May 8, 2010
David Brooks, writing on April 6th in
the New York Times wrote an optimistic article about the good news for
the future of America and its economy. The article relies heavily on data from “The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050,” über-geographer Joel Kotkin - which he claims "sketches out how this growth will change the national landscape. Extrapolating from current trends, he describes an archipelago of vibrant suburban town centers, villages and urban cores." This and the data that supports that the American population is expected to grow to be over 400 million over the next 40 years should give us confidence to invest and believe in new forms of economic growth and opportunity.
Read the article for yourself but enjoy the quote that follows "the U.S. is on the verge of a demographic, economic and social revival, built on its historic strengths. The U.S. has always been good at disruptive change. It’s always excelled at decentralized community-building. It’s always had that moral materialism that creates meaning-rich products. Surely a country with this much going for it is not going to wait around passively and let a rotten political culture drag it down."
This last quote is also a reminder that the major issues facing our nation and society including, but not limited to, immigration reform, affordability of health care, energy independence and educational achievement / quality - our government seems incapable of addressing successful.
Posted by John Fees. Posted In : Trends & Society
April 26, 2010
Today's New York Times has a great article - posted below regarding a new model for starting companies. I am not sure it is a new model or a reminder of adapting to customer focused feedback. My view is that the real theme captured by the thinking below is to "fail fast". Which means, most entrepreneurs have a great hypothesis for creating a business - they identify a problem, they have a solution and they choose a medium and price to deliver it at. The challenge is not to over design t... Continue reading...
Posted by John Fees. Posted In : Entrepreneurship
March 29, 2010
Last week attached to the Health Care bill was a little noticed or discussed reformation of the nations student lending business. I won't debate the merits of either financing option (federal or private), but the public remains distracted by the main topic which is the rapidly increasing cost to attend college.
Just this weekend, the Boston Globe wrote about "the number of schools in the region...
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Posted by John Fees. Posted In : Education Reform
March 17, 2010
I have enjoyed reading The Big Short by Author Michael Lewis. I recommend the book to everyone, not to learn about CDO's or even the money laundering machine that was built on Wall Street, but to discover the value of being an outsider. The value of being outside the system, immune a bit to the group think of heards / of the momentum of markets. Maybe that is why it is good to live in Omaha or other places where you can get perspective on how to create real value and identify opportuni...
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Posted by John Fees. Posted In : Entrepreneurship
January 18, 2010
I am keenly interested in innovations in how society approaches learning. Outstanding content is always the starting point for great learning. With content as the base assumption there are many considerations for how which mediums to convey this content to students. The written word is still very powerful and I believe an integral part of many of the most effective approaches. Three companies that I have invested in approach learning in different ways. Flypaper enables content to be ...
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Posted by John Fees. Posted In : Entrepreneurship
John Fees is an entrepreneur, strategic marketing executive and business leader in the fields of affinity, collegiate and partnership marketing. During the course of his career, John has founded and led successful companies specializing in strategic marketing and media, affinity, partnership marketing and financial services.
Currently, he serves as the co-founder & managing director of NGI Group. NGI Group is a large shareholder in portfolio companies including GradGuard, MassDrive & MyLifeProtected.
Just this weekend, the Boston Globe wrote about "the number of schools in the region...