Somehow, despite my light blogging of late, Google has bumped Venturpreneur up to a Page Rank of 6/10. I am not sure exactly how Page Rank works -- for example, how often is it changed and how exactly does that formula work? -- but this is the blog equivalent of moving to a new neighborhood. I have already noticed a difference in Google results. Strangely, this site is still not listed as a complete site in the results.

In a related story, Google also updated the number of pages linking to this site, and it nearly doubled, now reaching 1,050. I assume that was driving the Page Rank improvement.

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Last month I wrote about Google's advertising challenge. People learn to ignore advertising, and I asserted: "The predictable result will be more attention-getting (i.e., intrusive) advertising by Google, which will encourage people to use other services." The first part of this prediction has been fulfilled faster than I imagined. Have you used Google lately? Web searches now trigger a window on the left-hand side of the screen with advertisements. The first time it happened, it reminded me of a pop-up ad, but Google doesn't do pop-up ads, right?

UPDATE: See my comment below.

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It's too early to know if England will win the Euro Cup 2004, but my prediction about Wayne Rooney seems to be coming true already. The German announcers have been referring to Rooney-mania. In tonight's match against Croatia, Rooney had an assist and two goals. That makes four goals in three games. He also made what could have been the play of the match against France (a breakaway that resulted in a free kick), but England's subsequent collapse in that match postponed Rooney's day in the limelight.

Also, France will advance, as they pulled away from Switzerland after a rather lethargic effort for most of the match. France and England already played the match of the tournament, and they should meet in the semifinals to see if they can outshine the first round.

One last note: when the clock ran out on the France-Switzerland match, the announcer used an expression I had never heard: "die Käse is gegessen." This means, the chesse has been eaten. Cute.

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With regard to Lakers' owner Jerry Buss, Tom Friend writes: "[H]e is not averse to trading Shaq and is willing to build his franchise around a narcissist who's on trial for rape, doesn't make his teammates better and is in denial over all of it." Yes, and this is bad, right?

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With Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Presidential politics dominating headlines, the trial of Russian entrepreneur Mikhail B. Khodorkovsky is being pushed to the second page. Even if Michael Moore's claims about Bush are overblown -- and they almost certainly are, although I am going only on press reports here -- all of these stories have one thing in common: oil.

The Khodorkovsky story has become wrapped up in the larger story of the ambiguity about Putin's real end game. From the West, it looks bleak. And it may be getting bleaker. But is there any doubt that the U.S. and the E.U. would be more demanding of Putin, but for Russia's oil exports?

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So, is this a franchising idea that could work in the U.S.? We encountered our first Nutelleria in Frankfurt earlier today. The concept comes from Italy, but it translated nicely into German. For photos, check the next page.

My first encounter with Nutella was over 20 years ago in Austria. At that time, it was unavailable in the U.S. Now Nutella is available in most general grocery stores. People love it for obvious reasons. The Nutelleria capitalizes on those warm feelings, offering a narrow range of products like crepes, muffins, and milkshakes, all laced with Nutella.

These pictures attempt to provide some feel for the surpisingly mode store. The decor was all about Nutella, of course, and the most clever part was the artwork, a few samples of which appear below. (For a slightly larger version of each picture, just click.)

UPDATE: To see the Nutelleria photos, go here.

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* Germany keeps hoping that its soccer team will wake up in the Euro Cup. They played to a scoreless tie with Latvia today. Latvia celebrated, and Germany cried. That is not supposed to happen to a traditional powerhouse. Then the Czechs shocked Holland by winning the following match in the waning minutes. Strange stuff. Ok, having watch snippets of the tournament over the past week, here is my prediction: England wins and Wayne Rooney becomes an international star. Their biggest obstacle: France, whom they will meet again in the semi-finals. Other teams that look good: Greece, Sweden, Italy, and the Czech Republic.

* If Jan Ullrich can't win the Tour de Suisse, can he expect to challenge Lance in the Tour de France? Not to mention Tyler Hamilton or Iban Mayo or Roberto Heras. It's too early to count Ullrich out, but his performance in Switzerland is not encouraging.

UPDATE: I have previously chastised people for selling Jan Ullrich short, and it looks like I did the same with the Tour de Suisse. Today he won the last stage and edged out Fabian Jeker for the Tour title by one second! Incredible!

* What is the fascination with Formula 1 racing? Yuck! It's like watching one of those old video racing games.

* Here comes the Olympic torch! Who cares? As you undoubtedly know, I am not anti-business, but I am getting tired of having every tradition turned into an advertisement. Check out Samsung's use of the torch.

* And a nod back to the States ... When I used to play golf (a lot!), the U.S. Open was my favorite tournament. The Masters and the British Open have character, but the U.S. Open is just so darn challenging. I tried to qualify once, but didn't even make it out of the first stage. (I was just good enough at golf to take it too seriously.) One of this year's players (Skip Kendall) was a high school star in Wisconsin when I played, and we were in the same state high school tournament. My only other connection to the Open is even more tenuous: my colleague Ann Althouse has a nephew (Cliff Kresge) in the tournament. He made the cut, but had a rough round on Day 3.

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We needed a quick lunch today, and given our unfamiliarity with the local eating establishments, we opted for McDonald's. I almost never eat at McDonald's, and when I do, it is usually breakfast. One of McDonald's historic triumphs was creating a chain of restaurants with food of uniform quality. Today's lunch reinforced that value, as the food here was just as bad as the food in the U.S.

One thing I really hate about going to McDonald's abroad (and I have had this experience on multiple continents): buying ketchup. I view ketchup as my God-given right. And, of course, negotiating the purchase of enough ketchup in a McDonald's outside the U.S. is next to impossible, especially in a second language. People just cannot believe that you really want as much as you are asking for, and they assume it's a language mistake. They didn't provide any ketchup with my large order of pommes frites today, and I almost had to scale the counter to get three of those little squeeze packs.

Speaking of condiments, do a lot of people like McDonald's pickles and onions? When I am at a barbeque in the US, it seems like most people skip the pickles and onions. I am willing to concede that a substantial minority of people like that stuff on their burgers, but nowhere close to everyone. So why does McDonald's force the rest of us to scrape them off. Yuck!

As you can see by the graphic, the ad campaign -- "I'm lovin' it" -- has been translated literally into ich liebe es. The colloquial sound is gone, and it sounds awkward to me, so I changed it to ich hasse es. Childish, I know, but this feud with McDonald's goes back to early childhood.

Oh, well. I should quit complaining. They allowed my children to choose their own prizes with the Happy Meal, which was a bit hit. And in the end, I got what I wanted, which was a quick lunch.

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My colleague Anuj Desai drew my attention to this article in the Chronicle of Higher Education. It describes some of the initiatives of universities that recently received grants from the Kauffman Foundation to take entrepreneurship out of the business school. (We were in the running for one of the grants, though we were ultimately not selected.) The most interesting part of the article to me was the description of dissenters to the program.

For example, Stewart A. Weaver, a professor of history at the University of Rochester, had this to say:

However broadly one attempts to define it, the term 'entrepreneurship' has unavoidably commercial implications that are unsuited to an undergraduate college of arts and sciences. The focus on entrepreneurship detracts from teaching about lasting values like wisdom and humanity that don't have any commercial value.

While the principal goal of the Kauffman program is to expand the notion of entrepreneurship beyond the commercial realm, I am a skeptic of so-called social entrepreneurship programs. The source of my skepticism is simply that I am not sure that "social entrepreneurship" has any distinctive content. Frankly, nothing I have heard from people who talk about social entrepreneurship has convinced me that "social entrepreneurship" is anything other than "entrepreneurship."

And this seems to be at the heart of Professor Weaver's objections. Entrepreneurship is fundamentally about successful competition, how to get ahead. The tension between capitalism and community has been discussed on this blog before, and I cannot claim that Professor Weaver is completely off track. On the other hand, I do claim that he misses an important purpose of entrepreneurships studies:

To make his point, Mr. Weaver and his wife, Celia S. Applegate, an associate professor of history, approached the university's curriculum committee with a spoof proposal for a course: "Great Entrepreneurs of the 20th Century: Gandhi and Hitler." Rather than take a traditional historical look at the two men, the two professors said, "we will take a commercial approach that recognizes the shared entrepreneurial talents that each might well have admired in the other." In Hitler's case, that talent might be "how an ambitious but not-very-talented painter took the idea of racial supremacy and turned it into a workable method of plunder, murder, and genocide." The point, Mr. Weaver says, was to show the "moral slippage that can ensue when you start applying market metaphors indiscriminately to history."

Obviously, the purpose of studying entrepreneurship is not to "apply market metaphors indiscriminately to history," but to better understand the role of entrepreneurs in society. My problem with Professor Weaver and others who share his position, is not that they are wrong about the commercial nature of entrepreneurship, but that they somehow have come to believe that the study of commerce is inherently inferior to the study of other facets of human behavior and interaction. Courses in entrepreneurship are not necessarily courses in "how to start and run a successful business." (Strange that Weaver doesn't see this, given his interest in industrial history.)

Weaver's objections appear to be a form of intellectual parochialism aimed at preserving his particular view of "higher education." The root problem with his educational program is that -- contrary to his elevated claims about wisdom and humanity -- it produces students who are incapable of understanding the world in which they live. In Professor Weaver's ideal university, vast tracts of human interaction are off limits, and that is shameful.

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In another strange venture capital story, U2's lead singer Bono is joining a new venture firm in Silicon Valley called Elevation Partners. The firm is attempting to raise $1 billion to invest in media and entertainment projects. Actually, this sounds like a pretty credible project given the state of those industries. It appears that the firm will be focused on buyouts rather than the startup investments that characterize many well-known VC funds.

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Talk about a tough sales pitch! With four more contractors killed in Iraq today, Afghanistan's President Hamid Karzai spoke at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today to encourage investment in his troubled land. Among other things, he said: "To succeed, we ask for your continued investment. Afghanistan is open for business and American companies are most welcome."

Intrigued? How about investing in Afghanistan's first venture capital fund -- called the Afghanistan Renewal Fund -- which is looking for $50 million? This is what is known in the business world as a "dumb idea." In the understatement of the day, Innes Meek, a director at London-based CDC, stated, "There's clearly a need for finance in Afghanistan, but it may be too early for venture capital." Then there is this from Tom Lamb, a managing director at Barclays Private Equity in London: "Venture capital is tough enough. In Afghanistan, the things we take for granted -- a stable political system, laws and accounting -- don't exist." And finally, from Stephen Marquardt, a former head of emerging markets investment banking at Merrill Lynch & Co.: "You've got to hand it to him, he's taking venture capital to a whole new level. It's more like adventure capital." Well said.

P.S. If you would like to get a sense for how hard it is to be an entrepreneur in a land without a stable political system, laws and accounting, read one of the best books ever written on entrepreneurship, Siberia Bound by Alexander Blakely.

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This is incredible. Elizabeth Hoffman, President of the University of Colorado, should have dismissed Gary Barnett, and this is just beyond belief:

In the deposition, Hoffman was asked whether the "c-word" is "filthy and vile." She said she knows the word is a swear word, but "It is all in the context of what--of how it is used and when it is used."

She was asked, "Can you indicate any polite context in which that word would be used?" Hoffman answered, "Yes, I've actually heard it used as a term of endearment."

A CU spokeswoman said President Hoffman is aware of the negative connotations associated with the word. But, the spokesperson said, because Hoffman is a medieval scholar, she is aware of the long history of the word. She said it was not always a negative term.

Ok, I'll play along, President Hoffman. Let's see some evidence of this word as a term of endearment. Go back as far as you want ...

On second thought, forget it. I don't care if someone in the Middle Ages used this word as a term of endearment. You know perfectly well that the University of Colorado football player who used the term did not mean it in an endearing way. To pretend otherwise is Clintonesque.

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Last month, when the NBA playoffs were just beginning, I expressed some negative thoughts about Larry Brown, coach of the Detroit Pistons. I don't spend a lot of time thinking about the NBA or Larry Brown, but if the Pistons beat the Lakers in Game 5 tonight, that will be an amazing accomplishment: Brown will be the first coach ever to win both NCAA and NBA titles. (Of course, the Series would already be over if Larry Brown had played his cards right in Game 2, the Pistons only loss.) More important to me, a Pistons win would represent the triumph of one of my deeply held values: great teams beat great individual players. Larry Brown's coaching is about playing as a team. Kudos for that, Larry.

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Allegations are inevitable, but I sure hope that they aren't true. If you want something more positive, read this interview with Lance in anticipation of the Tour de France.

By the way, the interview mentions Lance's troubles with Iban Mayo in the recent Dauphiné Libéré. I can't believe I forgot to mention Mayo in my Tour de France preview. Mayo looked good in last year's Tour, and he seems to be in even better position this year.

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The Wisconsin legislature has been busy on entrepreneurship. Earlier this year, three new programs were begun to encourage the formation and development of technology companies. One of my students, Tony McGrath, just brought to my attention this article, in which two Wisconsin attorneys discuss next steps.

They suggest four things:

1. New venture capital legislation.... Wisconsin needs $500 million in venture capital to enable us to maximize our entrepreneurial work force and intellectual property potentials. With only $50 million in funds, the current "CAPCO" early-stage investment program is underfunded and inefficient. The recently proposed overhaul and expansion of the CAPCO program did not reach the Assembly floor. The state should create a new pool of $500 million in venture capital, through tax credits to private, corporate and institutional investors. The funds should be invested in Wisconsin companies by professional fund managers who are focused on investment returns to the investors and the state.

2. Private capital facilitation. To help increase the deal flow of potentially dynamic, profitable companies in Wisconsin, we need to have a proactive development company bridging the gap between our abundance of ideas and companies ready for investment dollars. This company would act as a catalyst to coordinate, integrate and facilitate our now fragmented, isolated resources as a central clearinghouse, providing resources/contacts and mentoring the scientists and entrepreneurs to prepare them for funding. This entity would need to have buy-in and oversight by those business, university, civic and government leaders.

3. Eliminating investment hurdles. To eliminate Wisconsin investment hurdles and to attract the new investors we need to build the new economy, at a minimum two things should be done. First, repeal the shareholder wage claim liability provision in the Wisconsin Statutes. Second, eliminate, defer or significantly lower capital gains taxes on returns from investments in Wisconsin new economy companies.

4. The new economy infrastructure. Our goal should be to build the infrastructure that will increase Wisconsin's economic productivity in this century. Regional integration must be a focus. We need to increase the speed by which talented individuals can move between Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Eau Claire and Minneapolis. There is a great deal of investment capital in Chicago and Minneapolis, that could be flowing to the cities in the "IQ Corridor" between those two cities. Along the IQ Corridor we need to invest in and build a faster and safer highway system (a Wisconsin autobahn), rail system (a high-speed train) and air traffic system (better and more reliable connections, particularly between Madison and Chicago).

This is startling ambitious, and I like the moniker IQ Corridor. But if you live in Madison, don't rush out and buy that BMW for use on the Wisconsin autobahn.

By they way, I just spent several hours on the German autobahn yesterday, and last week I rode the Chunnel Train from London to Brussels. For all of its great infrastructure, however, Europe is not all that entrepreneurial. It's also not clear to me that tax policy is the answer to the development of a technology cluster. Certainly, more is required, though it is possible that Madison has the "more" already in place and is waiting for that last missing piece -- capital. Nevertheless, count me among the skeptics.

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