The world sure has changed in the last two-decades hasn't it? When I started out in business, there were no cell phones, fax machines, computers, etc. And I am not that old, having just retired at age 40. Indeed, in the better part of two-decades everything changed. And it is still changing and moving along. What will the next two-decades bring? You can probably figure it out with a little thought and watching the trends, new discoveries and think of what kinds of things the military, health care, entertainment and government industries will want. I recommend this book which foretold much of what we see now about a decade before we had it:
"Prescription for The Future-How Technology Revolution is Changing the Pulse of Global Health Care.-By Gwendolyn B. Moore, David A. Rey, John D. Rollins.
Why this book is so intriguing is because we came so close but the dreams of the book were cut short for us by the dot com crash, due to the greed of the vulture capitalists. It is unfortunate that these companies could not have been run by real entrepreneurs instead of robot burn rate jet jocks with after burners. This book should have been read by those of the dot com day and those of us who should remember that the next wave of technology which is funded by private enterprise should be done so with careful regard to its benefits mankind and not the PR value of the story. For instance when a company has the possibilities of a break through in solving the problems of a type of cancer, it should at all costs protect the public trust of its mission while simultaneously protecting the investments of the stockholders.
When a short term play is made on the promise of future great technology as it was in the productivity driven promises of the Internet, then those companies and individuals involved need to see it through and not just the short term play on their personal holdings in the company at the expense of all peoples needing such productivity increase or in the cancer case a cure to stop it from spreading. It was a great book and prediction of the future and the author was right that it was for the most part a possible of the potential futures yet most of the technology which is actually possible ended with the collapse of the dot coms and the money flowing into its technology. If you read it you will understand what I am saying and we should be very careful that a repeat is not going to occur in the Bio Tech field, because now we are becoming very serious with peoples greatest fears. Death. It is a known fact that self-preservation is amongst one of the greatest needs of our human species. So if these venture capitalists are going to exploit peoples fears and do another screw job on the investment community and run up the PR on these start-up Bio Tech companies, they may end up taking down some of the biggest known drug makers in the process by trying to build up these small Bio Tech companies and trying to attempt create merger scenarios.
Although it is only money it also is playing on the fears of Americans and when the crash of the Bio tech occurs if it occurs then you will have allowed the hearts and spirits of the American people to be broken and this time it will be much more severe and take down millions of elderly investors and their lifesavings. No venture capitalist is worth that much. The future painted in this book was possible and almost completed, but was cut short by the fallout, which occurred by the down fall of the dot coms. Investors figured these were mostly scams, most were, but a few were real and this book shows the possibilities. We should not allow these people to do this, even though they operate within the law and have political connections. Perhaps that itself is the true travesty and why this dot com situation will move to bio tech and wreak havoc where we least want it.
It is time to bring the third class into the first class, we need the markets, we need the labor, and the biotech industry can eventually save us from our own demise as we infest the planet and over run our resources with too many people. As Gates put it to the IMF and other economists of the world at Devos, we have two thirds of the population living on less than $1.00 a day, why? Indeed, as we learn more about genetics and proteins, DNA and RNA we will unlock the secrets we need to take the entire World to the next step. However if we allow it to be torn apart by trickery and exploitation of our financial markets and the enrichment of a few to the detriment of all, we will lose the future markets for economic growth, one currency, one people, one united countries. Yet if we fail to provide the tools needed to allow AIDS in Africa to be defeated then we will see peoples of all third world countries systematically fall prey to the same fate. Yet we nearly have the power to fix the problem.
If we allow the distrust of fake, smoke and mirror start-ups to remove the trusts of the financial markets entrusted to provide capitalization of Americans greatest ventures, then we can never achieve all the greatest accomplishments of mankind that clearly await us. Dare to dream and understand human nature and use it to propel not repel. It will be interesting how this BioTech venture capital dollars drive the market. We are seeing CA offer incentives to investors tax-free who fund venture capitalists as they fund start-ups in Bio Tech. Is this really to be considered job creation and economic development or favoritism, which will lead to more heartache? (literally). Pay attention folks here is where we can change the course of history or simply repeat the past over and over again like some twilight zone movie. We must help reward the venture capitalists, who do the right thing, because they do it for the pure profit. We give bonuses to those who complete certain road construction projects ahead of schedule, why not an incentive to those start-ups for performance rather than excessive burn rate and spending sprees. If not they will take down good companies with important projects, which really can achieve their goals. Just some thoughts after re-reading this book. I recommend you read this book twice. Once now and then again in a few months after you have thought about it.
"Lance Winslow" - If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs