Paying Attention: The big news in tech (besides the coming Alibaba IPO) is the sudden, out-of-nowhere deal that involves Apple (flush with cash) buying the headphone/streaming music company Beats (a venture of Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine). Dre and Iovine will do very, very well in the transaction–not that they weren’t doing well already–but as always …
Monthly Archives: May 2014
Einstein on Character
“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character….”
Poster Boys
Press Clippings: In the pre-digital age, the primary method for marketing films was the film poster. As with all things creative in Hollywood, there were masters of the art of producing the film poster. Two of the very best who ever worked in the medium were Drew Struzan and Bob Peak. I never had the chance to …
Einstein on God
“I am convinced that God does not play dice….”
Prince Royce: Stand By Me
The Hunt For New Music: Prince Royce is probably new to you. He should not be. He’s a crossover Spanish language singer with a great voice and terrific production values. One way to judge a new talent is to hear them perform something that someone else has performed before, something you know well. With that …
Turning Points
Paying Attention: A modern F1 car is amazingly intricate, advanced, and complicated. Designed to a specification (a “formula”) dictated by the F.I.A., (Fédération Internationale de L’Automobile, the ruling/sanctioning body for most international racing) that all who hope to participate in the F1 series have to adhere to (and…it’s not easy to have your team/entry accepted…the …
Alibaba ClickPak
Press Clippings: The biggest tech IPO of the year is coming–maybe the biggest tech IPO of all time. Best to be informed now, because there may not be a chance to buy on the dip as with Facebook and Twitter. Below, required background reading on a new-to-America company that you may not have heard of …
Will Alibaba Be The Godzilla of IPOs?
Press Clippings: Unless you are paying zero attention to the stock market, technology, the internet, massive merchandising trends, and the coming showdown between Amazon dot com and Alibaba dot com (and if you’re reading this piece, you are not in the zero attention category), you know two things: Alibaba, China’s online shopping behemoth is going …
Branding Google Glass
Paying Attention: You’re a smart young thing with a hot new product and aspirations of an IPO. You know that branding is something you have to do and do right to build the business, imprint the brand, jump the stock price. You can either start from scratch or you can learn from the masters. …
Hemingway on Trust
“The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them….”