Next Moves in a Global Economy: Podcasts from the 2007 Wharton Economic Summit

During the recent 2007 Wharton Economic Summit, Knowledge@Wharton recorded nine podcasts with speakers and panelists at the event, whose theme was "Next Moves in a Global Economy." The interviews are with:

• Jeffrey R. Lurie, owner of the Philadelphia Eagles Football Club
• Shellye L. Archambeau, CEO of MetricStream
• Ramkrishan (Remi) Hinduja, chairman of HTMT Global Solutions, together with Sashi P. Reddi, CEO of Applabs Technologies
• Marc Utay, managing director of Clarion Capital Partners
• Kenneth Shropshire, director of the Wharton Sports Business Initiative
• Shiv V. Khemka , vice chairman, SUN Group
• Clark Callander, managing director of Savvian
• Amy Errett, CEO of Olivia
• William L. Mack, senior principal, Apollo Real Estate Advisors.

[Link to Podcasts: Knowledge@Wharton ]

8th Start-Up@Singapore Grand Finals Award Ceremony (30th May)

8th Start-Up@Singapore Grand Finals Award Ceremony
9:30am - 1:00pm, 30th May 2007
DBS Auditorium,
6, Shenton Way

Guest-of-Honour :
Mr. Teo Ser Luck
Parliamentary Secretary
Ministry of Community Development,
Youth and Sports

[Register Here]

Thoughts on reading after finishing "The Patton Mind"

I have just finished the book The Patton Mind - The Professional Development of an extraordinary Leader by Roger H. Nye. By any measure, Patton was an indefatiguable reader who never seemed to have stopped reading at any point in his life, even in the midst of wars.

Several key ideas come to mind after :

• Annote books with ideas/views/comments
• Summarise and distill key information
• Think critically and do not be quick to accept everything; Do not be afraid to disagree.(Patton occassionally scribbled "Bull" next to ideas he did not agree with)
• Re-read good books to gain more insights
  
• Read biographies and papers to understand the authors personally
  
• Study history to avoid past mistakes and apply discovered lessons to the present
  
• Don't waste time on fiction, it is far more important to grasp facts.
• Never stop reading
  

Going to hold myself to these ideas.

Top 10 Warren Buffet Quotes

A collection of some of my favorite quotes from the famous Omaha Investor. I like to think about them as a way of peeking into how he sees things:

1. "It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently." (To his son Howard)
   
   
2. "Somebody once said that in looking for people to hire, you should look for three qualities: integrity, intelligence , and energy. And if they don't have the first, the other two will kill you. You think about it; it's true. If you hire somebody without the first, you really want them to be dumb and lazy"
   
   
3. "I gave a talk last year; some student at Harvard asked me, 'Who should I go to work for?' I said go to work for whoever you admire the most. I got a call from the dean about two weeks later. He said, 'What are you telling these kids? They're all becoming self-employed.'"
   
   
4. "I want to be able to explain my mistakes. This means I do only the things I completely understand." (On Investing)
   
   
5. "Do a lot of reading" (On how to determine the value of a business)
   
   
6. "If they need my help to manage the enterprise, we're probably both in trouble." (On how he expects his managers to run the show)
   
   
7. "Rule No. 1: Never lose money. Rule No. 2: Never forget Rule. No. 1" (Investment Philosophy)
   
   
8. "The fact that people will be full of greed, fear, or folly is predictable. The sequence is not predictable."
   
   
9. "Wall Street is the only place that people ride to in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."
   
   
10. "It has always been a fantasy of mine that a boatload of 25 brokers would be shipwrecked and struggle to an island from which there could be no rescue. Faced with developing an economy that would maximize their consumption and pleasure, would they, I wonder, assign 20 of their number to produce food, clothing, shelter, etc., while setting five to trading endlessly on the future output of the 20?" (Poking Fun at Option Traders)
    
    

(From : Warren Buffet Speaks - Wit and Wisdom from the World's Greatest Investor)

(Picture Credit : Mark Hirschey)

NY Stock Exchange Moves to Unix / Linux

Just caught this on Slashdot - NYSE is undergoing system migration to Unix and Linux.

I would suppose this marks a major leap in the use of open source software, and the decision by NYSE definitely has not been a simple one to make. Given the complexity and importance of the Stock Exchange systems, the risk/benefits analysis must have been

But it would seem that the major reduction in cost of operations was the main driver of the switch. Francis Feldman, the vice president of the shared data center for Securities Industry Automation Corp. (SIAC), the NYSE's technology arm, estimates the move will halve the cost of transactions, and though he wouldn't detail how much that would mean on a yearly basis, he said it is "serious financial savings, very serious."

It also underscores the industry acceptance of open source software and elevates its to becoming on par with commerical software in terms of the critical factors of realiability, robustness and security amongst others.

[Read : Full Article]

Singapore Owns more of Australia than Australia?

Wow .... I didn't know that, but according to the article the figures are :

Australian Government:

• 17% stake in Telstra: $9.6 billion
• Australia Post: $5 billion
• Medibank Private: $1 billion
• Australian Submarine Corp: $200 million
• Total: $15.8 billion

VS

Singapore Government:

• Optus: $10 billion
• Alinta energy assets: $4.3 billion
• Victorian electricity transmission monopoly: $2 billion
• Old Texas Utilities Australian portfolio: $5.5 billion
• Property: $2 billion
• Australand stake: $1 billion
• Total: $22.8 billion

I guess you do learn a new thing everyday ...

[From : Crikey - Singapore Owns more of Australia than Australia]

My Reading List, now on BookJetty!

Been playing around with BookJetty lately and think its a great way to keep organised on your reading list, especially if you are a voraiously reader like me. No more having to tell your friends "Yeah, I just read a book on [insert intersting subject] the other day which I think you would be keen on but I can't for the life of me remember its title ... "

So, I've gone and created a booklist in BookJetty to organise my reading and well, if you're keen, you can see what I've been reading instead of my schoolwork lately.

Thanks for the great site, Herryanto!

How to Become a Creative Genius

Just read this over at LifeHack.org.

Basically, the thing you can do to achieve Creative Genius-hood are to :

1. Keep a Notebook and Pencil on hand at all times (Ideas like fleeting renegades which are hard to catch.)
   
   
2. Ask Questions.
   
   
3. Be a Voracious Reader (Can't agree with this more, especially to read beyond the bounds of your normal scope as different disciplines offer totally different viewpoints and modes of thinking.)
   
   
4. Seek out new Experiences (Don't fear the unknown but instead seek to challenge it)
   
   
5. Become a Whole Brain Thinker (Work with mental techniques like mind mapping that make use of the power of the brain as a whole.)
   
   
6. Have Imaginary Dialogues
   

Read the rest of it here.

Steve Job's Customer Service?

Just read the following article, where some guy apparently emailed Steve Jobs after getting sick of waiting for AppleCare to respond to his cry for laptop repair.

Pretty interesting and though I can't really verify it, but on the surface it seems that while Apple may not have such a good frontline customer support (sometimes?), an email to the top man himself kind of boosts their speed.

In any case, good publicity mileage for Apple.

[via : Consumerist]


(PS: Kind of interesting also because I just read from somewhere that a study showed that only 11% of most senior executives' time is spent on sales and marketing related activites, the crux of any company's survival.)

Is Toshiba Also Going to Sell Computers Pre-loaded with Open Source Software?

Just read a story that "Toshiba Italy reportedly is considering offering pre-loaded Linux in its Tecra, Satellite, Portege, and Qosmio notebook lines"

Interesting that it comes right after my earlier post today about Dell's plan to do something similar. Would this be the start of a trend by PC manufacturers to preload opensource software into their machines and move Opensource computing into becoming a mainsteam option?

[Full Story: DesktopLinux.com ]

Dell Thinking About Changing its Business Model?

In the face of increasing competiton and slower sales, it seems like the folks at Dell are seriously considering if a shift in their business model would be a positive way of increasing performance.

"It is the first time that Dell or any other senior executive has publicly conceded that the business model that was crucial to the company's success could - and should - be altered. Until now, the company responded with an adamant no when Wall Street analysts or customers asked whether the company would consider other ways of selling." -IHT, April 29th, 2007

Also interesting to note is how Dell has also jumped onto the open source bandwagon by beginning to provide desktop/laptop configurations that come pre-loaded with Ubuntu.

[Full Story : International Herald Tribune - Dell thinking about changing the way it markets ]
[See Also :PC World - Dell to Offer Ubuntu Linux on PCs, Laptops]