Category Archives: Investing

Kiva – Giving Entrepreneurs an Opportunity to Succeed

I really like Kiva. Kiva lets you lend small amounts of money to entrepreneurs around the world. My latest loan is to a manufacturing entrepreneur in the USA. When Tony’s 6’0 6″ body could not fit in the traditional supercars, … Continue reading

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Short Term Investing Focus

Buffett’s New CEO Shows Analysts, Hedge-Fund Managers to Door Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. completed the buyout yesterday after winning the approval of Burlington Northern investors. The deal, valued at $100 a share, allows Rose to hand out returns of nearly … Continue reading

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Zappos and Amazon Sitting in a Tree…

Amazon is acquiring the unique company – Zappos: we have written about Zappos previously: Paying New Employees to Quit. Jeff Bezos uses the webcast above to talk to the employees of Zappos. Excellent job. The letter from Tony Hsieh, the … Continue reading

Posted in Creativity, Customer focus, Deming, Fun, Innovation, Investing, Management, Respect, Systems thinking | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Toyota Posts Loss of $6.9 Billion in Last Quarter

Toyota Posts Loss of $6.9 Billion in Last Quarter For January-March, Toyota booked a $6.9 billion loss, in line with consensus estimates, and cut its annual dividend nearly 30 percent — the first cut since at least 1994, when it … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Investing, Management, Toyota Production System (TPS) | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Build Your Business Slowly and Without Huge Cash Requirements

Get Rich Slow by Josh Quittner At no other time in recent history has it been easier or cheaper to start a new kind of company… These are Web-based businesses that cost almost nothing to get off the ground … … Continue reading

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Warren Buffett’s Letter to Shareholders 2009

Warren Buffett published his letter to shareholders yesterday. As usual, it is of great interest to anyone interested in the economic, investing and management ideas. In 1995, MidAmerican became the major provider of electricity in Iowa. By judicious planning and … Continue reading

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Printer Product Development Using Design of Experiments

MEMS development in less than half the time by Christopher N. Delametter, Eastman Kodak Company The traditional approach to optimizing a product or process using computer simulation is to evaluate the effects of one design parameter at a time. The … Continue reading

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Losses Covered Up to Protect Bonuses

Does it surprise you to learn traders would cover up losses to protect bonuses? It shouldn’t, it happens over and over. Would it surprise you that almost any bonus (or quota) scheme increases the odds that the data will be … Continue reading

Posted in Deming, Investing, Management, Psychology | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Management Advice from Warren Buffet

As usual, Warren Buffett’s letter to shareholders is packed with wisdom. He is best know for his investing genius but his writing provides great thoughts for managers also: Berkshire Hathaway 2007 Letter to Shareholders: We will soon purchase 60% of … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Investing, Management | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

12 Stocks for 10 Years – Adding Danaher

With Microsoft’s offer for Yahoo I am replacing Yahoo with Danaher in the 12 Stocks for 10 Years portfolio. Other stocks in the portfolio include Google up 137% since purchased, PetroChina up 132%, Amazon up 106% and Toyota up 44%. … Continue reading

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