Business and Healthcare;Entrepreneurship Joints?

Part-maverick, part-unconventional, part-smart business owner Sir Richard Branson has business lessons to share in spades. Since I recently read his third autobiographical book Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur, I wanted to pass on some of what I learned from the book.

Without knowing exactly why, I have long admired his acumen and chutzpah. His story has provided me insights into why I’ve been so drawn to his adventures in business and his larger-than-life personality.
For those of you who don’t know much about him, Branson is the product of a somewhat privileged middle-class upbringing (he descends from a line of barristers and judges) and an English public school (what we in the US call a private school). A self-proclaimed poor student with dyslexia, he failed to complete any college degree, but opted instead to start a business, first as a magazine publisher and then as a mail-order record company owner. He went on to found Virgin Records, and this single venture expanded over the decades to become the Virgin Group, a conglomerate of businesses focused on travel (planes, trains, space travel), entertainment and lifestyle (including humanitarian ventures like fighting HIV, AIDS and climate change).
I came away with many business lessons. Here are a few.
Branson’s business philosophy is crystallized in these words, when asked why he went into business:
I’ve never been interested in being ‘in business’. I’ve been interested in creating things … Business is creative. It’s like painting. You start with a blank canvas. You can paint anything – anything – right there, is your first problem. For every good painting you might turn out, there are a zillion bad paintings just aching to drip off your brush. Scared? You should be. You start. You pick a color. The next color you pick has to work with the first color … People who succeed in business have swallowed their fear and have set out to create something special, something to make a difference to people’s lives …
Lesson: To thrive in business, it really helps to be passionate about creating something worthwhile. As a relative newcomer to entrepreneurship, I have maintained for years now that being an entrepreneur is a radical act of creativity, and it makes an every day “practice” so much more fun once you think of it as an entrepreneurial venture.
His fiercely independent path to success, in the face of rampant naysayers and critics, is both inspirational and hard to imagine duplicating. His gut instincts have won out many times over the analytics and pompous prognostications of others. He’s a master as staying on course with his vision and sense of purpose and ignoring the conventional wisdom.
I’m not good at theory. Almost everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned by doing.
Lesson: While you may draw insight and inspiration from someone else’s success story, you must rely on knowledge about your own marketplace, along with your inner talents and skills, to forge your own path.
Branson has been driven by the desire to innovate, partly I suspect because it’s in his genetic make-up and partly because he has been an astute observer of his own ecosystem’s evolution.
The best, most solid way out of a crisis in a changing market is through experimentation and adaptation.
Lesson: Healthcare is in crisis and the market is changing. It’s vital that we, as providers in an unstable setting, experiment and adapt. New business models? New levels of customer service? New joint ventures, relationships, partnerships?
His two greatest secrets of business success, in my opinion?
1. His relentless focus on the Virgin brand, along with his absolute clarity about what the brand stands for.
2. His dogged insistence on placing the people who work for him first. Wouldn’t that be nice, in healthcare?
by Philippa Kennealy, MD, MPH

Facebook raises new funding at $50B valuation

Facebook is now worth $50 billion,according to a report in The New York Times that says the company has raised $500 million in new funding from Goldman Sachs and Russian firm Digital Sky Technologies.

Goldman invested $450 million, while DST (which has already invested about $500 million into Facebook) provided the remaining $50 million. Goldman also plans to create a “special purpose vehicle” to pool its clients and invest another $1.5 billion in Facebook without triggering the Securities and Exchange Commission’s 500-shareholder threshold, The Times says. (Companies that break the threshold are required to disclose more information publicly.)

Facebook’s valuation has been climbing steadily on the secondary markets where shares are sold. (The SEC is now investigating those markets.) Early Facebook investor Accel Partners recently sold off some of its shares at a $34 billion valuation.

Facebook is expected to have its initial public offering as soon as 2012, although the company hasn’t said anything specific on the matter. It reportedly brought in $2 billion in revenue in 2010, and chief Mark Zuckerberg has said that the company is barely profitable, because it’s not focused on profits yet.

Last month, the second-hottest social networking company, Twitter, raised $200 million at a $3.7 billion valuation.

by : Anthony Ha

@VentureBeat

Top Ten Brains of The Digital Future: Prospect Debate

Two billion people online; half a billion on Facebook; the launch of the iPad, the explosion of digital publishing, the relentless expansion of mobile phone networks through the developing world—2010 has seen astonishing landmarks in the ongoing evolution of digital culture.

Next year will see even more—and an ever-more furious debate surrounding everything from net neutrality to copyright laws, digital business strategies, virtual property rights, the censorship of interactive media and the status of the increasingly complex identities the world’s citizens are building online.
Who are the great minds helping to create the culture of the internet and the world’s powerful digital media? Prospect’s January 2011 list will feature a" pick of the world’s digital thinkers"—the ones to watch if you want to understand the big ideas shaping the 21st century through technology.
There's an open debate for the audience :who you think ought to make the cut.I think it's a wise idea by Prospect magazine .I ought to think deeply in order to join the enthralling debate.
@prospectmagazine.co.ok
pic : Who will emerge as the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? " by : Joi Ito

Fielding A Dream

The Boston Red Sox completed one of the most storied seasons in baseball history in 2004 by coming back from a 3-0 deficit to defeat the New YorkYankees and then sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series to break a“curse” dating back to 1918. As he has done with his trading, owner John Henry has infused his long-term thinking into the Red Sox system. It goes far beyond bringing in a left-handed pitcher to face a left-handed batter, to include selecting the right players and the right tactics for situations based on probabilities.

Henry is actively involved in both JWH, his money management firm, and the

Red Sox, but gives much of the credit for success in both areas to outstanding staff members such as Mark Rzepczynski, president of JWH, who has been with the firm since 1998, and the front office team of the Red Sox.Here's CME journal's interesting interview with John W. Henry:

CME: First of all, congratulations on your success with the Red Sox. It’s an amazing story. A lot of Clubs fans in Chicago wish they could have some of that magic.

JWH: Yes, it was a gratifying year.

CME: Let’s get right into your trading career.What got you interested in trading futures in the first place?

JWH: My father and mother were farmers in Arkansas. When my father died in thelate 1970s, I decided that I needed to understand agricultural markets. So I spent a few years studying markets, game theory and probability. I was immediately fascinated with market movements. I retain the same fascination today.

CME: You have been described in The New York Times and elsewhere as “a cerebral man with a head for mathematics.” But how did you learn to trade futures – books,trial-and-error . . . ?

JWH: Early on I read Reminiscences of a Stock Operator, the autobiography of Bernard Baruch, and the writing of W.D. Gann. I was particularly taken with Gann’s philosophy. I had been a student of philosophy and quickly began to find a bias toward trading philosophy over and above results. I always distrusted results in the commodity markets and eventually across all markets.Life is too dynamic to place a lot of credence in the past results of any program or any trader. I strongly felt that the key to success in markets over the very long term was in having a valid philosophy of the markets that could not be shaken by results over the short or intermediate term. I equated this with valid philosophies in other areas such as business principles that endure regardless of cycles. With any valid philosophy in any field, there are going to be periods in which doing the right thing every day appears to be counterproductive.

If Keynes said, “In the long run, we are all dead,” I would say, “Remaining true to your principles, if they are valid, will produce great results over the long run.”

CME: What were your early experiences in trading like? Did you start with big losses and then decide to figure out what trading was all about, as some well-known traders have done?

JWH: I started with a diversified portfolio called the “Original Program.” The first week of trading was in June of 1981. I was so confident in my research and philosophy that I left the country and left stops with my broker. After dinner one night in Oslo that first week, I saw a chart on the front page of the Financial Times. It was an amazing chart that showed the price of coffee had skyrocketed. I knew I was short.

I called my broker and he said, “You know, you are on to something. We’re limit up every day in coffee going against us, but we’ve made money every day you’ve been gone.”

CME: What markets did you trade in your early days?

JWH: Soybeans, 30-year U.S. bonds,gold, British pounds, Japanese yen,copper, wheat, sugar, coffee and cocoa at the very beginning.

CME: As you began to evolve as a trader, how did you develop your trend-following trading approach?

JWH: I did not have access to computers.PCs were just coming out. I didn’t have a desire to find the holy grail by testing different methodologies. I came up with a philosophy of very long-term trend-following. I knew the approach would be very profitable, but I also knew the nature of long-term trend-following is to have volatility.

CME: How has your basic approach changed over the years?

JWH: It hasn’t. Portfolios have changed as the markets have expanded. Programs have been added. But the basic philosophy is the same.

CME: How many different trading programs does JWH offer today?

JWH: JWH offers 11 different trading programs to investors. Our diversified portfolios are the Original Investment Program, Global Diversified Portfolio

and the Global Analytics Family of Programs. Our financial portfolios include the Financial and Metals Portfolio, Global Financial and Energy Portfolio and Worldwide Bond Program.

Our foreign exchange programs are the International Foreign Exchange Program, the G-7 Currency Portfolio and the Dollar Program. Additionally,we offer two trading programs that combine the others – the Strategic Allocation Program, which can invest in any of the other programs, and theCurrency Strategic Allocation Program,which limits itself to the foreignexchange-only programs.

CME: How do you “sell” your managed futures programs as an asset class to these clients?

JWH: The primary benefit of managed futures is the low historical correlation to traditional assets. Our programs have done especially well during periods of market stress or dislocation. This is when you have strong market trends. Our market selection and our investment methodology combine to give a return

stream that is unlike a traditional long only portfolio of equities and fixed income instruments.

CME: With the spectrum of instruments available, what is your view about trading futures instead of cash markets – specifically, in FX(Foreign Exchange)?

JWH: Futures offer a uniformity and transparency not found in many cash markets. That having been said, we have not been as active in FX futures markets. This is primarily due to the liquidity available in cash FX markets.Nevertheless, we have seen a significant increase in volume and liquidity at the CME from electronic trading. This is causing us to reevaluate our trading atthe CME, especially for any active trading program.

CME: What are the most significant changes that you have seen in futures trading and in managed futures since the early 1980s?

JWH: Electronic trading has been the most significant change in futures trading. It is so much easier to access the market and transact trades. The influx of competitors to the managed futures field has been significant to our industry. There are more managed futures managers and global macro managers who use futures as a means of diversification and profit opportunity.There also has been a shift of emphasis towards shorter time horizons for trading as a result of the decreasing execution costs. There is less emphasis on long-term trend-following, which is our specialty.

CME: What developments do you see coming in futures/options trading?

JWH: Technology’s emergence into a predominant position in our industry is something that is ongoing in our industry. Another development I see on the horizon is the return of markets that will look very different from the low-volatility situation to which many traders have become accustomed.

CME: What developments would you like to see in futures/options trading?

JWH: We are constantly looking for new markets to trade. With developments in electronics, the cost of entering new futures markets is much lower. We hope to see new products at CME.We also look forward to new market participants in futures trading. This clearly adds to liquidity,which is good for everyone.

CME: In view of your baseball success in addition to your trading success, we have to ask a couple of baseball questions.What was your baseball background as a player or coach?

JWH: I played second base in Little League. I set a strikeout record at the Chicago White Sox Boys Camp in 1960…as a hitter !

CME: What prompted you to get into baseball ownership?

JWH: The investment business can be very insular. Owning a baseball team deeply connects you to important aspects of a community. And if you are a sports fan, there can be no greater dream than to own a team and become a participant. Of course, I don’t make player decisions.I’m not qualified to run a baseball team. So I am fortunate to have a brilliant general manager and a tremendous CEO.

Buying the Red Sox and winning a World Series with great partners was a storybook opportunity and a great accomplishment for an organization that had come so close over many decades. I owned part of the Yankees for a decade, so I knew exactly what we were up against. It’s the greatest rivalry in sports. Being a lifetime baseball fan and having a great love for markets, I’m incredibly lucky to have the Red Sox and JWH.

CME: With such success in two diverse areas, what relationship do you see between successful trading and putting together a successful baseball team?

JWH: There are a number of dissimilarities that people don’t want to hear about. But there are a few principles that guide both the Red Sox and JWH.It’s important to have a plan, remain disciplined in executing that plan and pay attention to what is actually happening rather than what you expect to happen. We try to be as objective as possible in our analyses. I’m a stickler for that. Some may see objectivity as

impossible. But that’s why systematic approaches make sense. It’s not always easy for people who are involved every day to stay with a plan when misfortune occurs for a time.You always encounter the unexpected, and this can push discipline right out of the way in the name of prudence. But prudence almost always dictates staying with the approach that has made you successful. I see that as one of my primary roles. I often encourage everyone during difficult days to be patient.I don’t blame people for the unexpected.

Every time JWH struggles – and that is usually annually – people ask if the markets have changed. I always say,“Yes, the markets have changed. That is the nature of markets, and that is why we have been successful over the long term.The nature of trend-following is to adjust to changing market conditions.”