Business & Entrepreneurship
Business & Entrepreneurship
Fair Observer's analysis of innovation, entrepreneurial energy, venture capital, new businesses and job creation.
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Arab Spring / Business / Cross-Cultural Communication / Employment / FDI / Global Dexterity / Impact Investing / Jean AbiNader / Social Contract / Workforce Development / Finance & Economics / Focus Article / Middle East / Business & Entrepreneurship / AfricaThe role of workforce development in crafting solutions should not be overlooked or minimized as simply giving people jobs. Jean AbiNader analyzes the importance of job skills training in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), global dexterity, the renegotiation of the social contract, and impact investing in a post-Arab Uprisings environment. At a recent corporate presentation in the Maghreb on the potential transformational effect of foreign direct investment (FDI), I focused on two points: the notion of impact investing and the corollary dynamic of how FDI impacts human development beyond the benefits of economic growth. The participants were company leaders and employees discussing...
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Asia-Pacific / Cyber-Espionage / Fraud / Identity Theft / RSIS / S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies / Senol Yilmaz / Singapore / Focus Article / Business & Entrepreneurship / AsiaCyber-espionage is a real and growing threat to businesses and economies in Singapore. Some counter-measures can be taken by the private sector. But the government plays an important role in protecting its businesses from cyber-exploitation. By Senol Yilmaz Over the few decades, Singapore’s economy has moved up from a mere producer of material goods to a creative inventor of ideas. This success stands on two main pillars: Firstly, heavy investment has been made in education as well as research and development. Secondly, the rigorous protection of intellectual property rights has reassured investors that their patents, trademarks, and trade secrets are safe, and that their investments...
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Andrew Haldane / Dodd Frank Act / Financial regulations / Glass Steagall Act / Irish Prime minister / John Bruton / prime minister / UK tax system / United States / Europe / Finance & Economics / Focus Article / Business & EntrepreneurshipBy John BrutonFormer Prime Minister John Bruton asks, why are modern business regulations so complex? I believe that, across the Western world, we may be reaching some sort of limit in the complexity of rules governing business. The response to the financial crisis has been ever more complex rules, that only a tiny number of professional advisors could ever hope to remember, or understand properly. In the United States, the Glass Steagall Act, introduced to regulate banking after the Depression of the 1930s, ran to 37 pages. In contrast, the Dodd Frank Act, introduced in the wake of the recent crisis, runs to 848 pages of basic text, plus 30,000 pages of implementing rules. In the United...
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Crowdfunding / Hollywood / Kickstarter / Knowledge@Wharton / Startups / United States / Veronica Mars / Veronica Mars Kickstarter Campaign / WB / Focus Article / Business & EntrepreneurshipThe success of the "Veronica Mars" Kickstarter campaign has illustrated that crowdfunding is a reliable source of capital for both start-up businesses and established firms. The campaign to front a movie based on the cult television show "Veronica Mars" through crowdfunding broke records for the fastest project ever to raise $1 million on Kickstarter. It was the website's biggest film project so far, and it has the most backers of any project to date. What it probably didn't do, Wharton experts say, is throw open the doors of crowdfunding to major motion pictures. But that's OK: Crowdfunding is successfully helping entrepreneurs raise capital without the need...
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Adobe / Cloud Computing / Computing / Creative Suite / Knowledge@Wharton / Online Cloud Services / Photoshop / United States / Focus Article / Business & EntrepreneurshipAdobe is favoring subscription-based software and online "cloud" services. If support for the company's cloud transition sticks, other vendors may quickly adapt. Adobe, the leading software company targeting creative professionals, is exiting the shrink-wrap software business in favor of subscription-based software and online "cloud" services. While perhaps painful at first, the business model change will be ultimately beneficial for consumers and Adobe alike, and other software companies are likely to follow, say experts at Wharton. On May 6, Adobe said it would stop developing its flagship Creative Suite, which includes applications such as Photoshop, in...
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Politics / United States / Europe / Finance & Economics / 360° Context / BRIC / Global Change / Arts & Culture / Middle East / Americas / Business & Entrepreneurship / Africa / Global Security / Asia / Science & Technology / Health / Oceania / Environment & SustainabilityFair Observer's Top 15 articles of 2012. Click here to view the "Fair Observer: The Year in Pictures" photo feature. As we wind down the old year and ring in the new, it is time for some reflections. Like any year, 2012 was packed with events, some of which will go down as historic while others will fade away with time. For Fair Observer, it is a time to thank everyone in our team, our contributors and our readers for taking us another step forward. The past year has confirmed that our community is our greatest source of strength. For years, the world has assumed that rigorous analysis of global issues is possible only if there is a huge...
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America's failure to issue green cards to up-and-coming entrepreneurs has led to a serious decline of business launches. In 2005, immigrant entrepreneurs launched 52% of all startups in Silicon Valley. But today, the number has dropped to 44%, and America is not only losing the opportunity to create new jobs but also losing its competitive edge, argues Vivek Wadhwa in his short, passionately argued book, The Immigrant Exodus: Why America Is Losing the Global Race to Capture Entrepreneurial Talent. Unlike during the 1980s, when skilled immigrants could get green cards (that let them become permanent residents of the U.S.) in as little as 18 months, today it can take as long as 17...
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By Marc FrankelIn the fall of 2008, the collapse of the Icelandic banking system sent thousands of promising young Icelanders into unemployment. Today, Iceland's Generation Y is turning to entrepreneurship to dig out from under the country's financial crisis. On the morning of October 6, 2008, Georg Ludviksson walked across a parking lot towards a gleaming, modern red office building for his first day of work at Glitnir, one of Iceland’s largest and most prominent banks. Ludviksson had just returned to Iceland from a stint in the United States, where he had earned his Masters degree at Harvard Business School and founded a company called UpDown.com with two of his Harvard colleagues. While...
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360° Analysis / China / entrepreneurship / women / Arts & Culture / Business & Entrepreneurship / AsiaChina’s female entrepreneurs face a legacy of liberalizing economic policies and of traditional social conventions as they shape their role in present and future Chinese society. As with most Asian cultures, the roles of women have been historically underestimated, and China is no exception. If you look at the country before the 20th century, you will probably bump into traditional ladies, who have their feet tightly bound, who are taking care of the kids at home, and who only show up to serve a cup of tea. Women in China attained equal rights at a very late stage. For thousands of years they had endured gender discrimination plus hardly any economic power. Women were regarded...