yet2.com is thrilled to again sponsor the Clean15, a Canadian competition of clean tech start ups. The purpose is to foster fast proliferation and adoption of Canadian clean technology into industrial, residential and commercial systems. This competition is great for Canada, great for the world, and great for the start ups. yet2.com will help the winners establish corporate partners and route to market.
I’m credited with having a large network of friends. I cant think of anyone in my network that is harder working and produces better results than Dwayne Matthews at Drayton Weissenfels Inc. This guy is a machine, and he is scouring Canada for the best clean tech start-ups. If you are an entrepreneur in Canada, you need to meet Dwayne. Put on your parka and go meet him in Toronto.
Companies deciding whether to move forward now with acquisitions or capital projects should weigh the historical data on the timing of stock market recoveries. One common analysis calculates how many years must pass before the market returns to normal, assuming growth at the long-term average rate of 10 percent annually. In past recessions, however, the stock market came back from the trough much more quickly, with cumulative returns—over the two years that followed it—of 50 to 130 percent. If this pattern holds in the current downturn, companies waiting too long could miss the upside of the rebound.
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This has implications on Open Innovation, start placing your bets now.
I’m lucky enough to be a director of Longwood Gardens. Longwood is the best display garden in the world, and the clever gardeners there continually push the edges of horticulture and science. Which is why nearly a million people a year visit.
In preparation for the Philadelphia Flower Show, they have produced something extraordinary:
For the past few years I’ve co-hosted an interesting dinner, where I ask each guest to speak for less than 2 minutes on a way they think the world will change in the next 5 years – that is not obvious.
In December I hosted 70 leaders in a wide variety of disciplines – from horticulture to economics. The guest list included; 2 Governors, 7 CEO’s of companies of more than $2 billion in revenue, Chief Investment Officers of more than $38 Billion, 11 venture capitalists, etc….so you get the idea.
The 70 ideas were then voted on by each table, and below is a finalist – on ways the world will change that are not obvious. Please share your ideas on other non-obvious predictions and your thoughts about this one.
For the past few years I’ve co-hosted an interesting dinner, where I ask each guest to speak for less than 2 minutes on a way they think the world will change in the next 5 years – that is not obvious.
In December I hosted 70 leaders in a wide variety of disciplines – from horticulture to economics. The guest list included; 2 Governors, 7 CEO’s of companies of more than $2 billion in revenue, Chief Investment Officers of more than $38 Billion, 11 venture capitalists, etc….so you get the idea.
The 70 ideas were then voted on by each table, and below is a finalist – on ways the world will change that are not obvious. Please share your ideas on other non-obvious predictions and your thoughts about this one.
I spend a lot of time in Asia, in particular Japan. yet2.com has had an office there for 10 years.
Why? 1) Because so much of the worlds technology and patents are created there; 2) Because so many of the worlds largest companies (buyers of patents and technology) are there and 3) Because it’s a great launching pad into to; Korea, Taiwan and broader China.
I made my first trip to Japan promoting Open Innovation and patent liquidity, in 1999. Since 2000 we have had the same team on the ground – managed by Fujii-san. I was in Japan in December and I was there again last week. Here are a few observations from my trip;
1) The economy is recovering – slowly – but it is happening.
2) Unemployment is still to high.
3) Patent acquisition budgets are growing – and turning back on
4) There is a surprisingly large pipeline of new technologies / product about to be launched.
5) Location based technologies and human/machine interface technologies are of high interest, among others.
6) There is a great 4 mile run around the Royal Palace that is perfect for jet lag.
Makino-san, Fujii-san, Me, Takeuchi-san on Friday 1/29/10
Life is cluttered with noise; from pop up banners to drivle. In between all of this nosie, are the signals that really matter. The ballet recital of my 3 year old. The conversation about public policy with my Dad. The moment of technical clarity on a new biomaterial.
The art of life is optomizing the signal to noise ratio.
The dictionary says friction is ‘a force resisting the motion of surfaces in contact’, but I think there is another type of friction – the friction between capital and great ideas. I think this latter kind of friction is key to economic growth and it’s about to undergo sigificant transformations.
In 1720, if you were bright and ambitious (and free), the only legal way to make money was to either to have rich parents or to spend a life toiling away - and if you were lucky you just might be able to provide for your family. The situation was so bleak that even Ben Franklin, about the brightest those times had to offer, found his best choice was to run away from home and apprenticeship. Fast forward 200 years, friction drops a little with the aid of low tax rates and democracy, and the industrial revolution takes ahold.
In the 1990’s we saw the second drop – an even larger decrease in friction aided by the internet and a rich ecosystem of venture capital – that democratized entrepreneurship. No longer was a life of toil required first – and the world changed so much that a kid named Michael in his dorm room, revolutionized how computers were made and capital found its way to his door step – or students like Larry and Sergey changed how knowledge is indexed and shared. Now, these guys toiled plenty – but there was much less toil finding capital or customers – they toiled perfecting their business models. Ben Franklin would have loved this world.
I predict in 2010 we will see the 3rd, and largest drop, in the friction between capital and good ideas. What are the first signs?
A friend of mine forwarded an interesting article on China by Robert Fogel (U of Chicago economist). Here are the high spots:
▪ Higher education in China is rising dramatically; productivity, innovation, and adoption of technology are directly correlated with higher levels of education
▪ Chinese growth statistics may be underestimating improvements in output, particularly in the service sector; while the problem is not particular to China’s GDP calculations, the rapid growth of China’s service center exacerbates the issue
▪ In the “big” Chinese cities, the standard of living and per capita income “are at the levels the World Bank would deem ‘high middle income’”; don’t underestimate the Chinese propensity to consume
$123,000,000,000,000* - China’s estimated economy by the year 2040.
In 2040, the Chinese economy will reach $123 trillion, or nearly three times the economic output of the entire globe in 2000. China’s per capita income will hit $85,000, more than double the forecast for the European Union, and also much higher than that of India and Japan. In other words, the average Chinese megacity dweller will be living twice as well as the average Frenchman when China goes from a poor country in 2000 to a superrich country in 2040.
Although it will not have overtaken the United States in per capita wealth, according to my forecasts, China’s share of global GDP — 40 percent — will dwarf that of the United States (14 percent) and the European Union (5 percent) 30 years from now. This is what economic hegemony will look like.
* Patents – start filing them now in China. They will matter.
Posted by bendupont 
China – Some projections by Economist Robert Fogel
January 5, 2010A friend of mine forwarded an interesting article on China by Robert Fogel (U of Chicago economist). Here are the high spots:
▪ Higher education in China is rising dramatically; productivity, innovation, and adoption of technology are directly correlated with higher levels of education
▪ Chinese growth statistics may be underestimating improvements in output, particularly in the service sector; while the problem is not particular to China’s GDP calculations, the rapid growth of China’s service center exacerbates the issue
▪ In the “big” Chinese cities, the standard of living and per capita income “are at the levels the World Bank would deem ‘high middle income’”; don’t underestimate the Chinese propensity to consume
$123,000,000,000,000* - China’s estimated economy by the year 2040.
In 2040, the Chinese economy will reach $123 trillion, or nearly three times the economic output of the entire globe in 2000. China’s per capita income will hit $85,000, more than double the forecast for the European Union, and also much higher than that of India and Japan. In other words, the average Chinese megacity dweller will be living twice as well as the average Frenchman when China goes from a poor country in 2000 to a superrich country in 2040.
Although it will not have overtaken the United States in per capita wealth, according to my forecasts, China’s share of global GDP — 40 percent — will dwarf that of the United States (14 percent) and the European Union (5 percent) 30 years from now. This is what economic hegemony will look like.
* Patents – start filing them now in China. They will matter.
Full article is here: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2010/01/04/123000000000000?page=0,0&%24Version=0&%24Path=%2F,%20%24Version%3D0&%24Domain=.foreignpolicy.com