This blog posting by Bill Kraus does such a good job in explaining the US’ political stalemate that I am giving my weekly blog space to his words. Kraus was the Chief of Staff for Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus. He serves on numerous boards, including publicly traded for-profits and non-profits, and earned his extensive business credentials in the insurance industry. The Know Nothing movement of the mid-nineteenth century was a semi-secret political organization (an oxymoron?) which was dedicated to protecting the country from a takeover by German and Irish Catholic immigrants. The name resulted from their members’ keeping their association secret. When asked about the movement they, not unlike TV’s Sergeant Schultz, replied “I know nothing.” The 21st century version of know nothingness is not a movement but a condition. It describes the citizens who have outsourced, abandoned, and ignored politics and politicians….
Pennywise pound-foolish thinking
Imagine facing the following situation as the leader of your enterprise. Owing to years of underfunding and neglect, a physical asset that’s a basic driver of your competitiveness and productivity is deteriorating. By not repairing it, you’ve already experienced significant liability costs due to preventable deaths and critical injuries. Experienced engineers have publicly stated the situation will only worsen absent significant investment. In addition, not repairing the asset will further erode your company’s efficiency and deteriorate its competitive position in an increasingly global market. Furthermore, although cash flow is negative at present and your organization has far more debt than you want, you can borrow at close to zero percent interest rates and creditors deem your company as credit worthy. Additionally, the price of repair has never been lower owing to record excess capacity in the repair industry. If you do not repair…
“Occupy Wall Street” should applaud social enterprise business model innovation.
As “Occupy Wall Street” protests capitalism’s greed, social enterprise leaders are thankfully tapping the power of market forces to address capitalism’s thorniest social issues. In 2000, Gerald Chertavian founded the social enterprise Year Up to address the “huge waste of human capital” he observed in poor neighborhoods as a Big Brothers-Big Sisters mentor. Year Up gives a “leg-up” to youth aged 18-24 who have been disadvantaged by low income, family dysfunctions, substance abuse, or a criminal record. The high-expectations program combines a six-month professional skills training program (covering topics like writing, networking, time management, conflict resolution, and personal finance) with project-based internships that teach a technical skill. Over 85% of its graduates go on to earn $15/hour or more. A social enterprise, according to the Social Enterprise Alliance (SEA), is “an organization or venture that achieves its primary social or environmental mission using…
A Promising Business Model Innovation To Fix a Broken Pharmaceutical Industry
With venture capital flowing more slowly into the biotechnology sector, the Valley of Death (a period in which start-ups cannot secure additional funding required to remain viable) has become more deadly. Duane Roth, CEO of CONNECT, has a solution. CONNECT is a dynamic San Diego association increasing the number of San Diego start-ups and their success rate. Roth’s business model innovation aims to pull risk out of drug development, thereby bringing needed investment funds to this important US industry. In a 2010 Kauffman Foundation article Roth and his UCSD co-author Pedro Cuatrecasas call for creation of a “distributed partnering approach that would involve four distinct, independent organizations to collaborate in a risk-adjusted manner to discover, define, develop and deliver innovative products.” The significant innovation is within “define.” The co-authors advise creation of Product Development Companies (PDC), entities that combine “an experienced management team…