Board Consulting Services from Muse Consulting

Texas Emerging Technology Fund

Ralph Muse — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:30:39 +0000

Tonight I attended the Investment Symposium put on by the Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Your state government at work handing out money to start up companies. They featured about a dozen companies who were awarded anywhere from $250K to $3.5 Million. Out of the companies that received awards I think that I would consider investing in one or two at most. None of these companies built anything physical, not a manufactured product in the bunch.

As the process was explained to me it takes about a year (sometimes two or three) to complete, and you have to have involvement of a University. In addition the state ownership of your company is based on your next round of funding, so if you do not need further funding you are screwed.

I was invited by someone who thought this could be a good way to get more funding for my company, RDSeismic. LLC. Well I am afraid that we do not fit the framework for this state program. My problem is that we have already self-funded and have a working product. I do not need a team from a local University, and if I had any funding (for production parts to fill current orders or to hire support engineers) I would not need any more as we would be cash flowing very well from that point on. So companies like mine that can provide immediate jobs in Texas are not what the government is looking for.

I will be interested in seeing how the State investment turns out in a few years as they are presently investing in over one hundred companies. What do you think our return will be?

Yahoo Message Board, Ion Geophysical, and Free Speech?

Ralph Muse — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:26:02 +0000

As most of you know I was the SR VP and GM of the Land Imaging Systems Division of Input Output Inc. (now Ion Geophysical Inc.) and I am still in contact with many employees and ex employees. The last few weeks I have been receiving calls and emails from a number of ex Ion Geo employees in regard to the rumor that BGP (a company in China that is the worlds largest Seismic contactor), saying that Ion is selling all or most of the LISD to BGP. I do not know if this is true or not. I think it would be a good move for Ion Geo. as long as they keep the FireFly wireless node business, as the future for land cable based systems is not that good.

I also received an email from China reporting to have text from a press release by BGP that is rather hard, thought not impossible to believe. So I checked out the Yahoo message board and sure enough there was a post regarding BGP buying LISD. I checked back today and guess what the post has been removed. Why by whom? If this post was removed by Ion Geo. then I think that is a bad move. The idea of message board is that they are uncensored and or course unreliable. People should be free to say what ever they want. If this rumor in unfounded then the company is free to make their own post and say so.

Environmentalism is a Religion not a Science

Ralph Muse — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:55:09 +0000

The most cost effective way to reduce CO2 emissions right now is switch coal fired power plants to natural gas and build new gas plants while we wait for a new generation of nuclear plants to come online.

According to an editorial in the Aug. 24^th “Forbes” the cost per ton of CO2 for switching a coal plant to gas is only $20/ton. The cost of government subsidies for electric car cost the taxpayers $250/ton. The cost of the cash for clunker program is $1,700/ton. Crazy so we spend money on clunkers and not a cent to convert coal plants to natural gas.

Silicon Valley Spying

Ralph Muse — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:20:51 +0000

I told this story to Nancy Keene last week and she suggested that I post in on my blog. Nancy has a new blog The Perfect Fit she is in the executive search business and therefore the very appropriate name for the blog.

Our discussion started out with post we had both read in regard to DAs not willing to file charges against corporate thieves, embezzlers etc.

While I was the President of SCI ZeitNet Inc. we had a case of an employee (lets call him Lu) a great employee in many ways always interested in learning more about our products. In fact that is what tipped me of to him, anyone already working 12 hours a day did not have the time or inclination to branch out that much. After much work by detectives and outside IT help, we discovered that Lu was in fact a Spy and was sending all our documentation, my business plans, and all our technical files to his bosses in China. We were designing high-end ATM networking switches and our largest customer was the US Government. I when to the DA in San Jose and he had no interest at all said it was a civil matter. I later found out from the FBI that Lu had done the same thing at Apple, Bay Networks, and Cisco, all of which gave me Lu good marks on reference checks. Clearly we fired him immediately (he still got CA unemployment). Our attorney warned me that I could not say anything bad about Lu when the next company called to check him out. That did not sit well with me, so I had them file a civil suit, knowing we could not collect any damages. We did get Lu to admit the theft as part of the settlement filed with the court. Now there is a public record that I was free to refer anyone to when they did a reference check on Lu. Best $5k I ever spent.

Solar Power Unplugged by the Government

Ralph Muse — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:35:59 +0000

I just talked to a friend of mine who heads up a Solar Energy Company. It seam that an unintended consequence of the Stimulus plan has completely derailed the solar energy business. Commercial projects that were underway have now been canceled or put on hold, because the investors or lenders do not feel they can compete with all the government money that has been promised. In the mean time the Stimulus money is nowhere to be found and maybe years away. Mean while he is planning to start layoff.
Without the government “help” all would have been well.

Cap and Tax: Government should govern more like a business

Ralph Muse — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 15:10:45 +0000

The House just passed the Cap and Tax bill that will dramatically change the economy of our country for decades to come, without anyone reading the bill! In fact they passed it on Friday and the last 300 pages are still not available for anyone to read on Monday!
Can you imagine as a board member coming to meeting, not reading the board book, not having any idea what a completely new business strategy was, and then approving the new strategy with out any idea of the details just because the CEO wanted it passed? Clearly you could be sued for dereliction of duty, as every congressman who voted for this bill should be.
We need term limits and we need to vote out anyone who votes for bills they have not read regardless of party.

Wind Power Still at the Government Nipple

Ralph Muse — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:58:02 +0000

Just 13 years ago I was CEO of KENETECH WindPower Inc. the largest Wind Turbine manufacturing company in the world at the time (now GE Wind Inc.). At the time our largest turbine was around 750KW with a 45 Meter diameter. My engineers told me that was the largest practical size for a turbine. Boy were they wrong the normal size these days is 1 to 1.5 MW and the big boy are running 5 to 8MW.
One thing has not changed worldwide the industry still depending on Government handouts. This causes a cyclical demand as government fail to maintain any consistence in their programs. The industry needs to wean itself from the government nipple. Wind Power should win when it is financially viable and loose out when it is not.

Electronic Document Retention

Ralph Muse — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 18:26:02 +0000

Last week I attended an excellent program put on by the Directors Round Table. The title of the event was: DUTIES & LIABILITIES OF DIRECTORS & C-SUITE MANAGEMENT.
Much of the discussion centered on the subject of company and board investigations in this very business unfriendly environment. It is very scary with the administration pushing for the SEC and others to rack up a number of hits now that they have failed so publicly with the Madolf scandal and the Banking situation.
Clearly as Board Members we need to every accusation or indication of any possible wrong doing very seriously and get out in front of fast. The cost of a typical board investigation seams to be $250K to 3 or 4 Million. The largest factor impacting most investigations is the amount of data that must be searched (emails, documents, company records, PC and Smart Phone data dumps, etc.). This is one place we can all take some action (as long as we have no hint of any upcoming investigation), make sure that you do not retain anything any longer than absolutely required by law. Time to update your electronic document retention policies. The more you have the more it cost!

Is China more pro business than Obama?

Ralph Muse — Mon, 18 May 2009 20:56:23 +0000

Friday I attended the annual meeting for the RENN III Fund (one of my former clients). One of the speakers was Beau Johnson a noted expert on doing business in China. Here are few of the facts from his talk:
. US China

Government Cash Position -$11 trillion +$2 Trillion

Bank lending 09/08 Down +29%

GDP Forecast 09 -6% +8%

Personal Savings Rate 4% 40%

Rather startling comparisons. Beau is very bullish on doing business in China. During the question and answer session he was asked if he was worried about the risk of doing business in China with a Communist government. His answer was that he was more worried about doing business in the U.S. given the recent actions of the Obama administration.
I am afraid he is right.

What will $75 Oil mean to us?

Ralph Muse — Mon, 18 May 2009 16:15:06 +0000

I was asked today to comment for a national publication on the statement by T. Boone Pickens: “In an interview with FOX Business Network at ACG InterGrowth, T. Boone Pickens predicted oil will hit $75/barrel by the end of the year. How is your firm playing the energy sector, how does the current economy factor into your strategy and will it take “pain at the pump” to strengthen the push toward alternative energy sources?”

My Comments:

My firm RDSeismic LLC provides Seismic Imaging Equipment for Oil and Gas exploration world wide. With oil selling for less then the replacement value (cost of exploration and development of fields) our customer business in the US is down over 50% this year. Clearly this is not a good thing for our economy long term. I was perviously CEO of the largest US Wind-Power company so I know a little about alternative energy. Wind Energy and other renewables are great, however they will never replace our dependancy on Oil and Gas. $75/ Barrel oil is a good thing for the US and the world, without a higher price soon the US energy business will be decimated. What we could really use is some support from Washington for a bold Nuclear Power initiative (much like China and France are doing).