Harvard Business Review reports:  Why did it take until 2014 for the world’s second-largest toy maker to offer girls (and their toy-buying parents) products they might actually want? (After all, even Barbie has been an astronaut since 1965.)  Perhaps it has something to do with the profile of LEGO’s management team, comprised almost entirely of men. The three-person board of the privately-held company is all men, led by CEO Jørgen Vig Knudstorp. The 21-person corporate management team has 19 men and two women – both in internally-facing staff roles, not connected to the customer base or product development.* When your leadership isn’t gender-balanced, it’s tough to have a balanced customer base. The new ‘Research Institute’ range was proposed by geoscientist Ellen Kooijman on one of the company’s crowd-sourcing sites. But it begs the question, is there really no one inside the company who might have come up with the radical idea of having women scientists feature in a 21st century toy company’s line?   A Woman’s Image

Mohamed El-Erian writes:  The Alibaba IPO will be a very big deal, with potentially marketwide impact. At a possible $22 billion to $24 billion, it could well be the largest IPO in history. So it really matters how investors fund their purchase of Alibaba shares.

The broader market would be least affected if the incremental funds came from a healthy and sustainable increase in borrowing, associated with a greater willingness (and ability) on the part of investors to assume risk. The deployment of idle cash would also have minimal effect on the rest of the market. Although both will occur to some extent, they are unlikely to be the main drivers.

This leaves plenty of potential for downward market pressure as investors sell existing holdings in order to make room for their Alibaba purchases. Given that most investors don’t know as yet how many shares they will receive, most of the selling wouldn’t materialize until quite far into the IPO process. The combined effect could be quite significant.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd’s high-profile initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange is just days away, with trading expected to commence on Friday.  The IPO has been forecast to raise as much as $24 billion, which will make the IPO the largest in history.  Investor attention and probable attraction has been heightened by the relatively conservative initial share price set at $60 to $66.

Alibaba could be valued at about $170 billion and sit firmly in the top 25 companies in the S&P 500 index.  But amid the impressive figures and the frenzy surrounding this flotation, would it not pay for the investment community to take a rather cautious and wary approach?

Simon Xie: Jack Ma’s unassuming lieutenant at Alibaba In the very short term, it is difficult to foresee anything other than a sizable gain on any investment.  The initial share price, which could rise slightly shortly before the float, is widely regarded as a deliberate move to raise investment interest.  But once the euphoria fades and attention switches to rational analysis, major concerns over Alibaba’s medium- to long-term competitiveness may emerge.

One of the major concerns is the complex and opaque nature of Alibaba’s ownership structure and accounting practices.

For example, what are the real relationships among the 29 companies Alibaba has bought during the past two years and the group’s overall, impressive profit record?  Market growth is also slowing in China, and Alibaba’s initial, tentative overseas forays have not yet led to major success.

The rapid growth in market share and profitability enjoyed by Alibaba may be replaced by far more modest gains where consolidation takes priority over entrepreneurial endeavor.

Alibaba’s success in the Chinese mainland has been built on an “architecture of trust” that has empowered consumers and businesses with its reliable online payments and related services.  China’s e-commerce industry is still hampered by deep mistrust, except for Alibaba.

However, things are very different in the lucrative United States and European markets where strong competitors such as Amazon.com Inc already have well-entrenched market positions and strong corporate brands.

Many Chinese companies that have global ambitions also have low brand awareness among foreign consumers, and Alibaba is no exception.

Most consumers in other countries who are aware of the Alibaba brand mostly think of its charismatic leader and co-founder, Jack Ma.

Ma’s undoubted charm and ability to attract media attention with his passion for business will probably boost Alibaba’s initial listing and may well lead to a short-term burst on the NYSE.

But is this style of leadership most suitable for the analysis and planning now needed to secure successful entry and growth in increasingly competitive markets?

The fears of investors looking at the longer term will only be assuaged if Ma can be seen to quickly build a senior management team based on international market knowledge and experience.

Clearly, Alibaba’s IPO will generate tremendous excitement, but long-term growth prospects remain cloudy, and investors should proceed with caution.

We’ve already seen smartwatches from Samsung, Motorola and LG and now Apple.  Some are shaped rectangular and others look more like traditional wristwatches. But what value do these wearable mini computers deliver and what do consumers really want from them?

According to an international survey conducted by German research institute GfK, the most wanted feature in a smartwatch is activity tracking. Borrowing from fitness wristbands, most smartwatches can track steps, measure your heart rate and tell you how many calories you are burning throughout the day. Apple’s rumoured iWatch is also expected to focus on the health aspect, even though it might take things further than other devices have thus far.

Layer by layer, inch my inch, the world’s first 3-D printed vehicle seemingly emerged from thin air this week on the floor of the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago.

The Strati, named after the Italian word for layer, was printed in one piece over 44 hours using a process called direct digital manufacturing—the seamless fabrication of components from computer design to physical object. This is the first time this method has been used to make a car, one that also happens to be fully electric.

Mechanical components of the vehicle, including the battery, motor and suspension, were obtained from various sources, such as Renault’s urban electric car Twizy. A team of engineers will rapidly assemble the final parts of the vehicle today and, if all goes well, will take it on a historic first test.   Manufacturing by 3D Printing

“I do support RFS [Renewable Fuels Standard], I support biodiesel,” the state senator told a gathering of Iowa Farm Bureau members who’ve endorsed her. “I guarantee I am going to be there fighting for you and Iowa agriculture, I just want to make that very clear.”
Speaking in front of a vintage pickup truck and flanked by oversized plastic corncobs at the Heartland Acres Agribition Center — a museum for farming innovation — the Republican lawmaker jabbed opponent Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa) for being “in the pocked of the EPA” and big-spending environmentalists backing his campaign.

The Senate Majority PAC, wealthy environmentalist Tom Steyer’s NextGen Climate Action, the League of Conservation Voters and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee have all been on the air with significant ad buys this summer, outspending Republican-aligned groups by roughly $2 million since the primary.

Those groups have been pounding Ernst ever since it became clear she was a legitimate threat to defeat Braley for a seat held for three decades by retiring Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

The ads include attacks on Ernst for saying earlier in the race that she opposed the renewable fuels standard. Critics in both parties have accused her of flip-flopping on the standards, which are highly valued by farmers who grow biofuel crops in the state.

Ernst, a farmer, took aim at Braley for a recent vote against “ditch the rule,” a plan that would restrict Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority under the Clean Water Act and Ernst says protect Iowa farmers against government overreach.

“He broke with the Iowa delegation and voted against ditch the rule. So he voted against you as Iowa farmers,” she said.

She also mocked Braley’s criticism from earlier this year that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) was “a farmer from Iowa,” saying that Grassley, “who is just a farmer, a very brilliant one, he’s told me there’s nothing I won’t do to get you elected.”

In farm states in the US renewable energy is a big issue.

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The Wyss Insitute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University is on its way to building a “wearable robot”: a biologically inspired smart suit that will fit comfortably under clothing and enhance the mobility of its wearer. On Thursday, this Soft Exosuit received a first-phase, $2.9 million funding contract from the Defense Advanced Research Protection Agency (DARPA), advancing development of the wearable robot that could eventually serve not just soldiers, but the elderly and those with disabilities.

The official release notes that DARPA’s Warrior Web program will seek to enhance the mobility of the healthy (like soldiers who may have to walk long distances) while restoring mobility of those with disabilities; for instance, those who suffer from strokes often have trouble walking.

What sets the Soft Exosuit apart from other existing wearable robots is the model’s lack of rigid components and cumbersome, sturdy outer shells and battery packs that make movement feel unnatural. The Exosuit uses soft textiles made to be worn under clothing and pulled on like a pair of pants. Once on, the biologically inspired suit is designed to mimic human movement while assisting joints in a carefully timed, unrestrictive manner.

Conor Walsh, assistant professor of mechanical and biomedical engineering at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, shared in a statement, “While the idea of a wearable robot is not new, our design approach certainly is.”

Therefore, the success of the Soft Exosuit, and its ability to be used both among military personnel and the average civilian, is implied within its comfortable-wear design. To execute this, the Wyss Institute has partnered with Boston-based athletic footwear and apparel company New Balance as the Exosuit’s manufacturing advances. The release cites New Balance as a “key collaborator” that will bring “expertise in textile and apparel innovation” to the newest phase of the wearable robot.

Dhiraj Nayyar writes:  China’s Alibaba is the world’s largest e-commerce platform. In 2013, its online sales totaled $248 billion, more than eBay and Amazon combined. Unsurprisingly, it’s also set to become the world’s most valuable e-commerce company. The firm began a roadshow in the U.S. this week ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering that would make the company larger than 95 percent of the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.

Mohamed A. El-Erian writes:   A recent visit to a hectic Starbucks store near Times Square in New York reminded me of one of the great achievements of real entrepreneurship and inspired innovation: taking an existing technology and turning it into something much more transformational in meeting — and often forming — the demands and needs of customers.

Many pathbreakers in business, such as Amazon, Apple, Google and Microsoft, succeed by creating something completely new. Their impressive deployment of one disruptive technology after another has comprehensively redefined existing industries and created new segments. They have empowered people and enhanced living standards around the world.

Less obvious — and sometimes counterintuitive — are the companies that take an existing activity and turn it into something much more consequential. Think of how Cirque du Soleil has revolutionized the circus experience. And how Starbucks, with more than 21,000 stores in 65 countries, has redefined coffee drinking, not only in the U.S. but also around the world, including Europe where skepticism was most intense. On recent trips to Europe, I couldn’t help but notice the brisk business the company’s increasing number of outlets conduct there (although, admittedly, I tended to stick to the more traditional cafes for my own daily consumption).

Now the challenge for Starbucks is to keep innovating as a dominant player in the industry. From the perspective of an outsider like me, it is succeeding through approaches that intelligently target different client segments. Three stand out.

First, Starbucks is doing more than just expanding and adapting its product line to enhance the experience of the coffee drinkers who constitute its core client base. It is also looking to improve their purchase experience in other ways, for instance reducing client wait times.

Second, it is experimenting with more products to tempt those who use its stores as an ad hoc office during the day.

Third, it is employing user-driven customization to expand its reach among groups such as teenagers and tweens.

Not everyone admires Starbucks. Those who dislike the company and its influence can become quite entrenched in their opposition. One of our local coffee houses actually developed an identity almost synonymous with being anti-Starbucks.

Yet regardless of how you feel about the company, it is hard to ignore how it is constantly innovating on the foundation of an old “technology.” Its approach is instructive for many other industries. Just imagine how many are waiting to be beneficially disrupted by this type of entrepreneurship.