Why China will have to become more democratic…Thomas Friedman explains why an aging China will need bottom-up entrepreneurship to survive http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/opinion/17friedman.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=going%20long%20liberty&st=cse
A VC in Vacationland
Seeking the next gen supply chain technology breakthroughs
recent posts
- The Role of Generative AI in Supply Chain Investment Strategies
- AI’s Impact on Supply Chain Investment Strategies
- The ‘New Normal’ is now the ‘No Normal’ in Supply Chains
- SRR—Sustainability, Resilience, Risk Management: The Latest Supply Chain Buzzwords & Investment Opportunities
- 3PLs–Investing in the Next Generation of Outsourced Supply Chain Solutions
about
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Image via WikipediaThe American Logistics Aid Network–ALANaid–was set up by a coalition of trucking, warehousing and third- party logistics companies to provide logistics support after national and international crises. The neat aspect of their operation is that they post specific needs of the front-line teams dealing with the crisis on the web site, allowing companies to provide targeted donations/services that can accelerate recovery.
Check them out and help if you can.
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Image via CrunchBaseAccording to MassHiTech, ThredUP Inc., the online clothing swap service, reports it has received $1.4 million in a seed funding from a handful of early-stage venture capital firms, bringing the Cambridge startup’s total funding to date up to $1.7 million.
Perhaps an online setting will allow parents to avoid the stigma of visiting Goodwill to paw over low-quality clothing to find the gems. One can likely find higher quality clothing on line via the ThredUP barter site, especially for moms with few sibling/cousins available to pass clothing down the line.
Four firms invested in the round: Founder Collective of Cambridge and New York, as well as Trinity Ventures, High Line Ventures and Nextview Ventures.
ThredUP launched last year with a plan to provide an online clothing swap service for adults, but quickly shifted its focus to moms and children. The service lets parents put up boxes of kids’ clothes and swap for other parents’ hand-me-downs, providing mailing labels for the exchange. The basic service is free, other than shipping and handling. ThredUP is making revenue from a premium on shipping charges, and by charging for premium services on the site – like the ability to see more information about the clothes users are bartering for.
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Image via WikipediaDid you ever wonder who put the lead in your child's Thomas the Tank Engine? Or the melamine in your pet food? Or the antifreeze in your toothpaste? Sourcemap, an MIT open source project uses wiki-oriented volunteers to seek out the ultimate producers of crummy products and find out where the "stuff inside my stuff" comes from.
Sourcemap currently has almost 1500 products in their data base, along with full documentation on the global supply chains associated with each product. The results are fascinating, both from avoiding dangerous products as well as tracing real-world supply chains. The carbon footprint and transportation requirements associated with each product are also presented.
The project is looking to partner with governments and business to expand the data base to include more products. The project wants to include environmentally friendly products as well to aid consumers in their purchases.
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Want a new way to find tech-savvy start-up employees? check out TweetMyJobs www.tweetmyjobs.com
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Image via WikipediaAbout a decade ago, you could ride through many cities and towns in the U.S. and see numerous competing local and chain movie rental stores. Now, we are down to a handful, thanks to netflix, Redbox and digital downloads. How fast one type of supply chain can disappear and be replaced by another.
And today we may see the beginning of the final chapter in the movie rental store story. Blockbuster (NYSE: BBI) ended the speculation today, filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy nearly 25 years after the video rental chain opened its first store. The company said more than 80 percent of its secured creditors have approved a plan to reduce its almost $1 billion in debt to roughly $100 million. The bankruptcy filing shouldn’t affect daily business and doesn’t include Blockbuster’s franchises or non-U.S.operations. They did announce that they would move to digital downloads and less expensive physical delivery options (like the U.S. Mail) to compete with the new kids on the block.
With 23,000 locations within the last five years and growing, Redbox is clearly one of the giant killers in this space, with significantly lower supply chain costs that Blockbuster. Digital downloads or movies-on-demand, of course, have even lower supply chain costs. Like the local book store, a few movie rental stores may survive, perhaps even make a comeback, like the vinyl record stores. But I would not want to be a Blockbuster franchisee this morning.
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Want to be a successful entrepreneur? Try being hypomanic, according to the NY Times today http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/19/business/19entre.html?scp=1&sq=perfect%20entrepreneur&st=cse
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From Xconomy Seattle, "CEO Dale Keep of RoadWyze (Walla Walla, WA) regaled the audience with stories from his 36 years of working with government agencies dealing with snow, ice, and other weather conditions on roads and highways. His company, founded in 2004, places wireless sensors in roads to communicate things like air temperature, surface temperature, humidity, and pavement conditions (ice or no ice) to computers in road-management vehicles. “The solution is data,” he said.
The idea is that all this data—the sensors could be placed every mile or so—will let authorities spend less money on salt and road chemicals by pinpointing where they’re really needed. It will also make roads safer for drivers. A case study in Maine suggests the technology could reduce the $32 million spent on salt in the winter of 2008-09 by about one-third.
RoadWyze currently has four employees and a number of patents pending. Its latest prototype sensor systems will be complete in July, Keep said."
Real time information, such as road traffic density, surface condition and current/projected weather data are crucial planning inputs to motor carrier operations seeking to reduce delays, accidents and overtime. The emergence of additional real time information sources, in conjunction with crowd-sourcing traffic data from companies like Waze-see earlier Blog on them–are building the basis for a whole new traffic management space as our nation's highways become more crowded and innovative delivery scheduling solutions become the norm.
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Image via WikipediaMy friend, Roger Jones, has taught me a lot about how to best manage a business. Here are his thoughts on communicating in business. They are very valuable insights:
"If you think about it, the
majority of business is based on communicating using logic, the language of the
'mind'. That's delivering information, facts and intellectual
interpretation. There is typically little emotion displayed when we communicate
using logic and we tend to talk like TV news-readers (fairly flat and not that
engaging). Those who use this type of communication hope you will
understand and accept their message in terms of the data, statistics and case
studies they use to support their argument.Not surprisingly, those who use 'mind' or logic based communication rarely have
their messages accepted by their audience, whether in a meeting with their boss
or team, or when delivering a conference presentation. And as leaders
they tend to have little personal presence and impact.However, the story is quite different for those who communicate with the
'heart'. Their messages are more easily accepted. Those who use
'heart' communication are those who inspire people, have greater gravitas and effortlessly
persuade.These people deliberately communicate on an emotional level. They dress
their messages in the narrative, and bring light, colour and rhythm to their
spoken word.They are the storytellers.
Storytellers have been known for centuries for their imagination and wisdom.
Storytelling brings knowledge to life.
Great storytellers are invariably great leaders. Inspiring and motivating
people with their narrative.They win hearts and minds.
Importantly storytelling as a tool for change will enable you to capture your
audience so they are clear about your intention. Effective storytelling
wins the trust of people you need to involve in making the changes that matter.So a suggestion – you might want to think how you can start to move away from
logic and use storytelling more in your day-to-day business interactions to win
hearts and minds, and so inspire performance and enable change." -
Image via WikipediaI wrote recently about Linda Bean's Perfect Maine lobster co-operative, designed to help Maine lobster men (and women) develop a better marketing, sales and business model for their business. There are similar co-ops springing up, like Port Clyde Fresh Catch, which is focusing on a broader range of catch, including fish, shrimp, scallops and crab, in addition to lobster. Like Linda, they are working on branding Maine seafood and a sustainable and "organic" catch. They are also aggressively marketing their products at leading restaurants such as the Stone Barn Center for Food & Agriculture. These co-op may be the future of how smaller producers will compete in the future.
A VC in Vacationland 