Nesmith's Notes

Entries for the ‘Management’ Category

Just Say No to Earnings Guidance

Joseph Fuller and Michael C. Jensen are suggesting that managers begin discussing their business’ strategy and get out of the earnings guidance game.  In their recent paper, Just Say No to Wall Street: Putting A Stop to the Earnings Game, they tell managers to stay away from earnings guidance and provide information about strategic goals, [...]

Brain Functions Improve with Age – at least some important ones do

Some important Brain Functions Improve with Age according to findings presented in HBR’s Conversation blog. In areas as diverse as vocabulary and inductive reasoning, our brains function better than they did in our 20s. As we age, we more easily get the “gist” of arguments. Even our judgment of others improves. Often, we simply “know” [...]

Why Wise Leaders Don’t Know Too Much

We’ve all seen it where lots of information compiled to make a decision did little to suggest an obvious course.  And that was 20 years ago, when it took leg work to gather that information, not just a few keystrokes in your browser.  Getting stuck in analysis was a problem thousands of years ago and [...]

Increasing Carbon Productivity Tenfold

In The Carbon Productivity Challenge, McKinsey & Company focuses on two objectives — stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) and maintaining economic growth — and proposes the world has 50 years to increase the GDP per unit of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) tenfold. A task the authors equate to the productivity improvement delivered during the 100 [...]

Buy a rug; Learn to influence

Is the world smaller? Maybe so or maybe good ideas stick regardless of the time and distance they travel to their location. In any event, you can find the latest business thinking in far away places. If you follow Robert Cialdini, then you will want to read this story about a rug business in Turkey [...]

Get Tuned In

The folks at Pragmatic Marketing have put together a great book describing their process for creating products and services that customers want and more importantly will buy. Tuned In is a quick read and should prove to be a valuable reference guide as you turn to your potential customers to define the products and services [...]

Redeye VC: I Don’t Know…

“Why do people feel pressure to have an answer for every question?” Even when they don’t know Jack, they make it up on the fly. Ten years ago our training courses included a short video clip of college students at some of the more prestigious universities speaking at length with great confidence about a subject [...]

Conviction or Discipline

No, it’s Conviction and Discipline according to Fred Wilson, “Conviction and discipline are two sides of the same coin.” I like the view.  Similar to a great strategy with weak execution, conviction without discipline will often lead you into the ditch and will never get you to the mountaintop.

Berkshire Hathaway’s Shareholders Letter

Berkshire Hathaway’s Shareholder Letter is a must read and this one is no exception.  Continuing last year’s scolding of the sub-prime mortgage banking industr, my favorite lines included these: John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, aptly dissected the recent behavior of many lenders: “It is interesting that the industry has invented few ways to lose [...]

Is Founder Control in Public Companies a Good Thing?

Another high profile company going public has decided to maintain control while selling a majority of the economic stakes in the company to the public.   This time it is Al Gore as a founder of  Current Media. I certainly agree, the company’s shareholders have a right to decide the control structure they want to [...]

Bonderman addresses Silicon Flatiron crowd at CU

Speaking of the TXU purchase, Mr. Bonderman said the company was adept at running a profitable company and equally bad at politics from price increases to ecology to labor relations. These shortcomings lead tothe opportunity which focused on addressing these public concerns.Opportunities for private equity include exploiting public investorsfocus on short term focus, their dislike [...]

4 hour work week…

The 4 hour work week is an interesting and educational book, even for those who would not choose to work only half a day each week.  It pushes you to think about different ways to get your job done and to think differently about which activities you keep inside and which you push to others. [...]

Gazelles Growth Summit – Day Two

Day two included another round of interesting speakers.  We began with a horse of a different color as Paul Orfalea, Founder of Kinkos, shared his store, advice and leadership style (close the door and let the kids run the store). Then we moved on to customer satisfaction and the Net Promoter Score as described by Fred Reichheld, [...]

Gazelles Growth Summit – Day One

The annual Gazelles Growth Summit began today in Las Vegas with a host of interesting speakes. Robert Bloom was first at the podium to discuss his new book Inside Advantage. It is a good read and I will write a separate post on it soon. Bloom is full of real life examples from his long [...]

Social = me first

Stowe Boyd, author of /Message, presenting today at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference identified a model for designing Web 2.0 applications. Build for the individual first, then for groups of like minded people and then focus on the money making activity for a “market”. Stowe claims the Internet is increasingly becoming the Third Space, our primary [...]

Build for Value

Even though the most likely outcome for a successful technology company is via an acquisition, I have never liked the idea of planning for it.  Plans and actions then often go away from what will help our customers and help us succeed in the market to what would ABC Inc. like to see in an [...]

Web 2.0 hits saturation

Buzzmeister’s beware!  The Valleywag buzzmeter shows Web 2.0 hits saturation.   That’s so 2006.  How should a capital hungry business owner create excitement among the technology captains of capital?

Bomb fear advertising trend – I hope not

I haven’t found it, but I’m sure if it hasn’t already been done, someone will analyze this advertising campaign in terms of publicity vs. cost. They may well find that the additional publicity from the disruption of business in Boston was well worth the $500 to $600 thousand the company will pay Boston for damages. [...]

Web 2.0 – A Bubble, Hype, for the Lucky Few?

Tom Evslin’s post Web 2.0 – Greater Initial Investments Required suggests that early Web 2.0 companies seized the advantage of low cost technical infrastructure and low cost marketing to gain cost advantages.  These companies were able to get big cheaper and faster than the first generation internet companies.  While he agrees with Fred Willson that [...]

Private Firms Lure Chief Executives With Top Pay – New York Times

Why are private boards putting more value on the efforts of top managers than comparable public companies?  With no doubt there have been compensation structures for CEOs that were neither aligned with the interest of the shareholders or other stakeholders in the corporation.  However, the comparison between the pay at the top of the organization [...]

Board Management 101

A candid interview with Seagate’s CEO reveals his success cookbook.  The secret to managing a board of directors: “You never ask board members what they think. You tell them what you’re going to do.” Are you sure you have the right board members?

Web start-ups snub the big money – Technology & Media – International Herald Tribune

In Web start-ups snub the big money, the International Herald Tribune suggests this is a trend that should be expected to continue for a few if not spread to many companies in the space.“By then, Meebo was being courted by venture capitalists, but it decided to take a modest $100,000 from three angel investors, people [...]

VC Deals: Hercules allows investment in pre-IPO start-ups

MercuryNews.com | 08/16/2006 | VC Deals: Hercules allows investment in pre-IPO start-ups“Hercules invests primarily in high-tech companies, usually through “mezzanine” debt financings coupled with an equity component such as stock warrants or options, in private companies previously funded by leading venture capital firms. The loans are typically secured by some or all of the assets [...]

Ta-Da! Cheaper Stock Options!

Ta-Da! Cheaper Stock Options! Are stock Betas, volatility, really going down as fast as stock option valuations suggest. This article suggest they are not. Look, the only reason any investor wished companies to expense options is to reduce the number of options granted. An appropriate goal, perhaps, I question the approach. There is limited value [...]

Massachusetts’ Bold Healthcare Initiative

or overstepping the boundaries of government? Which of these best describes the recent “Healthcare for All” bill supported by an overwhelming majority of the Massachusetts Legislature (154 to 2 in the House and 37 to 0 in the Senate) and Govenor Mitt Romney? The plan’s objective is one shared by all concerned about the unisured, [...]


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        Cisco and Itron are joining forces to go after the smart grid together. The companies announced a somewhat far-reaching agreement under which the two will work to develop IP-based communication standards for the smart grid. Itron will then bundle and resell Cisco's technology. In short, what you have is an alliance between a company (Cisco) with experie […]
      • The Future of Sustainable Paint Manufacturing
        "You can have a Model T in any color, as long as it's black."  The automotive world has come a long way since Henry Ford made this statement while introducing the revolutionary Model T Ford in 1908.  Today, paint color and quality both play major roles in car-buying decisions. However, automotive paint is not just about looks. It is also the v […]
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        Recurve, the energy efficiency retrofitter and software developer, is getting a retrofit itself. The company has hired Andy Leventhal as its new CEO, replacing Pratap Mukherjee. Leventhal co-founded Planet Metrics, a carbon accounting company, in 2007, and sold it off to Parametric Technology in February.   The change in CEO will also usher in some organizat […]
      • The Problem With Ethanol, California’s New EE Standard, and More
        Beware the sticker price. Propel Fuels, which wants to build 75 alternative fuel gas stations in California, unveiled one in Oakland yesterday, according to several news reports. The company already operates stations in Oakland and Seattle. One of the big problems with ethanol has been the availability of pumps dispensing E85, the 85 percent ethanol/15 perce […]
      • The Biggest Green Market? Seven Reasons Why It’s Green IT
        Over the past few weeks, I've had a number of meetings with engineers, executives and investors and such, and I keep coming away with the same conclusion. The fastest-growing and arguably most attractive segment in alternative energy and energy efficiency lies in hardware, software and networking equipment. Yep, green IT. Part of the conclusion is a his […]
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      • With Arch Rock Purchase, Cisco Takes Aim at Silver Spring Networks
        The brewing competition between Cisco and Silver Spring Networks just lost its subtlety. The networking giant today bought Arch Rock, a privately held company that specializes in standards-based mesh networking technology for monitoring data centers and, more importantly, for connecting different assets on the grid (namely, AMI networking solutions). Yesterd […]
      • Independent Test Exonerates PGE Meters, Blames Customer Service
        The Structure Group, an independent organization retained by the California Public Utilities Commission to examine the smart meters installed by Pacific Gas & Electric in Northern California, issued its report today. The meters worked. Increases in bills were largely due to a 2009 heat wave, which caused air conditioning use to spike. Structure also did […]
      • In California, Large and Small Generators Tussle Over Grid Rules
        To help California reach its renewable portfolio standard goals, The California Independent System Operator (the ISO) may be aggravating a rivalry between large- and small-scale renewable energy producers. The Small Generator Interconnection Procedure (SGIP), the ISO's proposed rules governing grid connection for five megawatt to twenty megawatt project […]
      • Roundup: Coda Goes to Hawaii, Ford Adopts Liquid-Cooled Batteries, and More
        Coda Automotive, the Sino-American car company coming out with an all-electric sedan later this year, said it will bring its cars to Hawaii in the third quarter of next year. The company is already slated to bring out a limited number of cars to California later this year. Hawaii is an interesting choice. The state is seen as a growth market for PV panels, w […]
      • Ashton Stark: VW Beetle Turned Into Electric Car By 14-Year-Old
        It will be another two years before Ashton Stark can get his driver's license, but that's not stopping the 14-year-old from looking to the future -- and in more ways than one. With a keen sense of green and a little engineering savvy, Ashton succeeded in transforming his grandfather's 1972 Volkswagen Beetle into a cleaning running, all-electri […]
      • Dennis Whittle: Growing AND Greening
        Historically, richer countries have grown by relying on power sources and technologies that generate massive amounts of the greenhouse gases that are causing global warming. This has posed a serious dilemma: should poorer countries stop improving the lives of their people to avoid generating the additional greenhouse gases that would cause massive damage to […]
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        A recent study into the potential use of surplus butter has stated there is a possibility it could be used to make biodiesel fuel. Read more: Butter Car Fuel, Biodiesel Butter, Butter Fuel, Green Technology, Car Fuel Butter, Butter Biodiesel, Butter Gasoline, Gasoline Butter, Green News […]
      • SUGAR Volt: Boeing Team Designs Aircraft That Burns 70% Less Fuel
        We recently reported on a program led by NASA that was aiming to green the future of air transportation, and now Boeing -- along with their teammates General Electric and Georgia Tech -- are following suit with their just-revealed innovative SUGAR Volt concept which is driven by an electric battery gas turbine hybrid propulsion system that can reduce overall […]
      • Ecuador National Park Uses Motion Sensors To Photograph Rare Species (VIDEO)
        In this video from Reuters, Yasuni National Park in Ecuador has installed cameras equipped with heat and motion sensors to photograph unsuspecting wildlife that walk into view. Using them to capture over 30,000 images, researchers have discovered new and rare species in this particular area of the Amazon. The nearly 2.5-million-acre park is home to thousands […]
      • Bob Ostertag: Floods, Fires, Hipsters: Mission Accomplished
        And so it unfolds: Record flooding in Pakistan displaces millions, kills 1200, and cholera is starting to spread. It is 106.3°F in the Ukraine. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev reports that in 14 regions of Russia "practically everything is burning." A drought accompanying the heat wave has ruined 25 million acres of grain (about the size of Kentu […]
      • Poo Power: VW Bug Runs On Methane Bio-Gas Or The Waste of 70 Homes
        POO POWER! GENeco, a waste treatment company in Bristol, UK set out to prove that bio-gas could be a reliable alternative transportation fuel, so they imported special equipment to help process their waste and upgraded a VW Bug to run on methane. Read more: Green Cars, Green Car, Green Vw Bug, Green Technology, Green Transportation, Methane Bio-Gas, VW Bug, […]
      • Julia Moulden: Yes, You Can Save the World at Work
        As much of the world suffers through a stifling summer, one corporate team is keeping close watch on the solar panels on their building's roof -- which quadrant is producing the most energy? It's a sign of things to come, and I want to share their story. But, first, a little background. When I began writing about the New Radicals, people who are pu […]
      • Smart Grids, Smarter H20, and Mad Science
        As IBM works towards smarter cities and a smarter planet, they've got to cover all of their bases: this means factoring in everything from water conservation, to health care, to energy and smart grids. But what is a smart grid anyway? While it sounds good to us we're not entirely sure what it is, so we checked in with IBM's resident mad scient […]
      • Louis Palmer: Solar Taxi Driver Plans Zero Emissions Race Around The World
        GENEVA — A Swiss inventor who last year circumnavigated the globe in a solar taxi says four teams will follow in his tire tracks next week. Louis Palmer says the teams from Australia, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland will fire up their electric vehicles Aug. 16 in Geneva in an effort to race around the world in 80 days without producing any carbon emissi […]