Thursday, December 21, 2006

roheline tuli riskikapitalile Eestis

Umbes kuu aja eest võttis Riigikogu vastu huvitava seaduseparanduste kogumi, mis võimaldab ametlikult riskikapitali fonde luua. Ehkki äriühingu ja muul kujul on Eestis juba mõned riskikapitali tüüpi fondid loodud, on antud seadusparandused siiski väga teretulnud ja minu arvates suhteliselt hästi ajastatud just riskikapitali valdkonna arengu startietappi.

Üheks eriti huvitavaks paranduseks on aga punkt, mis sätestab, et pensionifondid võivad nüüdsest samuti kõrge riskitasemega ettevõtmistesse investeerida ehk teisisõnu paigutada oma raha ka riskikapitali fondidesse. Antud punkt äratas erilist tähelepanu seoses sellega, et viimase aasta jooksul olen korduvalt sattunud lugema kirjatükke, mis väidavad, et USA riskikapitali tööstuse üheks peamiseks alustalaks on sarnane seadusemuudatus USAs 1979ndal aastal. Ehkki ilmselt olid mängus ka muud mõjud, siis väidetakse ikkagi, et just pensionifondidel oli suur osa selles, et USA riskikapitali kogumaht järgneval kümnendil kasvas terve suurusjärgi võrra paarilt miljardilt dollarilt aastas kümnete miljardite dollariteni aastas.

Raske oleks väita, et Eesti pensionifondide investeerimisseadusandluse muudatusel saaks olema sarnane mõju, sest praegune riskikaptali fondide hulk ja kogemuste pagas on hetkel veel pea olematu. Ent kui pensionifondid neile antud võimalusest kinni peaksid haarama, siis igatahes suurendab see riskikapitali fondide jaoks võimalikku saadaval olevat kapitalimahtu päris märkimisväärselt.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

playing with numbers

Within the past couple of weeks, two outstanding organisations have published reports on R&D spending by major corporations. And though they roughly see the same names, somehow the two organisations have reached fairly diverging conclusions.

First to come out was UK's Department of Trade and Industry "The R&D Scorecard 2006" (if you need detailed company R&D information, I strongly recommend this one - the whole database is up on the web as well as available on hard copy free of charge). DTI's report concludes that R&D investment by companies is one of the major drivers of company success.

Yesterday's Financial Times, on the other hand, is touting the supposedly opposite conclusions Booz Allen Hamilton has reached in its freshly published "Smart Spenders: The Global Innovation 1000" (also available online). Booz' study claims that most of the R&D spending is waste of money and only few heavy R&D investing companies are actually making profit out of these investments.

There is certainly some truth in both statements, and I was happy to see the arguments on both sides strongly outlined. There was but one problem that kept scratching my eye in the Booz report. Namely, it compares the R&D spending growth to revenue growth over the past 4-5 years, but does it by comparing R&D spending growth to the revenue growth in the same year - for instance, if R&D spending grew by 15% in 2005 but the revenues of that company grew 10% in 2005, Booz's conclusion is that this company was wasting money and not exploiting its R&D investments in a sensible manner. Now, if you go to the DTI report, then they used a little bit different approach to draw conclusions on the profitability of R&D investments - they looked at the R&D investments in 2001 and then compared these to reveneu and profit indicators in 2004-2005.

When you think for a second, what is the specific nature of R&D spending as compared to other oprational business investments and what is causing all that fuss around the R&D spending - aah, yes, though potentially leading to remarkable profitability, it takes longer to kick in; thus, the profitability results would be revealed with a considerable lag. Granted, 3-4 year lag that DTI used might not be quite sufficient, but it certainly a more adequate indicator than what the Booz has come up with. While Booz' recommendation that companies need to pay more attention to focusing their R&D investments and maximizing their profit potential sounds reasonable, its choice of indicator construction is not really the most convincing way to prove the argument. Right now, it looks a lot like Booz has tried to pull out some explanation to justify their numbers rather than the other way round.

Other than proving that playing with numbers can help you prove any point you want to make, I think both reports are interesting readings. Those fond of number games and having better insights into manipulating them will have good material for a textbook case study.

Thursday, September 14, 2006

back to government

With all the talk about how US's economic and technology success draws on the private sector initiative and how government is really playing but a minor role, it is fascinating to discover bit-by-bit, in the midst of all other talk, how at the end of the day, government still appears to have played major role at critical turning points.

The most recent discovery of mine was from Josh Lerner and some other Harvard Busines School folks that mention in their book "Venture Capital and Private Equity" that, indeed, during the early evolution years of venture capital industry federally guaranteed risk capital pools called Small Business Investment Companies (SBICs) constituted a significant sources of venture money.

I am not taking this as a sign to claim that the US private sector initiative and energy is any less important than we thought. I am just noting an interesting tendency here to somehow downplay the role of government, and avoid admitting that many good things come out of reasonably balanced collaboration between private and public sectors.

And I do still think that in both mature environments and in places where the venture capital industry is still evolving, private sector initiative is critical. By the same token, however, a little friendly push from the government would seem to help a lot - Israel and Finland being the prime evidence along with the US. Those same examples also indicate, though, that this help can come in various forms as long as it is free of political manipulation.

Sunday, August 13, 2006

commoner's security update from DC

Just about a week ago I caught myself pondering, how surprisingly optimistic (for Americans) the new slogan of DC metro warnings was - "Let's be prepared, not scared". It has been so calm around here for the past year that I have lived in the DC area that it didn't even feel like living in one of the prime terror target zones.

Well, thanks to those dummass schemers in London, that's all gone now. Got a fresh reminder yesterday on the metro. Instead of the happy slogan reminder, they now keep banging every 60 seconds how you should look out for bags and weirdows. Btw, I am not exaggerating, I timed them, and the announcements did go about every 1 minute. And ... they have added a bonus - they even have started announding their warnings in Spanish now :) And that was all just quiet Saturday night, I'll see how it all looks during Monday morning rush hour.

Well, I guess at least some good has come out of the overflow of information - the news reporters claim that people are so well informed of the new flying rules, that the DC area airports are quite decently functional. They say 3 hours should be enough to get on your flight :)
Well, I will go and check it out on Friday on my way to Estonia.

Thursday, June 22, 2006

blokk

See on nii ebaaus - avastan end jälle mõttelt, kui vaja miskit paberile panna ja pole viimane kuu või enam intensiivsemat kirjatööd teinud.

Ma ei ole mingi eriline grafomaan, aga pidevalt lühemate ja pikemate kirjatükkide kirjutamisharjumuses olemisel on see eelis, et võid iga kell kiirelt mõned read kokku visata ja jutt jookseb nagu iseenesest. Lihtsamast lihtsam, 10 lk päevas nagu üle õla sülitada. Ja siis kui mõtled, et peale 5 kuud intensiivset kirjatööd teed väheke puhkust ja õpid ja teed muud tööd, siis kuu aega hiljem ei tule enam üldse välja. Mitte et ei oskaks, aga lihtsalt ei jookse. 2 lk strateegilist plaani kokku kirjutada võtab nii palju imemist ja inspiratsiooniotsimist, et läheb vähemalt terve päev selle nahka. Ja siis tundub selline ajaraisk - kuu aja eest olekse sellele kulutand maksimaalselt 2 tundi.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

today I found my soulmate

"You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful."
Marie Curie

Friday, May 19, 2006

officially English

So guess what, apparently it is only now that I am finally staying in an officially English-speaking country once the Senate has voted English as the official language of the USA.

I bet there are good reasons for opposing this, and once you live in US you kind of get the mindset, but for all practicality reasons I think its a pretty wise decision. I meant its not like other languages are not used anymore, but it is better on an international scale to know the terms of conduct. Then again, looking at how much Spanish is being used in everyday conversations, I would not be surprised at all if this country soon also became bilingual. Have even contemplated multiple times that if I only took a beginners course in Spanish, the rest of the environment would probably be enough to get me fluent in the language.

Sunday, May 07, 2006

blogs vs orkut

Blog-reading is slowly but steadily taking over the lead position from orkut in my procrastination habits. I wonder it this is an evidence of some major global behavioural trends - I have noted myself to be a mid-follower, namely (not among the first, but neither among the last ones).

Sunday, April 16, 2006

lynx economies :D

Since Eastern Europe does not have tigers, Economist has now decided to call us lynxes :D
Pretty witty parallel.

The online version is unfortunately lacking the cute purr lunx picture.

Saturday, April 15, 2006

hmmmm ... Valton

ma arvan, et Valton võttis oma veidi veidralt hüpleva jutustuse "Roheline rügement" viimase kolme lausega kokku mõtted, mis minu ja ilmselt paljude peas keerlevad:

"Tulevik ei jää tulemata. Milline see on, eks näis.
Seni tuli tegutseda."

Ikka ja jälle tekib omagi elus toimetades mõte, et ei tea milleks ja mis sest tolku - lõppkokkuvõttes ju nagunii ei tea, et mis tulevikus tuleb, ehkki tuleb ta nii ehk naa. Aga tegutsemisvajadus on küll - hea, et on tegevus, muidu tuleb masendus, et ei tea mille nimel see kõik :D

eile tuli meil suvi ...

eile algas õhukonditsioneerihooaeg ja vihm ei tulnud enam maapinnale maha, vaid jäi õhku rippuma. Ja öösel kell 12 metroo pealt koju jalutades näitas temperatuur 73F, mis vist meiekeeles on midagi 23C kandis.

Hommikul avastasin, et päike on jooksmiseks juba liiga palav ja et nokatsit on kangesti vaja. Potomoaci peal käisid juba 4-mehe paadi trennid ja muud süstalised ja paadilised hulpisid ka ringi.

Ja kool hakkab ka selleks õppeaasaks läbi saama. Esimene eksam on juba vähem kui kahe nädala pärast. Nii et rabamine käib täie hooga.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

presidenditeema jatkuks

no vot see mees pani alles asjaliku paugu. Myts maha! Leiduks vaid Eestis heade soovituste jargimiseks kellelgi tahtmist ja jaksu.

P.S. Ei ole veel taielikult hea emakeele tahestikku minetanud. Lihtsalt arvuti streigib Eesti tahestiku peale ja pole veel valja nipitanud, kuidas tagasi panna - ja ei ole nii rumal, et ei oskaks ingliskeelse klaviatuuri funktsioonilt eestikeelsele lylitada. Miksit p6hjalikumat on mada.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

end of an era

Former President of the Republic of Estonia Mr Lennart Meri has passed away.

And those things happen, and life goes on. But this person was special to the whole nation. Not only was he able to give his own speeches in 5 different languages, which he spoke fluently, and actually write several of his own speeches thanks to his extraordinary literary skills. What we will always miss most about him, is his soft and very insightful skill to raise important topics for discussion among the broader public and provide great intellectual guidance in those discussions.

People like these do not come around often. I suspect that for a small nation like ours we might have to wait long until we see next one of those raise to the same prominence. Because not only does it take a great person, but it also takes the right place and time for people to recognise that uniqueness and actually respect that person to take on a prominent position. All these things come together but rarely. Even as big and intellectually great country as the US has but very rarely managed to dig out any of those.

So what now. I think the best tribute to Mr Meri is to respect his heritage and try our best to nurture a continued debate and intellectual reflection. How else can new generations of great thinkers be raised? It is our moral obligation to provide the best environment for new intellectuals to grow.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

kodukülastus

nii, nii
nüüd paluks kõik sõbrad seltsilised ritta võtta ja ennast järgmise nädala jooksul näole anda. Kodukülastus kestab 11.-20. märtsini ja järgmine võimalus antakse alles augusti lõpus :D

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Czech mate - me not tough enough for this kind of business

Well, gotta say, I learned a lot about the world of tough business today. And I am growing worried that I would never become a successful businesswoman even if I wanted to. It is just not my first assumption that people are evil and greedy by nature, even though I have heard of the cases and even encountered a few of them.

The case that brought me down so bad tonight in our International Business Strategy class was the famous Czech Mate between CME and the notorious Mr Zelezny. But I guess this shook my perception of people enough that I will only need a few more cases to be ready for the tough business world. And at the end of the day you still reach the conclusion that it is all the fault of the government that is not able to establish good legislation and curb the greedy and evil human nature. I guess its the good thing then that CME got back at the Czech thanks to the Bilateral Investment Treaty. Ehh, so the world is tough, but on some rare good occasions, still fair as well.

Well, now that I am much wiser and tired as hell from the long day, there's a few more emails waiting to be written and a nice long-distance conversation to be held :D

To all you back home and in the Northern part of Eurasia I hope the coming cold will not be too bad!

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

State of the Union

Eilne õhtu oli nii oluline ja mina nii ignorantne, et ei näinudki live`is :-I
Aga noh, siin linnas vähemalt ei saa olulisematest sündmustest ka kõige suurema ignorantsuse korral informeerimata jääda :D

Kõik sai muidugi alguse eile õhtul, kui jalutasime sõbranna Raminta juurde ning möödusime teel Kongessist. Karjakaupa autosid nähes meenus Ramintale, et täna on ju Bushi State of the Union ettekanne. Möönsime kahetsusega, et Ramintal telekat pole, nii et jääb nägemata. Kusagilt kostis kõva kära ja muusikat - järeldasin, et Kongressi ees oleva platsi peal on mõni traditsiooniline kontsert, nagu seal pidevalt on. Mu vähem ignorantne ameeriklannast toanaaber Katrina aga valgustas mind täna, et tegelikult oli see hoopis mingi suur meeleavaldus, mille eesmärk oli selles, et teha hästi palju kisa ja sellega avaldada vastumeelt Bushile.

Noh, aga meie jalutasime Ramintaga õndsas teadmatuses edasi. Politseid oli palju, nagu arvata võis, ja tänavad ümberringi peaaegu inimtühjad. Raminta kurtis, et miks pole Kongressi juures üleval suuri ekraane, et näeks Bushi esinemist live versioonis. Mina lõõpisin, et ekraanid on rohkem popstaaridele ja ilmselt pole Bush nii populaarne. Selle peale sai vist kergelt pahaseks kõrvalseisev politseinik ja kamandas meid teisele poole tänavat, et see pidavat olema liiga lähedal esinemispaigale :-I Jõudsin järeldusele, et kuigi Washington on 95% demokraatlik, siis oleks pidand vist ikka nati rohkem suud koomale hoidma. Jalutasime läbi politseinike karja ja tiirutavate helikopterite Raminta koju.

Hommikul rabasin metroo peale minnes kohaliku tasuta linnalehe Express ja sain teada, et Bush oli kurtnud USA naftasõltuvuse üle ja lubanud teadusele raha juurde anda :D Lisaks sain veel teada, et M. L. Kingi naine oli ära surnud :-I ja et Alito oli Ülemkohtu kohtunikuks ära nimetatud. Koju jõudes sain Katrinalt teada mõningaid kommentaare teiste Kongressmanide poolt ja kuulsin, et Hillary Clinton põhipoint oli seisnenud silmade pööritamises. Samuti kuulsin, et keegi vahva Kongresman olevat kutsunud Bushi esinemisele ka siinmaal kuulusa tädi, kelle poeg sai Iraagis surma ja kes on sellest ajast saati Bushi vastast kampaaniat aretanud. Tädi olevat aga otsustanud kanda T-särki tekstiga "How many more?", mis peale jõudis ta muidugi Bushi esinemise asel kohalikku politseijaoskonda. Katrina oli nõutu, et kuidas nii väikese asja peale saab kinni panna. Mina siis korraliku konspiratsiooniteoreetikuna avaldasin muidugi arvamust, et tegelikult oli turvadele käsk antud, et see tädi sinna ruumi täna õhtul ei tohi saada ja et nad oleks ta ükskõik millisel ettekäändel kinni pannud.

Soojendasin lõunasöögiks Campelli purgist tomatisuppi, lisasin mitteameerikalikult ka mõned herned. Seepeale otsustasin oma südametunnistuse leevenduseks vaadata telekast CNNist Bushi kõne või vähemalt kommentaare. Nüüdseks olen umbes 30 min CNN Headline News`i vaadanud ja olen teada saanud, et Britney Spears pidavat esinema "Will&Grace" ühes osas mingi kristlasena ja et see kutsub ilmselt esile suurema pahameeleavalduse siinse konservatiivse elanikkonna poolt. Siis veel hunnik Entertainment Newsi ja siis viimased 10 min ühe Iraagi kunstniku kohta, kes paneb tänavale oma pilte üles, et aidata kaasa ülesehitustööle. Ja täiesti ausalt räägiti State of the Unionist ka lõpuks, nii umbes 1 min ja öeldi, et pidas ära kõne. Ja vot selline siinmaal ajakirjanduse kvaliteet ongi - see siin oli kommentaar minu kullakesele Liisale, kelle blogist lugesin hiljuti järjekordset kurtmist, et Eesti meedia on kehva kvaliteediga :D

See oli lihtsalt üks väljavõte tavalisest tähtsast päevast siinkandis.
Aa, ja et teiegi väärtuslikust kõnest ilma ei jääks, siis teile ka suvaliselt ettejuhtunud lingi pealt täistekst. Seal on video ka.

Tervitused kõigile. Igatsen ja tulen teid märtsis kaema.


ooooot .... nüüd tuli jälle pool minutit Bushi kõne kohta ....

Sunday, January 29, 2006

long time no see

what can I say ..... time flies ..... but I bet you know that already

I'm back to the ranks of working people, in addition to being a student. So I guess that maybe explains some of my absence.

News?
I guess I sound repetitive and this is probably the topic most discussed on this blog, but it just keeps surprising me, how warm it is here in DC. Nothing like the winter I know. It's January and the temperatures jump around 5-15C. But then again, I guess it is geographically on the same line with Lisbon.

Other than that - been here and there. Explored some of Chicago, Indiana, and some more of NYC. Chicago was cold, reminded of winter at home. Indiana was sweet and fun - you know, truck people land, and NYC was crowded.

Now back in school and working.