SHORT RIBS AND RANDOM THOUGHTS Aug 27 2018

FAREWELL, JOHN McCAIN-  I never voted for him and I’m sure his politics weren’t consistent with mine,  but in this age of sleaze and compromise, I can’t help but respect his character.  Some folks are dissing him.  I doubt they are worth 1/100 of him.

THERE’S ALWAYS A LOCAL ANGLE-  I just got off the phone from trying to reach my brother,  who lives in Jacksonville.  I believe he’s in DC at the moment, which is a better place to be. I’ve been to the Landing a time or two but there wasn’t much to attract me.  My stepmother, when she was in her ‘eighties, asked  us several times  to go to the Hooters there.  I asked her why and she said she wanted to see the owls!  Prayers for those affected.

MORE LOCAL ANGLE-  The new hit movie Crazy Rich Asians,  was directed by a young fellow,  Jon Chu,  who was in my cousin’s kid’s scout troop in Palo Alto. His father,   Chef  Chu,  has had one of the most renowned Chinese restaurants, and my family’s favorite,  in Silicon Valley,  at the  corner of El Camino and San Antonio.  One of Chef Chu’s cooks,  a Mr Liu, emigrated north to Eureka and started  the well-beloved Liu’s Restaurant which only closed recently when he retired. So now you know.

THAT NEW BISTRO – an out-of -towner opined  recently on Yelp that Eurekans must be happy to have a bistro at last.  Actually we’e had several including Brick and Fire and the Humboldt Bay Bistro. I’m always suspicious of places that give themselves grandiose names.  Throw a little wine at a coffee shop and it’s a bistro. Anyway,  the DULCE bistro,   in the old HCAR building at 7th and E in Eureka is the real deal.  They don’t have a huge lunch menu but what they had was pleasing.  I had their vegetable galette which was tasty with a light and flaky crust.  I ordered their carrot soup on a hunch ( I normally won’t eat cooked carrots) and it was very, very good. My friend had a burger and a salad.  We were both impressed and ready to return.

Amazon AND Google AND Facebook- Do you get the idea that giant corporations are taking over your life?  You’re right.  I’ve mostly disconnected from Facebook except for I Remember In Eureka When and Sara Senger’s posts which always seem to pop up  ( I think she’s great.)  But anyone can minimize their time on Facebook, which I recommend. How do you get out from under Google? Each time something on the net “recommends” some purchase I know it’s the algorithms tracking what I bought recently or THOUGHT about buying;  that’s how creepy it’s getting. To make it worse,  I recently had a stellar experience with Amazon Prime and I am now a convert.  There’s nothing like a few months of hobbling around with a cane to show you the advantages of mail-order.  I’ve always bought local but these are desperate times.  If my life has to be run by a giant corporation,   I’ll line up behind Jeff Bezos.

END

Are You Ready For Drones in Your Driveway??

Amazon has announced huge changes in its Sacramento-area delivery scheme while, simultaneously, Walmart has applied to the FAA for permission to test home delivery by drones and Google is joining in.  

Are we ready for this? Will a drone be able to tell the difference  between a screened patio and open space? Who will be the first to get beaned , or lose an eye, to an errant drone? We do live in interesting times.

END

Alibaba’s Mega IPO; The Analects of Jack

PART ONE: Imagine there were a company that offered on-line shopping, business-to-business sales, online payments, wholesale trade and cloud computing- in other words a combination of eBay and Amazon that is actually bigger than eBay and Amazon combined.  Welcome to Alibaba.

Started by a schoolteacher named Jack Ma on his kitchen table in Hangzhou in 1999,  the company, now based in Hong Kong,  is about to launch what may be the biggest initial public offering in history, one which could easily surpass Facebook’s fumbled IPO of $16B in 2012. Why will be the biggest  beneficiary? Yahoo, which owns 24% of Alibaba and will probably use the infusion of cash from the IPO to continue its buying spree of smaller tech companies. To give you an idea of the scale,  Alibaba processes  $248B in retail sales yearly.  Here’s a description from the Mercury News:

‘”Nearly 8% of all Chinese online shopping goes through Alibaba sites; on Singles Day last year, a popular holiday in China for online shopping, the site processed $5.8B in in purchases. By comparison, eBay’s total sales on its online marketplace for all of 2013 were $6.8B.”

Alibaba is also moving into mobile commerce in a big way, investing in American companies like  Mountain View -based Tango Me and in Lyft, the San Francisco -based ride sharing  app,  while attempting to consolidate its position amidst its nearest rivals, Baidu and TenCant, which is already rolling out its own IPO. (Google and eBay have departed the China market).  Alibaba’s  IPO was scheduled for August 8 (eighth day, eighth month- the Chinese like “8”s) but may be delayed due to last-minute glitches involving SEC approval of some of their subs which are based in the Cayman Islands.  Ma, who is worth over $8B, has stepped down as CEO but remains as Chair of the 21.000 employee firm and is devoting his time to a charitable trust. 

It’s a global economy for sure, and becoming more so every day.  Wonder how long it will be before we start seeing Singles’ Day promotions? That ‘s too good an idea to skip.

PART TWO: The Analects of Jack. The early history of Alibaba is set forth in a documentary and a book (Alibaba, by Liu and Avery, 2009) which describes how at one time in the early days, Ma was  literally kidnapped and held hostage in a Malibu mansion at gunpoint until he talked his captor into going into business with him).  Ma only got into college on his third entrance exam but his English major has definitely been put to good use in the following phrases which were compiled by American City Business Journals from various interviews and an appearance on Charley Rose that I’m sorry I missed. Here’s a sampling.

Why he likes small businesses and tries to help them through Alibaba: “I’ve seen people make a fortune by catching shrimps, but I’ve never seen anyone make a fortune by catching sharks and whales. It’s like Forrest Gump.”

On putting customers first:  “It’s customers No, 1, employees, two, and shareholders, three.  It’s the customer who pay us the money, it’s the employees who drive the vision,  and it’s the shareholders who when the financial crisis comes, these people ran away. My customers and my people stayed.”

On technology:  “I know nothing about technology.  I use the computer to browse the Internet and receive email. That’s it.”

On developing a business:  “If you want to be a great company, think about what social problem you could solve.”

 On money and Alibaba’s large cash reserves:  “When you try to solve problems with money, that is when your real problems start. A company’s assets are like a country’s armed forces.You cannot use it lightly, but if you ever need to mobilize it, you must win.”

END