December 13, 2015 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
1965 “Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion’, and the intelligence of […]
Read more
Uber, Taxify and The Journey Towards a Zero Marginal Cost Society
May 7, 2018 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
“I think Uber is just very different, there’s no model to copy.” Travis Kalanic, FT.com March 3rd 2017 Background In my role as Managing Director of Mclowd I recently caught up with an accountant in suburban Melbourne. This practitioner provides bookkeeping services to a number of Uber drivers, whom he noticed had started declaring income […]
Read more
Zero Marginal Cost – The Ultimate Fintech Disruption?
November 9, 2017 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
“A second explanation is that we are overlooking actual output – and thus productivity growth – because the new information-intensive goods and services are hard to measure, and their costs may be falling faster than standard methods allow us to gauge.” Nouriel Roubini, Populists and productivity, 4th June 2016 Background Harvard University Professor Joseph Schumpeter […]
Read more
50 Years of Artificial Intelligence
December 13, 2015 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
1965 “Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultra intelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an ‘intelligence explosion’, and the intelligence of […]
Read more
The Sugar Hit of Balance Sheet Funding – Dick Smith and the Macroeconomic Implications for Australia
December 7, 2015 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
“Come the end of 2015 financial year, however, it really comes home to roost. Operating cash flow was negative $4m, as inventory increases further and suppliers demand payment, decreasing accounts payable. The business is required to take on $71m in debt to fund a more sustainable amount of working capital. As the benefit of prior […]
Read more
Disruption and Diffusion in the Energy Sector: The Role Played by Zero Marginal Cost (Part 2)
September 3, 2015 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
“In rural areas individuals and communities may find it economic to disconnect from the grid.” Op ed, Australian Financial Review, May 25th 2015, p39 Introduction In Part 1 of this blog I described how incumbents in the Australian electricity sector have inadvertantly created a scenario where the $$ required to fund their displacement offers the […]
Read more
Disruption and Diffusion in the Energy Sector: The Role Played by Zero Marginal Cost (Part 1)
June 15, 2015 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
“In rural areas individuals and communities may find it economic to disconnect from the grid.” Op ed, Australian Financial Review, May 25th 2015, p39 Introduction In early May Tesla announced its long-awaited move into electricity storage. While it is not the only player looking to grow this market, lending the weight of the Tesla brand […]
Read more
Superpartners: A House of Cards?
April 30, 2015 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
Background Anyone who has watched the series House of Cards would know that it is a compelling example of high quality content designed specifically for television (and even smaller screens). Fewer would be aware that it was developed by and for Netflix, and that it represented part of our inexorable journey towards a Zero Marginal […]
Read more
Capital Efficiency, Marketing and the Journey Towards Zero Marginal Cost
February 3, 2015 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
Introduction From inception Mclowd has been run along the strictest of Lean Start Up principles, and as a consequence of being capital constrained traditional marketing activity has been largely absent, both as to capabilities and execution. Interestingly however, the Community has continued to grow, which has got me thinking about what the implications of Lean […]
Read more
Why Context Matters: Class Super and The Journey Towards Zero Marginal Cost
October 31, 2014 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
“Summers and DeLong found themselves hopelessly trapped. Although economists and entrepreneurs never intended for the capitalist system to self-destruct (they expected it to reign forever), a careful look at its operating logic reveals the inevitability of a future of near zero marginal cost. A near zero marginal cost society is the optimally efficient state for […]
Read more
Energising Your Practice: Structural Shifts in the Professional Services Sector and Implications for SMSF Practitioners
September 22, 2014 / by Ashley Porter / Blog / 0 comments
Energy retailers are faced with a slide in profitability and declining relevance unless they succeed in broadening their market offering especially with the steady increase in the number of households installing solar photovoltaic systems. In a blunt warning, the outgoing head of Momentum Energy, who lifted annual revenue of the retailer to $1 billion in […]
Read more