Natural gas companies have spent the better part of two decades exploring, mining, and expanding into new territory in order to bring in more and more of the commodity. Since the recession hit, however, prices have taken a huge dive. Most economists have attributed this fact to oversupply, leading many companies to halt exploration activities [...]
Filed under: Environment, News on September 18th, 2009 @ 6:04 pm
Tagged with: Ben Smith, commodities, energy, energy markets, global, growth, industry, markets, natural gas, prices, recession, resources, strategies, success, sustainability
BusinessWeek points to some compelling research published by the National Venture Capital Association that highlights the true impacts that Venture-backed startups are having on the US economy. The overall findings support the growing importance of the entrepreneurial system, which is exciting news for the industry as a whole and shoul help to provide insights into future [...]
Filed under: Business, News on September 18th, 2009 @ 9:15 am
Tagged with: Business, economy, entrepreneur, growth, industry, insights, jobs, National Venture Capital Association, NVCA, research, startup, success, sustainability, US, venture capital, venture-backed
For all the talk about our diminishing attention spans, the reality is that attention isn’t so much going anywhere, as it going everywhere and there’s only so much to go around. We may be spending more time online than ever before, but now we’re tweeting, watching videos on YouTube and searching for the answers to [...]
No matter how successful a business gets, it’s important not to lose sight of the strategies that have taken you there. For most that involves building strong customer relationships and consistently delivering a great product or service. In recent months, eBay, the popular online auction house has veered from that path perhaps, but its CEO [...]
With the growing consumer demand for sustainability, manufacturers and designers increasing numbers of factors to consider when creating new products from material sources and processes to packaging and distribution lines. While this is well within the capabilities of companies of any scale, it certainly adds a level of complexity to companies, particularly small businesses with [...]
Filed under: Business, Community, Environment, News on September 10th, 2009 @ 5:22 pm
Tagged with: Business, consumer, global, industry, innovation, local, manufacturers, networks, niche, One Good Chair, process, product, production, scale, success, sustainability
As we attempt to curb our reliance on fossil fuels and move towards energy independence, I’m constantly on the lookout for new innovations in green technology that can open new opportunities, both for their environmental benefits and investment potential. So while the idea of offshore wind farms is nothing new, I was intrigued by the [...]
Filed under: Environment, News, Technology on September 9th, 2009 @ 3:37 pm
Tagged with: clean energy, energy, Green, Green Tech, green technology, Hywind, infrastructure, innovation, innovative, investing, investment, manufacturers, offshore, oil, opportunities, opportunity, success, Technology, turbine, wind farm
Wired has an extremely insightful article on an emerging trend that they refer to as the “Good Enough Revolution” or “MP3 Effect,” a shift in consumer thinking that favors ease of use, continuous availability and low price over different manifestations of quality.
Within the marketplace, this paradigm has been extremely successful at reaching the widest possible [...]
Filed under: News, Technology on September 2nd, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
Tagged with: consumer, effective, Good Enough Revolution, insights, markets, MP3 effect, Pareto Principle, product, quality, service, success, Technology, thought, trends
After being extended last month, the rebate program known as “Cash for Clunkers” (a.k.a CARS) is finally over due to overwhelming demand. With almost $1.9 billion in rebates, the U.S. government has been taken a bit by surprise in terms of the success of the program, leading to delays in payments to car dealerships, and [...]
Filed under: Environment, News on August 28th, 2009 @ 4:47 pm
Tagged with: CARS, cash for clunkers, consumer, Environment, Fuel economy, government, jobs, opportunities, President Obama, success, sustainability
I’ve written about the crowd sourcing model for funding previously, both as it applies to charities with social media-styled Jolkona and artistic endeavors in the form of Kickstarter, and now I see today on ReadWriteWeb that this concept is being applied in similar ways with several new models.
Spot.us funds citizen journalism, SellABand allows fans to help [...]
Filed under: Arts & Culture, Business, News on August 25th, 2009 @ 3:45 pm
Tagged with: charity, Contenture, crowd sourced, donation, entrepreneur, funding, innovation, investing, investment, Kickstarter, micro funding, resources, SellABand, Spot.us, start-up, startup, success
I’ve often written that non-profits and charities world be well served by taking cues from the business world by developing practices such as performance evaluations and affinity marketing to grow their reach and fundraising capabilities, but acquiring public companies is not something I would have thought to suggest. But that exactly what UK-based Housing 21, [...]
Filed under: News, Philanthropy on August 19th, 2009 @ 5:06 pm
Tagged with: Acquisitions, Business, charity, deal, economy, markets, non-profit, opportunities, opportunity, strategies, strategy, success
GreenRoad announced last month that it has raised $10 million in financing from Generation Investment Management, the investment firm co-founded by Al Gore in 2004. GreenRoad, which is developing technologies to encourage safe and fuel-efficient driving behavior, intends to use the proceeds to accelerate the deployment of its GreenRoad 360 service among new and existing customers. GreenRoad [...].
Porsche revealed an ultra-efficient, low-emission, mid-engine super sports car that features hybrid and electronic drive technology at this month’s Geneva Motor Show.