Brigadoon Weekly
January 19, 2019
Curation and commentary from Marc A. Ross
Reporting from Alexandria, Virginia
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Future 50, Detroit, Neuroscience, Richard Branson, Cool Britannia, 365
ROSS RANT
Future 50: Last October Fortune released its third annual Future 50 list. Developed with Martin Reeves of the BCG Henderson Institute, the list is not based on measures of past performance but rather attempts to measure commitment to the future.
Half of the measurement is based on the market’s assessment of a company’s future potential beyond the existing stream of profits; the other half reflects a sophisticated assessment, using natural language processing among other tools, of strategy, technology, people and structure.
The research at the BCG Henderson Institute has shown that even in economic downturns, revenue growth (not cutting costs) is the primary driver of total shareholder returns.
Further, even the best-performing companies are increasingly likely to regress to the mean in sales growth given today’s business climate—so they need to continually renew their advantage if they wish to outperform.
In other words, it is more important than ever for companies to have vitality—the capacity to reinvent their businesses and sustain long-term growth.
Here's the top 10:
Workday
Square
ServiceNow
Contemporary Amperex Technology
Spotify
Atlassian
Xiaomi
Ctrip.com
Salesforce
Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Explore the full list here.
Universities in the world's top 300 by nation:
United States: 58
United Kingdom: 35
Australia: 18
Germany: 18
China: 12
Canada: 12
Netherlands: 12
Japan: 11
France: 10
Spain: 7
Switzerland: 7
India: 6
(QS Rankings)
The hottest housing markets of 2020 are far from the coasts: MW reports, forget Seattle, Denver, and San Francisco. Boise, Idaho, is poised to be the hottest housing market at the start of the next decade.
A report from the National Association of Realtors identified the housing markets that are expected to see the most notable home sales and price growth in 2020.
Boise ranked No. 1, a marked increase from No. 8 a year ago.
1. Boise, ID
2. McAllen-Edinburg-Mission, TX
3. Tucson, AZ
4. Chattanooga, TN
5. Columbia, SC
6. Rochester, NY
7. Colorado Springs, CO
8. Winston-Salem, NC
9. Charleston-North Charleston, SC
10. Memphis, TN
- Marc
Marc A. Ross is the founder of Brigadoon.
FIVE TO READ
Michigan Central and the rebirth of Detroit: Michigan Central was once one of the grandest railway stations in the United States - the gateway to a fabulously wealthy city, dominated by the auto industry. Thousands of workers passed through the building in search of new lives - immigrants from Europe and the Middle East along with black workers, part of the “great migration” northwards, from the prejudice and poverty of the agricultural South. But Detroit’s days of lavish prosperity are long gone. The station has been closed and abandoned for more than 30 years. Its tower, like the keep of a derelict fortress, is a poignant symbol of a once-great city’s decline.
BBC
Cyborgs: Elon Musk and the new era of neuroscience: Musk revealed the first details of an electronic brain implant developed by Neuralink, the secretive company he founded in 2016 to facilitate direct communications between people and machines. Its early applications will be in medicine to help people with severely damaged brains or nervous systems. But Musk also emphasized more futuristic plans that can give humans “the option of merging with artificial intelligence” by exchanging thoughts with a computer — augmenting the mental capacity of healthy people.
FT
Richard Branson: The difference between having an idea and being an entrepreneur: Many people have good ideas, but not everyone becomes an entrepreneur. I’m often asked if there is a good way to work out whether your idea is a good one, so I’ve put together a quick guide for those wondering whether to make the plunge.
Virgin Blog
Cool Britannia: where did it all go wrong? Twenty years after Labour’s landslide win, did the patriotism and triumphalism of 1997 sow the seeds of Brexit?
John Harris - NewStatesmanAmerica
London's 1952 fog that killed 12,000 people: It wasn't until 2016, when scientists from Texas A&M University were investigating smog in Beijing and Xi'an, China that they determined a possible cause for the London event. They concluded that the London smog was comprised of concentrated sulfuric acid.
Interesting Engineering
BRIGADOON RADIO
Episode 6: John Wick Republican: Recorded Pinehaven House at Sundance Mountain Resort, Dr. Mark Stellingworth speaks with Chad Munitz during Brigadoon Retreat | Sundance 2019. Chad is a 5x Brigadoon Retreat | Sundance participant and has served as a Brigadoon Ambassador and co-host for Brigadoon Salon Dinner | Cincinnati 2019. Chad and Mark discussed the vision of Brigadoon, building a vinyl album collection, and comic books as art.
Brigadoon Radio
BRIGADOON 365
Brigadoon 365 is a year-long celebration of entrepreneurs and thought leaders from around the world that inspire and motivate the Brigadoon network.
New posts daily at 12:00 pm ET.
#1 Sarah Kate "Skate" Noftsinger
#2 Melanie Brock
#3 Penny Mordaunt
#4 Christian Duffus
#5 Richard H. Thaler
#6 Stephanie Simbari
#7 Erick Sanchez
Current list here.
