Speaking of Entrepreneurs, IBM launched System/360 on April 7, 1964. Many consider it the biggest business gamble of all time. At the height of IBM’s success, Thomas J. Watson, Jr. bet the company’s future on a new compatible family of computer systems that would help revolutionize modern organizations. Get a behind-the-scenes view of the tough decisions made by some of the people who made them, and learn how the System/360 helped transform the government, science and commercial landscape.
Category: Business
Where are the Entrepreneurs?
John Byrnes has written one of the better articles [164K pdf] I’ve read on the topic of Wisconsin’s generally poor entrepreneurial track record. He correctly points out that:
- Most attendees at recent VC & Economic Conferences were from government agencies, community development organizations, schools and universities (why? most real entrepreneurs don’t have time to sit around and talk, they’d rather make things happen)
- Byrnes further muses that perhaps our culture is to blame: “We may be dealing with the long-term effects of an overprotective social climate that discourages risk taking.”
- Too much overhead: Byrnes cites a recent study by the California-based Milken Institute which shows that Wisconsin has more economic development offices and business incubators per capita that almost every other state, including California! Byrnes calcuates that the ratio of business support people to entrepreneurs is 100 to 1; if you add educators, the ratio is 1000 to 1!
Byrnes is right on. We don’t need more state sponsored programs (that generally only benefit the largest firms). We in fact, need less paperwork (I can’t imagine how a small business keeps up with it all….), more risk taking and a more entrepreneurial financial environment (California has this in droves).
Byrnes article appeared in the April, 2004 issue of Corporate Report Wisconsin.
New Madison Air Service: Liberal Air!
David Brooks pens a too funny look at the proposed Liberal Air and it’s counterpart Right Wing Express. The faculty seating arrangements are too funny….
On a more serious note, I recently received an email from County Executive Kathleen Falk regarding non stop air service to and from our local airport. She also attached a note from Brad Livingston, our airport director regarding their current initiatives (non-stop service to and from Atlanta along with potential incentives to increase service).
Madison firm wins Shanghai traffic monitoring deal
John Schmid writes about Trafficcast’s agreement to create a traffic monitoring system in Shanghai:
“This is a great example of a Wisconsin-developed technology and a Wisconsin-developed business that has found a significant market in China,” Doyle said in an interview in Shanghai.
Much of the hiring will take place in China. In Shanghai, there will be more than 100 employees eventually, adding to the 35 in the United States, Li said. Without giving the company’s annual revenue, she predicts China will catch up to U.S. sales within two to three years.
It’s always great to read about Madison firms in the Milwaukee paper first….
Andreessen on America’s Strengths
Optimism is everything
Amidst much discussion on outsourcing, Wisconsin native (and Netscape co-founder) Marc Andreessen writes about America’s economic & cultural strengths:
- Higher education: — we’re the best in the world; students come from every other country on the planet to study in our colleges and universities.
- Entrepreneurialism throughout the system — we continue to be the most entrepreneurial economy on the planet (more than China, more than India, certainly more than Japan, … and way more than Europe).
- Risk-friendly culture (this is hugely important) – this is not true across all states – Wisconsin needs to encourage more risk taking – state subsidies are not the answer
- Culture that loves new things — American obsession with the latest and greatest — often made fun of but hugely valuable.
more via John Robb….
Biotech, Wisconsin’s Economic Savior? – an update
Judy Newman has a timely article on the state of Madison’s biotech industry:
The biotech hub took a big hit last week with the news that PowderJect Vaccines in Middleton will close, wiping out the jobs of 88 employees, many of them highly educated, specialized scientists and technologists. And it’s not the only local biotech that has pared its staff or even disappeared in recent years. <
There are several issues here:
- The biggest issue: Risk taking, attitude (compare to California, Colorado, Oregon & Washington)
- Money (California’s biotech money is a completely different world)
- Again, we need more people that are willing to take a risk (and fail in some cases)
- I doubt that additional state backed funding schemes will make any difference at all…
Don’t do survey’s just read your email….
Doc Searls provides some useful advice to anyone running web surveys….
Big company Web site user surveys invariably suck. They tend to be too long, to ask the wrong questions, and to be done by outside companies that don’t have relationships with users. So I usually don’t take them.
Bottom line: keep it simple and listen to your clients….
Retail Ideas: Guerilla Marketing is the wave of the future
Interesting look at unconventional marketing (from book of joe)
The Comme des Garcons Guerilla Store flouts conventional wisdom in almost every way. Said Nancy Koehn, a professor at Harvard Business School, “Guerilla marketing is the wave of the future. Red Bull and Trader Joe’s have built their followings by word of mouth.”
from doc searls….
Warren Buffett’s Annual Shareholder Letter
NEW YORK, March 6 (Reuters) – Warren Buffett, the world’s second-richest person, wants to pay more taxes. And he wants the rest of corporate America to pay more too.
In his annual letter [196K PDF] to shareholders of his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (nyse: BRKa – news – people) holding company, released on Saturday, the 73-year-old Buffett said Berkshire’s taxes rose more than eleven-fold to $3.3 billion from 1995 to 2003, as profits rose ten-fold to $8.15 billion.
During the same period, federal income taxes paid by all U.S. companies fell by 16 percent, to $132 billion.
“We hope our taxes continue to rise in the future — it will mean we are prospering — but we also hope that the rest of corporate America antes up along with us,” said Buffett, who has previously criticized Bush administration tax policy.
Visit Berkshire Hathaway’s site to view Buffett’s annual letters, from 1977 to 2003…..
Misadventure Capitalism
Doc Searls has some useful commentary on a recent PBS Cringely column (The Curse of the Hundred Bagger) regarding the stagnant economy.
Searls references Peter Drucker’s Post Capitalist Society with respect to the declining utility of large corporations (he’s right on).