Culture in the free market·The latest for Management Today, a paean to HBO, the US cable channel which has proved that a free market in culture can produce more than wall-to-wall reality television. more...
tuesday, april 29, 2003
An argument against Pax Americana·In my State of the Union column in Management Today, some doubts about American imperialism: Up front, I ought to establish that I trust in the inexorable advance of liberal capitalism, hold the United States to be the foremost force for good, believe multiculturalists to be apologists for backwardness, that I supported the expedition to Iraq, reliably cry at the sight of a fallen statues, and dream of executing every tyrant from Riyadh to Pyongyang. I am, to all intents, a hawk. So why on earth does the prospect of an American Empire bother me? more...
tuesday, march 18, 2003
Jews and the war·
Moran and Buchanan have implied that this is a war for Israel, pushed by American Jews. Both of them go too far, but there's a grain of truth in what they're saying. It's not enough to damn them, and anyone else who raises this issue, as an anti-semite; by failing to engage with the argument, one simply confirms the Buchananite paranoia about the Jews in the shadows.a> more...
thursday, february 13, 2003
America's mushy space program·For Management Today, a criticism of the space nuts.
There's nothing like space exploration to turn even the hardest-headed Americans into soppy romantics. They trace back the supposedly American traits of self-reliance and risk-taking to the open frontier: the thesis of Frederick Jackson Turner, back in 1893, which has since become central to the national identity.
More recent generations grew up on John F. Kennedy's New Frontier program, to put a man on the moon; on Star Trek, which sent Hollywood actors to the final frontier of outer space; and on a new wave of realistic science fiction, such as Kim Stanley Robinson's best-selling epic of the terraforming of Mars.
And that is the problem. The romantic attachment to space exploration is a wonderfully American phenomenon. This sentiment, together with the appetite for pork of space states such as Texas, has sustained vast government spending despite the absence of economic return. But it is precisely the dreaminess of the space lobby that has left the program in its current shambles. more...
friday, january 24, 2003
America's bloated newspapers·We assume that the US media is as vibrant as the society on which it reports. That's a myth: America's newspapers in particular are lazy monopolies. Fortunately, that's about to change. Here's a contrarian take on the US media industry for the State of the Union column in Management Today, the UK business magazine. more...
thursday, january 16, 2003
Investment ideas - 2/6·
Pretty places. The growth of discount airlines such as JetBlue and easyJet, in the US and Europe, has put smaller destinations within cheap and easy reach of major cities. And the spread of high-speed internet access makes it ever easier to access corporate information systems, and communicate with colleagues, while away from the office. If location no longer matters, why not spend the winter in Marrakech or the Caribbean? more...
monday, january 13, 2003
2003 investment ideas·
[For February's State of the Union column in Management Today.] It is the great dilemma of the deflation-era investor: what on earth to do with the money. more...
tuesday, november 12, 2002
Investment bankers·
Everybody loves to hate investment bankers, particularly since they conned the American public into dodgy stock in the 1990s. But spare a smidgen of sympathy: they defined themselves by money, and now they have nothing left. Here's my column on the subject, which will appear in print in next month's Management Today. more...
monday, august 12, 2002
The Bush recession·
The Bush family has always had bad timing. George Bush Senior took office as the 1980s boom was ending, and paid for voters’ economic discontent; George W is equally vulnerable. more...
tuesday, may 21, 2002
Transatlantic contempt·
"The European intellectual and political elites have long had a monopoly over transatlantic contempt; but the US is now matching insult for insult. And Europeans need to turn around the question and ask themselves: do we realize how much *we* are hated?"
Mad as hell [Nick Denton, for Management Today]
tuesday, may 7, 2002
United? The US is turning into a nation of city states·
On the freeway into Manhattan from New York's JFK airport, against a billboard image of the billowing stars and stripes, emblazoned on the sides of the giant trucks that rumble from coast to coast, stuck on bumpers in the midwest, is the ubiquitous slogan of the US after September 11th: United We Stand. more...
thursday, april 18, 2002
Online today: latest Denton geekery for the Guardian·
"Wi-Fi has grown out of the West Coast idealistic belief that free internet access is a basic human right, and the failure of corporate IT departments to properly secure their wireless networks. But Wi-Fi needs to move beyond its hippy and hobbyist phase."
·Second sight: A pipe-dream fires up [Nick Denton, in the Guardian]
friday, march 1, 2002
Disappointing San Francisco·
San Francisco, March 2002 -- Now that Silicon Valley's stock no longer rides so high, we can say what we always thought: it is not all it's cracked up to be. Despite press hype, immigration, and an extraordinary infusion of venture capital during the boom, Silicon Valley never made it as a world city. more...
tuesday, january 22, 2002
Revenge of the dotcoms·
This could be the event that marks the rebound of the dotcoms. Amazon.com's first profit, only a year or so behind the schedule that Jeff Bezos laid out when he started the company. Okay, there are questions about the extent of Amazon's profitability, and even its creditworthiness. And I don't think the rest of the technology sector is going to bounce back so quickly. more...
thursday, january 17, 2002
essay... Downward mobility "Downward mobility:·essay...Downward mobility
"Downward mobility: I finally understood the meaning when I advertised for a personal assistant on an online San Francisco bulletin board and received an application from the CEO of a new media startup who said he was experiencing cashflow issues."
[Management Today]
essay... Foolhardy 2002 forecasts: please·essay...Foolhardy 2002 forecasts: please destroy after reading
"Revenge of the dotcoms: The real story in 2002 will be the resurgence of dot.coms. The survivors are still growing and internet usage is still increasing. And in 2002, the internet may actually have a revenue model. The spread of services like Paypal, which lets users email money, may allow internet companies to charge just as mobile phone firms do."
[Management Today]
essay... Talent and managerial ability:·essay...Talent and managerial ability: a contradiction in terms
"I am coming round to the notion of a bifurcated promotion track, in which employees choose either a management or creative career path. Managers gain promotion as they take on more people and greater responsibility; but creatives gain in status and pay as they demonstrate brilliance, or gain in experience."
[Management Today]
essay... Why I am a lousy sales manager·essay...Why I am a lousy sales manager
"I have discovered, painfully, that hardcore sales people are a breed apart, and I cannot easily related to them. 'You have to understand,' advised one of our investors, a lacrosse-playing Ivy League venture capitalist, 'that sales guys are not like you and me.'"
[Management Today]
Tips for entrepreneurs raising money·Tips for entrepreneurs raising money
I remember writing, about a year back, a guide to raising venture capital. Mainly involving setting deadlines for investor responses, ensuring a competitive environment. Be mean, keep them keen. Embarrassing now, really. The VCs hold all the cards. But there are still some valid techniques, according to Red Herring. Most of these suggestions seem sensible.
RedHerring: The Smart VC: Don't get jerked aroundSep 2000: Management Today
saturday, september 1, 2001
It’s all about timing·
For a while there it seemed as though one could actually make fame and fortune with a great idea, hard work, and persistence. Now, looking at the winners and losers of the internet years, I am not so sure. One can make a strong argument that the internet boom favored gadflies and incompetents; the fearful, uncommitted, and greedy; and those simply with a good sense of timing. more...
Tricks of venture capital·
Like magicians, successful entrepreneurs have a repertoire of a few basic tricks, shrouded in mystery and glamour. At no time is that more true than when raising finance, surely the most opaque process of all in the new economy. more...
thursday, august 7, 1997
The dizzy growth of the internet·Book Review - Nicholas Denton
Architects of the Web: By Robert Reid
John Wiley & Sons, 19.99, $27.95, 370pp
When Mr Michael Moritz, one of Silicon Valley's pre-eminent venture capitalists, met some of the internet's future moguls, this was the scene. "They were sitting in this cube," says Mr Moritz of the trailer from which two Stanford University students managed a directory of sites on the world wide web. "The shades [were] drawn tight, the Sun servers [computers] generating a ferocious amount of heat, the answering machine going on and off every couple of minutes, golf clubs stashed against the walls, pizza cartons on the floor, and unwashed clothes strewn around." more...
saturday, may 17, 1997
Lifejacket for surfers·
Nicholas Denton offers a guide to the most useful and
entertaining sites on the internet [Financial Times] more...
saturday, september 21, 1996
Hurtling towards the abyss·
Though Nick Leeson lost money steadily for more than two years, almost half the 830m he threw away disappeared in the last week before the collapse. In the final extract from their new book, FT reporters John Gapper and Nicholas Denton reveal missed opportunities to prevent Leeson's reckless final fling. more...
saturday, september 7, 1996
The star who fell to earth·
Man in the News: Peter Young: Nicholas Denton and Motoko Rich on the disgraced fund manager [Financial Times] more...
Ceausescus 'lost their dignity near the end'·
SYLVIU BRUCAN had the last laugh. He stood rapt by the television as it replayed the trial and execution of Nicolae and Elena Ceausescu. "The satisfaction of the execution is immense. You cannot imagine it." more...
For 
essay... 
