nutritious and taste better. In the New York Times there is an article talking about "lazy locavores" which are people who want to eat locally but pay other people to plant an organic garden in their back yard and also till, weed and harvest the garden.This in itself has spawned a new business for people who want to get their hands dirty, literally.
Silicon Valley VCs increasingly are looking at investment areas such as energy production and cleantech which require substantial technology. vcj (June, 2008) reports that science driving innovation in these areas isn't coming exclusively out of Stanford University. It's also coming out of Oklahoma State University, Virginia Polytechnic Institute, and Rice University. The number of start-ups jumped nearly 20% in 2006 to 698, according to the Association of University Technology Managers. Reaching the right people has never been easy. An example of one easy way is a campus associate program by Alsop Louie Partners. "Every VC firm on Sand Hill Road is all over Stanford looking for the next Larry and Sergey. So we designed the campus associate program at Berkeley because it was right across the bridge" says Alsop.
Besides hiring an insider to scout out the hottest newly minted entrepreneurs, other ways include the following:
2. Connect with alumni - research shows that the median age of the founders of U.S. technology companies is 39 and that twice as many were older than 50 than were younger than 25.
3. Reach out to university VC programs - popular at many business schools, the best known university-sponsored programs are Cornell's BR Ventures and the University of Michigan's Wolverine Ventures.
4. Tap university-affiliated angel groups such as Bluegrass Angels (affiliated with University of Kentucky), Harvard Angels (Harvard), and Youniversity Ventures (Stanford University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
5. Connect with non-profits that help commercialize university tech such as the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA).
Source: Thomson Venture Capital Journal June 2008, available at Jackson Library
After a visit to the magnificent Canyons -- Bryce, Zion, and the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, it seemed logical to spend a day in Las Vegas with good food, shopping, and entertainment. That was just what I did. The city seemed to be ever expanding despite the current U.S. economy. I decided to do some checking after returning to work to find out exactly what is the story with Sin City. So here I found this article in SCT Shopping Center Today, June 2008. Despite signs that cause for concern such as the following:
• the city lost 20,000 residential construction jobs,
• a record high of 6,152 pre-foreclosure filings in March,
• hotel rates dropped 5.1% in February,
• retail vacancies jumped to 5% for the 1st quarter,
• McCarran International Airport showed declines in passenger traffic
• the Cosmopolitan Resort and Casino, partially built in the heart of the Strip, is now
in foreclosure on a $760 million construction loan from Deutsche Bank,
• Crown's $5 billion casino is off the drawing board and the land is up for sale
Some major projects, many with foreign ownership, are moving forward:
• General Growth Properties' Summerlin Centre will be open in 2009
• MGM Mirage's $8 billion CityCenter also opens in 2009
• The Plaza, a $6 billion hotel casino is going forward
News from other sources include:
The National Association of Realtors reported that one in five Realtors has sold a home to a foreign buyer in the past year.
Land values in downtown Las Vegas have quadrupled to about $8 million an acre in the last four to five years as investors recognized potential in an area largely ignored by local developers.
International investment has reached suburban projects such as Sullivan Square, Harcourt Developments of Ireland has committed $800 million in construction financing for the project.
The new carrier Virgin America is flying to Las Vegas and set its competitors in motion. Futhermore, the Sunday Tribune reported on the property prices on the strip are about EUR1,400 a square foot, and as you move out, properties can be found from EUR190,000. And what about the tax breaks between Las Vegas and Ireland? Nevada has no state income, inheritance, estate or corporate taxes but there is a 7.5% sales tax.
Generally speaking, the "smart money" is buying in Las Vegas right now and some of that capital is coming from overseas, said Charles Clawson, president of Noble Title in Las Vegas.
"With the dollar so weak, foreign investors have much greater purchasing power than they might normally have," he said. "That greater purchasing power, combined with the distressed real estate market, makes real estate investments in Las Vegas very attractive to foreigners." -- ReviewsJournal.com
One of our jobs as good American citizens is to get out there and spend those stimulus checks to kick start the economy. Probably a lot of people will use them to fill their gas tanks! If you need ideas on how to spend your check, read this article from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Now get out there and shop!
In 2 ½ years Kevin Johnson has turned Microsoft’s customer satisfaction numbers around. One task down. Next? Figure out what to do about Google. Google collects more online advertising revenue than Microsoft draws from Windows. In an exclusive interview in the June 9, 2008 issue of Fortune, David Kirkpatrick talks strategy with the man who might run Yahoo.
Bertelsmann AG is a worldwide media conglomerate that controls a hefty dose of what your read, watch and listen to on a daily basis. In an article posted today, it's reported that Hartmut Ostrowski, chief executive of Bertelsmann, is planning a cultural makeover at the company. Mr Ostrowski is looking to possibly get out of the music business for starters. Read more about it.
Attention all food connoisseurs -- have you tasted a $175 hamburger? It is on the menu at the Wall Street Burger Shoppe in New York. What makes it so costly? According to this news article, this "ultimate in decadence" has "a Kobe beef patty, lots of black truffles, seared foie gras, aged Gruyere cheese, wild mushrooms and flecks of gold leaf on a brioche bun". Feeling hungry? Feeling rich?
B corporations are the latest innovation within the small world of companies with a social as well as financial mission. Such firms have banded together for decades in networking groups such as Businesses for Social Responsibility, Co-op America's Green Business Network or the Social Venture Network.
The B stands for "beneficial." It's less a legal designation than a certification system that will allow businesses to define themselves as socially responsible to consumers and investors. To become a certified B Corporation, a company must amend its articles of incorporation to say that managers must consider the interests of employees, the community, and the environment instead of worrying solely about shareholders.
Read more about B corporations in the following articles:
B corporation' plan helps philanthropic firms,
A New Kind of Company
Winemaking pioneer Robert Mondavi, a leader in the development of the modern California wine industry, has died at the age of 94. Though not the first to produce wine in this state, he championed the growth of quality domestic wines that could rival Europe's. In 1998 he published his autobiography Harvests of Joy: How The Good Life Became Great Business, describing his struggles and triumphs. Let's raise a glass of fume blanc -- which he developed -- to his memory.
Are you trying to find the cheapest gas prices in your city? Check out this website Gasbuddy.com which records prices by gas stations in the US and Canada. Let your fingers do the typing and not the pedal to the metal! Forgive me it's Monday and I'm low on gas....
China opened the world’s longest cross-sea Hangzhou Bay Bridge last week running 22.4 miles from the port city of Ningpo across Hangzhou Bay to reach Shanghai. As part of an effort to boost economic integration and development in the Yangtze River Delta, it is designed to slash travel time between Ningbo and the financial hub Shanghai from four hours to two and a half.
Since its opening on May 1, police have fined more than 300 drivers, most for driving too slowly or illegal parking on the emergency lanes while enjoying the ocean view and taking photos. The $1.7-billion bridge’s much publicized sightseeing platforms in the middle of the span will not be ready for tourists for another two years, local media have reported.
Reuters, People's Daily Online
I recently lost my cell phone and this article caught my attention.
TryPhone beta has 12 handsets so far, including such popular items as the iPhone and the Motorola Razr 2 for customers to take a look. The company hopes to have between 100 and 150 handsets up by the holiday season, says marketing director Leila Modarres. It also plans to increase the interactivity of the virtual handsets.
Check it out. For someone like me who has used only one model that comes free with a subscription, TryPhone saves time and money in identifying the popular ones and the best ones that are out there. Before I go to an AT&T store in my area to actually try out different phones, I should already have a pretty good idea what I am looking for.
TechSoup is one of a new brand of companies called “social enterprises” because they pursue social missions instead of profits. But unlike most nonprofit groups, these organizations generate a sustainable source of revenue and do not rely on philanthropy. Earnings are retained and reinvested rather than being distributed to shareholders.
The new companies typically begin as small groups of intensely motivated people dedicated to the goal of building a product or service. Read more about it.
Facebook at a Glance
The sixth-most trafficked site in the U.S. (according to comScore) has the following:
• More than 64 million active users
• An average of 250,000 new users registered each day
• More than 55,000 regional, work-related, collegiate, and high school networks
• More than 14 million photos uploaded daily
• More than 65 billion page views per month
• More than half of users are outside college
• The fastest growing demographic of 25 and older
The U.S. has the most users, followed by the U.K. with more than 8 million active users, and then Canada with more than 7 million active users.
InformationToday.com, March 2008
Not every business associated with the mess that is the mortgage meltdown is losing money. A small army of law firms and default servicing companies, who represent mortgage lenders, have been raking in mounting profits. These little-known firms assess legal fees and a host of other charges, calculate what the borrowers owe and draw up the documents required to remove them from their homes.
Default, or foreclosure, servicing operations have been compounding the woes of troubled borrowers. Court documents say that some of the largest firms in the industry have repeatedly submitted erroneous affidavits when moving to seize homes and levied improper fees that make it harder for homeowners to get back on track with payments. Consumer lawyers call these operations "foreclosure mills." Read more about it.
America's most admired companies
1 Apple
2 Berkshire Hathaway
3 General Electric
4 Google
5 Toyota Motor
6 Starbucks
7 FedEx
8 Procter & Gamble
9 Johnson & Johnson
10 Goldman Sachs Group
11 Target
12 Southwest Airlines
13 American Express
14* BMW
14* Costco Wholesale
16 Microsoft
17 United Parcel Service
18 Cisco Systems
19 3M
20 Nordstrom
Fortune, March 17, 2008
I came across an article in the New York Times talking about how Seattle has become a book selling mecca. One influential factor is Nancy Pearl who ten years ago, started a program for public libraries there that she hoped would get adults excited about literature.It was called, “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book.” Free copies of “The Sweet Hereafter,” were distributed to individuals and book clubs. The novel became the top-selling book in the area.
Ms. Pearl’s rise in the book world parallels Seattle’s rise in the publishing world. Though the big publishing houses are still ensconced in New York, the Seattle area is the home of Amazon, Starbucks and Costco, three companies that increasingly influence what America reads. Read more about it.
Last week in San Francisco Cleantech Forum XVI was held, bringing together green companies and investors working with clean technology. "Clean tech is a global phenomenon, both in terms of need and opportunity," said Nicholas Parker, co-founder of the Cleantech Group, which organized the forum. It tracks trends in the industry and serves as a matchmaker for investors and entrepreneurs. Check out the Cleantech Group site for news and information on future forums and other cleantech industry related subjects.
Google is getting into the Web site building business, enabling just about anyone to quickly set up and update a Web site with pictures, calendars and video.
"We are literally adding an edit button to the Web," said Dave Girouard, general manager of the division overseeing the new application. All sites created on the service will run on one of Google's computers.
Google acquired many of the Web-site tools when it bought a Silicon Valley startup, JotSpot, last year.
Washingtonpost.com
Well, the sun is not coming out in Palo Alto today, and rain is on the way. The title of my blog has to do with an article in The New York Times about Silicon Valley becoming a world leader in cheap and ubiquitous solar panels for the masses. The author suggests some of the valley’s best brains are captivated by the challenge of prodcing low cost solar panels and they hope to put the development of solar technologies onto a faster track.
Local police departments, including Palo Alto, use a public database by Public Engines, a private company that works only with government entities, to plot daily crime incidents using Google Maps. 45 agencies now use the web site, which launched last spring in Washington, D.C. "Citizens can do a search in their particular community to see what's going on in their neighborhoods," Sgt. Sandra Brown of the Palo Alto Police Department said. After a recent burst of national publicity, the site handled more than 100,000 visitors in a single day.
Reported in Palo Alto Daily News
The New York Times reports that from India to Indiana, shortages and soaring prices for palm oil, soybean oil and many other types of vegetable oils are the latest, most striking example of a developing global problem: costly food.
In some countries protests have erupted: in Pakistan over wheat shortages, in Indonesia over soybean shortages. And due to the demand for biofuels, the increasing expense of fuel to transport foodstuffs is causing, in part, the growing cost of the food we eat.
While browsing the news, I came across a story that covers a few timely topics, football, the Golden Globes and the writer's strike. A veritible trifecta of information!
Who is Dan Snyder and what does he have in common with aforementioned topics? He is the owner of the Washington Redskins. The coach of the Redskins has decided to step down after the team lost to the Seattle Seahawks. Also because of the writers' strike, NBC pulled the plug on its highly rated Golden Globe Awards program, which Snyder's private-equity firm, Red Zone Capital Partners, acquired last summer as part of his $175 million purchase of Dick Clark Productions. The article states that Snyder's private-equity firm gets a rights fee for the Golden Globe Awards whether it is televised or not.
Dan Snyder is not having a great January. Read more about it.
In the October 2007 issue of US Banker, the fifth annual "The 25 most powerful women in banking" (full-text available to Stanford users) spotlighted Women bankers held 17.9 percent of executive positions at the 100 largest nationally chartered banks last year, an increase of only 1.9 percentage points since 2003.
Since the ranking's inception, the achievements of more than 225 women have been recognized and 10 women have appeared in the rankings all five years.
First of all my apologies to Emma Lazarus (1849-1887) who wrote "The New Colossus" a sonnet by written in 1883 and, in 1903, engraved on a bronze plaque and mounted inside the Statue of Liberty. My blog today is inspired by her sonnet in that I read an article from the New York Times (of course), talking about the influx of today's Europeans coming to New York to shop! It seems that since the dollar is so weak and the Euro is strong, New York is the place to shop because you can get so much for your money. My how things change.
There's an article in Billboard magazine posted in November on the sales of Christmas music. I won't say Christmas albums because it will date me! So I'll say unit sales of Christmas music. Happy Holidays!
As many in the business world know the Wall Street Journal Online is one of the few newspapers which continues to be subscriber driven. However, now that Rupert Murdoch (NewsCorp) bought out the newspaper from the Bancroft family it seems like there might be a chance that non-subscribers might get a chance to have access to content. Murdoch stated in an interview with The Telegraph entitled Murdoch takes on FT with free online WSJ that the free access, advertising model would bring in more revenue for the paper.
Tired of looking for the perfect shoe. Well there are companies that will customize a pair of shoes just for you.
While customized sneakers are available on many athletic shoe Web sites, fashion shoes are harder, although not impossible, to find.
For women there is Tupli, started three years ago by two women who were leaving careers in banking.
“This is ideal for the woman who can imagine the perfect shoe but can’t find it,” said Kathy Myczowski, 34. She went into the individual shoe design business with Tamara Chubinidze, 26, who is from the Republic of Georgia, where such shoemaking is more prevalent and where Tupli’s shoes are made. Read more about it.
Did you participate in the great American tradition of shopping on the day after Thanksgiving also now known as Black Friday? If you did not you can still participate today on Cyber Monday. I saw an article on CNET that talks about the reality or myth of this cyber Monday.
I came across an article in the New York Times today about a masseuse hired by Google when the company had just 40 employees, who when hired recieved a salary of about $450 a week and some stock options. Need I say more....Well now she's has millions in the bank and has written a soon to be published book called, Giigle: How I Got Lucky Massaging Google.
A college student recently asked Sumner Redstone, 84-year old entertainment mogul, what is uppermost in his mind these days. “The issue of whether I’m going to wake up tomorrow morning,” Redstone replied. But meanwhile, he has other things to worry about. Redstone’s daughter, Shari, is locked in a struggle with the ageing titan over the future of his fortune. Five years ago he saw her as his heir; now they barely speak. Quoth Redstone the Elder: “I’m in control now, and I’ll be in control after I die.” Read more about this family feud in the November 12 Forbes magazine or online. And as an added bonus, read this earlier letter from Mr Redstone to Forbes, part of the ongoing battle.
On September 19, I blogged EU vs. Microsoft = $688 Million Fine about the EU ruling which upheld a previous decision concerning Microsoft’s market dominance. At that point Microsoft could have filed another appeal. In the meantime fines for not complying with the first ruling have been accumulating. Today Microsoft agreed to share the code to some of it’s server with competitors thus allowing them to write programs compatible with certain Microsoft servers. In essence agreeing to abide by the original ruling put forth by the European Comission in 2004. Read more about it at the Financial Times, CNN and Bloomberg
A new branch of Tiffany & Company opened at 37 Wall Street in the financial district of Manhattan. Tiffany & Company was coming back to the old neighborhood. It was just around the corner, on Broadway, that the luxury jeweler was founded in 1837 by Charles Lewis Tiffany and a partner. If this branch does well, other luxury retailers could move into the neighborhood. It seems like a good idea to me as the people who could afford to buy the items work just up the block. Read about it in the New York Times.
While insurance is not a very hot topic the environment is, and the insurance industry gives good insight into the impact of potential loss of a valued industry. The honeybee industry is not just valuable for its honey but if you think back to elementary school biology bees are a key element in pollinating many crops. This year between 30-90% of bee colonies were lost in 35 states. It is estimated that 1/3 of all the food we eat is affected someway by bees and that these small insects pollinate around $15 billion worth of fruit tress, vegetables and specialty crops. All is not lost, beekeepers have been able to mitigate the loss of colonies by importing bees from Australia and splitting colonies. The Federal Crop Insurance Corp. decided at the end of July to start a program to help beekeepers by including the threat of drought as part of the federal crop insurance program. Read more about Colony Collapse Disorder and bee insurance in Best’s Review article The Lost Colonies at Jackson Library or view a quick overview by Meg Green, the author of the article.
What's a snipe? It's a graphic that's a promotional ad that may run in the bottom right of your TV screen. Now that the new fall TV season is upon us, adverstisers are going to insert the little snipes during your favorite TV programs. They are doing this because in the land of DVRs and Tivos where you can at the push of a button erase those pesky commercials, advertising must be viewed, at whatever cost! Read about it in the NY Times.
An article in October issue of Fortune magazine looks into growing competition between the two social networking companies: MySpace and Facebook. It’s the consensus that the next big thing after Google is social networking, and many companies are trying to put their feet into this market. Until recently, MySpace was an accepted dominant in the market. Statistics shows that Americans spend 12% of their Internet time on MySpace site. However, the competition from Facebook has grown for the past year, and the popularity of Facebook has significantly increased. The two sites are very different in their structure and offerings to the point where Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted on several occasions that he didn’t see MySpace as competition. This perspective is not viewed the same way at MySpace. To find out the whole story, read the article online or in the Periodicals Collection of Jackson Library.
I saw an interesting article in the New York Times about Japanese housewives who are taking a hit financially since the credit markets have taken a downturn. These housewives are Japanese homemakers who moonlight as amateur currency speculators.
Tens of thousands of married Japanese women ventured into online currency trading in the last year and a half, playing the markets between household chores or after tucking the children into bed. While the overwhelmingly male world of traders and investors here mocked them as kimono-clad “Mrs. Watanabes,” these women collectively emerged as a powerful force, using Japan’s vast wealth to sway prices and confound economists.
From the Amber Waves newsletter, some statistics on how large the organic farming industry is growing. The consumption of organic food and beverages is concentrated in Europe and the United States, but the production of certified organic products is scattered worldwide. U.S. production and domestic consumption of organic products continues to increase.
I heard that Krispy Creme franchise is sinking or drownin' instead of Dunkin' donuts! Are donuts and highly proccessed sugary bakery items doomed to be extinct? Read an article written in 2005 that talks about the rise and fall of Krispy Creme.
Interstate Bakeries the company that makes Wonder Bread and Hostess Twinkies is also going down for the count. Healthwise it may be better for the average consumer not to eat these items but still these companies employ workers and it they shut down these workers lose their jobs.
Magazines come and go not all because they are good or bad but simply because they cannot meet their bottom line. In the Business Week article When Mags Meet the Reaper the writer gives some insight into what goes into magazines but also what ultimately leads to the demise of a magazine. The writer recommends the Magazine Death Pool site as a good indicator of which publications might soon go belly up.
Carlos Slim. Who?? Not registering? Curious -- considering he is now the richest man in the world. According to Fortune (August 20), thanks to his telecom investments this Mexican businessman is worth $59 billion -- more than his impoverished friend to the North, Bill Gates. Slim controls companies that make up one-third of the Mexican stock exchange. His net worth jumped $12 billion just this year. And Slim's wealth is growing, while Gates is selling his off to fund his foundation. Read more online.
A one stop shopping for news open to the public where one can Search and browse 4,500 news sources updated continuously. Its News Archive made available free and for-fee articles, with premium archival items such as the New York Times going back to 1851. For example, I got 206 hits when I searched for Leland Stanford Junior University in NYT and limited the search to 1851-1980 time period. Here’s a citation and the first paragraph:
IN THE FOOTBALL WORLD; Trip to Pacific Coast Proposed for Columbia's Eleven. Matches with California and Leland Stanford Contemplated -- Hogan Favored for Yale Captaincy.
November 24, 1903, Tuesday
Page 10, 1396 words
For the first time in Columbia's history the football eleven may undertake a Western trip this year, according to a rumor which was prevalent on the campus yesterday. The team will, it is said, go West during the two weeks' vacation at Christmas, and play the University of California and Leland Stanford Junior University.
For $4.95, I can purchase the article. $7.95 gets you 100 articles (8 cents/article) and $49.95 for 1200 articles (4 cents/article) from the archive. Isn’t this neat? Try Google News Archive Search.
Private Equity, a term most of the public have probably never heard, went mainstream last week. Cerberus (Greek for Hellhound) went in and bought Chrysler from Daimler, making the American company American owned again. Who is Cerberus? Well one name is in control Steve Feinberg. The big question is will Feinberg be able to turn Chrysler around? The firm takes in about $60 Billion a year and employs about 250 million people.
Read a well written detailed account of Cerberus and the Chrysler deal by Fortune in an article entitled Cerberus: Inside the Wall Street power-house.
There is a news story on CNN today which talks about how Brazil has produced enough sugar cane to make ethanol. "Brazil, a nation that between its oil reserves and the burgeoning ethanol industry has attained energy self-sufficiency." The article also goes on to say that this cane will probably never reach the United States. Read about it.
Liz Claiborne, American fashion designer and entrepreneur, passed away June 26, 2007. Her company's new chief executive, William L. McComb is 44 years old and is one of the youngest and least-experienced chief executives in the fashion industry. In a move that irked the chief executive of Macy's, McComb made a decision to develop a new product line for J. C. Penney. Macy's retaliated by slashing orders for the Liz Claiborne brand by millions of dollars. Read more about it.
The cover of this weeks BusinessWeek sports a picture of a bejeweled English Bulldog and the main story is entitled “The Pet Economy”. In the U.S. alone we spend $41 billion on our pets which is double which was spent on pets until the late 1990’s.
The same issue ranks the top global brands and #1 is Coca- Cola.
OK, so I am not a big fan of the Simpsons but I do like Slurpees or as they are called in Springfield Squishees. So my husband and I drop by a 7-Eleven which has been converted into a Kwik-E- Mart for the month of July to promote the Simpsons movie. It’s amazing what they are selling “Radioactive Man" comic books, Squishees, pink doughnuts (yes they almost glow with pinkness), Buzz cola, Krusty O's cereal and more. People are snapping them up like crazy. You can read more about the campaign in the AdAge article entitled 7-Eleven's Simpsons Movie Stunt: Brilliant Cross-Promotion. The July 23 issue of Business Week in a short segment entitled “D’Oh! Where’s The Phone?” mentions that 7-Eleven reports that the converted stores are making twice or three times as much in sales than usual.
And if you are wondering where the nearest Kwik-E-Mart in the Bay Area is, look no farther than Mountain View.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows must be raking in a fortune for big bookdealers. Right? Wrong. According to BusinessWeek (July 2), the major retailers have been suffering, slashing prices up to 50% to draw fans to their sites / stores. Even the U.S. publisher, Scholastic Corporation, despite fat profits from the Potter series, often does better in "off Potter" periods, according to analyst Drew Crum of Stifel, Nicolaus & Co. "The company tends to lose focus in a Harry Potter release year," Crum opines. It will take a wizard greater than Potter to conjure up profits for his retailers, it would seem.
Toy makers throughout the history of toymaking have been trying to get your kids to bug you (the parents) enough so you will buy them the latest and greatest toy. "A new doll hitting retail shelves this week is familiar in many ways — she’s got outfits galore — but she also has some unusual features: this Barbie, who is smaller and less shapely than her standard namesake, functions as an MP3 music player." Read about it in today's New York Times.
Are you a woman looking to start her own business? Well, read about the "Ladies who Launch". The founders of Ladies Who Launch, Beth Schoenfeldt and Victoria Colligan say that women follow their instincts and build businesses that stem from their lifestyles. "They seldom begin with a business plan or financing. They multitask the many parts of their lives, hatching companies on the side while working in other jobs or raising families. And their careers rarely follow linear paths."
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.
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.
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.
If you think preparing your taxes every year is a pain think about what large corporations have to go thru every year when they report the state of their internal finances to the Securities and Exchange Commission who then publishes it for the entire world to sift thru. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 made reporting more detailed and costly for many companies. Those most hard hit by SOX were small companies who had to jump thru just as many hoops. Last week the SEC heard their pleas and beginning on December 15, 2007 will make audits less costly for companies with a market value of under $75 million. Read more.
The "green" I am referring to are the hedge fund millionaires who reside in Greenwich, Conn. This town of 61, 000 has in recent memory its fair share of mansions and other trappings of wealth. Its new claim to fame is that it is now a stop on the presidential campaign trail. All the major players have come to town in recent weeks hoping to get major bucks from those who have made their wealth in the hedge fund arena. Read the New York Times article and happy election season to you all!!
Ray Anderson the founder of Interface, a carpet and tile manufacturing company, decided in 1994 that his company would follow the path of "do no harm". His company would from now on do it's best to be environmentally responsible. He challenged his colleagues to set a deadline for Interface to become a “restorative enterprise,” a sustainable operation that takes nothing out of the earth that cannot be recycled or quickly regenerated, and that does no harm to the biosphere. The deadline they ultimately set is 2020, and the idea has taken hold throughout the company. Read more about it.
So you want to write the next great novel and have it stay at #1 on the New York Times Bestseller list. It's a matter of pure luck if that happens some would say. A New York Times article describes what happened when Curtis Sittenfeld’s first novel, “Cipher" was submitted to book publishers. In a word no publisher except Random House wanted to take a chance on it's success. Random House published “Cipher” in January 2005, renaming it “Prep” and backing it with a clever marketing and publicity campaign. Read what happened next.
BusinessWeek just released the result of their annual "The World's Most Innovative Companies" survey of senior executives. The survey was conducted jointly with the Boston Consulting Group. This year, just 46% of respondents said they were satisfied with their return on innovation spending, a decrease from 52% last year. Only 23% of respondents called it their top concern, a drop from 32% in 2006. Check out the sortable list of the 50 innovation leaders and a breakdown of the World's most innovative companies by industry sector in this special report.
The EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) has published a list of the top 25 largest purchases among EPA Green Power Partners. These purchases help drive the development of additional green power resources nationwide. To become a green power partner "your organization must replace a portion of its annual electricity use with green power. EPA has developed a sliding scale purchase requirement based on an organization's total electrical usage." View the list at the EPA site.
Two reports by the Joint Center for Housing Studies at Harvard University conclude that a lack of uniform regulations allow independent mortgage lenders to operate with less oversight of how they comply with the law, which is supposed to prevent discriminatory and unfair lending. Both papers can be read on the Joint Center for Housing Studies site.
The New York Times posted an article about a new company in San Francisco called "Obvious". Are you wondering what this company does? They created Twitter which is a heady mixture of messaging; social networking of the sort associated with Web sites like MySpace; the terse, jittery personal revelations of “microblogging” found on services like Jaiku; and something called “presence,” shorthand for the idea that people should enjoy an “always on” virtual omnipresence. So if you always want to be on, Twitter!
The Mercury News published the annual listing of the SV150, the largest publicly traded companies in the valley. The number of public companies is shrinking, down 28, including 13 that were on last year's SV150 list. Is this a sign of things to come? Most of the 28 vanished through acquisitions, but in the past as soon as a company dissapeared a new company was created. Economist are saying that the valley will remain healthy because of new techologies and new companies generated here. In fact I was watching a news program the other day that touted alternative energy as the new focus of companies in Silicon Valley. See the news story.
Atlantic magazine (May 2007) brings us Eataly, a Turin food market created by Slow Food, the international food movement founded in Italy. Is this the supermarket of the future? Replete with artisanal cheeses, organic veggies and grains, and rare beef and fish, Eataly seeks to embody Slow Food's principles -- preservation of local foods, environmentalism, social justice for growers, etc. As author Corby Kummer puts it, "Eataly is an irresistable realization of every food-lover's gluttonous fantasy, paired with guilt-cleansing social conscience -- a new combination of grand food hall, farm stand, continuing-education university, and throbbing urban market." Oscar Farinetti, founder / owner of Eataly, is hoping to open a new Eataly across the pond in New York City. Of course, there's a worm in every apple: Eataly does have its critics. Read more in the issue in Jackson Library.
Question: Who was fired from a firm he loved, started an information company no one thought had a chance, watched it change the landscape of Wall Street, and eventually became Mayor of New York City? (Hint: it ain't Ed Koch.) Michael Bloomberg is the focus of the Fortune (April 16) cover story. Bloomberg's current success as Mayor mirrors the triumph of his eponymous company. There are now 250,000 installations of The Bloomberg around the world (including the GSB), and Bloomberg L.P. is quite profitable (2006 pre-tax operating profits were about $ 1.5 billion.) The future? Peter Grauer, Bloomberg Chairman, aware that some project the world's financial assets to hit $ 214 trillion by 2010, beams "The markets are growing deeper and deeper, and that plays right into our strength."
There is a trend of late for dining establishments such as TGI Fridays to advertise their smaller portions menu. Along with that smaller portion comes a lower price. Will this "new strategy" fly in the land of "super size"? Some consumers are saying that the resturant industry needs to address the size of the portions they sell to help combat the rising obesity rates. The strategy of serving consumers smaller servings has a lamentably unprofitable history. Read more about it in the New York Times.
The mortgage market is hurting and the effects of all those mortgage loans given to cash-poor homebuyers is starting to rear it's ugly head. Homeowners are defaulting, mortgage lenders are closing their doors meanwhile prospective sellers are putting their homes up for sale in a real estste market that is relatively flat. The surprising thing is that home prices are not falling by much. People and companies involved in the real estate industry are hoping for a big spring thaw for the real estate market. Read more about it.
Well it's not the whole world just the online advertising giants, Google and Yahoo. The New York Times reports that his small company is trying to challenge the big guys in acquiring more online advertising business. What Quigo offers is transparency and control in what can often be an opaque business: advertisers pay Yahoo and Google for contextual ad placement on a wide variety of Web pages, but get little say over where those ads run or even a list of sites where they do appear. Read more about it.
The Toyota Corporation has unveiled the newly designed Toyota Tundra at the Detroit auto show in January. Jim Lentz, one of the company’s North American executives, told the audience that this vehicle "changed everything" for Toyota. It was researched, designed, engineered and built in America, Lentz pointed out; and it seemed, from his presentation, to be the toughest, brawniest and most iconically masculine pickup truck anywhere, ever. Read more about it in the New York Times.
A growing, resourceful workforce helped the 2006 list of Chron 200 companies turn in an impressive performance with hefty gains in revenue and market capitalization. The standout performers include Genentech, Chevron, Wells Fargo and ebay. Read more about it in San Francisco Chronicle.
The American magazine gazes upward in its January / February issue to a new generation of super-skyscrapers. The article 'Lust for Height' describes building projects that are raising the bar, such as the Burj Dubai, scheduled for completion in 2009, which will rise 160 + stories (the final height is a secret.) Most of the engineers and architects are American, but most of the projects are in Asia or the Middle East. Currently, Taipei 101 holds the world title, but architectural ambition may have no upper limit. Will we see the fulfillment of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous dream of the mile-high building? Read more in the issue in Jackson Library.
Molly Ivins, syndicated columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, died January 31, aged 62. When I first heard Molly Ivins speak on a radio program, I couldn’t stop laughing. She was raucous good fun, lambasting politicians on both sides of the aisle with wicked satire -- especially those of her home state, Texas. There was a method to her humor: holding the powerful accountable. She was a frequent contributor to Mother Jones, Esquire, The Atlantic and The Nation, as well as the author of several books. According to Paul Krugman in his New York Times piece “Missing Molly Ivins” (February 2, 2007), "Molly Ivins never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the times when it is most important to do so. " Ivins was never afraid to shout 'The Emperor has no clothes!' As one reporter wrote, 'Good ol-Guvment watchdog is Dead.' And watchdog she was, in the best sense. She will be missed.
The SF Chronicle reports that after 5 years of "bust", Silicon Valley is booming again. The area has revitalized its economy, going more global and developing new industries such as "clean tech". A new study, called the 2007 Silicon Valley Index, details these changes, and is due to be published this week.
Donald Trump is the subject of a recent blog by Guy Kawasaki. "Ten Questions with Donald Trump" is the title of the blog, that answers, for example, what Trump does to relax, and that for which he'd like to be remembered. If you have any remaining shred of curiosity about Donald Trump that hasn't yet been satisfied by TV or magazines, check it out.
An interesting New York Times article talks about the overfishing of groundfish to the point that these fish are almost non-existant in waters off the coast of Maine. This has affected the local fishing industry in many ways, even in the way they prepare their chowder.
Reported in inc.com, Jim Clark, the legendary technology entrepreneur who founded Silicon Graphics and Netscape Communications, has quit as chairman of the board of Shutterfly, the online photo ordering site. Clark cited the demands of Sarbanes-Oxley as the key reason for his departure. "As I understand it, Sarbox dictates that I not Chair any committee due to the size of my holdings, not be on the compensation committee because of the loan I once made to the company, not be on the governance committee, and it even dictates that some other board member must carry out the perfunctory duties of the Chairman," Clark wrote to the board. "What's left is liability and constraints on stock transactions, neither of which excite me. ... Mike Hofman reported.
Peter Thiel, a Stanford University gradute, has turned his $60 million dollar payout from the sale of Paypal he co-founded into a growing financial empire. He runs Clarium Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund and The Founders Fund, a small but influential venture capital firm. Read about how this fund is changing how entrepreneurs find money for their new businesses.
Ann Moore is one of the most powerful business women in the world as head of Time Inc. She oversees over 145 brands including Time, Sports Illustrated, People, Fortune. Over the past few years Time has undergone many changes, Moore is now in the process of revamping it's multiplatform model to draw more readers. Mediaweek's article entitled Moore's Code which give a great overview of how Time is maximizing all channels to communicate with its readers.
MySpace, the social networking site purchased in July by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, is trying to move into overseas markets, according to a |
