There are just too many moving parts that have to be synchronized for this approach to succeed. I just have two highly skilled guys and a computer. I can’t risk the compensation of my small firm on this! – Illustrative Vendor Quote (2010)
Image | Title | Article Summary | Post date | MP3 | MP3 Length |
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Breathing Life into Intellectual Capital |
Intellectual Capital+ is found dead within many a corporate or academic repository. We breathe life into these dead assets and nurture them within our exclusive community. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 17:32 |
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Community |
We will be much stronger and more successful by banding together as a community. Individual investments leverage the reputation of the whole, and a community is not overly burdened by the shortcomings of the few. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 17:10 |
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Citizens |
We treat investors as citizens in our community. They are educated, participative and committed. Committed investors stick around, supporting our goal of providing long-term predictable funding for unpredictable R&D+. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 13:54 |
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Rules |
This is not your daddy's business model. We do our damnedest to keep rules in the funding agency+ to a minimum. This is consistent with the fact that the rules have yet to be written for the Phase 1 industrial+ firms into which we are investing. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 10:46 |
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Cautions |
Here are a few common cautions. Things known to go wrong from time to time. Don’t overly fixate on them; rather keep them in mind as you review the design for the funding agency+. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 7:21 |
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Valuation of Intellectual Capital |
We allow investors to come and go. They need a share price to buy and sell. Share prices are regularly updated and accessible for rational analysis by investors and investees alike. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 9:55 |
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The Cooperative Solution |
Our task is to provide predictable funding for unpredictable R&D+ over the long term. Features of our funding approach (e.g., 'one person, one vote+', investor education) are closest to those found in a cooperative+. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 8:45 |
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Reflection-in-Action |
Reflection-in-action+ is a teaching approach perfect for Phase 1 industries+, where the rules have not yet been written. It has two key aspects: learning by doing and teaching students to delight in unexpected insights. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 14:12 |
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Insurance |
We present a (speculative) scenario exploring the use of a hazard insurance agency to protect the funding agency+ from systemic risks. This goes beyond traditional D&O insurance in that it aims to insure the reputation of the funding agency. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 6:56 |
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Milestones |
Project milestones, as practiced in today's industries, are destructive of creativity. We abandon this practice and replace it with an independent evaluation+ of team effectiveness. |
03-31-11 | Listen | 5:13 |
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Intellectual Capital Valuation LLC |
If you're so damn good at valuing intellectual capital+, why not sell this as a professional service to today’s funding organizations? |
09-02-11 | Listen | 4:46 |
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Perfect Storms |
We reduce the likelihood of a financial meltdown by borrowing insights from the field of engineering. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 5:58 |
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Trust and Redemption |
Trust is the cornerstone of our funding agency+. We seek implicit trust+, a trust that is automatic. Investors can buy and sell shares without having to work any harder than they would for an investment on the NYSE or NASDAQ. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 6:38 |
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Intellectual Capital |
Intellectual Capital+ is much more than any of its physical manifestations (e.g., patents, trademarks). It’s greatest wealth is found mostly in the minds of its creators. We exploit this wealth by packaging those minds into Investible Units+, which in turn are packaged into a community of Investible Units. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 3:40 |
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All Your Eggs in One Basket |
Diversification is a very poor investment strategy for unpredictable R&D+. Once you get more than a handful of investments, further diversification worsens success rates. Better to pick a few high quality investments and keep all your attention focused on making those few successful. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 3:33 |
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Systemic Risks |
Systemic risks are those that can bankrupt the funding agency+. Their causes are often perfectly unpredictable (i.e., perfect storms). We can't foresee all these risks, so we set up the agency so it can better weather the storm when they arrive. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 6:56 |
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Voting Constructs |
Not all votes are created equal. We construct the vote in agreement with the importance of the measure being decided, and more care is taken for measures that are more consequential. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 14:16 |
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Ouch! |
Rigorously controlled scientific experiments often do not stand the test of time. Even interocular+ results are later found to be not replicable. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 1:27 |
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The Challenge of Brash Citizens |
The very confidence and brashness we instill into the minds of our citizens often permits them to later claim they could have done it without us. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 3:05 |
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We Do Not Commit Investors for the Duration |
Our belief is we can (dramatically) lower our cost of capital by making it easier for investors to come and go. We set prices for buy-sell transactions that are steady and predictable. This provides investors with assurances of a ready market when they are ready to sell. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 3:44 |
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Special Interest Groups |
With community comes special interest groups. It’s better to bring them to the surface and embrace them, while at the same time keeping a close eye on their machinations. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 4:02 |
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Results That Stand the Test of Time |
We frequently use the phrase results that stand the test of time. Here are the details. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 2:51 |
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Separation of Voting Rights from Cash Flow |
One person, one vote+ is an unusual rule for business. Here we describe it in terms of a dual class capitalization (Class A, Class B, etc.) as found in many traditional corporations. |
09-02-11 | Listen | 9:35 |
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Predictable Funding for Unpredictable R&D |
Effectiveness in industrial R&D is as much driven from the way in which it is funded as from the way in which it is executed. Here we review the funding needs. |
07-11-11 | Listen | 8:58 |
An investment category. This is the courtship period lasting from 12-18 months. Teams are getting their act together. They are not fully up to speed on the funding agency ways of doing research and funding. They are perhaps light a few key players or technologies. A team in pre-game does not yet enjoy the full freedom of actions available in mid-game.
There are just too many moving parts that have to be synchronized for this approach to succeed. I just have two highly skilled guys and a computer. I can’t risk the compensation of my small firm on this! – Illustrative Vendor Quote (2010) |
One vital ingredient to success of a research endeavor will be its membership in an exclusive club. This is a club that’s hard to get into, but once a member then success is all but assured. In addition to funding, you gain access to the unique resources of the club: the best research, commercialization and marketing resources available in the world.
You gain access to the club based on an assessment of your likelihood of success. You are watched to see that you live up to this assessment. Managing the franchise means managing the expectations of the members of the franchise. You will live up to our high expectations for success, or you will confirm everyone's expectations that under-performers are quickly weeded out.