Category Archives: Business

Creativity in business

Just stumbled on this nearly three-year-old discussion in misc.business.marketing.moderated: There is much talk about the need for creativity in business. Is this lip service? Of course it is. Creativity can be described as going outside existing protocols. The majority of … Continue reading

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Articles on real options

Copeland, Thomas E., and Philip T. Keenan, “Making real options real,” The McKinsey Quarterly, August 1998. Damodaran, Aswath, The Promise and Peril of Real Options (working paper). Fernández, Pablo, “Valuing Real Options: Frequently Made Errors” (working paper, June 26, 2001).

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Enhancing the value of a multinational company

A question asked privately: What can a multinational company do to enhance its value? Mathematically, the value of equity P is determined by earnings E and the “fair” (in investors’ collective opinion) price-earnings multiple P/E: P = E * (P/E) … Continue reading

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Presidential inauguration and the stock market

A question asked privately: After the inauguration of Russian president-elect Dmitry Medvedev, the Russian stock market rose by 200+ basis poins over a single day. Was this a significant reaction? Let’s look at it numerically. Here’s the daily history of … Continue reading

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Amazon attacks

The state of New York is trying to force online retailers to collect New York sales taxes. Amazon.com responds with a lawsuit: New York Times blogs: Amazon Sues New York State to Void Sales Tax Rules Wired: Amazon Objects!

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An ETF hedge fund?

From Institutional Investor: Calif. Firm Preps ETF Hedge Fund May-01-2008 | Source: Alternative Investment News Hermosa Capital Management is preparing the summer launch of a long/short hedge fund called Hermosa Capital Fund to invest in exchange-traded funds, FINalternatives reports. The … Continue reading

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Outsourcing to India: the other side

About two years ago, Brad DeLong mused about outsourcing to India: So what will the U.S.’s comparative advantage be? And how will it use that comparative advantage as a base to keep upgrading the productivity of America’s workers? To which … Continue reading

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Would you invest in your projects?

In a previous post, I mused on the relationship (or, rather, lack thereof) between project management and innovation. Apparently, the person I was responding to has a blog chock-full of well-meaning, but often misguided, posts. Here’s the latest so far: … Continue reading

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Innovation and project management

A (non-)question from Askville: Innovation is one of those buzz words that evokes positive emotions. It is generally considered a “good” thing, and therefore is something that we want to do. However, there are other things to consider so, lets … Continue reading

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Subprime debacle FAQ

A series of questions asked privately: – what is sub prime lending and the issues surrounding this. Generally speaking, subprime lending is lending to borrowers whose creditworthiness is doubtful. In the specific context of the recent subprime debacle, subprime lending … Continue reading

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