text:
Bennett Blank's three principles on staying fresh and relevant: "We're trying to turn Intuit into a company of 8000 entrepreneurs"9:31AM | Thursday, 18 September
It's not direct competitors that keep the folks at Intuit up at night; it's all the startups they don't know about, according to Intuit innovation catalyst Bennett Blank. The financial software company describes itself as the "30-year-old startup" and Blank says for the last six years it's been trying to instil startup values in its employees through its Design for Delight program. "There's lots and lots of pressure from all different angles for established players like Intuit," Blank says. "In general, being in tech is extremely challenging because it's changing so rapidly. We like to say it's not the company's market competitors that keep us up at night, it's the kid in a garage outside Stanford that could be about to launch in 30 days. "Which is why we're trying to turn Intuit into a company of 8000 entrepreneurs." The program is based on three principles that Blank says can apply to startups and businesses of all shapes and sizes: 1. Deep customer empathy "We try to understand the customer by observing them in the real world," Blank says. 2. Going broad to go narrow "This is about helping people to employ many solutions until they dive onto the final solution that actually works: brainstorming until they settle on the final option." 3. Rapid experiments "We're out there developing experiments in the wild, showing those products. And figuring out through those experiments how to learn new things about the customer. "There's no success, no failure, just the experiment. Seeing what you learn." Of the company's 8000 strong workforce, there are 200 employees that are known as innovation catalysts, specifically trained to help instil Design for Delight values in their colleagues. "We have a rich tradition of entrepreneurship that gives us a head start from other corporations," Blank says. "We're somewhat unique in that Intuit has been around for 30 years or so and our founder is still active. "One benefit we're seeing from Design for Delight is we're able to react much faster to other companies." Follow StartupSmart on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Best of the Web: Eulogy for Twitter5:45AM | Friday, 2 May
A eulogy for Twitter. Adrienne LaFrance and Robinson Meyer argue in The Atlantic that the social media platform is dying. Although Twitter added 14 million new users for a total of 255 million, the pair say Twitter's users are less active than they once were. "Twitter says these changes reflect a more streamlined experience, but we have a different theory: Twitter is entering its twilight." According to France and Meyer, the question is – did Twitter change or did we? "Twitter used to be a sort of surrogate newsroom/barroom where you could organise around ideas with people whose opinions you wanted to assess. Maybe you wouldn't agree with everybody, but that was part of the fun. But at some point Twitter narratives started to look the same. The crowd became predictable, and not in a good way." Uber cab confessions. As Uber attempts to upend the Australian taxi market it's worthwhile taking a look at Mickey Rapkin of GQ's take on spending a week as an Uber driver. Uber is pricier than your standard taxi. So what's the hook? Instant gratification, a hint of glamour, even some sex appeal. "Uber capitalizes on what economists refer to as 'slack resources' or 'underutilized capacity'," Rapkin says. "Translation: Why let your car sit idle in the driveway when you can turn it into a cash machine? The future is all about monetising downtime." Gap alums rule the fashion world. In SFGate, Maghan McDowell writes about the Gap retail program which is known as the Harvard of retailers. "If you're trying to develop a career in retail, you have to do this program," says Stanford graduate Jessica Lee, who chose Gap over Google's Associate Product Manager Program, then under Marissa Mayer, in 2008. "You're not just applying to a job. You're being fostered, and they're basically paying you to learn." But as McDowell discovers, while Gap seems to have no problem attracting and training top talent, holding onto them after they reach middle management seems a more elusive endeavour. "The program remains renowned among retailers, but former Gap trainees have moved on from Gap to lead other companies – or to start their own. Call them the Gap Mafia. They're steadily influencing retail at boundary-pushing brands gaining recognition all over the world."
Discussion hosted by UTS Business School looks at the need to foster an entrepreneurial spirit in Australia3:08AM | Monday, 24 March
The entrepreneurial spirit needs to be fostered in Australia not just among individuals but also within organisations, according to panellists who dissected the challenges facing business at a discussion hosted by UTS Business School. This requires more explicit government policy, readier access to funds and a culture where risk-taking is accepted not punished, they said. Government at all levels, investors, industry and universities all have important roles to play, especially by collaborating. Silicon Valley-based entrepreneur and UTS Business School alumnus Adrian Turner, City of Sydney chief executive officer Monica Barone and AMP Capital Chief Executive Officer Stephen Dunne joined Business School Dean Roy Green in a discussion on the future of business and the future of business education. "It might be an exaggeration to say Australia is at a turning point, but I think everybody would accept that now is a moment for reflection and reassessment of our direction as a country," Professor Green said, introducing the discussion. "As part of this, universities have a very important role, and business schools a particular role, in identifying the challenges, in identifying the future competitive advantages for this country." And the challenges Australia faces are serious, he said. "We have seen the end of the terms-of-trade boost that added 15% to our national income over six years. We as a country have to find new and alternative sources of growth and productivity to secure our first-world economy … we have to identify new sources of competitive advantage, creativity and innovation." Asked where the new sources of growth might come from, Turner said: "I think at the core of it is going to be entrepreneurialism – and entrepreneurialism is not just about startups but key to every facet of the economy, whether it's small business, medium business or large business." Entrepreneurialism and innovation are correlated, he said, with innovation being a function of both "creativity and commercialisation" – one didn't matter without the other. However, a big hurdle in Australia is funding, with very small amounts being devoted to venture or development capital in this country, he said. This is driving people with ideas overseas. Ironically, Australian institutional investors could also be found in places like Silicon Valley, partly because government incentives encouraged investment in startups in the United States. "That's a mark of failure that has to be addressed," he said. It was also an urgent need because 70% of Australian industry was services based, and such businesses were ripe for disruption by technology, he said. "The best form of defence is attack, by creating these new, disruptive businesses," he said. "Australia has a very narrow window in which to do that." The City of Sydney's Monica Barone said Australia lacked an innovation ethos. "I think one of the things we need to focus on is having an explicit policy around innovation that really helps to address how we want to evolve," she said. "People could then feel confident to invest or innovate." From the city's point of view, if Sydney wanted to be regarded as smart, innovative, youthful and creative it could not afford to lose talent to other cities. "Creative people want to live in a great city, a city where they have proximity to other creative people," she said. That is happening, Prof Green said. The transformation of the city – from Barangaroo on the inner harbour to Australian Technology Park south of the CBD, and including the $1 billion redevelopment of the UTS City Campus – was more profound than many Sydneysiders had yet recognised, he said. "The creative precinct around us potentially compares with some of the best creative hubs around the world." The sort of collaboration that this engenders is critically important, AMP Capital's Stephen Dunne said. "The opportunity to collaborate with your peers, with your competitors, with various levels of government, with research institutions, is very important to solving the issues we face in the Australian economy. "These long-term and critical challenges such as productivity and energy transformation do require collaboration and thinking that no one player can do on their own." Businesses are created at the intersection of corporates and universities, Turner said. "Some of the things that UTS is proposing here, in creating a 'clustering' ecosystem, is exactly what works. It's that sort of environment at MIT, at Stanford." Programs such as the Bachelor of Creative Intelligence and Innovation were also a step in the right direction, he said. Business schools can also play a role in helping organisations "reconceive" themselves in terms of collaboration across a broader system and how they can incorporate entrepreneurialism, Dunne said. "They are often the best placed to provoke and experiment – by encouraging innovation from within." Lesley Parker is the media officer at UTS Business School
Stanford start-up tutors share the top five myths about scaling tech start-ups3:35PM | Tuesday, 11 March
By definition, every start-up plans to get global sooner or later. But scaling a business poorly is one of the fastest ways to kill it, according to two Stanford lecturers. Robert Sutton and Huggy Rao have recently released Scaling up Excellence, which explores how companies from tech superstars to fast food chains have grown and gotten stronger. "Start-ups need to start thinking about scaling a lot earlier than they do," Sutton says, who adds you don't need to a perfect organisation to scale well. "A lot of times when people think of scaling up, they think they're going to focus on the great stuff and spread it. But when you look at organisations that have nailed scaling, they've gone from bad to great." Sutton spoke to StartupSmart from San Francisco about the five biggest myths about scaling and how to overcome them. Myth 1: Scaling is all rapid growth through fast decisions While the scaling story of tech superstars Twitter, Google and Facebook can make it sound like every decision was instant and the implementation took only a tiny bit lower, Sutton says all scaling companies slow down to take the time they need to make the decisions where it matters. "In every case we've looked at, including those three, this notion they rushed all the time is just not true. From Google to even Starbucks, all successful global companies go slow sometimes." A key time to focus on results rather than execution time is hiring staff. "From the very beginning, Google was always very picky about hiring. They only hired very technically skilled who also had the leadership skills to grow with the company no matter how badly they needed a warm body in that chair," Sutton says. He adds founders shouldn't shy away from the arrogance these decisions and the corresponding belief the company could become massive requires. Myth 2: Conflict will kill a company As companies grow, arguments are inevitable as teams choose what to focus on. Sutton says learning how to argue well is a critical skill for a scaling company. "To make the best decisions, you need to be clear on how you argue and when you stop arguing. Good teams can have blazing arguments and then move on." Sutton says part of the success of many tech superpowers has come down to having founders, and later managers and executives, who are willing to model vigorous arguments followed by a resolution all commit too. "Firefox's John Lilly (chief executive 2008 to 2010) oversaw the company's growth from 12 to 500," Sutton says. "He told me he started realising at about 80 people that people had begun to act as though they were afraid of their boss. So he just started having arguments with his immediate team whenever he could. He'd be right or wrong but would always end respectfully and move on." Sutton says making sure everyone shares an understanding of what medium-term success looks like makes it easier to resolve disagreements and unites a team. Myth 3: Scaling means building the team as quickly as possible According to Sutton, one of the most dangerous myths about start-ups is the belief bigger is better when it comes to teams. "The notion that scaling mandates adding more people is a myth. There is lots of evidence that when you bring on board the wrong people too quickly, it's deadly." The pressure to build the team often comes from investors who are keen to see their money put to work. "I can't tell you how many times I've seen a start-up still in the product development stage kill itself by hiring sales staff before they're ready. These guys need to sell, so they sell a product that's not ready and it's over," he says. Sutton says actions such as Israeli start-up Waze's hiring freeze after raising $20 million should remind start-ups about the virtues of staying lean, as the company went on to be acquired by Google. Myth 4: Our culture will suffer and we need to stay small While cultural death by growth was the fate of Yahoo! and eBay (who later turned it around), Sutton says rapid growth won't kill a start-up if they're smart about it. The key to a culture thriving, as well as smarter working, is to keep teams small. "One of the mantras at Amazon is you shouldn't have a team that can't be fed by two pizzas," Sutton says. "The difference between a five person team and say an 11 person team is huge. From battlefields to big corporates, all the evidence shows the maximum is seven before it dissolves into interpersonal contests and missed communications." Small teams organised in pods is an emerging trend in start-ups. Australian start-up 99designs has used a pod approach for over a year. Sutton adds that scaling can make deeper cultural issues more significant as the organisation widens and effective communications requires more effort. "When you're trying to scale an organisation and you have destructive behaviour or people, the first order of business is to nip that in the bud because otherwise it's impossible to grow well." Myth 5: Bureaucracy and hierarchies should be shunned as they stifle innovation and productivity One of the joys of start-ups is team flexibility. But start-ups need to implement some structure and processes if they want to become global companies. "Staying entrepreneurial and easy to get things done is admirable, but there is a lot of evidence that shows companies need managers, hierarchy and processes," Sutton says. "There is a fine art of adding just enough process or bureaucracy so you can actually get all the work done. I think it's admirable that entrepreneurs resist adding that stuff, but if you don't it'll turn into an unruly, out of control organisation." For early stage ventures, Sutton adds it's essential to work out the leadership structure early or risk confused strategy direction and in-fighting.
Melbourne pitching competition combining business and programmer development10:01AM | Thursday, 10 October
Five businesses are in the running for $8,000 in seed capital and a mentoring lunch with Red Balloon's founder Naomi Simson, after being announced the finalists in Melbourne University's 2013 Startup competition. The selected companies are: Creatologists, CareAbility, My Wingman, The Fashtag Group, and Projectboard and cover a range of industries including food, recreational services and disability services. The five emerging founders will pitch to a group of private equity and venture capital investors. Competition founder and consumer psychologist academic Dr Brent Coker told StartupSmart the ideas have been getting better and better since he launched the competition in 2009. "In 2009, we had maybe five teams enter, everyone presented their ideas and the winner got a handshake. So it was a pretty small deal," Coker says. "This year, there were a range of new interesting and feasible ideas that gave us that instant reaction of 'I wish I'd thought of that'. A few of this year's entries stood out as exciting with huge potential." Coker says the development of the standard of the ideas was in line with the growing Melbourne entrepreneurial ecosystem, but also due to some events the university has run to connect programmers to business development students. "One of the things I did this year was get engineers and computer programmers and put them in the same room as the smartest business students. I gave them beer and pizza and tried to get them to mingle, because that's where the best ideas come from," he says. Coker says the best business ideas are born from the potent combination of great developers, both from a product but also business perspective. "With these two roles together in the same team, you're covering each other's weaknesses," Coker says. "Engineers are very good at making things, but they try to work out who to sell it to after it's made. That's the opposite of how we train our business students, who are trained to find gaps to fill and then create products, but they're not usually inventors." He adds the communication hurdles can be big, but worth overcoming. "The biggest challenge is learning to see each other's point of view. Engineers and programmers are very good at thinking up technologies and what's possible but the challenge is getting them to understand the business people's point of view, which is they want to build a fairly simple solution to a problem, and after they're doing that they'll care about features," Coker says. He says many Melbourne University students who are aspiring founders can feel intimidated or disadvantaged by being so far away from Silicon Valley. "Many have the perception that those at Stanford are better than them, but that's not the case," Coker says. "We've got an advantage here as you don't need to compete with the Silicon Valley start-ups until you're really ready."
New app heralds the next generation of radio: socially attuned and completely customisable10:23PM | Monday, 7 October
Omny, an app allowing users to combine news clips, emails, social media updates and articles via voice-to-text software, launches today after over 20 months in development. Created by 121Cast, the app allows people to create their own customised audio channel. The app also includes a recommendation algorithm to suggest content. 121Cast co-founder and chief operations officer Ed Hooper told StartupSmart they were excited to see it finally launch. "Seeing how it can change people and their behaviour is really exciting, as is the opportunity make that commute period really productive all over the world," Hooper says. "We've all been doing this for so long and everyone knows about it, so how this goes is tied to our personal brands, what we stand for, and our credibility." Co-founders Long Zheng and Hooper began exploring the idea for the app in 2011. They had previously worked on an international award winning start-up involving farm irrigation automation software. "But it was the GFC and we were still students, so for a whole lot of factors it didn't work out but it was an amazing journey," Hooper says, who gave up studying at Stanford to return to Australia to work in the Groupon team just as coupon sales were taking off. He was working at Groupon when Zheng got in touch to talk about how to turn the issue of commute productivity into a business opportunity. "I was constantly looking for a good opportunity, but I didn't want to jump on something unless it was awesome, because you want to put everything into it. When Long called me up and we started talking about an audio solution that read you your emails and updates, I realised this was it. I literally could not stop thinking about it," Hooper says. Omny sources content from over 30 providers, from music apps such as Spotify, to news groups such as the ABC and BBC, to Facebook, Google and Microsoft. Hooper says all the early conversations were focused on the difficulties of developing such an app, rather than building a business around it. "Whenever we've spoken to potential partners or investors, the assumption is always if we can make the app work, the money stuff will be fine," Hooper says. "The feedback we got was the idea was there and it could definitely be a business, but also that it was going to be really hard to build and we'd need significant expertise." They brought on third co-founder and chief technology officer Andrew Armstrong in February 2012. They've gone on to hire a front-end developer and a data scientist as well. To guide the development, the 121Cast team launched a test app, SoundGecko, in mid-2012. "We realised we didn't have a clear idea of what we were creating and needed some real data. We tried surveys and interviews, but it didn't really get us there. So we took a small fraction of this app, and bundled it as a standalone," Hooper says. SoundGecko, an app which read websites and PDF documents for users, has almost 50,000 active monthly users. It allowed 121Cast the opportunity to test the reception of voice-to-text, and also the data requirements for sending audio to thousands of users across the world. Over 210,000 people have downloaded SoundGecko on iOS, Android and Microsoft phones. "We found that managing all three platforms was quite hard. As soon as we'd launch a version, we'd see things we needed to change and there were always things we should have done on the first one," Hooper says. "For the resources we have, it just isn't feasible to be updating the app on all three platforms. So we're fine tuning the iOS one while we do the core Android development." Omny is currently a free app. 121Cast will introduce ads and affiliate marketing in the coming months, and are exploring a premium subscription for launch later next year. "SoundGecko definitely validated that people would pay for the premium features, such as more voices, and the Omny premium subscription will probably not include ads," Hooper says. Hooper adds financial opportunities will emerge from the user data over time. In order to fund the development, the 121Cast team used their own capital and raised a series of seed investments. "We burnt our own savings and lived off them for quite a while. We decided we were going to do this regardless, and between us we could go for about a year without raising funds. Let's just build this because we have to do it," Hooper says. They went on to raise $250,000 from Adventure Capital and the SingTel Optus Innov8 program in November 2012; $20,000 from the University of Melbourne Accelerator program in late 2012, and just over $250,000 from Commercialisation Australia in July 2013. "With the investment, if we knew we need to do something in the future, we started building the relationship as early as possible and find out what's important to our potential partners and match them on multiple data points," Hooper says. Hooper says they're focused on Australia at this stage, but will be looking to expand to the US, United Kingdom and other English speaking markets in the next few years.
Lagging behind: An analysis of Australia's start-up sector7:37AM | Thursday, 25 July
Australia has no Silicon Valley, but with a few reforms we could. Australian entrepreneurs rank among the best in the world when it comes to generating business ideas, but when it comes to the commercialisation of ideas, we fall flat. In this year's Global Entrepreneurship and Development Institute index Australia ranked fourth, behind the United States, Sweden and Denmark. Intuitively, fourth seems decent, but dig deeper and there are a number of issues reducing our potential to become a global leader. In terms of the venture capital environment, research suggests Australia is lagging behind most of the developed world. When it comes to gender diversification, the number of male entrepreneurs still outnumbers females by four to one. In terms of the Australian mentality toward entrepreneurialism, our attitude to failure and willingness to encourage entrepreneurialism is markedly different to established entrepreneurial hubs such as the US and Israel. Research from PwC published earlier this year revealed Australia's economy is likely to fall out of the world's top 20 by 2050 and with the mining boom ending, the federal government is searching for a sector of the economy to pick up the slack. There are many experts who believe our best bet lies with the entrepreneurial community. SmartCompany has analysed the statistics and spoken to the experts to provide a snapshot of Australia's entrepreneurial environment – what we do well, what we could do better and how we're placed globally. Venture capital To kick-start new business ventures, a strong venture capital community is vital. But Australian entrepreneurs are unable to access the same level of funding as other developed nations. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's latest Entrepreneurship at a Glance report, venture capital spend represented an average 0.03% of GDP internationally in 2012, but in Australia it's only 0.02%. While Australia is behind the average, Israel greatly exceeds it, with venture capital spend amounting to 0.4% of GDP. The US also dedicates convincingly more than Australia, with venture capital equating to 0.17% of GDP. These higher results are a reflection of more mature markets, but also of the countries' strengthened support for entrepreneurial endeavours. Other OECD countries which ranked higher than Australia were: Canada, Hungary, Sweden, Ireland, Korea, Finland, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, France, Japan, Luxembourg and Belgium. The OECD study also revealed that globally, venture capital spend was 40% lower than in 2007 – bad news for entrepreneurs looking for funding. Ernest and Young's Oceania Entrepreneur of the Year leader Bryan Zekulich told SmartCompany there has been a decline in the creation of new venture funds over the past three to five years. "Institutional money is hard to come by in the start-up sense since the risk is so high and they're not willing to take that risk. "The government incentive plans have been appropriate in terms of structure, but the money from the Australian Innovation Investment Fund, which has been established for a long time and is continuing, is just money coming back in from investments and there is no new money in that either," he says. The Australian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association Limited 2012 Yearbook found Australia has the lowest number of active venture capital managers doing deals in the last ten years. In 2012, $122 million was invested, a 4% decrease from FY2011. Only 42 new companies received fresh investments. When it comes to fundraising, venture capital funds raised $240 million, an increase of 200% year-on-year, but $200 million of this was raised as part of the Southern Cross Renewable Energy Fund under the government's renewable energy venture capital fund co-investment programme. "When start-up companies go to Silicon Valley, there are more companies which have done something similar before and the understanding basis is much higher than here in Australia," Zekulich says. "They find this to be a huge benefit and when they're pitching they're positioned against their peers, people doing similar things to them, and the investor already has an understanding of what they're doing." Commercialisation of ideas Market Gap Investments director Mike Sewell told SmartCompany Australian entrepreneurs and businesses have historically been on par with the other developed nations in terms of idea generation, but they've struggled with turning ideas into reality. "Australia's spend on research and development is the same as any industrialised country in the world, but if you look at the commercialisation of ideas, there is a huge difference," he says. "We don't have a good track record in investing in ideas, the statistics prove this and there isn't an easy solution for that, but it's why people go to Silicon Valley." However, research suggests in the long term the rate of idea commercialisation could be starting to improve. The most recent 2010-2011 National Survey of Research Commercialisation found there has been a steady increase in the number of invention disclosures and in the number of patents issued to publicly funded research organisations. It also found an increase in the number of capital-raising start-ups and the amount of institutional equity they received. Despite the likely long-term increase in the commercialisation of ideas, the survey found the number of new spin-off companies per $100 million of research expenditure decreased in 2010-2011 to 0.4 from 1.3 in 2009-2010. The research also found the rate of invention disclosure still lags behind the developed world. Per $100 million of research spend, Australia disclosed 28.1 new invention ideas compared to 43.7 in the UK, 41.6 in Canada, 35.8 in the US and 28.4 in Europe. While Australia is struggling to keep up with the invention creation rates of the UK and the US, we are getting more value for money. The income of the start-up spin-off companies has increased from $2,000 per $100 million in research expenditure in 2008-2009, to $6,000 in 2010-2011. Zekulich says part of Australia's problem with ideas commercialisation stems from a lack of business mentors. "We don't have a lot of overt mentors and leaders for start-up companies to give them some degree of framework to be successful. We talk about commercialisation, but that looks at the structure of the business, the processes, how you go about the marketing and generally making start-ups a bit more professional than many are. "It's really about having a professional way to manage the front and back office of the business. Many start-ups lose their way and their idea dies in terms of excitement and enthusiasm. Many start-up companies have a really tough first year, but if they get through it and get the practices going well then they're more likely to succeed," he says. Gender diversity This year the Global Entrepreneurship and Development Index ranked Australia the second best environment for female entrepreneurs, behind the US, but male entrepreneurs outnumber females four to one. Statistics from the global entrepreneurship group Entrepreneurs' Organisation show males represent more than 85% of members. President of the Melbourne EO chapter, David Barnes, told SmartCompany that this is despite efforts to grow the number of females in the organisation. "Sydney and New Zealand seem to be able to attract more female entrepreneurs, in New Zealand females account for around 40% of the members, but we've always struggled in Melbourne and Perth. "Since we've had more females come on board we've started attracting other quality female entrepreneurs, but there are still a lot more males," he says. Despite efforts from organisations such as EO, the OECD survey shows little has changed globally since 2000. "Women remain substantially underrepresented as entrepreneurs. Men are two to three times more likely to own businesses with employees than women," the report stated. "Online in a few countries the gap has significantly narrowed, namely Chile, Korea and Mexico." The OECD average shows women make up approximately 23% of the entrepreneurs in each country. Once again Australia was behind the average, with females accounting for roughly 18% of the entrepreneurial community, although Australia was ranked ahead of the US, Israel and the UK. Greece was leading the way, with females making up more than 40% of the entrepreneurial population. Alarmingly, the OECD found overall that self-employed women earned "much less than men" and in all countries the gender gap in earnings from self-employment was greater than the wage gap. Zekulich says while Australia has a small female entrepreneurial representation, this is partly due to social factors. "We find overwhelmingly female entrepreneurs reach a level of revenue which they are comfortable with and remain there," he says. "For whatever reason, they are savvier about risk taking and they consider risk a whole lot more than their male counterparts, which makes them less inclined to take risks their male counterparts will." This article continues on page 2. Mentality In terms of business growth, Sewell says Australian entrepreneurs, in general, frequently make the decision not to grow their businesses over a certain point. "Often Australian business owners who are making $200,000, $300,000 or $400,000 a year decide they're happy with it and they don't have an incentive to scale the business," he says. "People make lifestyle choices that we don't necessarily understand either. I think, why don't you try to grow the business to $10 million or $20 million, because many could do that with what they've got, but they're happy." Sewell says business owners find once the business exceeds 15 or 20 people "the game changes". "People decide they don't like it past 20, it's a different game. This is possibly a lifestyle choice or a business size choice," he says. "You make the decision at $5 million that that's as big as you want to be. But the market changes and if you have a profitable niche today and haven't capitalised on it, then someone will either compete with you, or the market will change and leave you behind." Sewell says too few business owners realise it's better to change the business structure and become an investor, rather than an operator, allowing a professional management firm to run it, than to fail to adapt and grow. Attitude to growth isn't the only way Australian businesses differ to their US counterparts. Sewell says the Australian approach to failure limits the entrepreneurial environment. "We don't accept failure, if a business person fails here, that's it, they're done. But in reality you have to fail, it's a part of life," he says. "You've got to work with your customers and sometimes your customers don't even know what they want, so you invest in the wrong things and you fail." Co-founder and lead investor of AngelCube, Adrian Stone, told SmartCompany the US's big advantage is their embrace of business failure. "Failure isn't seen the way it is here. In Israel too, a country which has the greatest number of start-ups per capita and the second largest in the world, failure is actually a badge of honour." Stone says in order for entrepreneurial communities to work, fundamentally the drive has to come from the entrepreneurs themselves. Changing this attitude to failure, he says, is crucial to Australia's entrepreneurial capacity. "We need to get to this point, but it's a cultural thing. Maybe we can talk about our failures more often. It's moving this way in tech start-ups, there is a move toward the lean start-up and it's all about failing often and failing fast," he says. Barnes says there is now a negative stigma around business failure. "The media publishes things when businesses go into voluntary administration and say they've collapsed. But going into administration is a normal business process. "There are other people which have had four, five or six successful businesses, and going into administration or "failing" is the realisation you're not going to hit your goals." 'Let's move overseas' attitude Motivated by the ease of attracting funding in the US, including its extensive entrepreneurial environment and positive start-up culture, a goal of many Australian entrepreneurs is to shift their business to the US. Chief executive of the world's largest outsourcing platform Freelancer.com.au Matt Barrie told SmartCompany the venture capital model in Australia is "completely and utterly broken", with the exception of groups such as Blackbird and AngelCube, and this is driving entrepreneurs away. "The traditional model of Australian venture capital is they'll finance you early on if you can find someone, everyone will write you a cheque for $20,000 or $50,000 and maybe $100,000, but that first $1 million to $5 million is very difficult," he says. "Even if you manage to attract $1 million or $2 million in funding, the venture capitalist will do all the hard work with you and then tell you to go to the US for further funding." At this point after a round of funding the Australian tech start-up might have won $5 million to $10 million in funding, and Barrie says the Australian company will be under pressure to move to the US. "The US team then says you need a US chief executive and the team partially moves to the US, and then comes a US management team. This eventually dilutes all the Australian shareholders. Then they say the company is undercapitalised, which it is, you need to raise $20 million," says Barrie. "Then the Aussie venture capitalist runs out of money gets kicked off the board and the US CEO then has a US management and US shareholders, but an offshore development team. When the Australian dollar is 60 cents or 70 cents it might make sense to have an offshore development team, but when the Australian dollar was $1.05, it was more expensive to hire a Sydney graduate than a Stanford graduate." The net result, Barrie says, is that the Australian company's operations are eventually moved to a cheaper location and the business becomes effectively another American company. Barrie says to counter this problem the Australian Securities Exchange needs to be "built up" as a route for financing technology companies and arousing liquidity. "We do it in mining tremendously well. You can have a PowerPoint presentation, not even a drill hole in the ground, and raise $20 million on the ASX. "The Australian mining industry is a world powerhouse and we need to do it with technology because mining is running out. There has been more money raised on the ASX in the past five years than NASDAQ, so it's one of the biggest financial markets in the world and we need to be doing this for start-ups," he says. Government action The experts were unanimous that the push for change needs to come from the entrepreneurial community, rather than government action, but all agreed there are a number of policies which could be altered to better the entrepreneurial environment. Barnes says payroll tax is harming the small business community. "Payroll tax is just a joke – no business owner likes paying payroll tax," he says. "Businesses are going to move their staff offshore so they can lower the costs of doing business. It seems unfair to incur a 4-5% payroll tax for employing people when we're also paying the superannuation increase. It's another 7-8% on top of the base wage just to employ people." Sewell says the government would also be able to restructure its tax system to better favour investment. "The tax deductibility of losses and capital losses, you could change the way they are treated to encourage investment. The system now is that you quarantine your losses against particular assets, but there would be a more effective tax structure because at the moment it's not conducive to investments," he says. Stone says the government needs to "chip in and put their money where their mouth is" to help fund Australian businesses. "Commercialisation Australia does a lot to help entrepreneurs, but they need to take their lead from Singapore, UK, and Israel where they give loans to match those of investors," he says. "The government needs to recognise that it's worthy of investment. The way it works is it provides a loan which is repayable, almost all the loans get paid back and this goes a long way to fostering the community." Stone says the education system also needs to be changed to better encourage entrepreneurialism from a young age. "I'd like to see all kids to try and start an online business and I think the support of doing this would help them a lot. My son started his first business when he was 12 and he's now onto his third business and earning enough to support himself. "For me entrepreneurship, I believe it's learning by doing. You can do university courses, but it needs to be like vocational training almost. Start a business and then get right. It might succeed or fail, but it doesn't matter." Ultimately, Stone says it's about encouraging more people to have a go. "Be willing to have a go and withstand the consequences. Don't be results driven, do something you love and don't be hung up on your result good bad or indifferent," he says. This story first appeared on SmartCompany.
Grip Clip is an idea that sticks4:45AM | Tuesday, 23 April
Always scrambling for a pen or pencil? A new invention called the Grip Clip is aimed at ending this frustration, albeit in a rather conspicuous way. The Grip Clip is a piece of soft plastic, which slides onto the user's glasses. It can hold a pencil, pen or other similarly sized object. It was created by Atticus Anderson and Blake Crowe, two graduating Stanford students majoring in mechanical engineering-product design "Whether your glasses are on your head, hanging on your shirt, or actually on your face, a Grip Clip turns your glasses into a useful tool," the duo says in a Kickstarter campaign "After extensive testing in our secret laboratory, we have found that the Grip Clip can successfully hold many different sizes and shapes of objects. "We set out to hold a pencil, but have been constantly surprised at what it will hold! It's a tough little clip." Students and office workers are always appreciative of tools that make their jobs easier. Can you think of any ideas that are similar to the Clip Grip?
Uber prepares for Sydney launch: Five top tips from the US venture's GM3:39AM | Monday, 11 March
The Australian general manager of US-based car service Uber has offered start-ups some advice after spending five years in Silicon Valley, as the business gears up for its Australian launch. Uber, based in San Francisco, is an on-demand car service where drivers pick up users based on iPhone, Android, SMS and web-based requests. Last month, Uber confirmed its intention to launch in Australia, posting job descriptions for an operations manager and a community manager, having already hired a general manager. That person is David Rohrsheim, who is heading up Uber's expansion to Sydney after spending five years in Silicon Valley, where he not only worked but attended Stanford Business School. Ahead of Uber's Sydney launch next week, Rohrsheim shares his insights about start-ups: Never stop moving "I was a bit of an IT geek as a kid. I studied engineering at uni but was encouraged to do a double degree in finance, so I would understand more than just engineering," Rohrsheim says. "I spent a few years working with [global management consulting firm] Bain and then was introduced to a VC firm in San Francisco, Draper Fisher Jurvetson." "I worked for them for two-and-a-half years… It was an ideal way to meet a lot of people in a short period of time. I was welcomed into the valley." "I then applied to Stanford Business School, which was just down the road… Almost half of the people in venture capital [in Silicon Valley] have a Stanford MBA." "I decided it would just be a fun experience. I thought of it as a gift I gave myself." Be driven by the cause, not the title "The biggest change in my mindset over the last five years is to actively pursue projects I'm passionate about… It's important to solve a problem that matters to you." "I do think too many people start businesses – and this is all around the world – because they think it's sexy or they want the CEO title." "Start-ups are such hard work that if it isn't your main reason for being alive, eventually you will give up on one of the down days." Silicon Valley is hard work "You're encouraged to get on the plane and go to Silicon Valley, where it will all work out." "I think sometimes people are expecting too much. They expect to arrive and for it to just start happening… Get as much of [your] story together before you arrive over there." "There's a lot of magic there but you've got to get some runs on the board first." Don't be afraid to come home "It was a tough choice to come back… I had many more friends in San Francisco than anywhere else in the world." "I wanted to work for a disruptive consumer technology company, and there's lots of them there, but in the back of my mind I knew I would come home one day." "I didn't think it would be so soon, but the Uber opportunity was one of the most interesting jobs I could imagine back in Australia." Get frustrated "I am personally frustrated by how long we have to wait for innovative services in Silicon Valley to move down to Australia." "Every day I am longing for Amazon Prime and Turntable.fm. I am highly motivated to shorten that gap, and Uber is just my first project." "Australians are tech-savvy, wealthy and share a common language, so we deserve to have the latest from Silicon Valley earlier."
Staying small6:53AM | Friday, 8 June
I read A VC every day. It's the last thing I do before I go to sleep, as it is early morning in New York.
Accelerators seem to want a lot of equity for little funding – is it worth applying?5:10AM | Thursday, 3 May
I'm thinking about applying for a start-up accelerator program, but it seems like a lot of equity for not much funding. How can I be sure that the program will be worth it?
Steve Jobs in his own words: 20 of his best quotes10:05AM | Thursday, 6 October
It really shouldn't have been such a shock. Steve Jobs was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, a notoriously harsh version of the disease, in 2004, and whispers of his impending demise have circulated ever since.
Going Freelancer.com5:11AM | Wednesday, 2 May
Perhaps ironically for someone whose business relies on outsourcing tasks Matt Barrie has a very do-it-yourself approach to entrepreneurship.
The state of student start-ups4:18PM | Saturday, 28 April
Most people know that social media giant Facebook was founded by Mark Zuckerberg who, at the age of 23, was studying psychology at Harvard University.


text: has anybody ever put handwarmer/footwarmer packs in their booties? thing that often gets me out of the water this time of year is not being able to feel my feet after a 1.5-2hrs. i have 7mm xcel boots in good shape. ive tried thin wool socks etc. many packs look like they are oxygen activated (WWW.HEATMAX.COM) so maybe they wouldnt work at all underwater, but im just curious if anybody has tried this or anything similar. for those good swells when it is really cold, my damn feet ruin the day before i even wear out paddling in a 5mil suit. related suggestions/unique ideas (beyond the inevitable stop being a pu**y kook comments) also appreciated. thanks

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Tue, May 06, 2003
The three turf runways, 1675-foot 17-35; 2040-foot 5-23; and
9-27 (2468 feet), are closed; and another of our country's old
airports will stay quiet. Cape Cod airport (2B1) just outside
Marstons Mills (MA) closed last week. The owners, unidentified
members of the Danforth family, wanted it that way. They told the
operators two months ago that, when May 1 (the lease date) came
around, the agreement would not be renewed.
strip started, as did so many, as an Army Air Corps facility,
eighty years ago, and continued as a training base through
Neighboring Barnstable (MA) Town Manager John Klimm told
reporter Emily Dooley of the Cape Cod Times that his people
appreciated the airport. "We've said to the owners that we very
much would like to keep the airport open, but we can't force them
to do it."
The town is trying to work out a purchase-lease deal to save the
airport. The businesses on the field, including gliding, skydiving,
primary training, and the Cape Cod Flying Service, all have to
vacate by the end of the month, if negotiations fail.
Meanwhile, the last grass-strip airport on Cape Cod will stay
silent, with only birds doing all the flying.
Airborne 12.19.14: Falcon 8X Unveiled, Sporty's 172LITE, Bizarre CA AvGas Lawsuit Settled
Aero-TV: Redbird's Roger Sharp -- Pushing The Aero-Educational Envelope
Airborne 12.17.14: Evergreen Woes, Foolish Pilot Tricks, No 757 Replacement -- Yet
See All
©2014 All Rights Reserved.
© 2007 - 2014 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC


text:
With the end of the regular season, Brian Shanahan has posted the final NLL Power Rankings on IL Indoor. (Photo: Dale MacMillan)
The 2014 NLL regular season has concluded with the start of playoffs set to begin with two Division Semifinal games on Saturday, May 3. Check out final edition of the NLL Power Rankings for all nine teams below by Brian Shanahan on IL Indoor.
"The regular season is over...let the playoffs begin," Shanahan writes. "There weren't many surprises on the 18th weekend of the National Lacrosse League season. There were two remaining questions heading into the last weekend. Who was going to win the scoring championship, Shawn Evans or Cody Jamieson? Both came into the weekend 3 points behind the injured Garrett Billings' 101 points. The second question was who would finish in second place in the East, Buffalo or Toronto? Jamieson was instrumental in answering both questions."
For the last time this season, let's check out the Power Rankings.
1) Edmonton Rush (16-2)
The Edmonton Rush defeated the Vancouver Stealth 10-5 on Friday. This is the kind of lacrosse Edmonton has played most of the season. It was close in the first quarter; Edmonton pulled away in the second and then held their opponent to 1 goal in the second half. The Rush ended the season with league leading goals against average of 8.72 and the league's second best offense despite not having a player in the top 10 scoring. Edmonton will meet the winner of the Colorado at Calgary game.
2) Rochester Knighthawks (14-4)
The Rochester Knighthawks entered the fourth quarter of their game against the Buffalo Bandits with a 12-11 lead. On the next Buffalo power play the Knighthawks scored two shorthanded goals and in typical Rochester fashion the Knighthawks went on a run to build a 16-11 lead and apparently put the game out of reach. In atypical Rochester fashion the Knighthawks allowed Buffalo to score the last three goals of the game within the last 5 minutes. Despite the close finish Rochester looks poised to go to the NLL championship for the third year in a row.
3) Calgary Roughnecks (12-6)
The only thing that the Calgary Roughnecks might be unhappy about their 14-8 victory over the Vancouver Stealth is that they were not able to get Shawn Evans enough points to win his second straight scoring title. Evans still picked up 7 points to end the season with 105 points. Teammate Dane Dobbie scored a hat trick to give him a league leading 51 goals on the year. That also breaks the Roughnecks scoring record of 50 that was held by Lewis Ratcliff. Next week the Roughnecks will host the Colorado Mammoth in the West Division Semifinal.
4) Toronto Rock (9-9)
Brandon Miller was sharp as he backstopped the Toronto Rock to an 8-6 win over Minnesota to win their fourth a row and what seemed impossible a month ago has happened as the Rock has leapfrogged the struggling Buffalo Bandits to take second place in the East division. The Rock will host the Bandits next Saturday at the ACC in the East division semi-final and the Rock will know that Buffalo's horrendous losing streak means absolutely nothing in a 1 game knockout playoff.
5) Colorado Mammoth (8-10)
The Colorado Mammoth are going into the playoffs on a roll as they beat the Philadelphia Wings 13-12 in Philly for their third straight victory. The team is now 4-3 under coaches Dan Stroup, Pat Coyle and Chris Gill. The Mammoth will meet Calgary in the West division semi-final next Saturday in Calgary. Colorado is 2-1 against the Roughnecks this year including a win and a loss at the Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary.
6) Buffalo Bandits (8-10)
After seven straight losses I think it would have been a bigger surprise to most of us if the Buffalo Bandits had finished the season with a win on Saturday against the Rochester Knighthawks. Buffalo played a pretty good game in front of 19000 fans but a couple of brain cramps led to an empty net goal for a Rochester (and Sid Smith's first NLL goal) at the end of the half and a couple of shorthanded goals at a critical point in the game. The only good news for the Bandits is that the regular season is over and the losing streak will quickly be forgotten if they can win their playoff game in Toronto.
7) Philadelphia Wings (6-12)
Despite the fact that the Philadelphia Wings lost their 12th game of the season (14-13 to the Colorado Mammoth) there were many positives for the Wings this year. This team was killed by a mid season 6 game losing streak but was competitive on most nights of the season. They have to be very pleased with the play of youngsters Pat Saunders and Garrett Thul and I'd think twice before welcoming back all the Team USA players who took the year off.
8) Minnesota Swarm (4-14)
The Minnesota Swarm lost to the Toronto Rock 8-6 on Saturday. A year after almost defeating the Rochester Knighthawks to go to the NLL championship the Minnesota Swarm simply were weak at both ends of the floor this season. Minnesota was the lowest scoring team in the NLL this year and also had the third worst goals against. On the bright side the Swarm are still a very young team and rookie Logon Schuss finished the season with 36 goals.
9) Vancouver Stealth (4-14)
The Vancouver Stealth finished the 2014 season with two losses but it wasn't much of a surprise as they were facing the number 1 and 3 ranked teams. On Friday the Stealth lost 10-5 in Edmonton and on Saturday they lost by 14-8 score to the Calgary Roughnecks in Langley. This is team that just wasn't competitive on most nights this year and will have to consider many off season changes to improve things in 2015.
Tag(s): Home Buffalo Bandits Philadelphia Wings Rochester Knighthawks Toronto Rock Calgary Roughnecks Colorado Mammoth Edmonton Rush Minnesota Swarm Vancouver Stealth


text:
St Margaret's Bay Golf House Rentals(5)
5 Results
Didn't find what you're looking for?
View all 14 St Margaret's Bay Vacation Rentals or all 543 Nova Scotia Vacation Rentals
Recent St Margaret's Bay Reviews
Wonderful week in Ross Roost!
My husband and I had such a great time in Nova Scotia! The cottage was exquisite, as beautiful (if not more!) than what the pictures showed and close to Peggy's Cove, where we used to get our morning "latté". It really felt like home away from home; the decoration, the fully equipped kitchen, the amazing bathroom, all was perfect. We definitely plan on going back in the coming years. We recommend this property in a heartbeat! Plus, the owner is extremely nice. :-) Don't miss Rhubarb restaurant, just a few minutes walk from the cottage, delicious food and a bakery in the back of the restaurant. One thing we loved (amongst many), was sitting on a rock on the beach and just enjoy watching the ocean. There is also a wooden beach for more comfort. ;-)
Satisfaction Guaranteed!! Great Home away from Home!
We call Nova Scotia home. But now we have our family scattered across the North American continent. We feel so fortunate to have found this jewel in Northwest Cove that was able to accommodate 4 generations that gathered for our parents 80th birthday celebrations. In addition to our 13 family members, we held a birthday party with 60 guests! (many of the guests have asked us for information on renting this property for their own family gatherings) This home is spacious and welcoming. The views are spectacular. We thank Jackie and Kelly for preparing a ramp for wheelchair accessibility. We will definitely be returning next year!


text:
Quotes & Info
|HRG > SEC Filings for HRG > Form 10-K on 27-Nov-2013
|All Recent SEC Filings
Annual Report
This "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" of Harbinger Group Inc. ("HGI," "we," "us," "our" and, collectively with its subsidiaries, the "Company") should be read in conjunction with Item 6, "Selected Financial Data," and our accompanying consolidated financial statements and related notes (the "Consolidated Financial Statements") referred to in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K (the "Form 10-K"). Certain statements we make under this Item 7 constitute "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. See "Forward-Looking Statements" at the beginning of Part I of this Form 10-K. You should consider our forward-looking statements in light of our Consolidated Financial Statements and other financial information appearing elsewhere in this Form 10-K and our other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"). All references to Fiscal 2013, 2012 and 2011 refer to fiscal periods ended September 30, 2013, 2012 and 2011, respectively. HGI Overview
We are a holding company and our principal operations are conducted through subsidiaries that offer life insurance and annuity products (Fidelity & Guaranty Life,"FGL", formerly Harbinger F&G LLC), financing and asset management (Five Island Asset Management, LLC, or "Five Island", and Salus Capital Partners, LLC or "Salus"), branded consumer products (Spectrum Brands Holdings, Inc. or "Spectrum Brands") such as batteries, small appliances, pet supplies, home and garden control products, personal care products and hardware and home improvement products. We also hold oil and natural gas properties through an equity investment in a joint venture (the "EXCO/HGI JV") with EXCO Resources, Inc. ("EXCO") through our wholly-owned subsidiary, HGI Energy Holdings, LLC ("HGI Energy").
Our outstanding common stock is 56.5% owned by Harbinger Capital Partners Master Fund I, Ltd. (the "Master Fund"), Global Opportunities Breakaway Ltd. and Harbinger Capital Partners Special Situations Fund, L.P. (together, the "HCP Stockholders"), not giving effect to the conversion rights of the Company's Series A Participating Convertible Preferred Stock or the Series A-2 Participating Convertible Preferred Stock (together, the "Preferred Stock"). We intend to acquire companies that we consider to be undervalued or fairly valued with attractive financial or strategic characteristics. We intend to take a long-term view and primarily seek opportunities that are able to generate high returns and significant cash flow to maximize long-term value for our stockholders. In addition to our intention to acquire controlling equity interests, we may also make investments in debt instruments and acquire minority equity interests in companies. We also own 97.9% of Zap.Com Corporation ("Zap.Com"), a public shell company that may seek assets or businesses to acquire or may sell assets and/or liquidate. While we search for additional acquisition opportunities, we manage a portion of our available cash and acquire interests in possible acquisition targets through our wholly-owned subsidiary, HGI Funding, LLC.
We believe that our access to the public equity markets may give us a competitive advantage over privately-held entities with whom we compete to acquire certain target businesses on favorable terms. We may pay acquisition consideration in the form of cash, our debt or equity securities, or a combination thereof. In addition, as a part of our acquisition strategy we may consider raising additional capital through the issuance of equity or debt securities.
We currently operate in four segments: (i) Consumer Products, which consists of Spectrum Brands; (ii) Insurance, which includes FGL and Front Street Re, Ltd. ("FSR"); (iii) Energy, which includes the EXCO/HGI JV; and (iv) Financial Services, which includes Salus and Five Island. Consumer Products Segment
Through Spectrum Brands, we are a diversified global branded consumer products company with positions in seven major product categories: consumer batteries; small appliances; pet supplies; home and garden control products; electric shaving and grooming; electric personal care products and hardware and home improvement.
Spectrum Brands' operating performance is influenced by a number of factors including: general economic conditions; foreign exchange fluctuations; trends in consumer markets; consumer confidence and preferences; overall product line mix, including pricing and gross margin, which vary by product line and geographic market; pricing of certain raw materials and commodities; energy and fuel prices; and general competitive positioning, especially as impacted by competitors' advertising and promotional activities and pricing strategies. Insurance Segment
Through FGL, we are a provider of annuity and life insurance products to the middle and upper-middle income markets in the United States. Based in Baltimore, Maryland, FGL operates in the United States through its subsidiaries Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company ("FGL Insurance") and Fidelity & Guaranty Life Insurance Company of New York ("FGL NY Insurance"). FGL's principal products are deferred annuities (including fixed indexed annuity ("FIA") contracts), immediate
annuities, and life insurance products, which are sold through a network of
approximately 200 independent marketing organizations ("IMOs"), representing
approximately 20,000 independent agents.
FGL's profitability depends in large part upon the amount of assets under management, the ability to manage operating expenses, the costs of acquiring new business (principally commissions to agents and bonuses credited to policyholders) and the investment spreads earned on contractholder fund balances. Managing net investment spreads involves the ability to manage investment portfolios to maximize returns and minimize risks such as interest rate changes and defaults or impairment of investments and the ability to manage interest rates credited to policyholders and costs of the options and futures purchased to fund the annual index credits on the FIAs. Energy Segment
On February 14, 2013, EXCO and HGI formed the EXCO/HGI JV to own and operate conventional oil and natural gas properties. EXCO contributed to the EXCO/HGI JV its conventional assets in and above the Canyon Sand formation in the Permian Basin in West Texas as well as in the Holly, Waskom, Danville and Vernon fields in East Texas and North Louisiana.
The EXCO/HGI JV acquired the conventional oil and natural gas assets from EXCO for approximately $725.0 million of total consideration, representing HGI's effective equity interest of $372.5 million, $127.5 million in properties contributed by EXCO, in each case before giving effect to the closing adjustments related to the July 1, 2012 effective date, and approximately $225.0 million of indebtedness borrowed by the EXCO/HGI JV from a revolving credit agreement entered into by the EXCO/HGI JV ("EXCO/HGI JV Credit Agreement"). In exchange for the contribution of its assets, EXCO received cash consideration of $574.8 million, a 24.5% limited partner interest in the EXCO/HGI JV and a 50.0% interest in the general partner of the EXCO/HGI JV. HGI and its subsidiaries contributed $349.8 million cash, after customary closing adjustments, and received a 73.5% limited partner interest in the EXCO/HGI JV and a 50.0% interest in the general partner. After giving effect to the 2.0% general partner interest in the EXCO/HGI JV, EXCO and HGI own an economic interest in the Partnership of 25.5% and 74.5% respectively.
EXCO/HGI JV's primary business objective is to over time generate stable cash flows and grow its asset base through acquisitions from a variety of sources, including third parties, EXCO Parent and HGI. It is expected that the acquisition focus will be on assets and/or companies that own mature properties with long-lived, predictable production profiles, modest capital requirements and substantial reserve exploitation potential. Consistent with this strategy, on February 14, 2013, the EXCO/HGI JV entered into an agreement to acquire oil and natural gas assets in the Danville, Waskom and Holly fields in East Texas and North Louisiana from an affiliate of BG Group plc ("BG Group") for $132.5 million, subject to customary closing adjustments. These properties represent an incremental working interest in properties that EXCO contributed to the EXCO/HGI JV. This transaction was funded using funds drawn from the EXCO/HGI JV Credit Agreement.
The EXCO/HGI JV intends to use oil and natural gas derivatives and financial risk management instruments to manage its exposure to commodity prices. Management of the EXCO/HGI JV believes that these oil and natural gas derivative contracts may allow the EXCO/HGI JV to mitigate the impact of price fluctuations and achieve a more predictable cash flow from the EXCO/HGI JV's operations. Financial Services Segment
Our Financial Services segment includes the activities of our asset-based lender, Salus, and our newly formed asset manager, Five Island.
Through Salus, we are a provider of secured loans to the middle market across a variety of industries. Salus finances loan commitments that typically range from $5.0 to $50.0 million with the ability to lead and agent larger transactions. The Salus platform may also serve as an asset manager to certain institutional investors such as community and regional banks, insurance companies, family offices, private equity funds and/or hedge funds who may lack the infrastructure and dedicated competency within senior secured lending. Salus' loans are funded through capital commitments from Salus equity, funds committed by FGL and FSR as participants and funds committed by Salus' CLO. As of September 30, 2013, Salus, along with its co-lenders FGL and FSR, have funded loans totaling $565.6 million aggregate principal amount outstanding on a consolidated basis. During Fiscal 2013 Salus closed on 33 transactions, representing approximately $779.5 million in total commitments to a variety of well recognized businesses. Salus provides secured asset-based loans to the middle market. Asset-based finance is a financing tool where the decision to lend is primarily based on the value of the borrowers' collateral. Collateral is viewed as the primary source of repayment, while the borrowers' creditworthiness is viewed a secondary source of repayment. As a result, asset-based finance emphasizes the monitoring of the collateral that secures the asset-based loan. Salus focuses its credit analysis on the value of accounts receivable and inventory (or other assets) and estimates how much liquidity it can provide against those assets. Salus establishes a loan structure and collateral monitoring process that is continuous and focused on the collateral, significantly reducing the risk of loss inherent in delayed intervention and/or asset recovery. As of September 30, 2013, none of these loans were delinquent.
Salus looks to create partnerships with borrowers that may not qualify for
traditional bank financing because of their size, historical performance,
geography or complexity of their situation. Salus' loans are used across a range
of industries for growth capital, general working capital or seasonal needs,
acquisitions or opportunistic situations, trade finance, turnarounds, dividend
recaps, refinancing and debtor-in-possession financing.
Highlights for the Fiscal 2013
Significant Transactions and Activity
During Fiscal 2013, we made significant progress in our business strategy to reduce our cost of capital, increase our investor base, grow our existing business, and diversify the businesses in which we operate. The most significant of these steps include the following:
� In December 2012, we issued $700.0 million aggregate principal amount 7.875% Senior Secured Notes due 2019 (the "7.875% Notes") and used part of the proceeds of the offering to accept for purchase $498.0 million aggregate principal amount of our 10.625% Senior Secured Notes due 2015 (the "10.625% Notes") pursuant to a tender offer (the "Tender Offer") for the 10.625% Notes. The remaining 10.625% Notes were redeemed by the trustee on January 23, 2013. The remainder of the proceeds of the issuance of the 7.875% Notes was used for working capital by the Company and its subsidiaries and for general corporate purposes, including the financing of future acquisitions and businesses. In July 2013, the initial offering of 7.7875% Notes were supplemented by a further issuance of $225.0 million aggregate principal amount of the 7.875% Notes (the "New Notes".) The New Notes were issued under the same indenture governing the 7.875% Notes by and between the Company and Wells Fargo Bank, National Association, a national banking association, as trustee. The New Notes were priced at 101.50% of par plus accrued interest from July 15, 2013.
� In December 2012, we assisted the HCP Stockholders with the closing of a secondary offering of 20.0 million shares of common stock at a price to the public of $7.50 per share, increasing our public float and broadening our shareholder base. In addition, in January 2013, the underwriters exercised their option to purchase an additional 3.0 million shares of common stock from the HCP Stockholders. We did not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares in this offering.
� In February 2013, we finalized a joint venture with EXCO to create the EXCO/HGI JV. The EXCO/HGI JV purchased and will operate certain of EXCO's producing U.S. conventional oil and natural gas assets in the Permian Basin, East Texas and North Louisiana.
� In September 30, 2013, we repurchased 1,700.0 thousand shares of our common stock at a price of $7.25 per share from the HCP Stockholders under our $50.0 million share repurchase program.
Consumer Products segment
� In December 2012, Spectrum Brands acquired the residential hardware and home improvement business (the "HHI Business") from Stanley Black & Decker, Inc. ("Stanley Black & Decker") (the "Hardware Acquisition"). The Hardware Acquisition is expected to enhance Spectrum Brand's top-line growth, margins and free cash flow profile, while providing added scale, greater product diversity and attractive cross-selling opportunities.
� In December 2012, Spectrum Brands assumed from Spectrum Brands Escrow Corp. $520.0 million aggregate principal amount of 6.375% Senior Notes due 2020 (the "6.375% Notes") and $570.0 million aggregate principal amount of 6.625% Senior Notes due 2022 (the "6.625% Notes"), in connection with the Hardware Acquisition. Spectrum Brands used the net proceeds from the offering to fund a portion of the purchase price and related fees and expenses for the Hardware Acquisition. Spectrum Brands financed the remaining portion of the Hardware Acquisition with a new $800.0 million term loan facility, of which $100.0 million is in Canadian dollar equivalents (the "HHI Term Loan"). A portion of the HHI Term Loan proceeds were also used to refinance the former term loan facility, maturing June 17, 2016, which had an aggregate amount outstanding of $370.2 million prior to refinancing.
� In April 2013, the Company completed the acquisition of certain assets of Tong Lung Metal Industry Co. Ltd., a Taiwan Corporation ("TLM Taiwan"), completing the Hardware Acquisition. TLM Taiwan is involved in the production of residential locksets.
� In September 2013, Spectrum Brands, announced that it had closed on $1.15 billion of term loans (the "New Term Loans", and together with the HHI Term Loan, the "Term Loan") pursuant to the New Term Loan Commitment Agreement No. 1 among Spectrum Brands, the lenders party thereto, and Deutsche Bank AG New York Branch, as administrative agent (the "Term Administrative Agent"). The proceeds of the New Term Loans were used (i) to fund the consummation of Spectrum Brands cash tender offer and consent solicitation (the "Tender Offer and Consent Solicitation") to purchase any and all of its outstanding 9.5% Senior Secured Notes due 2018 (the "9.5% Notes"), (ii) to fund the satisfaction and discharge of the
indenture governing the 9.5% Notes not tendered in the Tender Offer and Consent
Solicitation and (iii) for working capital and general corporate purposes.
Insurance segment
� In December 2012, Fidelity & Guaranty Life Holdings, Inc.,"FGH" (formerly, Old Mutual U.S. Life Holdings, Inc.) entered into a coinsurance agreement (the "Reinsurance Agreement") with Front Street Re (Cayman) Ltd. ("Front Street Cayman"), also an indirect subsidiary of the Company. Pursuant to the Reinsurance Agreement, Front Street Cayman has reinsured approximately 10%, or approximately $1.5 billion of FGH's policy liabilities, on a funds-withheld basis.
� In March 2013, FGH issued $300.0 million aggregate principal amount of their 6.375% senior notes, due April 1, 2021, at par value (the "FGL Notes".) FGH used a portion of the net proceeds from the issuance to pay a special dividend to HGI and expects to use the remainder for general corporate purposes, to support the growth of its subsidiary life insurance company.
� In August 2013, FGL filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC relating to a proposed initial public offering of its common stock. All of the shares will be offered by the issuer, FGL. We are not a selling stockholder in the offering.
Energy segment
� Immediately following closing of the EXCO/HGI JV, the EXCO/HGI JV entered into an agreement to purchase all of the shallow Cotton Valley assets from an affiliate of BG Group, for $130.7 million, after customary closing adjustments. The transaction closed on March 5, 2013 and was funded with borrowings from the EXCO/HGI JV Credit Agreement. In connection with the acquisition of the properties from BG Group, the EXCO/HGI JV received an increase to the borrowing base to $470.0 million under the EXCO/HGI JV Credit Agreement.
Financial Services segment
� Salus originated $779.5 million of new asset-based loan commitments in the Fiscal 2013 and had $560.4 million of loans outstanding as of September 30, 2013.
� In February 2013, Salus announced the closing of Salus CLO 2012-1, Ltd., a collateralized loan obligation ("CLO") vehicle providing for the issuance of up to $250.0 million in collateralized obligations, initially funded with $175.5 million of the asset-based loans that Salus had originated through that date. In September 2013 Salus announced the closing of an additional $300.0 million note issuance by the CLO, bringing the aggregate amount of notes issued by the CLO to $550.0 million. In connection with this transaction, Salus and its affiliates funded the upsize of the CLO with an additional $167.0 million contribution from its portfolio of asset-based loans.
� In connection with the Reinsurance Agreement, Front Street Cayman, FGH and Five Island, also entered into an investment management agreement, pursuant to which Five Island manages a portion of the assets securing Front Street Cayman's reinsurance obligations under the Reinsurance Agreement, which assets are held by FGL in a segregated account. The assets in the segregated account are invested in accordance with FGL's existing guidelines.
Key financial highlights
� Net loss attributable to common and participating preferred stockholders decreased to $94.2 million, or $0.67 per common share attributable to controlling interest ($0.67 diluted), compared to net income attributable to common and participating preferred stockholders of $29.9 million, or $0.15 per common share attributable to controlling interest ($0.15 diluted), in Fiscal 2012.
� Our Fiscal 2013 results include the following items:
� $248.0 million of realized investment gains in our Insurance segment; offset by, � a $101.6 million loss from the change in the fair value of the equity conversion feature of preferred stock which was the result of an 23.0% increase in our stock price from $8.43 to $10.37 per share during Fiscal 2013; � a $260.9 million increase in interest expense, that was primarily due to acquisition and other financing, along with refinancing to lower interest rate debt; � tax expense of $187.3 million was primarily driven by; which was primarily driven by: (i) the profitability of FGL's life insurance business; (ii) pre-tax losses in the United States and some foreign jurisdictions for which the tax benefits are offset by valuation allowances; (iii) an increase in the fair value of the equity conversion feature of the Preferred Stock with no tax benefit; (iv) tax amortization of certain indefinite lived intangibles; and (v) tax expense on income in certain foreign jurisdictions for which the Company will not receive tax credits in the United
States due to its tax loss position. Partially offsetting these factors was a
partial release of U.S. valuation allowances as a result of a recent acquisition
by Spectrum Brands. and,
� an impairment of oil and natural gas properties of $54.3 million from inception to the period ended September 30, 2013, primarily due to recent drilling results, modifications to our development plans, and a decline in natural gas futures prices. � We ended the year with corporate cash and investments of approximately $301.2 million (primarily held at HGI and HGI Funding, LLC). � Our Consumer Product's operating profit for Fiscal 2013 increased $49.4 million, or 16.4%, to $351.2 million from $301.8 million for Fiscal 2012. Our Consumer Products segment's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA") increased by $8.7 million, or 1.3%, to $677.1 million versus Fiscal 2012 primarily due to higher sales, synergy benefits and cost reduction initiatives. Adjusted EBITDA margin represented 15.8% of sales as compared to 15.8% in Fiscal 2012. See Non-GAAP measures below for more details. � Our Insurance segment's operating profit for the Fiscal 2013 increased $363.0 million, to $522.9 million from an operating income of $159.9 million for the Fiscal 2012. Our Insurance segment's adjusted operating income ("Insurance AOI") increased by $163.5 million, or 282.4%, to $221.4 million versus the Fiscal 2012, primarily as a result of annual assumption changes made to the surrender rates, earned rates and future index credits used in the FIA embedded derivative reserve calculation, immediate annuity mortality gains caused by large case deaths, and the non-recurrence of an charge for an estimated unreported death claims liability, net of reinsurance, recorded in Fiscal 2012. See Non-GAAP measures below for more details. � Our Energy segment's oil and natural gas revenues were $90.2 million for Fiscal 2013. Operating loss for Fiscal 2013 was $45.2 million, primarily as the result of the $54.3 million impairment of oil and natural gas properties. The Energy segment's adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization ("Adjusted EBITDA-Energy") for the Fiscal 2013 was $39.6 million. For Fiscal 2013, the Energy segment's production was 283.0 MBbl of oil, 300.0 MBbl of natural gas liquids and 14,570.0 Mmcf of natural gas. � Our Financial Services segment contributed approximately $28.9 million to our consolidated revenues for Fiscal 2013 from the operations of Salus and Five Island together, gross of revenue from affiliated entities. The Financial Services segment had net income for the Fiscal 2013 of $6.2 million. � Through the year ended September 30, 2013, we received dividends of approximately $127.1 million from our respective subsidiaries, including $93.0 million, $22.8 million, $7.5 million and $3.8 million from FGL, Spectrum Brands, the EXCO/HGI JV and Salus, respectively. The FGL dividend of $93.0 million includes the special dividend of $73.0 million paid out of the proceeds from the $300.0 million aggregate principal amount of the FGL Notes.
Results of Operations
Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2013 Compared to Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2012, and Fiscal Year Ended September 30, 2012 Compared to Fiscal Year September 30, 2011
Presented below is a table that summarizes our results of operations and compares the amount of the change between the fiscal periods (in millions):
Fiscal Increase / (Decrease) 2013 compared 2012 compared 2013 2012 2011 to 2012 to 2011 Revenues: Consumer Products $ 4,085.6 $ 3,252.4 $ 3,186.9 $ 833.2 $ 65.5 Insurance 1,348.4 1,221.8 290.8 126.6 931.0 Energy 90.2 - - 90.2 - Financial Services 28.9 8.6 - 20.3 8.6 Intersegment elimination (9.7 ) (2.1 ) - (7.6 ) (2.1 ) Consolidated revenues $ 5,543.4 $ 4,480.7 $ 3,477.7 $ 1,062.7 $ 1,003.0 Operating income (loss): Consumer Products $ 351.2 $ 301.8 $ 227.9 $ 49.4 $ 73.9 Insurance 522.9 159.9 (41.5 ) 363.0 201.4 Energy (45.2 ) - - (45.2 ) - Financial Services 10.4 2.5 - 7.9 2.5 Intersegment elimination (10.9 ) (2.1 ) - (8.8 ) (2.1 ) Total segments 828.4 462.1 186.4 366.3 275.7 Corporate and Other (91.0 ) (52.6 ) (22.7 ) (38.4 ) (29.9 ) Consolidated operating income 737.4 409.5 163.7 327.9 245.8 Interest expense (511.9 ) (251.0 ) (249.3 ) (260.9 ) (1.7 ) (Loss) gain from the change in the fair value of the equity conversion feature of preferred stock (101.6 ) (156.6 ) 27.9 55.0 (184.5 ) Bargain purchase gain from business acquisition - - 158.3 - (158.3 ) Gain on contingent purchase price reduction - 41.0 - (41.0 ) 41.0 Other expense, net (5.6 ) (17.5 ) (42.7 ) 11.9 25.2 Consolidated (loss) income from . . .


text:
Close X
JAYCO Industries LL5RSUP Supreme Rear Access Letter Locker
Product Description
Supreme Rear Access Letter Locker
Designed similar to the Supreme Letter Locker! This model allows access to the mail from a locking door in the back of the box instead of the front. Constructed of 14 and 16 gauge electro-galvanized steel, this rear access box comes standard with a 5-pin cam lock, three keys and a stainless steel red flag. It too, has a larger incoming mail slot, accepting small packages (up to shoe box size) and holding up to four weeks of mail. Incoming mail slot and outgoing mail tray are held in a tray behind a magnetic door.
- Durable powder coat finish
|Gauge Steel
|Made in the USA
This field allows you to search for mailboxes by their features. Features include mailboxes with locking capabilities, mailboxes that have been USPS approved, mailboxes that are extra deep, mailboxes that have rear access, and mailboxes that also have a newspaper holder.
|Mailbox Features
|Locking, Rear Access
This field allows you to narrow down our mailbox selection by the specific type you are looking for, whether that is a drop box mailbox, mailboxes with more then one compartment, or single compartment mailboxes.
|Mailbox Type
|Drop Box, Multi-Compartment
Narrow down our mailbox selection by the type of mounting you would like. You can shop for mailboxes to be mounted on a post, on the wall, and more.
Would you like to update product info, give feedback on images, or tell us about a lower price?
Related Items
Shop Accessories
You Save $65.00
From $307.00
You Save Up To $255.50
Show me more Additional Accessories
You Save $75.00
$768.00Your total:
Add to Cart
Questions & Answers
Didn't get the answer you needed?
We'll respond to your question in three days or less
There are no questions from the community yet
Customer Reviews
This product has no customer reviews yet
Write an online review and be the first to share your thoughts with other customers
Write an online review and be the first to share your thoughts with other customers
Tag This Product
A tag is a keyword assigned to a product which helps describe the item and allows it to be found by other customers
Add a new tag:
Separate multiple tags with commasWhat's this?
Additional Details
|Mfr Part #
|Group #
|Mailboxes - 932
|- 0
|Sales Rank
Your Recently Viewed Items
You have no recently viewed items. After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to products you are interested in.
Your Recommended Items
You currently have no recommended items. Browse a few more items to give us an idea of what you like.
©1999 - 2014 ATGStores.com.Copyright notice | Site Map | By using this site you agree to our Terms & Conditions of Use and Privacy Statement
Server: EASTWEB121 DBServer: EASTDB02 Created On: 12/28/2014 10:49:42 AM


text:
What's it really like to volunteer in Ethiopia?
VSO is the world's leading independent international development organisation that works through volunteers to fight poverty in developing countries. In the first of a series of case studies in which we catch up with VSO volunteers, we learn about Patricia Gilhooley's year in Western Ethiopia working as a continuous professional development (CPD) adviser.
Inspiring creativity in the classroom
More than half of the world's out-of-school children live in just 15 countries, and nearly three million of them are in Ethiopia. Pupils are frequently passive recipients of knowledge, which can often be ineffective at engaging students to think critically and creatively. Tackling traditional 'chalk and talk' methods of teaching is a major challenge. VSO volunteer Patricia Gilhooley spent her year encouraging the use of active learning methods in several primary schools and a teacher training college.
VSO volunteers like Patricia work through the Ministry of Education and at a senior level in teacher training colleges across Ethiopia to help engage students to think critically and creatively.
Here she tells us about her experiences. Read more…


text:
Discover Chocolate and Live La Vida Cocoa!
Share Twitter
Views: 53
Hi Eileen,
Which Raw chocolates do you already know. We sell Zotter so we have Zotters 58% and 80% Raw. But as we are in The Netherlands, postage might be a problem.
Let me know.
Welcome toThe Chocolate Life
Sign Upor Sign In
Follow Clay on:
Twitter :: @DiscoverChoc
F'Book :: TheChocolateLife
F'Book Group :: LaVidaCocoa
Paper.li :: @DiscoverChoc
© 2014 Created by Clay Gordon.
Badges |
Report an Issue |
Terms of Service
Please check your browser settings or contact your system administrator.


text:
Log Out
Call in to speak with the host
(909) 362-8209
@MacBizzo reports on NFL fantasy football & NBA fantasy basketball. Call the show 909-362-8209 || Roto Updates, Waiver Wires, Draft, Adds, Drops, Trade Reviews, Player Breakdowns, Injury Alerts, Draft Stragety, League Design, Marketing, Business Stragety, Industry Consiltation, Interviews and more.
Mac Bizzo is a fantasy football and fantasy basketball fan who brings you perspective on how to source, use, define, qualify, and put into action fantasy information from the main stream media and underground guru's. I will also include tips on Madden 25 and NBA 2k14 for playstation users.
Sorry we couldn't complete your registration. Please try again.
Please enter your email to finish creating your account.
old-style code for hosted blogs
Player Size
300 x 295
400 x 370
640 x 550
It's good to talk.


text:
Discover PerformanceHP Software's community for IT leaders // April 2013
A vision of seamless mobility
The chief technologist of HP's Communications, Media, and Entertainment unit talks about truly integrating with users' mobile lifestyle.
One of the key problems in the transition to the mobile era is that users—your customers, colleagues, and employees—are no longer working on one, deskbound digital device. Instead they're shifting from laptop and desktop to smartphone, tablet, and—perhaps in the near future—wristwatches and eyeglasses.
HP's Enterprise 20/20 project, a crowdsourced ebook that ponders the technology shifts between now and 2020, recently released a chapter on mobility. In it, Jeff Edlund, chief technologist of HP's Communications, Media, and Entertainment unit, speaks about the need to allow users to shift seamlessly—invisibly—from device to device.
Discover Performance asked him to give us a little more depth on how to better manage our armloads of mobile devices, and Edlund reframed the question: "It's about ubiquitous availability of your mobile lifestyle."
Q: In the Enterprise 20/20 mobility chapter, you mention that the process of mobility needs to be invisible to the user. Can you explain that?
Jeff Edlund: It's the biggest macro theme we're neglecting in mobility, the one that would allow us to meet the primary need of the end user in regard to mobility. Every device or platform has a different application ecosystem—the apps, the store, etc. But even within the Apple ecosystem, once you move off of those platforms (iPhone, iPad) to another Apple platform like a MacBook Air, you're in a different application ecosystem. So not only do we have industry fragmentation, we've got ecosystem fragmentation, and ultimately consumer confusion and lack of willingness to pay for what vendors think is a perceived value.
Q: How do we solve this?
JE: We need to bring enterprise customers better technology and better integration solutions that solve these problems. I see this problem getting even worse as we experience the acceleration of the Internet of Things and M2M as a revenue-producing economy.
Q: So where do we start? Is it a matter of getting the right people to sit up and listen—industry groups, etc.?
JE: It's driving of standards bodies. It's development of new code and ecosystems solutions. And it's really starting to put ourselves in the shoes of the consumer, and then solve for use cases based upon bad experiences. We've got access to technologies that will help us do this. Cloud is one of them. With the cloud, you can put application entities or services in place that can act on the consumer's behalf. They can start to answer some of these problems.
Q: What would the solution look like—the mobile nirvana?
JE: Nirvana would be that everybody complies with a set of standards and delivery mechanisms. But we're a long way from getting to that nirvana. Consumer behaviors are going to help drive that. Think about bring-your-own-device in the enterprise. Each enterprise views its own notion of corporate data containers, security. That adds another layer of complexity that today's ecosystem is not designed to solve. We need a new model that says: "This is invisible to the user. We take care of the details on a platform somewhere else on that consumer's behalf." And that platform is the cloud.
Q: In the mobility chapter, you describe an intelligent avatar holding all this together …
JE: Right. I see the user as the center of the universe. All services and experiences should surround the user. The avatar lives in the cloud and is the entity that stitches together all of these complex spokes that need access to the hub, which is the user.
Q: What needs to be done to get to this reality? Will we get there by 2020?
JE: I think we can. Based upon work that we're doing in HP Labs, it's not a question of having to develop lots of new technologies or creating a state of the art that doesn't exist today. It's more about access to the investment resources needed to apply the concerted effort to go out and solve these problems. It's going to be a crawl-walk-run scenario, a set of baby steps. We're testing hypotheses. We've decided the cloud is the platform. There's got to be a piece of artificial intelligence that lives up in the cloud that can manage these interactions. We've picked an ecosystem that's open and relatively inexpensive for us to experiment in—Android, for example. We're starting to play with these use models to see what we can actually do.
Q: Can you describe a use model?
JE: User in the center. What he has is his own mobile personal grid. One vector off that is connectivity—what's the access method [or network]? Another is persona and context—is he behaving as a worker or as dad/hockey player? Another is devices—phones, tablets, laptops. The final vector is the cloud, which is responsible for what we call pervasive and persistent bonding across that personal grid (connectivity, persona/context, devices). The approach unifies mobile with infrastructure and the cloud. Mobility isn't just about ubiquitous broadband availability and connectivity: it's about ubiquitous availability of your mobile lifestyle.
We have a use case of a guy, Steve, he's a marketer. He's got a set of devices and a set of contexts. He's using a tablet, a mobile phone, and a laptop. He's got an employer-provided cell phone, and a Regus conferencing center. All of these are disaggregated channels of service delivery. In our world of mobility, the cloud and his personal avatar bring them all together. So the vision is for us to integrate multiple devices, multiple media-rich applications, across enterprise infrastructure software and public infrastructure.
As workers and users increasingly go mobile, enterprise IT will have to evolve to the needs of the user and the opportunities of new platforms and technologies. For more on how the enterprise must adapt to the fast-changing mobile era, read the full Enterprise 20/20 chapter on mobility—and join the conversation.
Popular tags
HP Software's Paul Muller hosts a weekly video digging into the hottest IT issues. Check out the latest episodes.
Enterprise 20/20
Introduction to Enterprise 20/20
What will a successful enterprise look like in the future?
Challenges and opportunities for the CIO of the future.
Employee 20/20
What the workforce of 2020 can expect from IT, and what IT can expect from the workforce.
Data Center 20/20
The innovation and revenue engine of the enterprise.
Dev Center 20/20
How will we organize development centers for the apps that will power our enterprises?
Marketing 20/20
Welcome to a new reality of split-second decisions and marketing by the numbers.
IT Operations 20/20
How can you achieve the data center of the future?
Security 20/20
Preparing today for tomorrow's threats.
Mobility 20/20
Looking toward the era when everyone — and everything — is connected.


text:
MySpace, News Corp.'s once-booming social networking site, will lay off half its staff worldwide with up to 500 employees being cut, the company confirmed today. All Things Digital first reported the anticipated layoffs in December.
Headquartered in Beverly Hills, MySpace currently has about 1,000 employees in the U.S. and 120 other workers in London, Sydney and Berlin.
The layoffs come after the company redesigned its website to focus more on entertainment in an effort to turn the company around.
"Today's tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability," CEO Mike Jones said in a written statement. "These changes were purely driven by issues related to our legacy business, and in no way reflect the performance of the new product."
MySpace, one of the first in the social networking space, has lost ground in recent years to rival Facebook.
It's not the first cuts at MySpace. In June 2009, nearly 1,150 workers in the U.S. and overseas were laid off and four of the company's international offices were closed.
Comments are encouraged, but you must follow our User Agreement
Keep it civil and stay on topic. No profanity, vulgarity, racial slurs or personal attacks. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked. By posting your comment, you agree to allow Orange County Register Communications, Inc. the right to republish your name and comment in additional Register publications without any notification or payment.


text:
Definitions for nannɑn, næn
This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word nan
Random House Webster's College Dictionary
nannɑn, næn(n.)
Category: Cooking
a flat leavened bread esp. of India and Pakistan, baked in a tandoor.
Origin of nan:
1945–50; < Hindi nān
Princeton's WordNet
your grandmother
grandma, grandmother, granny, grannie, gran, nan, nanna(noun)
the mother of your father or mother
Nan, Nan River(noun)
a river of western Thailand flowing southward to join the Ping River to form the Chao Phraya
nan, naan(noun)
leavened bread baked in a clay oven in India; usually shaped like a teardrop
and Nancy.
Origin: Possibly derived from nana.
Webster Dictionary
In computing, NaN, standing for not a number, is a numeric data type value representing an undefined or unrepresentable value, especially in floating-point calculations. Systematic use of NaNs was introduced by the IEEE 754 floating-point standard in 1985, along with the representation of other non-finite quantities like infinities. Two separate kinds of NaNs are provided, termed quiet NaNs and signaling NaNs. Quiet NaNs are used to propagate errors resulting from invalid operations or values, whereas signaling NaNs can support advanced features such as mixing numerical and symbolic computation or other extensions to basic floating-point arithmetic. For example, 0/0 is undefined as a real number, and so represented by NaN; the square root of a negative number is imaginary, and thus not representable as a real floating-point number, and so is represented by NaN; and NaNs may be used to represent missing values in computations.
British National Corpus
Written Corpus Frequency
Rank popularity for the word 'nan' in Written Corpus Frequency: #2951
Anagrams of nan
Ann , ANN
Translations for nan
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary
to work into a shape
He moulded the clay into a ball.
- vormAfrikaans
- يُشَكِّل، يَصوغArabic
- оформямBulgarian
- moldarPortuguese (BR)
- modelovatCzech
- formenGerman
- formeDanish
- (δια)πλάθωGreek
- modelarSpanish
- vormimaEstonian
- قالب گرفتنFarsi
- muovataFinnish
- modelerFrench
- לְעֲצֵבHebrew
- सांचा में काम करनाHindi
- oblikovatiCroatian
- (meg)mintáz, formázHungarian
- membentukIndonesian
- móta, formaIcelandic
- modellareItalian
- 形作るJapanese
- (...로) ...을 만들다Korean
- suteikti formą, formuotiLithuanian
- veidotLatvian
- membentukMalay
- vormenDutch
- kna, modellere, formeNorwegian
- ukształtować, wymodelowaćPolish
- قالب گرفتنPersian
- قالب کولPashto
- moldarPortuguese
- a modelaRomanian
- формоватьRussian
- modelovaťSlovak
- oblikovatiSlovenian
- ukalupitiSerbian
- forma, modelleraSwedish
- หล่อแบบThai
- şekil vermekTurkish
- 塑出特定形狀Chinese (Trad.)
- формуватиUkrainian
- کسی شکل میں ڈھالناUrdu
- nặnVietnamese
- 将…塑造成Chinese (Simp.)
Get even more translations for nan »
Find a translation for the nan definition in other languages:
Select another language:
Discuss these nan definitions with the community:
Use the citation below to add this definition to your bibliography:
"nan." Definitions.net. STANDS4 LLC, 2014. Web. 20 Dec. 2014. <http://www.definitions.net/definition/nan>.