Friday, April 01, 2005

Intellectual Happy Hour

I've slowed dramatically on my blogging since I've been multi-tasking a number of deals. But, I still find myself coming across incredible reads that I've got to share. So, from now, I'm going to occassionally post a bunch of reading suggestions under the title 'Intellectual Happy Hour' and be a little like Jeff Nolan.

Rich Karlgaard, of Forbes acclaim, is writing incredible stuff this week:

  • He writes in the WSJ on politics and business in the Bay Area; a great synopsis of the views from Silicon Valley. Valley businesspeople are wild libertarian crazies who want nothing more than to forget the Beltway even exists. The news is full of talk about the great divide between political left and right. Silicon Valley could care less. The axis that counts here is incumbent vs. disrupter.
  • He writes in Forbes about the Cheap Revolution and the toppling of today's leading companies as a result. Here's a wild speculation. The auto industry will look far different in 20 years than it looks today. It's ripe for disaggregation. Imagine that you, as a consumer, want a car designed by J Mays, but you want it to come with some futuristic 400-horsepower Toyota-hybrid engine, a BMW rear-wheel-drive feel and a Jaguar-looking interior to be equipped with Qualcomm broadband. Will you be able to buy best-of-breed, à la carte, 20 years from now? I think so. Look at the trends. Talent: dispersing to best-of-breed suppliers. Global labor costs: dropping because of oversupply. Distribution costs: dropping because of the Internet. Consumers: growing smarter.
  • He posts a column in Forbes offering up advice to Americas young, and the establishment. Purpose. Priorities. Preparation. Pan-Global View. Partner. Perseverance. I think he's right on. And, in particular, I'm sensitive to the last one. If you want something and stick to it, you can achieve it.
And, then, there's (in my humble opinion as a clueless bystander), quite possibly, one of the smartest investments of our time from Texas Pacific Group and General Atlantic -- a $350M private equity investment in Lenovo. I, personally, would count that as much more impressive than the SunGard Data Systems acquisition.

posted by Charles @ Friday, April 01, 2005