latest posts
Shift Age Valuation
April 13th, 2008
Regular readers know that I have often written about Intellectual Property in this space. IP is increasingly important in the valuation of all enterprises. I provided a historical context to this trend here, and later talked about Ocean Tomo, one of the companies that is helping to create the IP marketplace.
As mentioned in one of the earlier columns, the percentage of the aggregate value of the S&P 500 companies that is IP has gone from 17% in 1975 to 80% in 2005. The transactional process of IP, until very recently, has largely been the same …
What Provokes Greatness?
April 2nd, 2008
This thought came to me while standing on Omaha Beach, one of the American landing beaches on D-Day. I think about the future and it is clear to me that humanity will need to find greatness to face some of the issues it faces now and in the next decade. We need to rise up to a level of commitment, collaboration, will and innovation that seems far from universal today. There is no question but that we can and that we will need to do so. The question is how we rise …
Beijing 2008: The Not Quite Ready for Primetime Olympics
March 27th, 2008
[Note to readers: this column was written a number of weeks ago, but was in holding as I wrote columns about some more immediate travel related subjects. With the turmoil in Tibet this past week, it is clearly a topic in the news. I have updated the prior column to include the recent upheavals.]
When countries or cities submit bids for hosting the Olympics it is usually done with a great sense of pride and boosterism. The governments and economic vested interests all look to hosting the Olympics as a way to showcase their “world class cityâ€. In the case of …
Omaha Beach
March 25th, 2008
I just returned from a trip through Normandy with my son. The focus of our visit was the beaches of D-Day. I was trying to connect a column billed as “A Future Look at Today†to the powerful emotions I was feeling. On Omaha beach there is nothing on the beach to acknowledge what occurred on June 6, 1944 except for a very modern sculpture dedicated in 2004 for the 60th anniversary. Nearby was a plaque with the words of the sculptor, Anilore Banon, as to his creative inspiration for his creation, “The Wings of Hopeâ€
“So that the spirit which …
