Category Archives: General Business Issues

Vision Without Execution is Hallucination

Posted on January 29, 2012 by
Thomas Edison: Turn on your heartlight

Recently Steve Case wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post called Give Entrepreneurs Room and They Will Grow the Economy. For those not familiar with him, Case was the original founding CEO of AOL and he has been an active healthcare investor, among other things, for the past 7 years. My firm, Psilos Group, has previously co-invested with Case’s Revolution Health Fund.

Anyway, it was a very good editorial and one of the statistics within it particularly stood out to me in light of my venture capital role: firms less than five years old have produced 40 million American jobs over the past three decades — accounting for basically all of the net new jobs created in that period. That is a pretty stunning fact and also one that really makes a person scratch their head about current U.S. policy towards start-ups. It is worth watching this Kauffman Foundation 3 minute video that is very instructive about start-ups and job creation.

No where is this issue more relevant than in the healthcare industry, which conveniently happens to be the only thing I know anything about. In a world where … (read the rest)

Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare Information Technology, Healthcare Policy, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Study the Boomers! An Xconomy Report on Education

Posted on January 17, 2012 by
images-6

Xconomy, an extremely informative and smart web publication, today released a special Report on the Future of Education  They compiled the content of the report by canvassing their Xconomists—whom they refer to as some of the world’s leading innovators, entrepreneurs, and investors—for their thoughts on what students should study to be prepared for the future.  The specific question they posed was this:  What should students be studying now to prepare for 10 years from now?

Twenty-two of Xconomy’s advisors, these so-called Xconomists, gave a variety of interesting responses.  Fortunate to be among the esteemed list of people whose opinions were included, my answer was this:  Study the Boomers!  The article below was the substance of my specific response, which can also be found on the Xconomy website by clicking HERE.

Study the Boomers!

The Who once sang, “I hope I die before I get old.” Despite their best efforts to exit the planet early, most of them didn’t. They and their fellow Baby Boomers represent the greatest technology and business opportunity of the 21st Century.

It is typical for each of us to be drawn to areas for … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, General Business Issues, Health and Wellness, Innovation, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

50% of Doctors are Worse than Average

Posted on January 7, 2012 by
Dr. Van Nostrand, I presume?

If you hired a lawyer who the world’s nicest office and excellent coffee in the lobby, but who lost the case for you every time, what would you think of that lawyer?  How about if you hired a hairdresser who was always on time and had some great gossip for you when you sat in their chair, but who made you look like a refugee from Flock of Seagulls every time you left the salon?  I am guessing that your general view on these people would be negative, despite their incidental charms.

However, when people are asked to rate their doctors, it is precisely the incidental charms that count the most.  The primary correlates to doctors receiving high patient satisfactions scores are: 1) whether they were made to wait for an excessive period of time in the waiting room; and 2) whether the doctor spent a long period of time with them in the exam room.  In other words, patients value comfort and attention and that, in their minds, tends to equate to high quality care.  Buyer beware.

In mid-December 2011, a research team from the University of Michigan School … (read the rest)

Posted in Consumer Engagement, Diagnostics and Screening, General Business Issues, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , , , | 10 Comments

Hey, Where Is Everybody Going?

Posted on November 13, 2011 by
lightswitch

If you are simply reading the paper or engaging in any random cocktail party conversation these days, it doesn’t take long before you are reading or talking about healthcare.  Health and healthcare issues have been a dominant topic in the national media since the 2008 Presidential election and have been constantly in the news as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) has taken center stage.  Even if PPACA weren’t always in the headlines, stories about employers who are grasping for solutions to their healthcare cost crises would still be.

Given the massive amount of change currently underway in the U.S. healthcare economy that has resulted from PPACA, the earlier healthcare IT stimulus legislation (ARRA) and the acts of employers saying that they’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore, we have bona fide industry upheaval on our hands.  And where there is upheaval, there is opportunity.  Today more than ever there is a tremendous opportunity to find new ways of doing business in the world of healthcare through changing delivery systems, insurance models, technology solutions, drug discovery, device innovation and just about everything else that … (read the rest)

Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare Reform, Healthcare Venture Capital, Innovation, Private Equity, Uncategorized, Venture Capital | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Gravity is a Bitch

Posted on October 9, 2011 by
Gravity's a bitch

Hi everyone.  A few weeks ago I had the honor of receiving a very prestigious Corporate Director’s Forum award for Board Director of the Year.  The award is given each year to Board Directors who are nominated in 6 categories (corporate governance, enhancement of economic value, companies in transition, corporate citizenship, not for profit governance and lifetime achievement).  The awards are presented at a gala dinner; I received my award at a lovely event in San Diego on September 14th attended by more than 500 people.  I have been asked by multiple people to send them a copy of my speech as it seemed to be pretty popular. Thus, I decided to publish it below.

The Corporate Directors Forum event is quite a big production and it has a theme every year.  This year’s theme was The Right Stuff, the 1983 movie about the original US Mercury 7 astronauts.  It’s a great movie that covers the history of the U.S. Space program and the wild and crazy pilots that became the first astronauts.  The event had all sorts of movie and NASA footage and cool space gear in … (read the rest)

Posted in General Business Issues, Girls Rule!, Uncategorized, Women in Venture Capital & Private Equity | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Great Leadership and the Business of Baseball

Posted on October 2, 2011 by
Don't try to tell me the season isn't over, you annoying Yankee fans

Well, the season is over for my beleaguered SF Giants, but I just got back from seeing the movie Moneyball and it was a worthy substitute for a day at the ballpark.  I loved this Michael Lewis book when it came out and remember it as my all time favorite book about business.  I know millions have written about Moneyball, but the movie made a big impression and reminded me why I loved the book so much so I thought I’d make a note here.

Moneyball is ostensibly about how the Oakland A’s of the early 2000′s blew up conventional baseball by adopting Sabermetrics:  the art of selecting players based on statistical models instead of old-school scouting. Sabermetrics was “invented” by a guy named Bill James, who was a baseball fanatic and a security guard at a pork and beans factory.  It was popularized by A’s General Manager Billy Beane, a former baseball player who failed after being hailed as a golden boy prospect on the field.  As the story unfolds, it appears Beane has virtually lost his mind after losing in the play-offs and sets to work  building … (read the rest)

Posted in General Business Issues, Healthcare private equity, Healthcare Venture Capital, Random Thoughts of the Day, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments