“People will never give up their offices.”

“Companies will never allow their employees the freedom to work from home.”

Seven, short years later, more and more companies are operating their offices on a virtual network, sharing files, and utilizing cell phones and Skype to create a virtual office environment.

But why did it take seven years for virtual office to really take off?  The internet was widely used back in 2003, and file sharing via email was rapidly replacing the fax machine.  I think companies have just been downright lazy and reluctant to begin utilizing free virtual office tools.  And many companies have simply dragged their feet in making the change.  By making everyone come to one place, the business owner had no reason to change.

Until now.

The recession has inevitably forced both small and large companies to convert to a virtual office structure and begin utilizing free tools like Google Apps and Google Voice.  These small companies are giving up pricey office space in exchange for home offices.  Many of these companies have provided virtual office tools to their employees, now allowing them to work from home.

In fact, a friend was telling me about his wife’s company with 40 employees.  While the business’s revenues slowed over the past couple of years, housing 40 employees under one roof was killing their income statement.  The solution? The company decided to axe the ridiculous office rent and instead provided tools for its employees to begin working virtually, from home.  The beauty of this new structure was that, not only did everyone keep their job, everyone was also really excited about working from home.

How this company’s income statement will recover or suffer from this business decision, only time will tell.  But the point is that they did it. They made the leap because they had to.  And they are not alone.

Seth Godin wrote about the move towards virtual office in his recent post titled, “Goodbye to the Office.”  An excerpt from his post sums up my sentiments on this topic exactly:

“…..Why go to work in an office/plant/factory?

1. That’s where the machines are.
2. That’s where the items I need to work on are.
3. The boss needs to keep tabs on my productivity.
4. There are important meetings to go to.
5. It’s a source of energy.
6. The people I collaborate with all day are there.
7. I need someplace to go.

But…

1. If you have a laptop, you probably have the machine already, in your house.
2. If you do work with a keyboard and a mouse, the items you need to work on are on your laptop, not in the office.
3. The boss can easily keep tabs on productivity digitally.
4. How many meetings are important? If you didn’t go, what would happen?
5. You can get energy from people other than those in the same company.
6. Of the 100 people in your office, how many do you collaborate with daily?
7. So go someplace. But it doesn’t have to be to your office……”

All of this talk provokes a billion dollar question in real estate: What is the future of commercial office?

Noah’s of Utah is trying to predict where commercial office is headed with its new concept in commercial real estate.  At Noah’s, you can host a ballet class for an hour a week in a large room filled with mirrors and ballet bars.  The same day, a corporation can host a weekly meeting with its 40 virtual employees, and in the same room. How? The mirrors and ballet bars are on swivel doors as if inside a funhouse. White boards and projector screens are on the reverse side of the mirrored doors.

Noah’s is one commercial office concept that I think will do well in the future.

What other commercial office concepts will best serve the needs of companies that have chosen to ditch their conventional office space?  As Seth Godin lays it out in his recent post on this topic:

“When you need to have a meeting, have a meeting. When you need to collaborate, collaborate. The rest of the time, do the work, wherever you like.

The gain in speed, productivity and happiness is massive. What’s missing is… someplace to go. Once someone figures that part out, the office is dead.”

I wouldn’t say that commercial office as we know it will be completely dead. But I would say that it is certainly evolving, and fast.  What are your thoughts?

Posted by Corey Curwick on July 12, 2010

For Christmas I received a book that was a New York Times Bestseller called “The Ascent of Money,” by Niall Ferguson.  I have blogged several times in the last year about this author, so you might recall his name. Ferguson, an economic historian who has studied the history of the world’s financial markets, has quite a fascinating insight into current events.

“The Ascent of Money” is the most recent of Niall Ferguson’s collection of books on the history of money.  This book has been described as the “layman’s guide” to unraveling this complex topic.  In fact, the book was made into a television documentary series and won an International Emmy Award.  Now that I am officially halfway through the book, I want to give you my impression at this point.

Thus far, the book has really humbled me with regard to speculation or investing. History is the clearest lens by which to view the present, particularly with regard to investing. With the history of financial markets in mind, what cycles do you see repeating?

In the book, Ferguson starts out discussing debt (versus equity).  He describes how many other countries have sunk below their own “mountains of debt.”  The book then goes into the history of equity (versus debt) e.g. stocks and the stock market.

One thing in particular I found interesting in the book, was the story about the man Niall Ferguson calls, the “Napoleon Bonaparte of Finance.”  Most people don’t know that the infamous Nathan Rothschild, of the great Rothschild banking family, made his first millions simply by brokering paper. (Even more ironic was that he started out as a gold smuggler in Europe during the early 1800s).

Want to gain an entirely new perspective on current events and investing? I would recommend this book to you.

I’ll send you a final report on the book once I’ve actually finished reading it.  Until then, please leave your comments below.

Posted by Corey Curwick on May 12, 2010

But who are these companies that are standing out?  And which of these companies would you invest in if you had a chance?

The companies that come to mind first are Facebook, Yelp, and Rackspace. This is just the tip of the iceberg. As more and more consumers search online for products and services, it is essential to look for companies that push the edge in innovative ideas in this rapidly growing, online marketplace.

Demand Media, a company that I discovered back in November, is an example of this.  As fresh, online content becomes the driver of search results on the web, this new company stands in line to take advantage of this opportunity. Kind of like a content “factory,”  as described in November’s Wired magazine.

And then what about online reviews? Forget about Yelp, even though it’s a darn good business model, and think about review software in general. A recent article, “Even Bad Reviews Boost Sales,” appeared in Fortune Small Business and highlights the growth of reviews on the web. An excerpt from the article,

“Online reviews have been spreading ever since Amazon.com (AMZN, Fortune 500) pioneered them in 1997. Consumers are becoming used to searching for reviews when they shop online. Internet shoppers rank reviews as the most desired feature of a Web site, according to a recent survey by Forrester Research.”

Forsee Results, one small example from the FSB article, provides customer satisfaction survey software to websites.

What other sectors of the tech industry will experience massive growth in 2010?  A recent article in TechCrunch called, “The Top Ten IPO Candidates For 2010” will certainly get you thinking about these growing sectors.

Are there any other companies, tech or otherwise, that you will be keeping your eye on in 2010? Please share.

Posted by Corey Curwick on December 24, 2009

Some of the most obvious industries are accounting services, green construction, and energy. In fact, energy was the “fastest-growing industry among privately-held companies with a median four-year growth rate of 287.5 percent.”

Software as a Service and Education Technology are two more industries that are listed as some of the fastest growing.

Take a quick peek at the online slideshow and I’d like to hear some of your comments. Are there any other businesses you can think of that could thrive in the current economy?

After completing my MBA in 2005, it was then that I really began to learn about finance & investing.  In four years, I have only seen a glimpse of what’s out there.  Because Utah has such a high rate of fraud, particularly financial-related fraud, I have been fortunate enough to have seen a lot of “pretend” investing.  (I say fortunate because I think seeing others make mistakes is the best form of learning).

Although I feel that I’ve learned so little about investing and finance in my education in school and in the real world, I have still been looking around at the stimulus/bailout and asking myself,“Is it just me or does this just not make sense?”

I have felt confused like this before, mostly when seeing friends and associates around me getting involved with an investment or other money-related scam. The fundamentals seem to be completely absent, and it feels like things are going to crash land.

When I hear about the various measures of the stimulus/bailout, it just seems inevitable that hyperinflation will set in eventually.  Look what happened in France with its fiat currency in the 18^th Century, and even as recent as 2001, the Argentina peso crisis.  Because the financial labyrinth of the 21^st Century is yet unprecedented in its complexity of illusion, it is difficult to imagine the outcome.

A good analogy of what is happening with the stimulus/bailout is that of two mirrors facing each other with a dollar bill being held up in between the two.  The illusion is that there are an infinite number of dollars there. This is the same illusion that is being played out with the U.S. Dollar in the world financial arena.

Any thoughts as to what the result of this charade will ultimately be?

Posted by Corey Curwick on May 17, 2009

A good example comes from an article which discussed the “Skyscraper Indicator” from Edward Dewey, a gentleman that lived in the 1940′s.  This indicator relates the optimism of building up being followed immediately by an economic downturn.  The article gives several interesting examples. This indicator apparently also promotes a massive sell.

Pretty interesting stuff. Any other historical indicators worth mentioning?

Source of article: http://safehaven.com/article-6810.htm

Source: http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/investing/20080822_6_investing_mistakes_a1.asp

Given that this article is coming from Bankrate.com I take a lot of things in there with a grain of salt. “Bill, I want you to create a piece called 6 deadly investment mistakes…yea yea, I’m likin’ the sound of that..
 

Its definitely skewed like so many things on the Internet, including blog posts but it drew me in nonetheless. 

Under mistake #1, I completely agree with Bill here but I always get a laugh from comments like that from Lisa Feathergill. She sounds like a typical stockbroker, “Remember, you haven’t lost money until you actually sell the security. I know a guy who followed this advice and watched his million dollars in stock turn into zero dollars in a very short amount of time. Ouch!!

I agree with Mistake #3 that savvy investors make more money during downturns in the economy, however I’m having trouble with his stock pushing again. In my humble opinion, unless you are lucky, stocks wont’ make you rich Bill. Any comments on this?
 

I wholeheartedly agree with Mistake #6, Abandoning your investment strategy. Bill’s right. Whatever you decide to invest in, stocks, bonds, real estate, gold or silver…stick to the plan.

I think the worst thing any investor can do is react to the whims of the media about the investment environment, from wherever you are looking. Bill wrote, and I agree, “If the headlines are full of it and everyone else is doing it, you’re probably too late.”

Does anyone have any other comments or thoughts on these 6 deadly investing mistakes? I’d love to hear from you.

SLB closed at 91.41 on Friday Aug 15th, which was the options expiration day. Right at the bottom of the trading range. Therefore, both legs of the options strangle that we entered, closed OTM and both legs of the option trade closed profitable… ie… you would have made $2050 on a $5k investment in one month!!

Posted by Cary Valerio of Project Liberty

By James Politi in Washington

Published: July 8 2008 13:53 | Last updated: July 8 2008 22:43

Large US investment banks will be able to access emergency cash from the Federal Reserve into next year if market turmoil persists, Ben Bernanke said on Tuesday in a sign of the growing concern among policymakers that financial strains could continue for some time.

The signal from Mr Bernanke is likely to soothe Wall Street, in that it confirms Fed support for investment banks through the credit crisis. US stocks rose on Tuesday, the dollar rallied against the euro and oil prices staged their biggest retreat in months.
EDITOR’S CHOICE
Video: Michael Mackenzie on Fed move – Jul-08
US mortgage regulator tries to ease fears – Jul-08
US hopes of housing recovery subside – Jul-09
Full text of Bernanke speech – Jul-08
In depth: Central banks – Jun-12
Editorial comment: Fed must beware inflation risks – Jun-26

As well as signalling fears that the effects of market turmoil may be felt for longer than hoped, extending the credit facility would press Congress to tighten regulation of investment banks.

Speaking in Virginia at a forum on mortgage lending for low-income households, Mr Bernanke said: “We are currently monitoring developments in financial markets closely and considering several options, including extending the duration of our facilities for primary dealers beyond year-end, should the current and exigent circumstances continue to prevail in dealer-funding markets.”

In March, the Fed granted primary dealers – a term that covers investment banks such as Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch – access to emergency cash for at least six months in an effort to stabilise the US financial system on the same day it helped rescue Bear Stearns with a $29bn loan.

Previously, access to emergency funding was only allowed for commercial banks such as Citigroup and JPMorgan.

Although the moves helped stabilise credit markets for several months, worries about mortgage debt and the health of financial institutions have flared up again.

More evidence of the depth of the US housing crisis came yesterday when a measure of pending home sales fell at an unexpectedly steep rate of 4.7 per cent in May.

The regulator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac sought to ease investors’ fears that the two government-sponsored mortgage financiers might have to raise billions of dollars of capital in response to potential accounting changes. James Lockhart, director of the Office of Federal Housing and Enterprise Oversight, told CNBC that “an accounting change should not drive a capital change.”

Worries that Fannie and Freddie would have to raise more capital sent their shares plunging 16.2 per cent and 17.9 per cent, respectively, on Monday. However, their share prices were up 11.94 per cent and 13.01 per cent, respectively, on Tuesday.

Mr Bernanke’s comments came as Congress was preparing to examine what kind of changes to financial regulation should be made in the wake of the credit crisis. The House financial services committee will on Thursday hold its first hearing on the topic, with testimony expected from Mr Bernanke and Hank Paulson, Treasury secretary.

In his speech on Tuesday, Mr Bernanke said Congress “may wish to consider” whether new tools were needed to liquidate a “systemically important” investment bank on the verge of bankruptcy, as with Bear Stearns.

The Fed chairman said Treasury should take a lead in this process and that one option was a structure allowing federal regulators to set up a “bridge bank” to help a securities firm – a strategy used for failing commercial banks.

“A bridge bank authority is an important mechanism for minimising public losses from government intervention while imposing losses on shareholders and unsecured creditors, thereby ­limiting moral hazard and mitigating any adverse impact of ­government intervention on market discipline,” Mr Bernanke said.

The Fed chairman also indicated the US central bank would release fresh guidelines on mortgage lending next week.

The S&P 500 closed up 1.71 per cent at 1,273.70, rebounding from a loss of 0.8 per cent on Monday. Oil fell to $136.04, down from last week’s record $145.85. The dollar was up 0.4 per cent versus the euro.

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2008