BizzBangBuzz by deal attorney & business lawyer, Anthony Cerminaro: September 2007

9/24/2007

Eye Camp - Tibet

Like many who visit Tibet, I was struck by the glaring need of ordinary Tibetans for modern medical care. But since 1995, American ophthalmologist, Dr. Marc Lieberman, has been doing something about it, traveling to Tibet twice a year to run mobile eye camps.

"In a country where much of the population lives at elevations of 15,000 feet, where solar radiation poses a high risk for cataracts, the disease has become an epidemic. Many of those afflicted with cataracts come from the poorest communities -- nomadic herders who have limited access to healthcare and face inevitable blindness without surgery...

A deeply spiritual man, Lieberman was inspired by the Dalai Lama to pursue his medical mission. Although his work is often made difficult by the political tensions of Tibetan life under Chinese rule, the primary goal of his nonprofit Tibet Vision Project is to train the Tibetan medical community to do the cataract surgeries themselves..."

Solotaroff's 2005 journey is captured in this Frontline Rough Cut documentary that features many delightful and inspiring moments, particularly among the Tibetan families who arrive at the camp full of anticipation and filled with gratitude when the doctors restore their sight.

9/21/2007

Favorite Tibet Trip Photos

To view a Google earth version of the entire trip of which this journey is a part, visit acerminaro - ChinaTibetNepalThailandTrip2007

Lhasa, Tibet, Misty Street Scene

Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet

Buddha Eyes, Kunbum, Gyantse, Tibet

Tibet Mountain Pass Prayer Flags

Long Winding Road, Tibet

Tibet Mountain Village

Mount Everest, Shrouded in Clouds

Rainbow, Himalayas, Tibet

Himalayas, Tibet

Mountain Valley, Tibet

More photos taken by me and my daughter on our recent trip are available in this AOL Pictures gallery or Tibet 2007 - a photoset on Flickr

9/20/2007

The Last Lecture

"46-year-old Carnegie-Mellon professor Randy Pausch delivered his final lecture, entitled 'How to Live Your Dreams' on Tuesday. Paush has terminal pancreatic cancer. The lecture is powerful and uplifting.

"'What we’re not going to talk about today,' he continued, 'is cancer, because I’ve spent a lot of time talking about that … and we’re not going to talk about things that are even more important, like my wife and [three preschool] kids, because I’m good, but I’m not good enough to talk about that without tearing up.'

"What he was there to discuss was how to fulfill your childhood dreams, and the lessons he had learned on his life’s journey. "

Link to story. Link to video. Link to full lecture (opens in new player). Link to Pausch’s website. -via Reddit and Fark and this Neatorama post from which the foregoing was quoted.

Control is an Illusion

"Leadership is about influence not control... I often hear leaders, particularly younger ones, complaining about their lack of control in various situations...What they are really saying is, 'If I could control these people, I could guarantee the results.' The truth is that control is an illusion. You can’t control anyone, even the people that report to you.

"However, while you can’t control anyone (except perhaps yourself), you can influence nearly everyone. This is the essence of true leadership. By this definition, Jesus, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King were great leaders. They had control of virtually no one, yet their influence changed the course of history.

"Aspiring leaders would do well to stop focusing on control and figure out how to expand their influence..."

Refer to this post From Where I Sit for four ways you can become a person of influence, no matter where you are in the organization.

9/19/2007

What's a Reasonable Royalty Rate?

"Among the most frequently asked questions I get from start-up companies is: How much should I pay for licensing in a technology? Answer: As little as possible. Kidding aside, this is really a very complicated question that cannot be answered without a lot of homework. While most companies seem to use a valuation method I like to call “pulling a number out of the air,” there are three primary methods used by licensing professionals to assess the value of IP assets. These are the Cost Method, Market Method and Income Method. With all of these methods, good data and data projection are critical in determining the appropriate numbers.

"In the Cost Method, the value is the cost incurred in developing or purchasing the relevant technology or intellectual property. But what if, as a result of changing markets or new information, you determine that the present value of the total revenues/return expected from this technology is less that the cost?

"In the Market Method, the method for determining value is to learn what comparable technologies have licensed for recently. Of course, to do this you’ll need to (a) determine what transactions are comparable and (b) obtain current, reliable data. Usually, this is through compiled data reports.

"In the Income Method, value is the estimated revenues the technology is likely to produce (and savings it is likely to generate) and comparing this to the estimated cost to generate the same revenues or savings from other sources, that is, total annual returns. Basically, it’s a method of determining what you can afford (or not afford) to pay in the end..."

Read more in this informative post from Patent Baristas