Looking to the future: Mary Meeker’s take

Mary Meeker is a partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. She is generally considered to be one of the most insightful sources of info resulting from peering into the future and checking the lint in her navel. Below is a presentation she made mid-October 2011 at the Web 2.0 conference. It is well worth watching and taking on board the global trends in things internet she addressed. Hank

It’s the same hamburger

Last week Bill Gates addressed a group of computer science students and faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle. Bill is back on the top of the list of America’s wealthiest men this year. Interestingly, this is what he had to say when questioned about how to become as rich as he is:

” I didn’t start out with dream of being super-rich. Even after we started Microsoft he looked at guys running Intel and thought, wow, that must be strange (to be rich). It is, sort of strange. Wealth above a certain level is a responsibility to leave to children, which may or may not be good, or figure out how to give it away. I can understand wanting to have a million dollars, it’s freedom, but once you get beyond that, I have to tell you, it’s the same hamburger. Dick’s doesn’t raise their prices. But being ambitious is good.”

You can read Todd Bishop’s notes on the presentation here: Good quick read. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: Some days just start better than others

Thanks to my BIL Jerry for today’s smile. Hank

Looking for Magic Sauce

I received the following from Kauffman foundation last week: “If the best indicator of a country’s growth is the number of new firms started every year, as Kauffman Foundation research indicates, how do we get more companies to start and grow? What’s the magic sauce?

That’s the subject of the latest animated video in the Kauffman Sketchbook series released today. In “Magic Sauce, ” Kauffman President and CEO Carl Schramm points out that nearly 700,000 new businesses start every year, but the failure rate is high and many of them are not creating jobs. Schramm asks, how do we make those firms more successful at the outset?

The three-minute video goes on to outline the issues that the Kauffman Foundation is studying to learn how to help more entrepreneurs become more successful. “We do a lot of research, because if you don’t get the story right, you’ll get the solution wrong,” Schramm says.” Hank

Every semester our ENTR 200 students are assigned to do a video interview of an entrepreneur

Every semester our ENTR 200 students are assigned to do a video interview of an entrepreneur.  The fun begins when they find someone to interview.   Sometimes it is a family friend, others choose a local business owner and a few have had the initiative to contact a famous entrepreneur and managed to interview them from a distance.  Once the interviewee is chosen, the students set up an appointment with their entrepreneur, acquire the video equipment, write down some questions, and then do the actual interview.  The pain begins when they take what they’ve recorded, sometimes over an hour of footage, and edit it to 7 minutes.   It’s difficult to edit video, to choose what to leave in and what to cut.    Some students love the creativity process and add music and other interesting artistic expressions.  Others have a disadvantage because this is their first experience of creating a video.  No two videos are ever the same, even if the same subject has been interviewed.  All in all, it’s a great learning experience for everyone, and most students say they took a lot away from this assignment.  Here are two very different videos, one from each of my classes this semester:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxI-RBEAgf0

http://www.youtube.com/user/mgrudecki

Enjoy!

Beth Carroll

QR Codes & Malware: Not to fear

“Be careful the next time you scan a QR code, because it might just cost you money and wreak havoc on your smartphone” is the lead sentence in a Mashable story from last week. I have already been questioned about my opinion on the use of QR codes by one of the students in the recent EBV class at Purdue. I don’t think Russian-based hacks going to the equivalent of  900 #s here in the US is something we need to concern ourselves with.

Like all things involving computers/smart phones etc., look before you click. My response BTW to the EBVer query, was taken from a comment to the Mashable story, and is “Use a QR scanner (like RedLaser) that doesn’t automatically take you to the URL but asks first if you want to go to whatever link it reads, not one that autoresolves (like i-nigma which is still my favorite.).” by Lucretia Pruitt  She provided sound advice. Hank

Having Goals is Good: Our Hunter Sailboat

Over a year ago I purchased a 27′ Hunter sailboat sight unseen from Corpus Christi Craigslist while teaching a Maymester ENTR200 class at Purdue University. Today, after much sweat and tears and an ungodly amount of coin of the realm, we took it out on sea trails. My wife Linda shot the 13 minute video embedded below. You would have had to be there/here to feel the achievement. So like most good entrepreneurs, new goals now arise, including adding sailboat racing to my resume, starting 2013 after we get the kinks out. My profuse thanks to David Evans for his support and mentorship in getting us underway. Hank

Have A Happy Friday: Coming back to earth

Ever wonder what happened to the NASA payload that recently came crashing back to earth. See below. Hank

On Innovation

(Graphic to left from here) This past Monday, 10/17/2011, the WSJ ran a special report on technology. In it, Carolyn T. Geer had an article “Innovation 101.” While the general thrust was just about anyone has innovation juices in their bodies, our schools, screw students up. “Fear of failure is rampant among students who have been drilled in standardized-taking.” This mirrors my own experience in teaching 29 ENTR20000 Intro to Entrepreneurship & Innovation classes at Purdue University. Students come to the class with statements like “tell me exactly what you want.”  They either won’t or can’t deal with unstructured situations that surround innovative pursuits. The article suggests behavioral change leading to confidence is the key to turning students loose. I have my doubts this can be accomplished easily. What do you think? Hank

The life cycle of a business:

Once at the top of the fashion industry, financially struggling Liz Claiborne Inc. said Wednesday that it is selling its namesake brand and several others to concentrate on its Juicy Couture, Lucky Brand and kate spade brands that appeal to well-heeled shoppers. The company, which hasn’t had an annual profit since 2006, said it will change its name to reflect that emphasis (The Associated Press, October 12, 2011).

Liz Claiborne will sell the trademark rights for its Liz Claiborne brands to J.C. Penney Co. for about $288 million. It is also selling its Kensie brands to Bluestar Alliance and completed the sale of its Dana Buchman brand to Kohl’s on Monday.  Total dollars from these transactions should bring in proceeds of about $328 million with the hope of lowering debt from $548 million to about $220 million.

Founded in 1976 by designer Liz Claiborne, and three male partners, it was an immediate success with first year sales of $2 million, growing to over $23 million within two years.   Liz Claiborne Inc. went public in 1981 and made the Fortune 500 in 1986, with retail sales of $1.2 billion.   It was the first company founded by a woman to be listed in the Fortune 500.  In 2006, the company generated sales of nearly $5 billion.

A visionary and industry innovator “Liz Claiborne was the first designer to insist that her collection be placed together on the department store floor, instead of in separate clothing categories, which changed the way we shop. Shoppers no longer went from shirt department to pant department to coordinate an outfit. They were able to mix and match pieces from the Liz Claiborne collection to create entire outfits. This revolutionized the way department stores arranged clothing for sale and created the role of fashion merchandising as we know it today”(Wikipedia).  Claiborne died in 2007 at the age of 79 after a 2 year struggle with cancer.

Liz Claiborne, whose annual revenue has dropped by half from 2006 through last year, hopes a more high-end focus will help turn its business around.  Lucky Brand jeans sell for $99 a pair or more and kate spade handbags start at $100.  They are the latest company to adjust its business as the U.S. consumer market splits into the high and low ends, squeezing out the middle class shopper. Companies are doing everything from tweaking their product mix to changing the way they advertise and display their goods to appeal to American consumers on opposite ends of the spectrum.

The business world keeps spinning.  Beth Carroll