Technology, Capital Markets, Corporate Governance, Leadership, Entrepreneurship
Category: Leadership
Mark Zuckerberg does not trust his people. Facebook is a great example of a company that has lost its way as founder CEO Mark Zuckerberg increasingly exercises control over product decisions. Tightening control. It is difficult to fault Zuckerberg for tightening his grip on Facebook's strategic reins in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. … Continue reading In Zuck We Trust?
Apple will have a new CEO within 5 years. You may thank Apple CEO Tim Cook and former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Microsoft shares flat-lined from 2001 to 2013 during a series of flubs including being late to the Internet, late to mobile, late to the cloud, late to AI, slow to capitalize on the … Continue reading Apple Will Have A New CEO Within 5 YearsPremium
From Chat bots to Ambient AI. Cloud-based AI and Machine Learning technology is readily available. Large technology platform companies such as Amazon (Alexa), Google and Microsoft (Azure), encourage third-party developers to build applications and services on top of their core AI and Machine Learning platforms. This enables developers to focus resources on building value through … Continue reading How AI Will Conquer Financial ServicesPremium
We pulled a list of the top CEOs from our CEORater platform as measured by our "CRScore". The CRScore is a crowdsourced score based upon user reviews at CEORater.com. CEOs are scored on a scale of 0-100, 100 being the best. Users "review" CEOs by posting comments, allocating a Thumbs Up or Down, and by … Continue reading CEORater’s Top CEOs
Some companies execute smart, strategic acquisitions better than others. Here’s a short list of publicly-traded FinTech & Info Services companies that do M&A well: CoStar Group (tkr: CSGP), Intercontinental Exchange (tkr: ICE), IHS Markit (tkr: INFO) SS&C Technologies (tkr: SSNC) and Verisk (tkr: VRSK). Click Here for Revenue, EBITDA and related metrics. We love FinTech … Continue reading Build. Acquire. Repeat.Premium
BB&T announced that it plans to acquire SunTrust primarily in an effort to scale its technology capability such that it may deliver more on-demand services to customers. This is a corporate governance issue. You simply DO NOT have the luxury to wait for Payments upstarts like Square (tkr: SQ) to capture a $30B-plus valuation ($40B-plus … Continue reading Too Little Too Late. BB&T & SunTrust.Premium
Magna International (tkr: MGA), got its start as a machine tool shop. Today, Magna is automotive supplier to major Auto OEMs, Tier I suppliers, Heavy Equipment manufacturers and Rideshare companies such as Lyft. Humble Beginnings Magna counts BMW, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Tata, Tesla, Toyota, a number of the China-based Auto OEMs as well as a … Continue reading Competition Comes from Below: Part II
Chinese manufacturers have mastered the smartphone manufacturing process. Take the case of Shenzhen-based Zowee, which manufactures a variety electronic components including smartphone technology. Zowee like many contract manufacturers won their OEM business given they were a low-cost provider capable of quickly scaling operations to meet demand while adhering to mutually agreed upon quality standards. Over … Continue reading Competition Comes from Below: Part I
FinTech market disruption has led to a bifurcation of FinTech providers - Lions and Lambs. See our "Lions & Lambs" company list with commentary at the end of this note. The FinTech space - whether it be the Capital Markets flavor or the Payments variety - is undergoing rapid change. Within Capital Markets - alternative … Continue reading Acquire or Be Acquired: FinTech Lions and LambsPremium
CEO tenure is getting shorter and we believe a primary cause is less than optimal alignment between CEOs, Executive Team members and Corporate Boards. Alignment Scale Exercise On a scale of 1-10 (10 is best) where would you rate the level of alignment between yourself and your direct reports? Between yourself and your Board of Directors?You may … Continue reading CEO – Executive Team – Board (“CEB”) AlignmentPremium
