Steven's Thoughts

Recession music

Just like everyone else out there the economy has gotten to me - but what's strange is how a financial crisis can affect almost everything in my life - even the music that I enjoy the most now - 80s influenced indie pop. 

Last night, Sienna and I went to see The Ting Tings at the Music Hall of Williamsburg and we felt transported back to an early 80s night club. What was so great about the concert? Was is it the lead singer's awesome, shiny leotards and her puffy dress, that only a skinny 26 year old bleached-blonde can pull off, or was it the playback of the plasticky sounding keyboard that was not even on stage?  I think it was much more simple. It was my craving for comfort music. 

A few weeks ago I posted on my Facebook status that I couldn't believe that I had started becoming a lover of pop music and listed acts such as: MGMT, Santigold (formally known as Santagold) and CSS. Many of my friends strongly disagreed with classification of these bands being pop. 

I guess they are right. It is not pop as in what today's popular music is (billboard's top 100). It is not pop in 2009, but it was considered pop in the early 80s. Now people consider this music scrappy, dance-oriented indie pop. Anyway the point is, I am reverting to comfort music. Music of my childhood. The electro overtone of a cheap sounding synthesizer, is giving me the warm and fuzzy. 

When we left the venue we ran into a friend who was with a cute young chick who was excited to keep the night going with some drinks. And that's when I realized that if my music taste was stuck in the 80s, my responsibilities are right here in 2009, and we politely said no thanks and good night and went home to relieve the babysitter. 

I guess if 80s pop is all that I need to help me through this rescission I'm doing OK.

Quality of NYC Public Schools

Just in the last week two parents asked me about the quality of education Sebastian is received in the New York public school system. I am positively surprised how good the experience is.

When Sebastian was in Pre-school I agonized about where to send him. I knew that there were great private schools in the city, but I strongly believed in supporting the public school system.

But I was still concerned whether a public school could provide more than an adequate education. I wanted and still want Sebastian to have a great education. 

Well, I have to say Sebastian is definitely learning. He loves reading and enjoys writing stories. And he is getting his math basics down. But more importantly he is surrounded by teachers who care about his individualized educational growth. 

One of the latest initiatives that impressed me about his school are his individualized goals. Sebastian, together with his teacher, have created specific objectives for him. So now he, his teacher and his parents are all on the same page of what he should be accomplishing in the next month. 

My verdict after one and a half years of NYC public schooling is that kids can get a very good education. My six year old son is proof.

It is hard to make money

Ever wonder how some people you know, or you may have heard of, made so much money in such a short period of time? Ever feel stupid for working so hard? Ever feel like you have been working for years like a dog, and achieved moderate success, but business continued to be such a grind year in and year out?

For years, my partners and I have been trying to figure out why every year we've been in business we've had to hustle to keep it going. In the last couple of years I've come to the realization that being of value to my clients, and building a real business, was always going to be hard work. In recent months, I also started to understand that the source of some people's instant success has been based on one, or two, bogus and unsustainable business concepts: 

1. Excessive leverage
2. In a few cases straight out fraud

Excessive leverage:

Leverage is an important part of any business and our economic system. A company, like kasina, borrows money to supplement existing funds for investment in such a way that the potential positive outcome is magnified and/or enhanced. Leverage could allow us to potentially hire new and/or better people, or invest in an office in London and Shanghai, that we otherwise would not have the funds to invest in today.

Excessive leverage, on the other hand, is a powerful friend during an up market, but can quickly put you out of business during a down market. Most investment banks were leveraged by a ratio of 30 to 1. Government sponsored mortgage giants Freddie and Fannie were using leverage closer to 100 to 1 because of their supposedly stricter lending standards and implicit government backing. Most entrepreneurs would be able to make a lot of money if given 100 to 1 leverage.

Fraud:

Last week Bernard L. Madoff, a legend on Wall Street, was a arrested for essentially running a Ponzi scheme.  The NYT reported that his funds for years claimed to produce consistently positive returns in up and down markets. One of them reported of having $7.3 billion in assets in October and claimed to have paid more than 11 percent interest each year through its 15-year track record. In reality, he paid returns to certain investors out of the cash received from other investors.

I feel a little less stupid these days about working so hard to be successful. The current financial crisis has changed the way our country does business and it's going to be very hard, if not impossible, to make a quick buck. The people who are going to succeed and make money are going to make money as a result of years of hard work. They will survive by busting their asses to add value to their customers or clients.

A Historic Day

This election is a histortic event and I have been an emotional mess since the minute I woke up this morning. 

I am emotional, because if Barack Obama wins today's election my son Sebastian will truly be able to grow up knowing that he can be anything that he wants to be. 

I am emotional, because my girlfriend's mom Phoebe, who went to a segregated kindergarten in Washington D.C., is able to vote for an African American candiate for President of the United States.  

Steven at ALIF in Luxembourg

Being Part of History

It is often hard to keep perspective when you are in the middle of a hurricane, but it is important to understand when you are experiencing history first hand. In my relativity short career I have been at the center of three historic live changing events: The rise of the Internet, 9/11 and the current financial crisis.

In 1995, I experienced Netscape's IPO and a few years later I started my own company which focuses on how the Intenet changes and how we retrieve information as well as interact with each other.

Six years later, September 11, 2001, my employees had to evacuate our office at 180 Broadway, one block from where two commercial planes flew into the World Trade Centers.

Today, the full effects of the current financial crisis are not yet clear, but we are again in the midst of an historic event. September 16, 2008 has gone down in history as the biggest one day stock market point-drop ever and wiped out $1.2 trillion in market value.

I am not sure how all of these events will impact the future, but I know it is important to be aware that we are witnessing history. One day our kids and grandkids will ask us about these events and I want to be able to tell them what happend.

 

In loving memory of Robert Hughes

I got very sad new last week, my friend and mentor Robert Hughes passed way. Robert had taken his life, as Ann, his wife, called it, at a "sacred spot along the Appalachian trail in the White Mountains of New Hampshire".

To me Robert was one of my greatest mentors, both personally and professionally. Robert came to McGladrey to take over the e-business practice when he kindly took me under his wing and taught me the craft of consulting. Even today Lee and I use little "silly" idiomatic expressions that he used: when a person asks a question during a presentation and we have a slide for the question - "there are good questions and there are great questions. Great questions have a slide." 

Robert was there when I did our first Roundtable for the Top 20 Mutual Fund Web sites. He helped structure and guide me through the process. At the day of the session he was very sick, but still came to the sessions. He could not run or participate, but his prep and presence gave me the confidence to successfully run the roundtable.

When I left McGladrey, in 1999 to start kasina Robert was very upset and I couldn't understand why. At the time I was thinking about my future and what lay before me. Now I understand that he was sad to see me go and that he could not mentor me in the same way as he had done for the previous two years.

Robert was an unconventional man. His daughter was struggling in school and he decided to buy a farm in Main and to home school her for one year. After that year she went back to Minneapolis and graduated from her school with honors. He seemed to always do things on his terms as he did with his daughter's schooling, with much success.

He influenced me greatly. The main thing he impressed on me was the thirst for knowledge. He was a furious reader of all kinds of literature. He introduced me to the value of reading as much business writing as possible to always be in touch with the latest thinking. This still sticks with me today.

He never lost his curiosity and drive for challenges. After teaching his daughter in Main, he wanted to move to NYC to be with his new love, Ann and her three girls. He again became my day to day mentor by joining kasina and becoming a principal in my firm. He decided to join a young entrepreneurial firm for much less money then he could have made anywhere else. Why? Because he wanted the intellectual challenge of being surrounded by young minds.

In the short time he was at kasina he had a huge impact on us. He taught us the importance of process and he helped us solidify our consulting process. But the most physically lasting impressions on kasina has been his guidance and management of our physical office space. He wanted to make sure that it served our specific needs and was an expression of our culture. Our clients always seem to express how much the office speaks to who we are. This is probably the best complement that Robert would like to hear for his accomplishment.

I am sad that I haven't thank him for the impact he had on my life. I am so sad about losing my friend and mentor and the world has lost a true "mensch".

 

2008-05-18T21:44:47Z

Forgot your cell charger?

There have been so many times that I forgot to bring my cell charger on a business trip.

Ideal Bite had a great tip this morning :

"Put down that charge card. If you're staying at a hotel, chances are the front desk has a few chargers other people left behind. Ask before you waste cash ringing up a new one. "

Great way to save some money and recycle a charger.

iphone - Reenvision your Website design

All my friends have an iphone. I don't have one and I have to admit I am jealous and at times I've been a hater. But the interface is absolutely amazing. An interface that allows you to move and expand things with your fingers. This is not only going to be the future of mobile computing, but this is going to change any computer interface. Imagine being able to truly interact with the computer the same way you would with when you where a kid with your Lego blocks. This kind of interaction will help us understand data in a much more intuitive way then through excel pivot tables. It will not require someone to be an excel maven to be able to analyze data.

The iphone allows us to start designing Websites that are going to take advantage of this kind of interactivity.

Check out Jeff Han show off a cheap, scalable multi-touch and pressure-sensitive computer screen interface that may spell the end of point-and-click.


 

Microsoft has now developed this application for Windows 7