Using Threats in Negotiation

July 2, 2005

Harvard Business School’s Working Knowledge features a short but powerful article by professor Deepak Malhotra on how to make negotiation threats more credible. Briefly: Increase your costs of not following through on your threat Visibly restrict your options Visibly incur sunk costs Delegate authority to someone who will follow through on the threat Create and […]

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A Great Time to Start a Company?

July 1, 2005

Paul Allen and Joe Kraus (and read the trackbacks / comments) think so.

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Ireland’s Success

July 1, 2005

Tom Friedman writes on the success of Ireland’s industrial development policies, which have brought Dell, Intel, big Pharma and much more to Ireland’s shores (Dell is now Ireland’s largest exporter). Interesting quote: Today, 9 out of 10 of the world’s top pharmaceutical companies have operations here, as do 16 of the top 20 medical device […]

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E-commerce and Price Customization

June 30, 2005

Many shoppers are now comfortable with e-commerce, drawn to it by its convenience and often, its low prices. But a less well known power of e-commerce is price discrimination (though the industry calls it “price customization”) – the efficient variation of price by consumer. Why, after all, should everyone pay the same? It’s a custom […]

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The Asymmetry of Returns at VC Firms

June 30, 2005

Business Week recently studied the returns from venture investing and reported some rather startling results – very few of the VC firms account for the vast majority of the returns: Investors may have poured money into venture for the outsize returns, but in truth, relatively few firms deliver such results. The number of venture firms […]

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Return of the Telecom VC?

June 29, 2005

Om Malik writes on a spate of recent financings in advanced telecom technologies and wonders whether telecom VC is starting its comeback: Of all technology sectors, there is none which has suffered more during the big bust than telecom. The news of telecom start-ups fizzling out continues even today, but there seems to be some […]

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Lessig on Grokster: Ten Years of Chilled Innovation

June 29, 2005

Professor Larry Lessig has been interviewed by Business Week on the U.S. Supreme Court’s Grokster decision. His overarching concern is an unclear inducement test that will have to be developed by the lower courts over time, leading to, as he put it, “ten years of chilled innovation”. Interesting quotes: Q: So the problem with the […]

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Managing Your Board of Directors

June 28, 2005

There have been some unusually good blog posts lately about the relationship with the Board of Directors. First, Allen Morgan writes on 10 rules for managing the Board. The post is aimed at CEO’s and is a helpful guide to making the relationship more effective. Next, Jeff Nolan reconsiders Allen’s post from the perspective of […]

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Resources on the US SC Grokster Decision

June 28, 2005

Yesterday the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the Grokster case that file sharing software networks could in certain circumstances be held liable for inducing copyright infringement. The case is now remanded back to trial for reconsideration. Already, the decision is being cast by some in extreme terms – it will kill P2P, it will […]

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The Top Ten IT Management Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

June 27, 2005

Tech Republic recently ran an interesting post on the steps IT managers can take to avoid common mistakes. The top 10 mistakes: Focusing on technology and not the business Thinking “out of sight is out of mind” Thinking that your team has it covered Not inspecting what you expect Not creating a partnership with business […]

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M&A – A Corporate Development Perspective

June 27, 2005

Seth Levine is running an M&A series at his blog, VC Adventure. Recently, he featured the observations of a guest blogger – a former banker and current corporate development exec – on M&A. The post is a smart and observant commentary on three specific dynamics in M&A: hockey stick projections, paying for synergies and competitive […]

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The People Problem

June 26, 2005

Nicholas Carr writes on the effect that the difficulty and high cost of “finding, recruiting, motivating and holding onto skilled IT staffers” is having on driving IT outsourcing: The CIO of one mid-sized company that recently closed down its data center and shifted its operations to an applications hosting company told me that while the […]

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