A number of articles (e.g., Get 'Em While They Last: 'Daily Deal' Sites Dying Fast) have been written in the last month implying the end of Daily Deal (DD) sites (e.g., Groupon, LivingSocial). The latest is a Sunday NYT's below-the-fold front page (yes, print) article entitled:

The Daily Deal site business is tough. DD sites manage a large sales force to signup vendors: A cost and manpower problem not usually associated with web-based businesses. DD sites must create deals that represent perceived value to consumers while increasing profits for vendors more efficiently than traditional marketing channels...

If you are interested in IPOs, then you must be wondering if the daily deal sites (e.g., Living Social, Groupon) are a sustainable business. Perhaps more to the point, you should be wondering how Groupon could be worth $6 billion?

At present, we are in the middle of...

We talk a great deal about the innovations Steve Jobs has brought to society, yet we often don't step back and see his greatest innovation: aesthetics. Jobs' leadership and vision has always adhered to a code of aesthetics that put visionary design in the hands of the masses. As a...

We need patent litigation in the mobile device and telecommunications space. Ever since Google purchased Motorola Mobility, there have been numerous articles in the press about the dangers of patent litigation. Economists, from respected universities, have been quoted bemoaning the dollars spent on the purchase and the negative...

Google just became another Qualcomm. You may not have noticed, but by buying the Motorola mobile phone portfolio, Google can now integrate its Android operating system with Motorola's underlying mobile phone technology. This hardware plus software change means there is going to be a stronger licensing relationship with companies like...

Networking and questioning are critical traits for C-Level managers at our most successful, innovative companies. These and other characteristics are discussed in a new book by Jeff Dyer, Hal Gregersen, and Clay Christensen (the latter the father of the term "disruptive technology") The Innovator's DNA: Mastering...

It's tough to get ahead in the US without a postsecondary degree (e.g., associate, bachelor's or higher). This fact is proven by degree: income and unemployment rates (see chart). A bachelor's degree equates to an extra $14,000/year over an associate degree and equates to 1.6% lower unemployment. Yet, achieving these...

Innovation is key to our success, and our universities are an important source of that innovation. So I was more than a bit curious when I read an article by Vivek Wadhwa: Making Research Pay with the tag line: If university research were a business, it would be...

The ability to earn an advanced degree is inherent in the American Dream. This is true for the benefit of the individual and for society as a whole. If through benign neglect we ignore the runaway cost of higher education, then we are destroying the American Dream. Our universities have...

You can't look at a paper without some politician sermonizing on how we spend too much on health care. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that the cost of US health care per capita is twice that of major European countries (e.g., UK, FR, DE)....

If you want to understand the wide gulf between Republicans and Democrats, it comes down to tax expenditures. Tax expenditures are what the common folk might call tax deductions. They are legal deductions that corporations and individuals use to reduce their tax load; seems fair. Well, those tax expenditures amount...

This week Newt Gingrich, as is his way, is at the epi-center of the brouhaha over his comments about Paul Ryan's (R-WI) plan to replace Medicare with a voucher system. Let me say right now, I like vouchers. I like the idea of allowing a broad array of solutions for...

Some in Congress, mostly Republicans, want to reduce the healthcare portion of our deficit by having Medicare recipients pay more. Some might even refer to this as a tax on the elderly. The fact is that Medicare recipients need to pay more but there is no sense paying more, if...

The parenting guide

Get Out of My Life, but First Could You Drive Me & Cheryl to the Mall

Tip O'Neill (D-MA), the former Speaker of The House (1977-1987), used to say: "All politics is local." This quote screams out as a cacophony when one looks at the inaction of Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia on cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay (the Bay). Farming, chickens, cattle, and suburban sprawl...

Let's talk about an endangered species. I could talk about the Delmarva Fox Squirrel (Acipenser brevirostrum) or even the Bog Turtle (Clemmys muhlenbergii); instead I want to focus on the Eastern Shore Commercial Fisherman (Piscator orientali litore). It is impossible to discuss cleaning the Chesapeake Bay without mentioning watermen. There...

Whether the issue is security, sustainability or global warming, there is a single truth: We must stop our dependence on foreign oil. Every President since Nixon has bemoaned our dependence on foreign oil. Yet, there are insufficient oil reserves in the U.S. to support our appetite for oil. The US...

It's not that Americans don't believe in global warming, they are just afraid of what it means to their way of life. The potential economic consequences of climate change are so great in the US that people are willing to deny empirical evidence and make all forms of illogical statements...

The National Institute of Health (NIH) is opening a new institute to discover new drugs. It will be called the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (Center). The premise of the Center is to help the drug industry and society overcome 15 years of declining research productivity. Let me say...