Entrepreneurial Introspection

The business ramblings of a future innovator! Follow me on Twitter @giantenegro19

[futureinnovation19-blog]

What Does Twitter's IPO Mean For Your 140 Characters?

Oh Twitter, here we go again, another socially born and grown company with a simplistic platform and goal is applying for an IPO and is going to be forced to subject itself to: the public scrutiny, media frenzy and above all..SHAREHOLDERS. 

But the question remains: What does this mean for you?

In an attempt to ramp up revenue for the company we are certainly likely to see different "subtle" attempts at new ways to advertise on Twitter, something Facebook certainly encountered during its absolute travesty of an IPO.

While there is no doubt in my mind that the functionality behind Twitter will maintain its current levels of operation, if not improve thanks to this IPO we all must be able to be flexible and open-minded as we watch this company (hopefully) succeed at much greater levels than its other "Blue and White Platform". As an avid Tweeter myself, in conjunction with my business background (with an emphasis on digital media marketing), I see this as a wonderful large-scale experiment between Twitter and its users.

How will they react to seeing more ads?

What about all of this data that Twitter has about us? (They have TONS)

It is going to be a delicate transition for Twitter, so keep your eyes posted as we are likely to see changes possibly at levels unseen previously in Facebook's IPO, I mean remember...this is what Twitter looked like not too long ago.

Stay Tuned.

[abetterfreelancer]

——————————-

There are more great resources waiting for you:

Frictionless Freelancing ebook

Practically Frictionless bi-weekly newsletter

[thegoodfuture]

Big data will require a new group of people to take on this role. Perhaps they will be called “algorithmists.” They could take two forms—independent entities to monitor firms from outside, and employees or departments to monitor them from within—just as companies have in-house accountants as well as outside auditors who review their finances.

[futureinnovation19-blog]

What Should Blackberry Do Now?

Alright, we were all subjected to the extremely disappointing RIM (then turned into Blackberry) announcement of the Z10 and the other model, which even they know was garbage when they released it. The statement that comes up on 99% of Blackberry10 reviews is "too little, too late". 

Well, 99% is not wrong, as they rarely are (except in the case of FGCU over Georgetown)

So the question must be posed, what does Blackberry do from a corporate and strategic standpoint in order to gain some sort of relevance?? 

(BBRY 1-Year Chart w/ SMA upper inidcators)

I have laid down 2 options that I believe are the only ways that Blackberry can stay "afloat" in the ever-changing realm of the domestic tech sector.

1.) Specialize and focus on a niche market, hoping that this will provide enough stability for the company, from a financial and stock aspect, to stay in the arena for future technological innovative ventures.

2.) Cut losses and team up with another company in a joint venture to seek its previously acquired market share back from Apple and some Android providers.

While I could get into depth about these options, I am going to defer from doing so, because Blackberry is way too proud (to the point of arrogance) to accept their role in the tech sector, and understand that they have not effectively re-branded until it is too late. I am not saying they can't survive, but I am saying that unless there is an internal and introspective rebranding on the part of their executives, they WILL seize to operate.

"Dont Cry For Money, Because It Doesnt Cry Back"

-Gian

[futureinnovation19-blog]

Integration of Ethics in Business's Least Ethical Branch

In a financial world that changes frequently, the long-term holding of stock (or lack thereof) is certainly an issue that should be addressed. Given that we, as a society are driven so heavily by headlines, especially for markets that which have become a daily uncertainty on a global scale, it is important to address the issue of unethical trading, or rather, how to make trading more ethical. 

One idea that I read over my morning tea in the Wall Street Journal indicated the possibility of making stock purchasing to be more "long-term incentive oriented". In other words, the longer you hold onto a given stock, the larger the dividends are that you receive on an incremental basis. According to the aforementioned article, the average amount of time a stock is held onto by an investor is roughly 15 months, or 5 Financial Quarters.

The frequent adding and dropping of stocks provides companies with an often unexpected, frequent change in the stock's volatility within its sector, and in the market as an entirety. While this trading is not necessarily unethical by nature, it does affect stock prices, which is a direct catalyst to its volatility futures if earnings are not met in partial attribution to this. 

Just some monday morning thoughts for you all, I'll be back later today, have a great and safe week everyone!

-Gian

[prepaidafrica]

At the just ended Samsung Africa Forum 2013 in Cape Town, South Africa, Samsung Africa launched its Solar Powered Health Centre model, marking the start of a large-scale medical initiative on the continent.

The mobile centres are built for use in remote rural areas, and intended to eliminate the economic and geographic barriers that prevent people across Africa from obtaining quality medical treatment.

The Solar Powered Health Centre is designed to reach as many people as possible, as regularly as possible. Mounted on a truck and manned by qualified medical professionals, the centres will move from one area to the next, providing a range of eye, ear, blood and dental medical services to the public.

Also on show at the Samsung forum, was a solar-powered internet school – a 12-metre container that can accommodate at least 21 pupils, each with a laptop, and has 24 solar panels providing nine hours of power a day. Fully charged, the batteries last three to five days.

Since their launch in 2011, the $100,000 schools have begun operating in Angola, Botswana, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa, helping an estimated 7,000 children.

Nearby was a solar power generator that can be connected to conventional classrooms. Samsung says that, on average, less than 25% of rural areas in Africa have access to electricity.

(via Samsung’s initiatives for Africa extends further to mobile Solar stations)

[futureinnovation19-blog]

Nothing Kills an Awful Product Quicker Than Good Advertising

[prepaidafrica]

But as Africa has changed, United States engagement with the continent has remained relatively static and largely unimaginative.

United States engagement with the continent is largely from the perspective of the multiplicity of the continent’s problems rather than the opportunities it offers to its people and the international community.

However, other countries such as China, India, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Iran, among many others, have accelerated their engagement with Africa with a view to seizing the opportunities by the new Africa.

With the entry of these countries, the United States is increasingly becoming a marginal player in the continent. Yet, there is increasing realization that it is an extremely costly mistake for U.S. policy towards Africa not to take into account current realities of the emerging continent.

One example is Senate Bill S. 2215 (112th), Increasing American Jobs Through Accelerated Exports to Africa, that identifies ways to leverage the potential that Africa presents as a market for American goods.

On March 7, 2013, Senator Chris Coons, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee of African Affairs, released a new report, Embracing Africa’s Economic Potential, that seeks to deepen U.S. commercial engagement in Africa.

The report points to the many changes that have taken place in Africa and its positive drivers of economic growth. The report provides creative approaches to improve U.S.-Africa commercial engagement for the benefit of both the U.S. and African countries.

The report provides a credible strategy for the United States to make already existing commercial engagement more effective and, in particular, to make the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) work better in promoting African exports to United States.

Senator Coons himself also calls for the strengthening and the re-authorization of AGOA. However, the report goes beyond a focus on benefits that accrue to Africa, and calls for strategies to support American firms invest and do business in Africa and also to better exploit the contribution of the African diaspora in the United States.

The report suggests that deeper and better structured engagement with Africa will provide investments for American businesses and contribute to job creation at home.

[futureinnovation19-blog]

How to Manage an Advanced Society Held Back by Elementary Fundamentals

So the biggest stories of the week are the American Budget, the Papal Conclave, and of course the UEFA Champions League. While the last one may be a bit of a personal "big story", the other two I assure you are a bit more universally accepted as a big topic. Since I have touched on the Pope earlier in this blog, I feel as though its important to discuss the ongoing budget arguments in America, as I am both a businessman and a (proud) American. 

The problem with our country is not our resources, our diplomatic relations or even the fact that we have a McDonalds on every other street corner. In fact, out of all of those I am pretty sure that McDonalds would be the biggest issue out of all of those (Shoutout to Michelle Obama)

The issue in our country is that our political leaders (on both sides) act like children arguing to be the "line leader" in Kindergarten.

Simple As That.

While politics has always been a "he said, she said" issue through history, you would like to assume that with such advances in our society across every industry fathomable, that our political leaders would be able to...i dont know....LEAD? 

Instead of leading, this is a battle of becoming the cool kid in class, getting as much support ($$$) as possible to help your ulterior political agendas. While it may be easier to pick on the Republicans right now, due to that joke of a budget request put forth by almost VP Ryan, I refuse to side with the left and come across as biased in the slightest. 

We have implored our political leaders to get it together on Capitol Hill, however, no matter what we seem to do or say, the people we have elected to represent us, are not representing us, but rather are representing the American political tradition of making everything 50x harder than it needs to be, and for that world, I apologize.

Get it together Washington.

Hope you all have a great day,

Gian

[latimes]

The Dow hit at an all-time high - so who’s benefiting?

Amid all of the excitement about the Dow’s record-setting numbers yesterday, there’s a lingering question: If the Dow’s doing so well, why aren’t most Americans?

L.A. Times columnist Michael Hilzik tackled that question today. He points to the divergence of corporate earnings and workers’ wages as an indication of the strong disconnect between stock market success and the wealth of average Americans.

From 1950 through the 1970s, corporate profits hovered in the range of 5% to 7% of GDP. They dipped as low as 3% in 1986, but since then have staged a long-term ascent that has brought them to 11% today, their highest level since World War II. 

The average worker’s share of those profits, in the meantime, peaked at 53% of GDP in 1970, and have been on the decline ever since, hitting 44% last year.

And then there’s this finding:

From 1993 through 2010, according to UC Berkeley economist Emmanuel Saez, the top 1% of income earners captured 52% of all real income growth.

Read more on the gap between Wall Street earnings and your own pocketbook here.

Photo: Richard Drew / Associated Press

[futureinnovation19-blog]

When You Consider A company, Consider Their Culture

- @Dannon

[futureinnovation19-blog]

Relating Personal Social Influence via Klout With Candidacy for Employment

As the vast majority of young people seeking proper employment (21-28) are on Social Media, as a society we have told our people in this age bracket the dangers of being on social media. However, in certain fields, such as Marketing, I believe that a person's personal influence online should be put into consideration when evaluating the person as a candidate for employment. 

A person's social influence is a tangible aspect of their life now thanks to services such as Klout, which measures a given account's social media influence and reach and then delivers a rating on a scale from 1-99 on how influential you are online. In Marketing, especially online (digital media ) marketing , the entire point is to be able to communicate a given message through media in a fashion that best reaches a given audience, which is often pre-defined when entering a job. 

(Klout Inc.)

My personal Klout score is 44, which is relatively decent, however I may lose out on a job to someone with a score of 18 or 19 for a job that's success is based around INFLUENCING and COMMUNICATING. While i realize there are many different variables that are taken into account in the pre-hire process (as their should be), I am simply suggesting we add something onto the list, thats all.

Yours in Business,

Gian

[nasdaq-deactivated20211020]

Chicago is on a mission to win the $5 million grand prize of the Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Mayor’s Challenge, where cities compete to “generate innovative ideas that solve major challenges and improve city life.” The city is working to create an analytics platform that gives its leaders a look at a tremendous amount of data, hoping to “detect important patterns in mountains of data in real time.” Read the full article here, and let us know which city you think deserves to be voted the “smartest city” in the competition.

Photo Credit

[futureinnovation19-blog]

Appreciation For Where We Are As A Laissez-Faire Society

Economic Recession.

Fiscal Cliff.

Snooki.

These are 3 awful things that we have gone through as a country. The order of severity is up to your own prerogative.

WE NEED TO APPRECIATE WHERE WE ARE AS A SOCIETY AND WHAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED!

84 Years Ago, we had no form of technology that even vaguely resembles what we have today and our society was in shambles from the crash of the stock market which led to the deepest of economic, personal and societal Depression seen in modern history.

 Now the average American can print miniature replicas of themselves for fun, because we have developed into an economic powerhouse that flourishes in the global economic arena. 

However, as we are a "headline-charged" society, all we can focus on is the negative aspects, building and maintaining our domestic "human volatility" index, which is absolutely counter-productive -- something we cannot afford to continue to do in a world that is ever-changing and ever-moving.

3D Printing is just one idea/item  of an existential list that is ever-growing of great things that are happening in our world. Why aren't we focusing on the good at all?

Now I am the last one to believe that ignorance is bliss, but that does not mean that we need to continue this trend of depressing our domestic population in a world that is depressing enough!!! 

-Gian

[futureinnovation19-blog]

Weekly Random Stock: Foot Locker (FL)

Sorry for such a gap since my last post, however as I am sure you all know/recall....the college lifestyle is anything but stable, and things happen out of  nowhere on a daily basis.

Now that my personal bit is over, I decided to take this opportunity to introduce a new component of the blog: I will be randomly picking a stock every Monday, with a quick analysis that is completely original, along with my opinion on the stock's position in the market.

The First Installment of this series will be Foot Locker (NYSE: FL)

Here is the past year of the stock: 

Now the question begged must be: Why Foot Locker?

The answer:

Foot Locker, from a financial standpoint is dominating their competitors, and from a stock aspect, its closest competitor is DSW, which is still miles away in my opinion. FL announced that in this coming year they will be using $600 Million in allocated capital for three different ventures, which are focused on revolutionizing the buying process for consumers, in addition to growth as a company in regard to presence domestically and in Europe. 

This, along with a dividend increase to shareholders which will take place in May leads to a promising forecast for the footwear giants. 

As we know however, behind most good news, there is bad news that is waiting in the wings to come out. As someone who has close ties with internal shareholders of this company, I see on a day to day basis how this company is thriving and growing, and by which means they are saving costs. One of the biggest changes that FL has made to free up cash is essentially to "screw over" their low-end employees in regard to corporate benefits. 

Since the recent quarter postings, FL has cut employee discounts and incentives very quietly, causing internal disruption, however replacing sales associates is probably the last concern at Foot Locker HQ, especially in this kind of domestic economy, in regard to unemployment.

Are they a bad company for doing what they've done? I say no. Every company has costs that need to be cut during certain times, however their usage of freed up capital in the coming year is something to keep a close eye on.

Gian's Outlook: Buy the stock. It's stable, clearly on a path of growth, especially if we continue to see a European recovery, I see no reason not to own this stock.

Have a Great Day and Remember: You Want to Make Money While You Sleep. 

[futureinnovation19-blog]

Business Implications of A New Pope.....are there any still?

As everyone by now SHOULD know, Pope Benedict is planning to step down at the end of the month, becoming the first pope to step down from his post since 1415, which is a staggering statistic in itself. This brings about many questions, especially while the Church is in the midst of an international sex abuse scandal. I am not here to discuss any conspiracy theories (even though we all know there's something not being said ), however I do wish to discuss the financial implications of having a new Pope.

Before you continue to read: Stop now if you cannot accept the following statement as a FACT:

The Catholic Church is a BUSINESS.

Alright, now that I'm only speaking to a logical audience, I shall exercise absolute freedom in speaking.

There is 0 question that there used to be noticeable financial ramifications when a new pope would come into the position, as the Pope used to hold a fair amount of global power, however there has been an undeniable global shift away from religious power, despite its prevalence in society today, its role has been minimized greatly.

Financially speaking, unless there is a radically liberal choice to come out of the Cardinal College (aka 120 65+ Caucasian Males that make Rush Limbaugh look like Bill Maher), we should expect the trend of Papal power being slowly minimized to continue.

In the days of Catholic "indulgences", along with the days when we believed in the world being flat, people were not as smart, and the business geniuses in the Church took advantage of this, and did such a good job, that some people still believe the nonsense they preach!!

Now I do not want to incessently ramble about religion, however, background is needed to understand the full scope of potential ramifications in all industries, sectors and domestic economies.

BACK TO BUSINESS

Since the role has diminished in means of power, so to has his role in average consumer behavior, which is a driving force behind economic forecasting and analysis. I believe that not only have we strayed away from taking the word of an old man with a brainwashed mind in our purchasing behavior, however we are, as a society, straying away from the need for a Pope entirely. This of course does not mean that you should expect this to be the last pope (it takes an extra few hundred years for the Church to accept basic concepts)

Today's bottom line is this:

There is too much attention being paid to a job being filled that holds little importance aside from being an eventual historical footnote.

Hope you all have a great day, and I look forward to hearing from you all soon!!!!

[thegoodfuture]

Walls (by CarbonWarRoom)

Interesting video about how market barriers are stifling the global shift to a greener future