A French Entrepreneur in Tennessee

The Financial Times profiles Bruno Durant of Silver Bait LLC - "...the owner of what must be the world's only vertically integrated worm factory."  It is a refreshing look at what the USA continues to represent for the willing and hard working entrepreneur.  See article here.

iPad for superior consumer experience, win for retailer

Good article on Ad Age here, discussing how the brands can now connect directly with their consumers via the iPad. Yet, one comment highlights that smartphones could still be the in-store connection point for the retailer to the consumer for the near future.

Ad Age Disappoints - iPhone OS 4 Multi-tasks

Ad Age writes in Apple Brings Multitasking, Skype Support to iPhone Update here, "The new software answers many developers' and consumers' requests, especially with features like some multitasking support, a unified e-mail inbox, better VoIP calling, and a social-gaming network. It's cool that you'll be able to listen to Pandora radio and make Skype calls while reading e-mail and surfing the Web."

The statement in the article "These are fine features, but nothing revolutionary" shows that Ad Age has to go a ways to comprehend technology.  Multi-tasking implies that emergency messaging can get through, automated email updates, superior use of bandwidth when available, continuous consumer engagement solutions, continuous monitoring solutions in healthcare, etc. etc.

I'm disappointed in Ad Age!

CK Prahalad - RIP

CK Prahalad passed away in San Diego recently.  The top fundamental and foundational business trans-formative concepts he developed that any management executive knows are - analysis of how multinationals operate in "The Multinational Mission" - concept of "core competencies" in "Competing for the Future" - co-creation with customers and consumers in an interconnected world in "The Future of Competition" - challenge to businesses to serve billions of people earning a few dollars a day in "The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid".

CK Prahalad was a Global Charter Member of The Indus Entrepreneurs - the world's largest non-profit organization promoting entrepreneurship through mentoring, networking and education.  I am a Charter Member of TIE and President elect (TIE-Carolinas) as well and find the group to be an exceptional wealth of superb minds.

CK Prahalad will be missed.

Best Buy Going for Mobile Technology HFS!

"Brian Dunn, chief executive, told the Financial Times that the retailer expects eventually to have "a number somewhere between here and 1000" of Best Buy Mobile stores in shopping malls across the US, on top of the 77 it has already opened."

Read a related article at The Street here, see current Best Buy Mobile across the NE USA here.

Such stores will end up being similar to gas stations as the iPad driven convergence of internet communication, wireless telecom, content creation and management escalates.  Hence my reason to call them what they really ought to be - High Frequency Stores.  Something to invest in now?

Neuromarketing - Yay or Nay?

Dr. Michael Polster, SVP at National Analysts Worldwide writes in the Financial Times here regarding neuromarketing, "At the moment, then, marketers - not consumers - are at risk of being seduced by a fledgling idea that is neither fully validated nor fully understood, rather than relying on tested market research techniques that have helped launch and sustain virtually every mega-brand in existence today."

Friend and colleague Franz Dill is engaged at Buyology, folks driving neuromarketing based on Martin Lindstorm's book "Buyology: Truth and Lies About Why We Buy".  See company here.  See Franz's blogs on neuromarketing here.

Energy through Nuclear Power in the GCC

Saudi Arabia is planning to develop a civilian nuclear and renewable energy center, see an article in Arabian Business here.  Interesting to note that Saudi Arabia uses 1.25m barrels of oil each day where the price of a barrel is $5, see Financial Times article "Saudi Arabia announces nuclear centre" here.

On the nuclear technology acquisition front, Saudi Arabia is in talks with France, while Kuwait has already signed a deal with France on developing a nuclear energy project, see here.  And UAE recently signed a $20b nuclear deal with South Korea, see here.

Nuclear remains the cheapest (~6c/kwh), green and most available on-demand alternative energy today... yet the technology improvements are going to bring solar down further from (~20c/kwh) in the next few years.

The fun begins when mass energy stores become available!

Update: Areva, the French owned nuclear group, will be doing fund raising of ~$4b through mostly Middle Eastern and Asian investors. 

Digital Life is Permanent

During a seminar titled Digital Life, I stated to the audience that "Digital Life is Permanent" and gave a few examples.  Now I have one more to add:  Mr. Fabrice Tourre, the 31-year old Goldman Sachs vice president at the center of the SEC's case wrote in an email to his girlfriend that he is a "Survivor... of all these complex, highly leveraged, exotic trades he created without necessarily understanding all of the implication of those monstruosities [sic]!!!" (quote from ft.com)

The danger is digital life can be duplicated, tampered with...!  How often can one change the passwords.

Jeremy Grantham on Financial Bubbles - Excellent!

Jeremy Grantham states - "Bernake has happily picked up the mantle, and seems totally unconcerned about creating another bubble.  He has got interest rates so low, banks can't possibly not make a fortune, savers are being penalized, anyone who wants to buy cash faces a painful experience... so we are all tempted into speculating, which is apparently what he wants and we have just had one of the great speculative rallies in history second only to 1932-33."  Watch the complete interview here.

US High Tech Areas and Rankings

This is couple of years old but worth having a look at again to see how ll these places have fared in the past two years - see Milken Institute's interactive 2007 rankings here.

Shin-kansen: Japanese High-Speed Trains!

"The oldest and busiest Shinkansen corridor - Central Japan Railway's 550km Tokaido line, which connects Tokyo with the western city of Osaka - carries 400,000 passengers a day and has run since 1964 without a fatal accident. The average delay last year was 36 seconds, with most of that caused by typhoons."

The Financial Times talks about the Japanese Shin-kansen in "Tokyo bites hte bullet on Shinkansen" here becoming available to the world after close to five decades in use.  Great competition for the likes of Chinese and German train manufacturers.

Trend In-Motion: Future of Transportation

Excellent articles in the Financial Times today on high-speed rail. In "China on track to be world's biggest network" here, the newspaper writes about the future being bleak for the Chinese airline industry while China continues to spend on building new and redo existing airports. Yet, the thing the Chinese airline industry has to focus on is the consumer aspects and why they would choose rail over air:

"Flights in China are almost always delayed and passengers must arrive early so that they can pass through rigorous security checks.

Once on the aircraft, the service is perfunctory, the toilets often filthy and the food barely edible.

In contrast, China's shiny new high-speed trains are clean, fast, smooth and almost always on time. There are no excess baggage fees for heavy luggage, security checks are perfunctory and passengers can use their mobile phones."

I believe, if the US ends up being serious about high-speed rail, it will face the same concern as above.