Groupon: The Price of Hubris
When three-year-old Groupon filed to go public in June, market commentators dialed the outrage meter up to 10. Flashpoints: an aggressive business model, creative accounting, and a track record of cashing out early investors–to the tune of $1 billion. Further irritants: public puffery from the Chairman and the CEO during the so-called quiet period and August and September resignations of two [...]
Christo in Colorado
For five decades artist Christo has been inspiring and infuriating, uniting and dividing communities large and small, urban and rural, around the globe. Last Friday, nineteen years after he and his wife and collaborator, Jeanne-Claude (who passed away in late 2009), conceived of their proposed Colorado project Over the River, it came one step closer to fruition. The [...]
Taking Responsible Investing Seriously
Responsible investing continues to grow up, go mainstream. In September, three events–the publication of two reports and the launch of a new investment product–highlighted the diverse ways in which it’s doing so. Early in the month the UN-backed Principles for Responsible Investment (UNPRI) published its Annual Report on Progress. As this is the fifth year [...]
Five Go-To Reads on the Creative Process
Elizabeth Streb is an extreme choreographer, MacArthur Foundation Fellow and the visionary behind the Streb Lab for Action Mechanics. Behance’s 99% recently published a brief, but terrific, interview with her entitled On Taking Big Risks and the Power of Action. Her thinking brought to mind the article that I am republishing here, one of the very first that I [...]
