Easter Entertainment

Here are some travel photographs from Asia last winter.

And here is how the Belgians are living the economic crisis.

Catching Up On Readings: What About Short Selling?

Here is a summary of the posts from this past week, in case you missed them. Sunday afternoon may be a good time to catch up. >>>

Clara Shih On The Facebook Era (Part 4)

By Guest Author Clara Shih

Clara’s series ends with an excerpt from Chapter 5, “Social Network Marketing”.

“Facebook advertising doesn’t feel like advertising because it comes from your friends.” –Tim Kendall, Director of Monetization at Facebook

Marketers need to be where their customers and potential customers are, and increasingly, this is on social networking sites. There are hundreds of millions of active users across sites like Facebook, Hi5, and MySpace. 2.6 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day. Social networking is a rapidly growing global phenomenon sweeping across every continent. According to Alexa, two social networking sites (Facebook and MySpace) are among the top-five trafficked sites in the US, and four social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, QQ, and Hi5) are among the top-twenty trafficked sites in the world. >>>

Healthcare Reform Through Entrepreneurship: Phytel CEO Steve Schelhammer (Part 4)

SM: What happened after you sold Accordant? Did you have to stay as part of the deal?

SS: It was a very friendly, good arrangement when we were purchased. I was enthusiastic about sticking around. They wanted me to stay and I was excited to do so. My right-hand person continues to lead Accordant today. >>>

April 30 MIT Event on Bootstrapping

MIT Club of Northern California’s Entrepreneurship Program presents
The Art and Science of Bootstrapping
Thursday, April 30, 2009 | 6:30pm Networking & Refreshments | 7:00pm Event Starts
Location: Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, 950 Page Mill Road, Palo Alto, CA 94304
PLEASE REGISTER ONLINE

Strategic Thinking Still Important In A Downturn

By Guest Author Michael Kanazawa

Over 80% of respondents in recent surveys say their companies are thinking more strategically during the downturn.

There is a natural reaction to go into survival mode when a major disruption in business occurs. That means tunnel and short-term vision as well as tactical and reactionary measures. That can be a necessity for survival. However, a recent poll of the Strategic Planning Community (SPC), a business social network of strategic planners hosted by the Association of Strategic Planning (ASP), shows that for the most part, the knee-jerk reactions to the downturn have passed and most companies are moving towards more strategic moves. >>>

Clara Shih On The Facebook Era (Part 3)

By Guest Author Clara Shih

[In last week’s posts Clara described the genesis and background of her work on Facebook as a business tool. Today she discusses how Facebook and other social networking sites have made the sales process more of an interaction between seller and customer.]

Excerpt from Chapter 4, “Social Sales”

One major result of the democratization of business has been unprecedented market competition. In today’s business landscape, companies are faced with a greater number of competitors and savvier buyers empowered with information. More than ever, sales reps must strive to maximize the lifetime value of their customer relationships versus maximizing the value of a single transaction. With fewer unfair structural advantages for reps to count on, timely insights into customer needs and interpersonal communications in the sales process have become requirements for closing the deal. Online social networks are emerging as critical business tools to help facilitate these insights and communications. >>>

Healthcare Reform Through Entrepreneurship: Phytel CEO Steve Schelhammer (Part 3)

SM: What was your value proposition?

SS: Our value proposition was straightforward. Those diseases cost an enormous amount of money and they were out on the fringe, so nobody was really paying attention to them. >>>