by Bruce | November 15, 2008 | Adam Smith Himself, Articles, Finance, Globalization, Strategy
Consider Detroit’s Big Three. Having made what turned out to be bad bets on over-investing in now shunned product lines, they’ve been conspicuously laying people off, downsizing, attempting to renegotiate credit lines, and...
by Bruce | November 11, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Strategy
Our texts for today come from (in inappropriate order) the New Testament, as it were, and Peter Kalis, the chairman of K&L Gates: "The metaphysical question is whether you can have bulge-bracket Wall Street firms without Wall Street," says Kalis....
by Bruce | November 1, 2008 | About the Site, Articles, Globalization
Sometimes there’s no substitute for being there. This couuld be the introduction to a column about why technology, Web 2.0, and collaboration at a distance all add up to precisely zero threat to places like New York and London–making them, in fact, more...
by Bruce | October 28, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Globalization
In the nearly five-year history of "Adam Smith, Esq.," you could have counted the number of guest columns on one finger. As of today, make that two. The following comes from E. Leigh Dance (see immediately below), who has a strong perspective on what...
by Bruce | October 22, 2008 | Articles, Cultural Considerations, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management, Strategy
We are surely living in times of manic-depressive equity and fixed-income markets ("We’ve made the future safe for Western financial institutions!" "No, we haven’t!). New York City itself can seem to be suffering from one gigantic case...
by Bruce | October 14, 2008 | Articles, Finance, Globalization, Leadership, Practice Group Management
Making the rounds is a presentation by Sequoia Capital on "startups and the economic downturn," which constitutes a sort of come-to-Jesus meeting for that storied VC firm’s portfolio companies. It tells a tale of radical gloom, with...