Where’s The Value?

So I don’t know how I feel about this or maybe I do. 

The Wall Street Journal reports today that from the 10 largest companies by market capitalization:

1) The top 3 are technology companies

– Apple $679B

– Alphabet (Google’s Parent) $489B

– Microsoft $422B

2) Moreover, a full 5 (half) of the top 10 are technology companies

That includes the 3 above and the other 2 below:

– Facebook $288B

– Amazon $280B

As a technology person, I am thrilled at the impact that IT has on our society. 

We are no longer the same thanks to our Apple iPhones, Google Search, Microsoft’s business tools like Outlook, Office and SharePoint, Facebook’s social networking, and Amazon’s online shopping. 

But to think that these information capabilities outweigh by value everything else in society that we need as people is somewhat astounding.

For example, the other 5 of the top 10 companies are:

– Exxon Mobil (Oil and Gas) $346B 

– Berkshire Hathaway (Insurance, Utilities, Clothing, Building Products, Retail, Flight Services) $340B

– General Electric (Power and Water, Oil and Gas, Energy Management, Aviation, Healthcare, Transportation) $298B

– Wells Fargo (World’s Largest Bank) $280B

– Johnson and Johnson (Pharmaceuticals) $278B

So when you add these behemoths up–this is what we have:

The 5 top technology companies are worth $2.158T

Vs.

The top 5 traditional companies from all the other industries combined are worth only $1.542T

Net it out:

The largest representative IT companies are worth $616B or 40% more than the other major companies combined.

(In fact, just the top 3 IT companies at $1.56T are worth more than the top 5 other companies at $1.542T.) 

Sure IT growth has been on a tear for the last couple of decades and we love everything futuristic it brings us. 

But isn’t it a little scary to think that the companies that meet all our other needs from food, clothing, shelter, medicine, transportation, energy, finance, retail, etc. isn’t worth more to us than just the IT alone. 

Perhaps adding it up from a value perspective just doesn’t add up in a real life perspective. 

I love technology and want more and more of it, but man does not live by technology alone. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

The War Over Wearables

Google Glass or its wearable technology alternatives from Apple and others is going to be huge.

This is one time that I disagree with many of the pundits interviewed by the Wall Street Journal (30 May 2013) that say that the future of wearable technology is still “out of focus.”

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, who is presumably playing catch-up with Google Glass says that Glass will be “difficult” to succeed with as a mainstream product.

Similarly, another unnamed technology executive said “wearing Google Glass looked a bit silly and borderline obnoxious.”

I don’t know about you, but I read a lot of fear and jealousy by these companies rather than disdain or contempt.

On the pother hand, Mary Meeker, the famous venture capitalist specializing in computers and the Internet, gets it right when she says that wearable computers would be the star of the “third cycle” of the web, and that the world has already entered the phase of “wearables, driveables, flyables, and scannables”

The first two, Glass and driverless cars is where Google has its first mover advantage, and flyable drones and scannable 3-D printing are already having huge impacts in the War on Terror and industrial design and manufacturing.

When wearable technologies are combined with embedded chips, we are going to have a whole new augmented reality experience.

Apparently many interviewed by the Journal saw a “very large gulf between the current [wearable] technology and mass adoption,” but Meeker who knows the Internet is one step ahead here seeing the potential of the emerging technology, rather than the short-sightedness of those without Glass. 😉

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Ars Electronica)

If I Could Do School All Over Again

This program at Draper University of Heroes was written up in Bloomberg BusinessWeek (25 Feb. 2013) as The Silicon Valley Survival School.

But really this is the remaking of education by venture capitalist, Tim Draper.

There is an awesome focus on building thinkers, dreamers, inventors, and entrepreneurs–not just some more liberal arts majors without an real idea of how to apply what they learned or “what they want to be when they grow up.”

The skills taught get you out of your comfort zone, break your fears, teach you life survival skills, and give you a core business foundation to hopefully, create the next great thing.

Draper uses the terms superheroes, creativity, and imagination–skills so often overlooked in the traditional classroom where dated topics are not applied to real life, stale modes of teaching keep people in their seats and snoozing, and memorization is valued more than real critical analysis and innovative thinking.

I am excited here by a curriculum that focuses on the big picture areas of vision, truth & justice, and creativity, and has lectures with CEOs of successful companies along side practical training in martial arts, survival, SWAT, first aid, lie detection, yoga, art and design, speed reading, cooking and more.

This 8-week crash course teaches you how to come up with great ideas, start and finance a business, network, brand and sell, and classes are limited to 180 students, and the cost is $7,500 or 2% of your income for the next 10 years.

The capstone is a 2-minute pitch to a panel of real investors, and the chance for Draper Fisher Jurvetson to make an actual investment in it.

Investing in good ideas is one thing…investing in great people with the skills to succeed is even better.

I’d like to see this program expand to true University and even high-school level proportions–so we can really teach kids rather than just imprison them in mind and body. 😉