Panel of financial experts reflect on current business conditions

Panel of financial experts reflect on current business conditions “Depending on how you wake up in the morning, you either have opportunities or not,” he said. “Nothing else matters. The market doesn’t matter. You make opportunities. You might not want to come outside right now, given the environment. But you have to get beyond that. Always think from an opportunistic perspective.”
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“If you focus so much on the ceiling, there is a ceiling,” he said. “I teach my sons, there is no ceiling. Fortunately for me, I had great mentors. You need to have a champion, someone who will back you. Then you have to perform.”
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“Performance is critical, but without guidance, you may not get far.”

Humility Helps CEOs Get the Job Done

Humility Helps CEOs Get the Job Done
"Style and results go hand in hand,” said McComb. “So much of what I do is inspire people to do things. The people who get ahead are those who get things done through other people.” “You get people to listen by being humble, not by bossing them around. "

Turnaround and Restructuring Conference

Turnaround and Restructuring Conference

Huge Restructuring Cycle Predicted
Industry veteran with 28 years experience offers insights into business

The Nature of Restructuring
Turnaround and Restructuring Panel discusses key points

Coming Recession Makes for Busy Times in the Restructuring Business
Deals will face increasing complexity due to creditor’s different interests

Why the Best Ideas Occur in the Shower

Why the Best Ideas Occur in the Shower

In On War, one of the first books on modern military strategy, Prussian General Carl von Clausewitz explained how Napoleon combined four crucial steps to determine the strategy for his first major military victory, Dugan said. Those steps include storing failed— and especially successful—examples from history, reaching a presence of mind free of all preconceptions, allowing the mind to make its own connections in a flash of insight, and resolving to execute the course of action despite potential resistance, he said. In the late 1970s, Steve Jobs of the fledgling Apple Computers essentially utilized the same process during a visit to Xerox Corporation, when executives demonstrated their “graphical user interface” application, the seed for Apple’s ground-breaking windows operating system, Dugan said. “I thought it was the best thing I had ever seen in my life,” Jobs says during the short business film Great Artists Steal, aired by Dugan during his talk. “Within 10 minutes it was obvious to me that all computers would work like this someday,” Jobs adds. Other examples of such “theft,” or innovative synthesis, of business ideas came when Henry Ford got the idea for the moving assembly line after visiting the Chicago stockyards and when Google’s founders launched their groundbreaking Internet search engine, Dugan said. The latter combined the existing Alta Vista www.altavista.com search engine, data mining algorithms they learned at Stanford University, the common academic ranking of professors by annual journal citings, and the innocuous posting of searchable ads on another Web site to create the for-profit Google, he said. “In a series of flashes of insight, they put together four things, none of which they invented,” Dugan said. “All four had existed before them. The combination was new and made them two very happy young men.”

Turmoil on Wall Street Is Affecting Main Street

Turmoil on Wall Street Is Affecting Main Street

“The depth of the crisis hasn’t been hit yet if a new study by several prominent economists is correct concluding that unless financial markets can quickly recapitalize, banks are likely to cut back their lending to consumers and businesses by nearly $1 trillion,” Reuters reported.

Luigi Zingales Named “Monster Economist”

Luigi Zingales Named “Monster Economist”

Italy’s most famous newspaper and one if its oldest, Corriere della Sera, profiled Luigi Zingales, Robert C. McCormack Professor of Entrepreneurship and Finance, and four other economists as potential winners of Nobel prizes. The newspaper called out the five as the “most brilliant brains behind globalization.”
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View a video of Zingales discussing his research into corporate fraud and whistle blowing.