Friday, June 01, 2012
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Better, Stronger, Faster: Daniel Gross: Amazon.com: Kindle Store
"Daniel Gross is one of the smartest, toughest, and most skeptical business writers around. If he says sunny days are ahead, we should all believe him. This book is not just well written and chockablock with new insights and information, it's amusing." --Jonathan Alter, author of The Promise and columnist for Bloomberg View
"Yes, the United States took a huge hit from economic crisis, but talk of its long-run decline is overdone and premature. In Better, Stronger, Faster, Daniel Gross rebuts the the declinists and documents the enduring strengths that power America's ability to transform and reset itself in dynamic ways. The United States is poised to emerge from the crisis in better shape than any of its commonly touted old and new competitors." --Richard Florida, author of The Great Reset and The Rise of the Creative Class, Revisited, and director of the University of Toronto's Martin Prosperity Institute
“Daniel Gross is an author and journalist who is not afraid to challenge the conventional wisdom. His latest book does this with tremendous style, by directly attacking the ‘America is doomed’ camp, to paint a portrait of America that is far more vibrant than critics usually acknowledge. Not everyone will agree with this account, least of all in an election year; however, it should be required reading for anybody who wants to understand the current state of the American recovery—and the country's place in a fast-changing world." —Gillian Tett, U.S. managing editor, Financial Times, and author of Fool’s Gold
via www.amazon.com
Is there truly a reason to be optimistic about America?
The Road to Crowdfunding Hell - Daniel Isenberg - Harvard Business Review
Crowdfunding of equity capital for startups is one of a handful of jewels in the crown of the JOBS Act that swept through the House and Senate in a rare and refreshing show of bipartisanship, and was signed into law by President Obama April 5, 2012. But the crowdfunding jewel is fool's gold, and is inherently incapable of harnessing "people-to-people power" and the "wisdom of crowds" to "democratize access to capital for entrepreneurs" in order to "create wealth and make things happen," as crowdfunding sites publicly proclaim. As a savvy tech entrepreneur told me the other day, "I love crowdfunding: it is cheap money for me. I know it is not good for the investors." That is the problem: crowdfunding will at best be good only for the entrepreneurs and middlemen, paid for by unwitting consumers who simply cannot know enough about the highly risky ventures or the highly complex venture investing process to make informed investment decisions.
I am referring only to equity crowdfunding. Crowdfunding of charitable donations, artistic projects, or cool product development in exchange for samples or royalties, can work and has worked. Crowdfunding of debt can work. But crowdfunding equity stock purchases for risky startups — the target of the JOBS act — cannot work for four main reasons:
Let me say more about each of these problems.
via blogs.hbr.org
Relax, Crowdfunding may not solve your startup financing solutions. But then again Daniel refers specifically to "equity crowdfunding."
Cheaper Than Harvard: Ivy League Education Online, For Free - The Daily Beast
Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.
Think health-care costs are out of control? Try paying for a university degree. In the past 25 years, while health-care costs have risen 250 percent, higher-education costs have skyrocketed 450 percent, according to the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education. But Daphne Koller and Andrew Ng believe the Internet should allow millions of people to receive first-class educations at little or no cost. The two professors, who both teach computer science at Stanford, have launched Coursera, which will make courses from top-tier universities available online, at no charge, to anyone.
So far they’ve signed up volunteer professors from Stanford, Princeton, University of Michigan, and University of Pennsylvania. Coursera will offer 35 courses in subjects ranging from math and computer science to world history and contemporary American poetry. These aren’t just videotaped lectures; they’re full courses, with homework assignments, examinations, and grades.
Is it really happening? Ivy education is now online and free?
Friday, May 18, 2012
Thursday, May 10, 2012
How Do You Define Branding?
What is a brand? Branding is not limited to marketing collaterals. It goes beyond social media. The branding experience covers all human touchpoints.
In fact, the customer experience is the brand.
