Competition in the Digital Age
The ever interesting Paul Graham of Y-Cominbator published another essay yesterday entitles, "Black Swan Farming." No, it isn't about a possible Western Australian agricultural opportunity. Instead, it covers this: The two most important things to understand about startup investing, as a business, are (1) that effectively all the returns are concentrated in a few big …
Continue reading "Black swans and judging entrepreneurial ventures"
Harvard's Josh Lerner has written a new book, The Architecture of Innovation. It is basically an up-to-date recount of what we know about how innovation is encouraged. It is heavily research based but extremely accessible and is a must read for anyone interested in the economics of innovation. The basic thesis of the books is: …
Tomorrow the second cohort of The Next 36 will graduate. The Next 36 is a program that selects 36 keen and bright undergraduates from all over Canada, puts them in teams and gives them a big chunk of money each (from $20K - $50K) to develop a mobile app. In the process they receive business …
Justin Rao and David Reiley have a new paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives on "The Economics of Spam." It is a very interesting read; especially for the historical overview of the phenomenon. I had the opportunity to discuss the paper at the NBER Summer Institute and so I thought I'd record my thoughts …
Last week I was teaching “IDEA week” to my mid-career Sloan Fellow executive students. IDEA (innovation-driven entrepreneurial advantage;-)) is a week when we usually explore how innovation provides entrepreneurs with the advantage they need to really build a business that has competitive advantage and can compete with large established firms – either in new markets or …
First, some disclosure. I hold the Jeffrey S. Skoll Chair in Technical Innovation and Entrepreneurship here at the Rotman School of Management. Jeff Skoll [picture to the left from the Globe and Mail] endowed the Chair some years back and I'm the third person to hold it. So I am very grateful for that contribution …
Continue reading "Jeff Skoll defines social entrepreneurship"
In today's New York Times, David Brooks argues that a competitive and creative spirit may be substitutes. We live in a culture that nurtures competitive skills. And they are necessary: discipline, rigor and reliability. But it’s probably a good idea to try to supplement them with the skills of the creative monopolist: alertness, independence and …
Why was Google invented in the US and not the UK? Jonathan Haskell, Professor at Imperial College in London, asked that question in his most recent blog post. What motivated him to ask it? He got a little nudge from his Prime Minister, David Cameron, who asked the same question. Haskell justifiably hesitates to put …
Continue reading "What would you say to David Cameron about Google?"
There are no second acts in life, but the American system of entrepreneurship has provided many second chances. That flexibility is, perhaps, one of the greatest strengths of the US system of value creation. For example, a less-flexible system would never have given Apple’s late CEO, Steve Jobs, an opportunity to have much impact later …
Continue reading "Steve Jobs and the Economics of One Entrepreneur"
Digitopoly 