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Startups Could Fundamentally Change the Way Big Investors Operate

Harvard Business Review

Small startup firms are already developing proprietary technologies — such as machine vision, deep learning, and other innovations —– that could help large investors evaluate opportunities and risks with far greater accuracy and efficiency than was previously possible. But right now that’s not happening.

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How NASA Uses Telemedicine to Care for Astronauts in Space

Harvard Business Review

They determine what material and intangible means of disease and trauma prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are needed for each mission. Medicines, instruments, consumables, and exercise devices belong to material assets; intangible assets involve medical expertise on board and on the ground, processes, procedures, and protocols.

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Why We Shouldn’t Worry About the Declining Number of Public Companies

Harvard Business Review

All three factors have become more common over time, which we argue stems from firms’ increasing reliance on intangible and knowledge inputs in their business models. Such acquisitions become more lucrative with rising first-mover advantages, pace of technological development, and network externality.

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Why Financial Statements Don’t Work for Digital Companies

Harvard Business Review

Curiously, companies are allowed to report purchased brands and intangibles as assets on balance sheet, creating distortions between earnings and assets of digital companies that rely on organic growth versus acquisitions. Its value growth is powered by the network in place, not by increments of operating costs.

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How Software Is Helping Big Companies Dominate

Harvard Business Review

And academic research has found that rising industry concentration correlates with the patent-intensity of an industry, suggesting “that the industries becoming more concentrated are those with faster technological progress.” ” Carr distinguished between proprietary technologies and “infrastructural” ones.

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How to Navigate a Digital Transformation

Harvard Business Review

Manufacturers invest most of their capital into physical assets, while high-tech firms invest in R&D to create new intellectual capital. But all assets are not created equal, especially as the technological landscape changes. There’s no question why legacy organizations are tackling digital transformation now.

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Blockbuster Becomes a Casualty of Big Bang Disruption

Harvard Business Review

The shutdown will be completed by early 2014, bringing to a close a dramatic story of rise and fall at the hands of disruptive technological innovation, or what we have called “ big bang disruption.” At its peak, the company operated 10,000 stores. In doing so, they systematically undervalue their own intangible assets.