Topic: Business
Dr. Moira Gunn learns about this history of Debt from London University anthropologist and author, David Graeber, from the pages of his new book, Debt: The First 5,000 Years.
The global television system is a half-trillion dollar business, leading Peter Chernin to say the cable business is "one of the great business models of all time." It is not surprising then that traditional television companies are nervous about new technologies, such as Netflix and Google TV, looking to secure content rights. Television companies must sharpen their game to maintain their 50 to 90 percent profit margins in the forthcoming digital age.
Africa represents a promising frontier for many global entrepreneurs. In this university podcast, Thomas Gibian, chairman of Emerging Capital Partners, discusses his experiences developing a private equity business focused on Africa, and how it has changed over the years. Speaking at the Stanford Africa Forum, he points to areas of future growth for those interested in investing in the African continent.
Dr. Moira Gunn sits down with Pulitzer prize-winning author, Ed Humes, to talk about his new book, Force of Nature: The Unlikely Story of WalMarts Green Revolution.
The concept of scalability has been around as long as the need to deal with ever-expanding systems has. Marty Abbott and Michael Fisher, authors of the book Scalability Rules: 50 Principles for Scaling Web Sites, discuss the problems with how technology experts have to deal with expansion as more organizations increase their web presence. Having written an earlier book (The Art of Scalability), they are uniquely qualified to give practical advice to IT professionals.
Telecom companies need to move from being merely infrastructure companies to having add-on services on top of their infrastructure to survive. Martin Geddes, Head of Strategy at BT, looks at the container industry's history for insights into where the future for telecommunications will be. The money in the container industry was not in the infrastructure but in the service of moving objects from A to B, efficiently and profitably.
Dr. Moira Gunn hears about life as Google employee from author and former Director of Consumer Marketing and Brand Management, Doug Edwards, as outlined in his new book, I'm Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59.
Everything is becoming a digital good. Sean Park, founder of Nauiokas Park LLP, discusses this idea and others, such as cyclical business cycles and horizontal business structures, in the context of the current events in international financial industries. Touching on both the far past and future, Sean Park analyzes current trends, markets, and business practices with particular attention to investment and business infrastructure while presenting his idea of a sixth economic paradigm.
In a world of media fragmentation, how can a big telemedia company keep its edge? By bundling deals with content providers, aimed at targeted markets. Gerd Leonhard says "curation" is the name of the game. Previously, big broadcasters and communicationss companies were the only game in town. It's now time for a new telemedia to care about content, branding, and audience.
With several mobile device platforms in wide use, the designer's job is more complex than ever. Suzanne Ginsburg sorts it all out, proposing several approaches and giving examples and tradeoffs of each. Should you design a native app only for the iPhone? A web app that works on Android and Windows phones, too? Or should your design fall somewhere between, targeting only a few platforms? Or take a hybrid approach? Suzanne gives guidelines to help you decide and describes tools that can ease the designer's task.
