Archives: June 2014

Surprising Oldie Stats

These few snippets are from my slide deck. (Post occasioned by tweetstream on the topic, 06.23-24.14.):

USA 1996-2007, Entrepreneurial Activity (firms founded): 
Highest rate: Ages 55-64 
Lowest rate: Ages 20-34 
(Source: Dane Stangler, Kauffman Foundation, reported in the Economist.)

“The average age of a start-up founder is 40. And high-growth start-ups are nearly twice as likely to be launched by people over 55 as by people 20-34.”
(Source: Vivek Wadhwa, Kauffman foundation, reported in Time/0325.13.)

Forrester Research: “[Age 55-plus] are more active in online finance, shopping, and entertainment than those under 55.” (Sorry, no date available.)

The Moral Bedrock Of Management

It’s a long(ish) story—and not relevant. Let’s just say that a conversation I had earlier today led me to pull together the 9-page paper attached. In the main, I think it speaks for itself—or I hope it does.

[Ed. Update 07.25.14, 45 pages]: The Moral Bedrock Of Management PDF

Bahrain

Today, Tom spoke at the Gulf International Convention & Exhibition Center in Bahrain. His topic: The Search for Personal & Business Excellence.

He offers participants (and anyone else) three PowerPoint presentations:
Bahrain Final
Bahrain Long
34 BFOs (Blinding Flash of the Obvious)

Disruption! Disruption!
Dis-Rup-Tion!
New! New! New!
Phew! Phew! Phew!
Hold Onto Your Hat!
Katy Bar the Door!

I admire—and have learned from—Clay Christensen. He brought us news of a constant state of “disruption.” We now live in a state of perpetual breathlessness. Every day brings news of a new disruption. Wow!

But something was nagging at the back of my mind, And I finally figured out what it is. Namely, constant disruption—at a fast clip—may not be new. What “big data analytics” did I use to figure this out? My Mom, Evelyn Snow Peters, was born in 1909 and died in the summer of 2005. Here, in a single paragraph, is a partial précis of the yawn-worthy, uneventful times she lived through:

The advent of mass market cars, commercial radio, routine long-distance phone calls, portable phones, cell phones, satellites, satellite phone call transmission, movies with sound, color movies, TV, TV dinners, microwave ovens, commercial use of aircraft, jets, extensive electrification, the Great Depression, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Walter Johnson, Bob Feller, Barry Bonds, Derek Jeter, the West Coast Offense, the Civil Rights Movement, an African-American POTUS, Gay Pride, women win the right to vote, Gandhi, Churchill, WWI, WWII, the birth of the U.S. Navy Seabees, relativity, the A-bomb, the EEC, the EU, the Euro, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq War, 9/11, the 43-year Cold War, the disintegration of the USSR, the resurgence of China, the death and resurrection of Germany and Japan, Oklahoma & New Mexico & Arizona & Hawaii & Alaska become states, William Howard Taft* [*just missed Teddy Roosevelt], FDR, Ronald Reagan, Father Coughlin, Jim and Tammy Bakker, mainframe computers, PCs, hyperlinks, the iPod, DARPA-net, the Internet, air conditioning, weed whackers, Mickey Mouse, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, the Beatles, Madonna, the Model T, the Cadillac Escalade, Nancy Drew, the first four Harry Potter books, antibiotics, MRIs, polio vaccine, genetic mapping, WWII rockets, space flight, man-to-the-moon, more or less permanent space station.** [**But, to be sure, not long enough to see the Cubs win another World Series or to take a selfie.]

See, not much went down for her.

Whoops, gotta go, gotta deal with my DDD … daily dose of disruption.

Medtronic

Medtronic is a premier world-wide purveyor of medical devices and therapies. Tom’s speaking to their EMEAC FY-15 Annual Kickoff Meeting in Frankfurt today. To get the PPT from his presentation, see below. Also attached is his additional offering to this group, “Systems SECOND.”

(Tom tells us that perhaps he’ll depart from his normal “pull no punches” style. “Hey,” he said, “I have a Medtronic pacemaker implant. I gotta be nice to these folks.”)

Medtronic Final
Medtronic Long Version
Systems Have Their Place: SECOND Place