Small Business

Pitching for the Asia Pacific ICT Awards. The PASHA resource guide

Winning Business Plan competitions. The reasons why you didn’t win

4 mins read If I have three prizes with 75 entries I may pick as many as six winners for my short list. These winners have all made it beyond my first cut because they fit the business plan competition theme, they have answered the question, they have scored high and they have all made my job easier as a judge by giving me the information I need to score them. They all love their ideas, this much is apparent but they have also helped me see why their idea is worth loving.

The Pitching for Startup Course – A guide to presenting winning pitches for your business plans

8 mins read Since that fateful day in 2006 when we first became victims of Ken’s infamous elevator pitch plank run (as in pirate ship, Blackbeard, et. all) I have spent time on both sides of the table. I have tried to internalize as much of what Ken taught me as possible by doing what he asked us to do, by pitching, by teaching others to pitch and by helping some of the really great companies from my market get the word out. I did that as a presenter, as a mentor, an investor, a banker and a judge.

Business Plan Pitches: SP Jain EMBA Students take a shot at pitching their dreams

5 mins read While it is difficult to get a pitch out in less than 18 hours of class room instructions, most students really put their heart out in sharing their dreams. Still there are a number of common pitfalls that we see every year that if addressed can dramatically increase the quality of their pitches. Here is my shortlist of why a plan would not make it to the shortlist of business plan pitches below

US Credit Rating Downgrade: Impact on financial and commodities markets

7 mins read In the long term, if other rating agencies follow suit and challenge credit worthiness of the US, popular opinion suggests that the status of the dollar as the primary reserve currency will come under a fresh challenge. The actual likelihood of this happening is low and no one does a better job of presenting this argument than Professor Pettis at China Watch.

In the short run while US regulators have stated that there will be no regulatory capital impact on holding US treasuries, European and Asian regulators still have to issue an opinion on this event. The most likely reaction given what will happen on Monday is that ECB, Bank of Japan and a host of other regulators are likely to toe the line to avoid further roiling markets and increasing capital requirements for domestic banks

US Credit Rating downgraded: Impact on commodities trading – outlook for the next week

< 1 min read The post market close rating cut on Friday evening should create a very volatile trading environment over the next week. While media coverage so far has downplayed the overall impact on the cost of US debt by comparing the two other extremes (Japan – lower rating, lower rates and Australia – higher rating, higher rates), the rating downgrade will have a significant impact on repo trades, the cost of funding proprietary positions and commodity markets over the next 4 – 12 weeks.