Dr. Clayton Christensen delivers 2012 Pullias lecture at USC

The 34th annual Pullias Lecture at USC on March 29 featured remarks by Clayton M. Christensen, Kim B. Clark Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, who is best known for his study of innovation in commercial enterprises.

Christensen, author of The Innovative University: Changing the DNA of Higher Education From the Inside Out, lectured on what innovations in other markets can teach us about how to improve higher education.

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Related books:

The Innovative University

Disrupting Class

Dr. Clayton Christensen discusses disruption in higher education

If you're interested in the pro-profit education companies or involved in academics in one way or another, and don't have time to watch the entire video, I recommend watching about the 7 minutes or so beginning at the 34:50 mark. Also, be sure to read the short excerpt I posted from an interview he did HERE.

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Related books:

The Innovative University

Disrupting Class

Ned Goodman and the 'Botox Economy'

Ned Goodman spoke about the perils of quantitative easing at the Toronto Resource Investment Conference on Sept. 12. He made the following remarks, as recorded by The Northern Miner

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Related previous post: Ned Goodman’s Letter to Shareholders

Learning from Sherlock Holmes – by Jana Vembunarayanan

Found via The Big Picture.

Recently I read the book A Few Lessons from Sherlock Holmes. If you want to improve your thinking then you should read this book. In this book the author has distilled Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes into bite-sized principles and key quotes. I really enjoyed the book as it reminds me of the teachings of Charlie Munger. This is not a coincidence as the author of this book Peter Bevlin is also the author of Seeking Wisdom from Darwin to Munger. In this post I am capturing the similarities of Holmes and teachings of Munger.

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Related books:

A Few Lessons From Sherlock Holmes

Seeking Wisdom: From Darwin to Munger

A Few Lessons for Investors and Managers

Related previous posts:

A Few Lessons From Sherlock Holmes

2007 and 2009 Interviews with Peter Bevelin

The Joke Shack of the Housing Sector – by Chris Mayer

It’s not often you hear one executive call another business “a joke.” But it happened on a second-quarter earnings call this July.

The target of this criticism is the new crop of publicly traded single-family rental REITs. (REITs, or real estate investment trusts, are companies that own and manage real estate.) Before December of last year, there was no such thing. Now there are three, with more on the way.

Do these vehicles deserve a spot in your portfolio? I’m going to make the case that they do not.

At last, Voyager 1 slips into interstellar space

Humankind has officially extended its reach to the space between the stars.

NASA’s Voyager 1 spacecraft exited the vast bubble of particles that encircles the sun and planets on August 25, 2012, mission scientists report September 12 in Science. At the time, Voyager was about 18.2 billion kilometers from the sun, or nearly 122 times as far from the sun as Earth.

“This is the beginning of a new era of exploration for us,” says Edward Stone of Caltech, who has headed the Voyager mission since 1972. “For the first time, we are exploring interstellar space.”

Confirmation of Voyager’s interstellar exploits came after determining that the probe is surrounded by a relatively dense fog of galactic particles rather than a thin mist of solar ones. It was a tricky measurement that required patience, clever detective work and a heavy dose of luck.

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Related article: Voyager: Through the door to eternity

Related previous post: Carl Sagan - Pale Blue Dot

Where Is Dick Fuld Now? Finding Lehman Brothers' Last CEO

Found via the Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax.

Five years after the fall, Lehman Brothers no longer evokes the intense public anger it did in the weeks after the crash, when Fuld was hauled before Congress and made to answer for the firm’s demise. “If you haven’t discovered your role,” Republican Representative John Mica of Florida told him, “you’re the villain.” Most of the company’s top executives found lucrative jobs elsewhere on Wall Street. Many went to work for Barclays (BCS), which bought much of Lehman’s U.S. banking business out of bankruptcy. Lehman’s president, Bart McDade, and a top trader, Alex Kirk, founded investment firm River Birch Capital. George Walker, who ran Neuberger Berman, Lehman’s wealth management division, has continued to do so, thriving since the firm became independent. “I certainly don’t think there’s any Lehman hangover on the individuals themselves,” says Robert Wolf, the former chairman and CEO of UBS Americas (UBS).

Fuld is an exception. After the bankruptcy, he stayed on to help Alvarez & Marsal, the advisory firm in charge of sorting out the mess. Then he struck out on his own. In 2009 he founded Matrix Advisors, a consulting firm for mergers and acquisitions. In a regulatory filing, Fuld reported that he works more than 60 hours a week there. He renewed his securities license through a small broker-dealer, Legend Securities, run by a friend, and even underwent a medical exam for his student pilot’s certificate. Famously driven, Fuld gave every sign that he meant to put the Lehman nightmare behind him.

According to associates of Fuld’s, he pitched deals to Steve Schwarzman at Blackstone Group (BX) and Henry Kravis at Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), as well as top executives at BlackRock (BLK); tried with a buyer to arrange the purchase of OnStar from General Motors (GM); sought to interest investors in a consulting firm he hoped to launch; and did advisory work at IBM (IBM) for his friend Samuel Palmisano, then chairman and CEO. He’s also given free advice to Spring Hill Capital Partners, a merchant bank founded after the collapse by a former Lehman managing director. Yet in interviews with Lehman veterans, Wall Street colleagues, securities lawyers, and assorted friends and enemies, no one could name a significant Fuld success in the last five years—and most were curious to hear what he’d been doing.

The Men Who Built America – History Channel (2012)

Found via The Great Documentary Planet.


Link to Part 1


Link to Part 1 of 6 to Part 2 (the full Part 2 wasn't available straight through)


Link to Part 3


Link to Part 4

U.S. Open victory the pinnacle of Nadal's unbelievable comeback year

Thanks to David for passing this along. Charlie Rose also did a great interview with Nadal HERE.

NEW YORK -- Rafa fell. This was at his shakiest moment Monday night, before another epic comeback would make it just a funny memory, before the tears and his admission that the year had been "the most emotional one in my career," before the queen of Spain sighed, "Bueno" at the sight of him and kissed both his cheeks. But you couldn't envision any of that, not then. Rafael Nadal fell, and suddenly all of it -- the knee, the career, the man -- seemed very fragile. It felt like disaster at hand.

This was late in the third set of the U.S. Open final, things knotted at a set apiece, 4-4, but tilting Novak Djokovic's way, fast. The world No. 1 had been gradually peeling back the layers on Nadal's game, denting him with haymaker groundstrokes and crafty pace, and now with Nadal serving all momentum had shifted the Serb's way. A classic drop-and-lob combo made it 0-15 and then, just as another marathon rally began to take shape, Djokovic's tricky forehand sent him backpedaling behind the baseline.

And then came a sight that you could spend years on the pro tour and never see. Nadal's footwork is legendary, a key to his remarkable career, yet now his right foot snagged on the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium and he went down slow and fast, body parts flailing, bit by awkward bit. He looked like a man shoved hard onto a patch of ice.

"I never," Nadal said later, "thought I would fall down like this."

Still, there were two unusual things about his reaction: Instead of cushioning his fall, Nadal kept his eye on the ball and kept trying to swing. Over in Djokovic's box, his new coaching consultant, Wojtek Fibak, couldn't believe it.

"I was admiring him," said Fibak, the one-time mentor of Ivan Lendl. "Because he was falling in six or seven stages, and each stage he tried to hit the ball. He tried then ... and tried then ... and tried then ... and he still tried."

It's true. "Because until the last moment," Nadal said, "I thought that I will hit the ball."

And then he sprang back up and pointed for a towel, betraying not even a hint of embarrassment. If you're looking for a reason why Nadal, not Djokovic, is this year's U.S. Open champion, and the man who in essence if not yet fact is now considered No. 1, that will serve just fine. No matter the surface, the score or the state of his aching knees, the 27-year old Majorcan always thinks that he can hit the ball.

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That such toughness and resiliency off-court should dovetail with his playing style makes sense, of course, but it doesn't answer the mystery at the heart of Nadal's career. With 13 major titles, he now trails only Roger Federer and Pete Sampras on the all-time list; yet nothing in his background seems to answer for his relentless nature. He was raised in comfort and calm on an island in the Mediterranean, surrounded by loving family. Even the "intense" practice sessions meted out early by his coach and uncle, Toni, don't seem enough to create someone who, as Jimmy Connors famously put it, "plays like he's broke."

But, then, maybe his is too dark a read. It takes a special magic to play so bullying a style without being an actual bully, without leaving opponents unmanned, but Nadal has walked that line with admirable consistency. His on-court glower is a bit of a mask. He has few enemies.

"I'm in awe," Boris Becker said Monday. "I can't believe the attitude he brings to the court. He loves to be out there for three, four hours a day. He loves to be in difficult situations. He loves to be down and out. It comes from love. Amazing."

Marissa Mayer & Mark Zuckerberg on Bloomberg West (video)

Found via ValueWalk.

Sept. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Full episode of "Bloomberg West." Guests include Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, Brian Wieser, Former Chief Marketing Officer at Simulmedia, Maynard Webb, Yahoo Chairman, Zach Coelius, Triggit CEO, Om Malik, Gigaom Founder and Bloomberg's Jon Erlichman and Nicholas Thompson.