Archives 2022

Startup Culture of Dot Come Dot Gone



Mercanteo was the initial name and I have suggested the name Ambient given the French consonance coming from Ambient et Ambiance, a place where you can feel a sense of beatitude and comfort. The Founders of this Startup had no clue about how to make this company the reflection and the expression of such metaphors.

The basic idea of the operation of this Startup was to have the purchase made by any business transferred to the Accounting Software and registered as a receipt with the amount of money spent. This will allow also not only to trace the expense but also to know through the receipt which credit card or method of payment was used.

I developed this research to be included in the existing website that had absolutely any study or pamphlet or even a kind of brochure presenting the product and its specifications or the value proposition that Mercanteo-Ambient was developing or offering as a service. The website had only a generic presentation of more dreams than realities and a summary of what McKinsey had taught to the Founders of this Startup given that the consulting firm was their first and last job before landing in this startup.

Build the first layers of prospective clients to be approached to enroll in the Mercanteo Program. So I launched a strategy of reassessment and reevaluation of the documentation and presentation of the Value Proposition and its Validation to enable Mercanteo-Ambient to have an identity based on the definition of the areas where the solution is proposed and what this solution is as a service and facilitation for further inventions and adaptation to the needs and demands of the clients and other companies offering synergistic operations that can complete our offering of services in the areas of reporting and documenting the Return on Investment and the allocation of Budgets of the operational expenses and to the financing of all purchases and acquisitions.

The Founders of Mercanteo-Ambient were more interested in attracting funds and investment than building the products and services or even the company. A table with a Chair facing the wall was the Technical Department: A guy who would show up only to upload what was made of this application by inserting in the potential client the Microsoft Excell.

The rest of the technical were the Untouchables from Calcutta were 4 to 5 individuals of Indian origin who were brought and under the supervision of the Vice President of Operations, a Lady of Indian origin, a former McKinsey employee, and Cofounder of an empty shell called Mercanteo-Ambient.

These 4-5 individuals were also under the spell of another Indian who was their Boss and who was hanging outside of the office smoking cigarette after cigarette going back and forth to the Fridge for drinks. They were all taciturn and they responded only to the Indian Lady, the Vice President. I tried to engage them about their work and the progress they made or just to explain their inputs and the value they are adding to the company with their daily fixing and staring at this wall as a curtain for the secretive reason of their presence and transparent action that is not explained to all of us, neither how they arrive every day to sit in front of this white wall.


They did not own cars or drive BMWs, so it must be the smoking Indian who Signed their presence and their absence, so he is the one who drives them to the office and takes them out of the office in his BMW, not the one parked outside as the symbol of elite belonging and success story in the making [See pic below].

They did not own cars or drive BMWs, so it must be the smoking Indian who Signed their presence and their absence, so he is the one who drives them to the office and takes them out of the office in his BMW, not the one parked outside as the symbol of elite belonging and success story in the making [See pic below].

If I dared to ask the Untouchables from Calcutta about the work they were doing, the content of their work, and their progress, all the Pack of Indian Techies panicked and all of them had a wide smiling face and answers while they desperately waited for the Vice-President or their Boss to come to their rescue. They had nothing to say or to communicate about. From that moment, the Indian Lady no longer said a word to me and had done the best job of her life to avoid eye contact with me.

Return on Investment by Beamer Boomer Boys

 Bimmer in Empty Sunny Parking all Day Long – Sign of Success and Precious Horse in Chinese – “bao-ma” 


The BMW Wheel of Fortune at the Silicon Valley

The BMW brand new car parked in the empty parking was the magnet for the first real funding of Mercanteo and Ambient which I learned later on. This BMW was like the “Idol made of Metal” to be adored for its blessing. The Sales Manager at the largest BMW Dealer in Silicon Valley who became part of Mercanteo’s Board of Directors and was responsible for stuffing the Fridge every afternoon Wednesday with beers and all kinds of beverages and premade food ready to be microwaved and swallowed. This Foody Man was also the one who persuaded and sold the idea of Mercanteo / Ambient bringing Lawrence Joseph Ellison of Oracle as an investor and member of the Board of Directors.

The hook was the BMW sale made to the Founder of Mercanteo / Ambient, the one sitting in the empty parking under the Sun of Redwood City, and the sale of BMW to Lawrence Joseph Ellison of Oracle of many other BMWs. Silicon Valley employees have their badges and allures as well as their reputations as successful StartupperS is the owning and the driving of BMW: The New Generation of BEMMEEERS.

It was not what you know but who you know – she or he who is driving a BMW.

The End of the Beemer Adventure

The 2 co-founders of the Company were an Indian Lady as Vice President and a Ukrainian as CEO who folded the Company when the number of employees became only himself and another Dreamer who made the big mistake of leaving Visa Card Corporation of San Mateo to come to crash at this moving sand startup.

The Vice-President got her tail behind her legs and rund before the moving of the BMW, she drove the Honda SUV to join Yahoo missed an offer by Microsoft for a deal of $44 billion, and ended up being rescued by Verizon for a sale of less than 4 billion dollars while Yahoo was accused of inflating the number of subscribers. After that magic fading, she is now a Vice President at Credit Evaluator and Provider after being rejected by Yahoo, the company she works in today is named Karma, What goes around comes around and back to the Future thanks to the Indian Connection in Silicon Valley

It is no more just being Beemer owner, it is more than that it is who you know from now on, Back to the Old Fashion Culture Future of American Corp.

The latest news on the Immigrant CEO from Ukraine who wanted to use BMW to be with the success makers became a Director of a Bank in Ukraine at the turn of 2000 and the BMW had magically disappeared from the Parking and the sight of the 101 exit of the Freeway.


My take on a high-tech startup in Silicon Valley: Dot Come, Dot Gone in Late Nineties

Said El Mansour Cherkaoui was Executive Director of Business Development at Amient/Mercateo Redwood City, California during the Dot Come – Dot Gone era. He witnessed how the money was spent left and right by the former McKinsey consultant who converted his ins and outs into a startup that never took off but received funding even from the founder of ‘Oracle.

A brand new BMW was parked in the parking lot while I had to drive the CEO of this Startup from his apartment to the office. This BMW was bought just to please the owner of the BMW dealership who in return organized a meeting with the Founder of Oracle who invested in the Mercateo. The name of Mercanteo Startup was changed to Ambient following my suggestion to have a softer French connotation.

Mercanteo’s product was supposed to remember all purchases made by online businesses at stores like “Computer USA”, Office Depot, and other outlets. Once the payment is made by credit card, the transaction is supposed to be recorded and transferred directly to the accounting system as an expense with details of the product purchased, date, place, and amount and who made the payment.

The person who was in charge of the corresponding software, a close friend and colleague of the CEO of McKinsey was of Indian origin and had brought 4 Indian individuals who passed the time staring at a monitor and the wall behind while a fifth Indian trotted along outdoors smoking cigarette after cigarette.

This lady of Indian origin (actually with good Karma dealings), whom I called COP – Chief Operating the Product, acted as the gate advocate for those Indian “engineers” to whom we could not speak or ask anything if she was not there. It is she who must give the authorization to fix a meeting. The excuse is that these engineers were hired and paid by the hour and the guys outside smoking cigarettes were their clock for the time they spent staring at their computer screen and the money that they cash in exchange.

This team of 5 taciturn Indians was like a parade of Madame Tussaud Wax Master of Disastertech showing off just to impress visitors and potential investors to show them that Mercanteo has employees conducting in-house research and development of the product, which in reality never existed apart from a modified version of Microsoft-like Excel Spreadsheets patched with an Oracle database, a hybrid product that “the COP” tended to present as “Ownership of Inputs versus Ownership of Outputs ” according to the McKinsyniene strategic approach.

On the technical level in terms of setting up and management, this time it was a single person, an “American “Toubab” by stock” and with a bohemian tendency on the edges, who has no desk or even a chair and had to be called to accompany me when I visited a potential client in their office. This Tech Support was a person who looked more like a mechanic who changed the spare part than a System Engineer or Network Engineer, so he did not provide a solution to the problem and worse the product was not at all ready to detect the problems or define the solutions.

On the other hand, the Fridge was always full of American food, Hotdog, Burger, Macaroni, Donuts, Soups, Chicken and Fish Nuggets, Corndog, Wings, Cheese, Pizza everything that is mechanically separated and prepared, a cold museum of stuffed with top-notch artificial and chemical products. The drinks were of the same quality especially the beers for weekends. It was the Fiesta, what was missing was a Country Band or a Mariachi Group to make the atmosphere more ambient than the new name of the Startup Ambient.

The other employees who could be counted on the fingertips were always in a pleasant mood and individuals capable of being helpful given their attitude and their presence which remained of real kindness. Young people aspired to make a difference around them and among them, but the rest were not at the level of this human quality that could also be identified in innocence and the desire to volunteer to do good. These people were part of my team and were chosen by a human relations class manager. One of the best I have had the opportunity to work with in all my professional history in the USA.

This lady, responsible for human relations management and therefore a talent recruiter, is a Caucasian American who was the reason for my arrival in this Startup from Sprint Corporation.

Ms. Black was the one who convinced me to join Mercanteo and had a knack for recruiting the best. When she was put aside during the recruitment of a Vice-President for Business Development, Mercanteo became Ambient began to show the cracks I mentioned above which became more gaping with this crash landing of a Caucasian rogue from the North who drove an old Buick, wrapped in a buttonless suit and spoke like a former clandestine site manager of tree cutters in the Amazon. I understood what he was made of when I invited him for lunch in a restaurant to assess his knowledge of the field of application of the product we were looking to develop. All he brought up with me was what he had done before and laid out names and companies that I had no reason to know about.

I felt like I was sitting opposite a veteran of wars lost in memory and thought and worse first on battlefields that we would be more likely to listen to and see on the Screen of ‘Money only on the actual geographical or historical ground. These places and these encounters were shooting from all sides as if a deposit of fireworks had been lit by accident, there was around this guy an opaque smoke from his cigarettes whose tirades on the cigarette made his lips shine with all fire soaked in beer foam. I had the impression of being in front of a dancer in a trance incensed by the smoke of joints and incense exotic and distant in time as in space.

This future Vice-President drank and smoked excessively with his belly protruding from his belt and his unbuttoned vest making him like Santa Claus dressed on the sly for an interview at a Startup delivering gifts without address or recipient, he was in the vaps and I, who had never tasted a beer in my entire life, could talk about European beers and my stay in France and Germany and my visits to all of Western Europe and Romania when he did not even know not the origin of the beer that was right in front of him. To my great surprise, he thought it was German when it was founded by a Czech family that has a Germanic-sounding name.

At that time, this Bud for You, an unusual slogan that was the pride of Americans, and when he realized that I could give him such knowledge of his own choice of drink that he considered a symbol of American nationalism, that at deep inside, listening to a guy supposed to be from the Middle East. For him, Morocco was synonymous with Monaco and Casino, another Las Vegas somewhere lost in Western Europe that Sean Connery and Grace Kelly, who became the Princess of this Principality, had put on the radar of geographical knowledge for the Middle American.

In addition to my identified ethnic stereotype in Terro-Palestinians, I was conversing with an American Englishman with a cross-hatched accent but eloquent in definition, expression, and substance as I unwittingly conveyed to him a profound knowledge of the intricacies of popular culture and history. American that even he did not have given his intellectual and educational limitations.

So I was before him magnified but all of this made him as suspicious and wary of me as his booze could only make the length and breadth of my knowledge of Made in USA populism and Only in America.

How come I knew all those beers and wines and I didn’t share a drink with him at the time?

Such a question ran through his brain polluted by alcohol and the smoke of exotic vapors and he was neither the first nor the last to ask it. A question that cost me several positions, several jobs, and several opportunities in business, private jobs, and positions in the Academy in the United States.

You didn’t have to go far either in the conversation or in the exchange to realize that my account was settled in this interaction at the level of ignorance that only the smoke from his cigarettes could hide from the gaze and not from human understanding. For that, I remained calm and I knew that my situation did not last long in this company whose CEO hired such an individual and forced him to parachute between us without taking into account the opinion of the first interested person who is the manager of human relations, nor of myself since I was second in the business development department. It was as if all the transactions concerning the hiring of this individual had been carried out under the table while serving us artificial alibis and complicit silences without any other transparent approach, “the fact. , “le fait accompli – the accomplished fact”: Take or Leave it.

All the team members of my department understood such manipulations and began to disappear one after another from the panorama, including the mechanic guy. Only the Indian “engineers” were still there looking at the wall and the screen of their computers, while the visit to their meter became more spaced out and only took place when this new Vice-President went out to bang a cigarette butt with another guy who was his buddy and he moved out and brought in his luggage.


Saga of Cascade and Flood of Bad News

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This buddy walked like a gorilla, a former adventurer without adventure, and served as a bodyguard for this New Vice-President. I never understood what was the contribution or the role of this individual whose only approach made it clear that he is a go-getter with his head down like a bull in this new bullfight that this arena has suddenly become Mercanteo – Ambient where the swords are now hidden under muleta camouflaged under the cheap suits and the jackets of these new invaders which exceeded their shoulders with crumpled pants like scrap paper. European elegance had yet to conquer or be embraced by these new dot.com startup cowboys.

The cool allowed all deviations in dress and justified the lack of quality both in terms of the look and the food offered, there was neither Haute Couture, nor Haute Culture, Nor Haute Cuisine while High Technology remained in the margins of Buzz-Words and Jargon and nothing on the table of creation or innovation at the level of these Startups which were still far from even Alpha level.

Sharing research findings on ROI, IT, and CRM

RETURN ON INVESTMENT, INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP

Sharing research findings on ROI, IT, and CRM

This research and publication were part of my initiative to enhance the image of my position and responsibilities as well as the work I was conducting as Executive Director for Business Development at Mercanteo and Ambient before its acquisition by Oracle. Our startup focused on duplicating the ledger with the purchase receipts as the lead to trace the payment method and to transfer it to the Accounting software used as an expense. That is what the CEO has told us given that Ellison was a member of the Mercanteo Board of Directors and one of the investors and all this was driven thanks to that BMW sitting in the parking as a trophy of success for a Startup on the edge of the waterfront of Redwood City. Larry Ellison was known for surrounding himself with trophies figuratively and properly, and it was not astonishing that from playing tennis, he became one of the top sailors around the world bringing even the America Cup to the Bay Area.

Research by Dr. Said Cherkaoui

In 1997-1999, just before the initial burst of the first bubble with Dot/\com-Dot/\Gone, as Executive Director of Business Development at Mercanteo – Ambient, Innovator and Pioneer of NetSuite (acquired by Oracle) and as an Adjunct Associate Professor at the School of Technology at Golden Gate University in San Francisco – California, I conducted multiple research ranging from technology, business management, and international development [European Economic Community, NAFTA, Technology in China and the United States] and this within the schools and departments of this University. Among these research publications, I made this pioneering thematic presentation.

Dr. Miro Costa, as Department Head and Associate Dean of the School of Technology at Golden Gate University, San Francisco, has also encouraged this research given his direct interest and theme of his own on technologies of information.

My study has been reprinted by many publishers given the soundness of my analysis which since then has been confirmed by the development of IT and the implementation of an ROI-based CRM, here is a copy of – an excerpt from my research:

Return on Investment, Information Technology, and Customer Relationship Management

Said El Mansour Cherkaoui

https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/18214112/said-e-cherkaoui-phd


High Tech Competition and Geo-Political Encounter

Updated on 8/2/2024 – Initial publication on 9/6/2022

The #Intel earnings report with key facts and figures:

Revenue Miss: Intel significantly missed analyst expectations for the third quarter. Revenue is expected to be $12.5 billion to $13.5 billion, lower than the estimate of $14.38 billion.

EPS Miss: The company projects a loss of 3 cents a share loss per share, compared to the expected profit of profit 30 cents.

Job Cuts and Dividend Suspension: To address these challenges, Intel is planning to cut more than 15% of its workforce (Total workforce around 110,000 people) and suspend dividend payments starting in the fourth quarter.

Competitive Landscape: Intel is struggling to keep pace with competitors like Nvidia (more than twice in sales) and AMD (more than $100 billion higher valuation). TSMC is also recognized for having industry’s best production.

Gelsinger’s Outlook and Spending Cuts: Despite these setbacks, CEO Pat Gelsinger remains confident in Intel’s long-term strategy. He believes their manufacturing will catch up to rivals (catch and pass those of rivals) and justify new plant construction.

However, Intel is reducing spending on new plants and equipment (more than 20%) with a new budget of $25 billion and $27 billion in 2024 and $20 billion and $23 billion in 2025.

Stock Performance: Intel’s stock price fell sharply (more than 17%) in after-hours trading, extending its year-to-date decline to more than 42%.

Overall, Intel is facing significant challenges in the third quarter, including lower-than-expected revenue and earnings. The company is taking steps to address these challenges, such as cutting costs and reducing capital expenditures. However, these cuts may not be enough to offset the competitive pressures that Intel is facing.

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Microchips, 21st Century Black Gold and US Plan $50 Billion Investment in CHIPS

NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices Inc (NASDAQ: AMD), and Broadcom Inc. (NASDAQ: AVGO) are some of the major players in the semiconductor industry in the US.

High Tech Competition and Geo-Political Encounter

On a diplomatic trip to Taiwan as tensions with Beijing are at their highest, U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi visited a semiconductor factory. The production of these essential components of electronic chips, on which modern computing is based, is at the heart of major #strategic issues. In retaliation for the visit of the American representative, #China has stopped its exports of natural sand (silica) to Taiwan, a mineral which happens to be an essential ingredient in the manufacture of… semiconductors.

As figures from the Comtrade database show, Taiwan is a champion in this area. In 2020, the latest year for which complete data is available, the value of its microchip exports was over $120 billion, slightly more than its gigantic neighbor China, whose shipments are estimated at $117 billion. If China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are taken together, the value of exports from the region (nearly $400 billion in 2020) represents around half of the global total.

That year, the U.S. exported chips worth around $44 billion, three times less than Taiwan, but still enough to rank seventh in the world in a market dominated by Asia. In 1990, the United States still produced almost 40% of world demand, and Europe about as much. But the arrival on the market of South Korea, Taiwan, and then China in the 2000s, quickly changed the landscape. In 2020, the United States and Europe together accounted for only around 20% of global production.

With the global supply chain disruptions and shortages that have taken place during the pandemic, several countries have launched initiatives to restart the production of these strategic components in their territory. Before the United States, Japan and the European Union have already announced measures to relocate semiconductor manufacturing.

AFRICAN RESEARCHERS, ENGINEERS, INDUSTRY CAPTAINS, FINANCIERS, STATES… MUST GET STARTED ON THIS HIGHLY STRATEGIC AND LUCRATIVE MARKET!

Biden Administration Releases Plan for $50 Billion Investment in Chips


U.S. Department of Commerce – 7h • 7 hours ago

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, a once-in-a-generation opportunity, to secure our national security and revitalize American manufacturing and revitalize American innovation and research and development,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said. “So, although we’re working with urgency, we have to get it right, and that’s why we are laying out the strategy now.”

The Commerce Department has said its goal is to encourage the production of leading-edge semiconductors and shore up the supply of chips currently in use


CHIPS & Science Act of 2022

President Biden signed into law a historic investment that will help revitalize the U.S. domestic manufacturing economy

President Biden signed into law a historic investment that will help revitalize the U.S. domestic manufacturing economy

The strategy includes key initiatives, timelines for funding notices, recommendations for successful applications

Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce released its strategy outlining how the Department will implement $50 billion from the bipartisan CHIPS Act of 2022, signed by President Biden last month. The CHIPS for America program, housed within the Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), will revitalize the domestic semiconductor industry and spur innovation while creating good-paying jobs in communities across the country.

“Rebuilding America’s leadership in the semiconductor industry is a down payment on our future as a global leader,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “CHIPS for America will ensure continued US leadership in the industries that underpin our national security and economic competitiveness. Under President Biden’s leadership, we are once again making things in America, revitalizing our manufacturing industry after decades of disinvestment and making the investments we need to lead the world in technology and innovation.”

The strategy, released today [9/06/2022], outlines the initiatives, strategic goals, and guardrails guiding the CHIPS for America program.

The program’s four primary goals are:

  • Establish and expand domestic production of leading-edge semiconductors in the US, of which the US currently makes 0% of the world’s supply
  • Build a sufficient and stable supply of mature node semiconductors
  • Invest in R&D to ensure the next-generation semiconductor technology is developed and produced in the US.
  • Create tens of thousands of good-paying manufacturing jobs and more than a hundred thousand construction jobs. This effort will ensure the pipeline for these jobs expands to include people who have historically not had a chance to participate in this industry, including women, people of color, veterans, and people who live in rural areas.

 The program supports three distinct initiatives:

  • Large-scale investments in leading-edge manufacturing: The CHIPS incentives program will target approximately three-quarters of the incentives funding, around $28 billion, to establish domestic production of leading-edge logic and memory chips that require the most sophisticated manufacturing processes available today. Those amounts may be available for grants or cooperative agreements, or to subsidize loans or loan guarantees. The Department is still assessing the impact of the newly enacted advanced manufacturing facility investment tax credit on capital expenditures, which will generate significant additional project investment from participants and will reduce the required share of CHIPS incentives funding allocated for leading-edge projects. The Department will seek proposals for the construction or expansion of manufacturing facilities to fabricate, package, assemble, and test these critical components, particularly focusing on projects that involve multiple high-cost production lines and associated supplier ecosystems.
  • New manufacturing capacity for mature and current-generation chips, new and specialty technologies, and semiconductor industry suppliers: The CHIPS incentives program will increase domestic production of semiconductors across a range of nodes including chips used in defense and critical commercial sectors such as automobiles, information and communications technology, and medical devices. This initiative is broad and flexible, encouraging industry participants to craft creative proposals. For this initiative, the Department expects dozens of awards with the total value expected to be at least a quarter of the available CHIPS incentives funding, or approximately $10 billion. Those amounts may be available for grants or cooperative agreements, or to subsidize loans or loan guarantees.
  • Initiatives to strengthen US leadership in R&D: The CHIPS R&D program will invest $11 billion in a National Semiconductor Technology Center, a National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, up to three new Manufacturing USA Institutes, and in NIST metrology research and development programs. This constellation of programs is intended to create a dynamic new network of innovation for the semiconductor ecosystem in the United States. Executing this vision will require collaboration with academia, industry, and allied countries, and will require sustained investment over many years.

The Strategy also provides clear recommendations for potential applicants, reinforcing the Department’s commitment to advancing long-term strategic goals and identifying criteria against which applications will be evaluated. The criteria include:

  • Increase scale and attract private capital: The CHIPS incentives program will encourage large-scale investments that attract associated suppliers and workforce investments. In addition to committing their significant resources, potential applicants are encouraged to explore creative financing structures to tap a variety of sources of capital.
  • Leverage collaborations to build out semiconductor ecosystems: The CHIPS incentives program will encourage collaboration between industry stakeholders, investors, customers, designers, suppliers, and international firms. Such collaborations could include purchase commitments, partnerships that enable fabless design, or collaborations between suppliers and producers.
  • Secure additional financial incentives and support to build regional and local industry clusters that strengthen communities: The CHIPS incentives program requires applicants to the incentives program to secure state or local incentives. The Department expects to give preference to projects that include state and local incentive packages that maximize regional and local competitiveness, invest in the surrounding community, and prioritize broad economic gains, rather than outsize financial contributions to a single company.
  • Establish a secure and resilient semiconductor supply chain: The CHIPS incentives program will prioritize projects that adhere to standards and guidelines on information security, data tracking, and verification, and that collaborate on further development and adoption of such standards. 
  • Expand the workforce pipeline to match increased domestic capacity workforce needs: The CHIPS incentives program will create good-paying jobs that benefit all Americans, including economically disadvantaged individuals and populations that may be underrepresented in the industry. The program will prioritize workforce solutions that enable employers, training providers, workforce development organizations, labor unions, and other key stakeholders to work together. The goal is to create more paid training and experiential apprenticeship programs, provide wrap-around services, prioritize creative recruitment strategies, and hire workers based on their acquired skills.
  • Create inclusive and broadly-shared opportunities for businesses: The CHIPS incentives program will prioritize projects that proactively work to ensure that small businesses, minority-owned, veteran-owned, and women-owned businesses, and businesses in rural areas, benefit from opportunities generated by the CHIPS programs.
  • Provide robust financial plans: Applicants will be required to provide detailed project-specific and company-level financial data to ensure that incentive funds are meeting the economic and national security goals of the program while protecting taxpayer dollars.

Funding documents, which will provide specific application guidance for the CHIPS for America program, will be released by early February 2023. Awards and loans will be made on a rolling basis as soon as applications can be responsibly processed, evaluated, and negotiated.

An executive summary of the strategy is available. The full strategy paper can be downloaded here. The Program’s guiding principles can be viewed on the Department’s recently launched CHIPS.gov.



Startup Entrepreneur

By contrast, entrepreneurship is developing a new venture outside an existing organization.  The traditional entrepreneur shall now act as an innovation hunter to proactively be able to set up new smart businesses; ideally from the beginning, till the end of any business life cycle. The term entrepreneur, etymologically originates from the French word entreprendre meaning “to begin something, undertake.” During medieval times, this word was used to describe an active working person.

Risk-taking is one of the famous attributes of entrepreneurs which is also frequently emphasized in the literature. Spiritually, some people are observed to tend to behave extra-ordinarily. As Jobs addresses; “You have to trust in something—your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever—because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-known path, and that will make all the difference.” Taking the risk phenomenon and the spiritual reflections into consideration; it can easily be summed up that entrepreneurship has something to do with inner-journey.

Another emphasis on entrepreneurship is its presentation as a mindset. “Entrepreneurship is first and foremost a mindset. To seize an entrepreneurial opportunity, one needs to have a taste for independence and self-realization,” said Olli Rehn, a member of the European Commission. Understanding the entrepreneurial mindset requires a certain threshold of empathy. First of all, entrepreneurship is the story of ambiguity. An anonymous supporting quote is likely to highlight the gist of entrepreneurship. It’s as follows: “Anyone, (can be an entrepreneur) who wants to experience the deep, dark canyons of uncertainty and ambiguity; and who wants to walk the breathtaking highlands of success. But I caution, do not plan to walk the latter, until you have experienced the former.” In this regard, as Schumpeter also points out; entrepreneurs seem to have some heroic vision. Schumpeter focused on high-level entrepreneurship and larger businesses. On the other hand, Marshall examined smaller businesses, partially. It was Hayek and Kirzner, who examined the entrepreneurs as middlemen hoping to profit by buying cheap and selling expensive.

When it comes to defining entrepreneurship; it can easily be discovered that various people have defined entrepreneurship differently. Despite this fact, the most common classification follows the mainstream of Collins and Moore; who claimed two types of entrepreneurship, differentiating due to the context of entrepreneurial activities undertaken. These are, firstly, independent entrepreneurship and independent entrepreneurs (similar to entrepreneurship/traditional entrepreneurship and entrepreneurs/traditional entrepreneurs in this paper), implying the process whereby an individual or a group of individuals, acting independently of any association with an existing organization, create a new organization 

Stopford and Baden-Fuller considered entrepreneurs as opportunists even in chaotic situations, and they also metaphorically approached entrepreneurship. According to them, entrepreneurs are like Olympic athletes, long-distance runners, symphony orchestra conductors, and top-gun pilots…These metaphors underline the entrepreneurs’ being ambitious, determined, self-challenging, and talent for synchronizing [12]. [Source: Mehmet Çağrı Gündoğdu / Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 41 ( 2012 ) 296 – 303].


San Francisco the Hub of Innovation and Leadership

TRI CK USA by Said El Mansour Cherkaoui


What are the qualities/Characteristics of an Entrepreneur?

  • Entrepreneur takes an idea & makes it into reality.
  • Entrepreneurs take risks—risks of time, money, etc.
  • Entrepreneurs are optimistic about the future.
  • Entrepreneurs are innovators. They invent new products, services, processes, or methods.
  • Entrepreneur enjoy freedom & use it for the betterment of their customers & ultimately for society.
  • Entrepreneurs have a strong focus on anything they are doing.
  • Entrepreneur is confident, optimistic & loves facing challenges in life & business.
  • Entrepreneurs make decisions independently.

My Father Moulay Ahmed Cherkaoui at 24 was the First Muslim Transporter in the History of Morocco

The First Muslim Moroccan Entrepreneur-Investor in the History of Morocco Starting Transportation Operations Toutes Directions

First Moroccan Muslim Contractor of Public Transport in Early 1920 – Twenties of 20th Century: Moulay Ahmed Cherkaoui at 24 was the First Muslim Transporter in Morocco By Dr.  Said El Mansour Cherkaoui Son of Moulay Ahmed Cherkaoui Father of Moulay Ahmed Cherkaoui Said El Mansour Cherkaoui PARENTAL HERITAGE OF MOROCCAN NATIONALISM This is Haj Ahmed Cherkaoui All … Continue reading

Said El Mansour Cherkaoui Pro Endeavors

🌎 Analyst World Affairs ★ Author ★ Elaboration of Predictive Studies ★ Keynote Speaker ★ Entrepreneurial Planning ★ Business Development ★ United States ★ Europe ★ France ★ Morocco ★ China ★ Sub-Saharan Africa 🌍 Project Development Specialist ★ Entrepreneurship ★ International Trade and Business ★ Faculty ★ 🌍 France and USA: Research and Academia, Letters … Continue reading


There are various types of entrepreneurs. We will see some of it.

  • Industrial Entrepreneurs: They are in the business of manufacturing products. E.g. Manufacturing of automobile parts.
  • Trading Entrepreneurs: They are in the business of buying & selling products or services. E.g. Traders of Houses.
  • Imitative Entrepreneurs: These types of businesses copy other successful businesses & run the business similarly.
  • Drone Entrepreneurs: These types of entrepreneurs don’t like to change their business style. They don’t involve innovation. They just want to be like how they are.
  • Fabian Entrepreneurs: They don’t change until it is very much needed. They adopt change when it is very necessary.

What are the various functions of Entrepreneurs?

  • The main function of an Entrepreneur is to take risks.
  • The second function is to start the enterprise.
  • The third function is to keep an eye on the internal & external environment.
  • The fourth function is to make arrangements for necessary resources.
  • The fifth function is to deliver products/services to customers.
Innovation
  • Innovation is one of the key requirements for entrepreneurship.
  • Innovation is nothing but new ways of doing old tasks.
  • Innovations can be Chemical, mechanical, managerial, technical, institutional, service, etc.

According to Joseph Schumpeter, there are five types of innovations.

  • Introduction of new & good quality product.
  • Introduction of a new method of production.
  • Introduction of a new market.
  • Use of some new sources of supply as raw material.
  • They are making a new organizational form of industry.

The innovation process in Entrepreneurship includes the following steps.

  • Research of market
  • Development of product/service
  • Marketing of product/service
  • Production
  • Use by customer
  • Feedback from the customer.

Innovation has emerged as a headline in the field of business management, recently. Kuratko determines the magic words to describe the innovative way of our time: Dream, create, explore, invent, pioneer, and imagine [34]. Innovation itself is changing. The etymological roots of innovation stretch to the Latin word innovare, meaning to do something new. Most of the innovation definitions have focused on similar points with different perspectives. The key common points imply change and renewal for a better situation. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), inside the Oslo Manual—the source of information regarding international technological developments— defines innovation by linking it to technological change.

According to the OECD, innovation means “completing products and services by developing them technologically. The European Union (EU) has made a broader definition. To the EU, innovation introduces the change in workforce talent, working conditions, and managerial and organizational jobs. Also, it’s about renewal and growth in product and service range. In addition to this, a well-known expression about innovation; characterizes it as the process of converting new ideas into value-creating outputs such as new products, methods, or services. With the help of innovation; companies acquire the ability to develop and apply not only new products, processes, or designs but also new operations and business models.

After having experienced enormous financial crises all over the world in recent years; company survival has emerged as the most crucial issue both for SMEs and even some large companies.  SMEs, as the increasing value of the new economy, are obligatorily undertaking the mission of being innovative. It’s innovative SMEs that will lead the way to economic recovery.

This is what sets innovation-led companies apart: they have been successful in establishing organizational cultures where initiative is rewarded and failures are encouraged. They have structures, processes, and senior leadership that are supportive of innovation, and they have built an ecosystem of partners that enables these organizations to constantly bring in new ideas into their organizations.

MMP: Can any organization be innovation-led, or is it more relevant for some rather than others? Are there simple changes that can be implemented in the short term? And what about the long term?

NN: With accelerating innovation change, every organization needs to aim to become innovation-led. We all have been reading about significant changes caused by new technologies such as AI, VR (virtual reality), blockchain, and big data. These technologies will impact every type of organization. However, some researchers have argued that in highly turbulent and uncertain markets, it could be beneficial for companies to scale back on innovating until they can better understand the future directions of these markets.

In the short term, many established organizations have chosen to set up separate innovation labs. These are usually set apart from the rest of the organization so they can operate uninhibitedly. However, such labs often don’t work, as this recent commentary demonstrates.

In the long term, companies need to pursue a double strategy: developing an internal innovation capability and partnering externally – including cooperating with and even acquiring, innovative companies/start-ups. This is a strategy many leading tech companies are pursuing.

MMP: Do you have any guidance regarding the challenges creative companies face when developing innovation strategies? What can they take from tech companies and vice versa?

NN: Research on creative companies has shown that many creative companies while being quite innovative, are less business-savvy concerning turning new ideas into profitable business models. This is something that has plagued the creative industries sector for quite some time – individual creativity often drives the success of the organization, but they struggle to create a sustainable business model to scale up this creativity.

Creative companies could learn from tech companies to put more focus on the scalability of their creative ideas and how to develop financially sustainable business models. On the other hand, tech companies can learn from creative companies how to ensure that their employees remain creative and innovative, even if they are part of larger organizations with bureaucracy and managerial practices that often stifle innovation. In many ways, the stories we hear from organizations like Alphabet/Google and Apple, about the playful environments they have created for their employees and the flat hierarchies they have established, are in line with how smaller creative companies operate. Yet, Amazon, for example, has been under the spotlight, because of the stifling practices and toxic culture its employees have experienced.

The question of how to keep the creative/innovative mindset as organizations grow is critical to ensure that large organizations, whether tech or not, can continue to be innovative.

Source of the interview on Innovation: Dr Natalia Nikolova is a Senior Lecturer, at UTS Business School and Faculty of Transdisciplinary Innovation. Professor Margaret Maile Petty is UTS Executive Director of innovation and Entrepreneurship.


Twin Peak: Inflation and Staginflation

Twin Peak: Inflation and Staginflation

🌐 KEY POINTS:

Hotter-than-expected inflation numbers could mean the Federal Reserve will hike interest rates more aggressively in the coming months.

🌎The consumer-price index [CPI], which measures the cost of goods and services, climbed 8.3% in April down from 8.5% in March but is still above analysts’ expectations of 8.1% and near the highest level in more than 40 years.
🌎The decrease of CPI is partly a result of dips in the price of energy and used vehicles.
🌍Core CPI, which excludes food and energy, also was higher than expected, rising 6.2%.
🌐 Shelter costs, which make up about a third of the CPI, rose by 5.1% year-on-year — the fastest increase since April 1991.
🌐 Inflation-adjusted earnings continued to decline for workers. The soaring cost of living caused inflation adjusted earnings to drop 2.6% over the past year 🌐

#energy #food #interestrates #inflation #cpi #consumertrends #price #indexation


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