Who wouldn’t want to be a venture capitalist right now? Investment bankers may be reviled and private equity executives hammered but Silicon Valley’s billionaire elite can do no wrong.
The unbearable vagueness of Zuckerberg
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, sets himself an admirable test in the company’s filing for an initial public offering – “that everyone who invests in Facebook understands what this mission means to us, how we make decisions and why we do the things we do.” Unfortunately, he then flunks it.
Like Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the founders of Google, which went public in 2004, Mr Zuckerberg has written a letter to shareholders to explain his approach to their new investors. While Google’s letter was brisk and open about how they intended to ignore short-term earnings targets, his is aspirational and vague.
“By focussing on our mission and building great services, we believe we will create the most value for our shareholders and partners over the long term . . . We don’t wake up in the morning with the primary goal of making money, but we understand that the best way to achieve our mission is to build a strong and valuable company,” Mr Zuckerberg writes.
Swiss Railways and the art of personal service
It is rare for customer service to be so good as to take one’s breath away but Swiss Federal Railways achieved it on Sunday by making a personal stop for me when I boarded the wrong train.
On my way back from the World Economic Forum in Davos, I had to change at Zurich’s main station to get to the city’s airport. Lacking in concentration after a long week, I got on a train on the left side of one platform instead of the right and found myself heading swiftly along Lake Zurich in the opposite direction.
My fellow passengers informed me that I would have to stay on the wrong train for up to an hour before I could get one back to Zurich, thus ensuring that I would miss my flight to London. Gloom descended.
For the world’s financial elite, now might be a good time to be on a Swiss mountainside, protected by a cordon of armed police, and able to take one’s mind off things by skiing and popping into a private bank.
A cautious revolution at Research in Motion
The initial noises out of the shake-up at Research in Motion, although it was more far-reaching than had been expected, are not especially encouraging for the investors and analysts who want radical action.
Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, the joint chairmen and chief executives of the maker of BlackBerries, have relinquished both roles. But they have handed over to an insider who looks determined to stick to the same course.
Thorsten Heins, the new chief executive, told the FT:
“I want to maintain the focus on enterprise, but we need to communicate a bit more with our consumers. We need to do more marketing.”
How long can Antonio Perez stay at Kodak?
Kodak’s Chapter 11 filing is a sad day and it makes me wonder how long Antonio Perez plans to stick around as its chairman and chief executive.
There is no mention in the Kodak announcement of Mr Perez stepping down, although his strategy of shifting the company from film to digital printing clearly ran out of road. Instead, he portrays the event as another step in his strategy:
The internet industry scored a tactical victory this week with Wednesday’s blackout of sites such as Wikipedia and Reddit, and the White House’s decision to oppose parts of two bills intended to curb the file-sharing of films and copyrighted material. “Piracy rules,” tweeted Rupert Murdoch angrily.
Eastman Kodak’s last big investor meeting ended with its executives trying to finish while a shareholder shouted at them: “You guys have no credibility. Zero.” Since then, things have got worse
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John Gapper is an associate editor and the chief business commentator of the FT.
He has worked for the FT since 1987, covering labour relations, banking and the media. He is co-author, with Nicholas Denton, of All That Glitters, an account of the collapse of Barings in 1995.
Andrew Hill is an associate editor and the management editor of the FT. He is a former City editor, financial editor, comment and analysis editor, New York bureau chief, foreign news editor and correspondent in Brussels and Milan.
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