This weekend of NFL wild-card football has provided significant entertainment, with the New Orleans Saints, lead by Drew Brees, advancing to play the resurgent San Francisco 49ers, the Houston Texans advancing for the first time to Baltimore to play the Ravens, the New York Giants, lead by the other Manning, once again headed to Lambeau Field in Green Bay to face the defending Super Bowl champion and their MVP, Aaron Rodgers, and the surprising Denver Broncos and the amazing Tim Tebow are headed to New England, after an overtime victory against the Steelers, to play the Patriots and their field general Tom Brady.

We will end a great weekend and holiday season of football with the BCS National Championship title game tomorrow evening, when #2 Alabama will challenge #1 LSU. In an SEC regular season game in November, LSU came out on top in overtime, 9-6, in the game of the century. Can LSU, coached by Les Miles, beat a Nick Saban team twice in the same season?

In between the wild-card games we had two more Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire, where the first primary of the 2012 election will take place this week. After listening to the questions posed to the candidates in both debates as well as several of the earlier Republican debates, it struck me that the two issues that probably mean the most to the U.S. over time were not being addressed.

The first one is the funding of retirement. This is a global issue that goes well beyond the U.S. election. In the U.S. the impending retirement of the baby boom generation needs to be addressed by both parties, particularly with regards to Social Security funding requirements and Medicare, as well as what retirement resources individuals will need as they live longer. These entitlement programs and their funding requirements cannot be ignored.

The other issue that has just started to be discussed nationally is energy independence. Recently, the Deloitte Center for Energy Solutions conducted a poll and released the results at their annual oil and gas conference in Houston on December 15. Eight out of 10 respondents linked gas with job creation and economic revival. “Specifically, 83% of respondents agree that gas development can stimulate U.S. job growth, and 79% believe the gas development can help revitalize the economies of the states and communities.” (Oil & Gas Journal www.ogj.com) While there are environmental risks, the majority of the respondents believe that the long-term reward of energy independence from shale gas far outweighs the risks. In 2005, shale gas made up a very small share of domestic natural gas production but has surged beyond 20% recently. The positive impact on the health of our economy over the next several decades, when combined with newer green technologies, cannot be overstated.

These two issues are ones that I would like to see President Obama and his likely challenger Mitt Romney address when they meet in the fall to debate, prior to the November election.

In my last column in early December, I forecast that the U.S. recovery would continue, which was confirmed later in the month. I also forecast that even though the Eurozone would enter a mild recession while the member countries continued to wrestle with the debt crisis, the United Kingdom would experience slow growth but would not join the countries on the continent in recession. Shortly after this column appeared Prime Minister David Cameron became the target of French President Nicolas Sarkozy's ire when he stood alone at the December EU summit and did not vote for the new treaty. Cameron made this decision "after failing to secure safeguards for the U.K.'s financial services sector." (WSJ December 22, 2011) A survey by the Institute of Directors showed that the U.K. business community strongly supported this decision, with 77% of the business leaders surveyed agreeing with his veto. (WSJ December 22, 2011)

With the financial services sector being a key driver of the U.K. economy, his lonely stance is to be applauded, particularly in London. I sense that over time we will come to see Prime Minister Cameron's decision lead to a faster recovery for the U.K. when combined with the austerity measures he instituted upon his election victory.

In his annual New Year's message, the Prime Minister acknowledged that 2012 would be a challenging year. "I know how difficult it will be to get through this...with ordinary families worried about what 2012 might bring. There are fears about jobs and paying the bills. The search for work has become difficult, particularly for young people. And rising prices have hit household budgets. I get that. We are taking action on both fronts." (FT January 2, 2012) He did find reason for some optimism, though, with the forthcoming summer Olympics in London and the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. He stated that there was an "extraordinary incentive to look outward, look onwards and to look our best. This will be the year Britain sees the world and the world sees Britain. It must be the year we go for it-the year the coalition government I lead does everything it takes to get our country up to strength." (WSJ January 2, 2012)

We at Asset International share Prime Minister Cameron's guarded optimism about the long-term growth prospects for the U.K.'s role as a financial engine, and we will continue to invest and expand our business in London in 2012. Our editorial and commercial teams have both been strengthened over the past several months. In late January and early February I will be spending time with my colleagues in our new London offices at 200 Aldersgate Street in The City.

Happy New Year!

As we move further into the holiday season, it is clear that we have avoided a double-dip recession in the U.S., which was on everyone’s mind this spring, but the global economy remains under pressure, particularly in the Eurozone where long-term solutions remain elusive. It will be difficult to avoid a European recession in 2012. I sense that we will still be looking at various solutions in January, but that France and Germany, together, will finally find a way to bridge their different views and move to save the Euro. A recession in the largest European countries should not be too prolonged and the U.K. economy should manage to avoid the collateral damage and show moderate growth.

I have not written much this year on wine, but sense that we could all use some holiday cheer as we look toward the New Year! One aspect of the wine trade that has not escaped the global economic forces is that the auction market, based on demand for first-growth French wines, in particular, has shifted from New York to Hong Kong to serve the growing market in China. Over the years, I have been both a buyer and a seller at Acker Auctions, www.ackerauctions.com, in New York City. Today it is clear that their largest volume auctions, in terms of dollar volume, all take place in Hong Kong where they established an office several years ago. (Two new auctions in Hong Kong will take place this week and you can bid via the Internet at www.ackerasia.com.) This trend will continue as we embark on 2012.

As Mary Claire and I prepare to head back to the Bay Area for the holidays, I thought an update on two longtime California reference wines might prove valuable.

Williams Selyem
For many years, this Sonoma-based winery set the standard for California Pinot Noir. When the ownership changed hands in the late ‘90s from the founders to the Dyson family, a number of new challengers emerged. At this point, though, with Kathe and John as proprietors and Bob Cabral serving as Director of Winemaking and General Manager, Williams Selyem is clearly the reference standard for outstanding California Pinot Noir. This is a mailing list that you want to be on for their twice a year releases. Their limited Chardonnay releases are truly hidden gems, as well. www.williamsselyem.com 

Turley Wine Cellars
I have been a fan of Turley Zinfandels for years, going back to the early ‘90s. They continue to impress me with their releases, which are also twice a year. This is another mailing list that you should get on. Proprietor Larry Turley and winemaker Ehren Jordan continue to be an unbeatable team.

Start building your Williams Selyem Pinot Noir and Turley Zinfandel collections in the New Year. Your wine collection and your companion dinners will truly be enhanced. www.turleywines.com 

Happy Holidays!

While European economies continue to weaken and the U.S. manages very slow growth that has kept unemployment over 9%, it appears that the 17 sovereign countries that comprise the Eurozone are unable to commit to a comprehensive solution to Greece’s crushing debt load. The Greek problems have been known to everyone for close to two years, but during this time it has proved impossible to put together a comprehensive solution, particularly one that the two largest members of the Eurozone, France and Germany, can support. When it became obvious on Friday that French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel could not reach an agreement on a comprehensive solution prior to this weekend’s summit in Brussels, world leaders, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, U.S. President Barack Obama, and China’s Premier Wen Jiabao all reached out to the major players and called on them to restore confidence in the euro, the common currency that the 17 nations share.

While Sarkozy and Merkel continue to debate the proper course, the underpinnings of the global economy weaken. (FT October 21, 2011) One of the stumbling blocks is the size of the haircut that bondholders will have to take on the Greek debt. “Germany is insisting that Greece’s private-sector bondholders take a big hit to reduce Greece’s debt to a more sustainable level, a proposal that France and the ECB are resisting for fear that it could accelerate bond investors’ flight from Southern Europe.” (WSJ October 22, 2011) Some believe that the bondholders could be facing a 50%-60% haircut, which is significantly larger than the previously agreed to 21% negotiated only three months ago. (FT October 21, 2011) The Greek parliament has approved the austerity measures required for the bailout, but the weight of these measures combined with a lack of confidence has led to a much more severe contraction than anticipated. There is a sense that it could take at least a decade for Greece to restructure its economy and not need bailout funds from the other Eurozone members.

This weekend’s summit, followed by a second one later in the week and the G20 summit in Cannes early next month, will be watched closely by the world. The global markets demand a solution that restores confidence in the euro. I will be flying late on Monday to Barcelona, Spain, where we will launch Plan Sponsor’s European Conference: Uncommon Solutions for Pension Schemes.

On a more positive note, when I was in London two weeks ago the Conservative party was holding their annual conference and I watched with interest as George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, unveiled a plan to help small businesses. “There is more the government itself can do to get credit flowing and encourage investment…Everyone knows Britain’s small firms are struggling to get credit and banks are weak. So as part of my determination to get the economy moving I have set the Treasury to work on ways to inject money directly into parts of the economy that need it, such as small businesses.” (FT October 3, 2011)

As I have written previously, entrepreneurial small businesses are the ones that create new jobs and are necessary if we want to significantly lower the stubbornly high unemployment rate. We need more creative ideas from our government leaders to assist these engines of job creation.

Finally, I trust most of us occasionally dine alone on long business trips and are faced with a rather limited choice of wines by the glass, if we choose to have two glasses of wine with our meal. On my last night in London, I was dining by myself on a Friday evening in Amaranto, in the refurbished Four Seasons London, and discovered a very innovative approach to this issue. Approximately 50% of the wines on their list are offered by the glass with a two glass minimum. This covers the cost of the wine for the establishment, with the possibility of selling the remaining two glasses to another diner. I spotted a wine I have had before, from Tenuta Argentiera, a small Tuscan producer located in the Bolgheri region, and with my two glasses enjoyed a wonderful meal prior to flying back to New York early on Saturday morning.

The article below appeared recently in BtoB Media Business: The Magazine for Publishing Professionals. In the weeks since it appeared, I have added some frequent flyer miles with a trip to Hong Kong and Sydney, Australia to meet with our clients. CEOs of global companies need to regularly travel to better understand how they can best serve their client base. In Hong Kong, Daniel Enskat, Strategic Insight's Head of Global Consulting, and I hosted our 2nd Annual Asia CEO Thought Leader Roundtable over a dinner at the Mandarin Oriental. We also introduced Rosie Halfhead to our clients. Rosie was recently with SWIFT and is now a Senior Advisor to Strategic Insight and The Trade.

In Sydney we held our first Chief Investment Officer Summit, CIOS. Kip McDaniel, Editor-in-Chief of aiCIO, moderated and was joined by Paula Vasan, Managing Editor of aiCIO, and Simon Solomon, founder of Plan for Life, a Asset International company, based in Melbourne, who also moderated a panel.

Our business continues to expand in the Asia/Pacific region, and as we look out into the next several years, it is clear that we will have very significant growth in this dynamic region.

As I write this introduction, I am recovering (yes, it is very early on Sunday morning) from a slight bit of jetlag and looking forward to spending Thanksgiving in Boston with my family. Mary Claire and I will also be celebrating our 40th Wedding Anniversary next Sunday!

Happy Thanksgiving 2011!

As I was planning to leave Reed Elsevier's Reed Business Information division in January of 2007, I was looking forward to building an integrated professional information services company with a strong, single market focus. After having met with many other private equity teams, I decided to partner with Austin Ventures' Growth Equity team. I felt that my vision was most closely aligned with that of the Austin partners and I found their CEO-in-Residence program to be an excellent support system for our common goal. I also understood that securing the capital commitment and support from Austin Ventures was just the first step in a process that would be at least a 5-year commitment. You need to choose your partner carefully to insure a successful outcome. Both parties need to take the time to make certain that this is a partnership that will endure.

In March of 2007 we established a holding company, Case Interactive Media, opened an office and began the search process for a platform company. We looked at potential companies to acquire in the following verticals:

• Information Technology
• Institutional Finance & Legal
• Energy
• Healthcare
• Marketing Services

Together with the Austin Ventures team, we built market maps for each vertical and then began a round of calls with investment bankers to determine what companies might be coming to market over the next 6 to 12 months. In the early spring of 2008, we narrowed our focus to Institutional Finance & Legal. This was during the time that Bear Stearns was under severe pressure and was eventually bailed out by an arranged marriage with JP Morgan Chase. As we moved into spring and summer the crisis accelerated, and with the bankruptcy filing of Lehman Brothers the credit markets became entirely frozen. It was clear that we were about to embark on a contrary bet with the sector we selected.

We began the acquisition process in earnest with Asset International's founders and their financial backers. We found their brands, Plan Sponsor and Plan Adviser, to be demographically attractive with their focus on the retirement part of the market. We also saw the opportunity to move much more quickly on the digital front with additional capital. Whlie they were headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, one of their core brands, Global Custodian, was based in London, which met our criteria of building out our platform around the two large global money centers, New York and London. We also found their conference and event business and infrastructure to be attractive. Asset International's founder Charlie Ruffel was also a well-recognized personality in the industry, as the company had been in business for 20 years. We closed the transaction in late December of 2008 and invited Charlie to join our board of directors. While the first quarter of 2009 was one of the worst quarters in recent memory, we set about building our company for the long term. We adopted the Asset International brand for our operating company and started to look for additional acquisitions.

Later that spring we completed the acquisition of The Trade from John Lee, a truly entrepreneurial publisher. The Trade is based in London and had a focus on Europe and the Asia/Pacific region. The business has more than doubled in size over the past two years and we are preparing to launch Philanthropy Management early in 2012 with a team based both in London and New York. We will also be bringing The Trade into the U.S. market in 2012.

We always wanted a balance between assets that were marketing vehicles and data and analytics products, as well. In the spring of 2009 we began the acquisition process of Strategic Insight, a company that had serviced the mutual fund industry for more than 20 years with business intelligence analytics and advisory services. While one founder, Joel Rosenthal, retired, the other two, Avi Nachmany and Phil Herzog, joined us after the acquisition. We used our strong capital base to open a London office, followed by one in Hong Kong. We expanded their global footprint with the acquisition of Plan for Life in Melbourne, Australia in January of this year. Today more than 50 percent of our business is data and analytics.

We remain focused on global growth, both organically and through additional acquisitions.

As we observe the still-unresolved Greek debt crisis, it is important to realize that the deleveraging we are undergoing in the Euro Zone, the U.K. and the U.S. is a painful process. The New York Times carried an Associated Press story, "I.M.F. Slashes Growth Outlook for U.S. and Europe": "The fund said it expected the American economy to grow just 1.5 percent this year and 1.8 percent in 2012. That's down from its June forecast of 2.5 percent in 2011 and 2.7 percent next year. The International Monetary Fund also lowered its outlook for the 17 European Union countries that use the euro. It predicted 1.6 percent growth this year and 1.1 percent next year, down from its June projections of 2 percent and 1.7 percent respectively... Over all, the International Monetary Fund predicted global growth of 4 percent for both years. Stronger growth in China, India, Brazil and other developing countries should offset weaker output in the United States and Europe... American and European policy makers need to act more decisively to cut budget deficits, the report said, and European officials need to ensure that the region's banks have enough capital to withstand the debt crisis... Olivier Blanchard, the organization's chief economist said, 'President Obama's proposal to cut taxes and spend more on infrastructure should provide much-needed short-term stimulus. But that initiative needs to be paired with a longer-term plan to reduce the deficit. The timing of the budget cuts is key. Budget cuts cannot be too fast or it will kill growth. It cannot be too slow or it will kill credibility.' " (AP, September 20, 2011)

This painful and slow-moving process in Greece and the European Union has been going on much longer than the debate in the U.S. over raising the debt ceiling. Landon Thomas Jr. wrote in yesterday's New York Times, "But some economists believe default may be inevitable - and that it may actually be better for Greece and, despite a short-term shock to the system, perhaps eventually for Europe as well. They are beginning to wonder whether the consequences of a default or a more radical debt restructuring, dire as that may be, would be no worse for Greece than the miserable path it is currently on... What would the impact of a default by Greece be on Italy? In a new sign of trouble for the country (Italy), Standard & Poor's on Monday cut Italy's credit rating by one notch to A, citing its weakening economy and limited political response." ("Greece Nears the Precipice, Raising Fear," NYT, September 19, 2011) On Tuesday it was reported in the Wall Street Journal, "The European Central Bank stepped in to the market to buy Italian government bonds Tuesday after a sovereign-rating downgrade by Standard & Poor's Corp. raised new concerns about Italy's solvency amid a slowing economy." (WSJ, September 20, 2011)

The impact of an outright default on the European banks is unknown, but it is being suggested, "Bailing out the banks will be crucial if Greece either defaults or imposes a hard restructuring, whereby banks would be forced to take a larger loss on their holdings compared with the fairly benign 21 percent losses that they are now being asked to accept as part of the second, 109 billion euro bailout package set for Greece in June." (NYT, September 19, 2011) If Greece does default, will they remain within the European Union with its common currency, the euro, or would they exit the euro zone and return to their former currency the drachma and then devalue their currency versus the rest of Europe?

It is clear that this deleveraging process is very painful on all levels. Finding the right balance between stimulating growth and embracing austerity is playing out on a daily basis. Unfortunately, no one group or political party seems to have found the right balance and the frustration level grows both within the financial community and the individuals who cannot find productive work in this high unemployment environment. Deleveraging is a surgical process that must be done with care to insure that the western economies do not repeat Japan's lost decade.

As we awaited Hurricane Irene's arrival Saturday evening in New York City, it was a good time to reflect on how we can restore growth to a sluggish global economy and the important role entrepreneurs need to play. Two weeks ago I wrote, Entrepreneurs & a Week of Volatility in the U.S. & U.K.! and stated, "I believe that we need to unleash entrepreneurs in both the U.S. & U.K. and let them, once again, create the jobs that will drive more revenue into the government coffers from an engaged workforce that has been idled by unemployment for too long."

What separates entrepreneurs from corporate business managers? Why are they able to translate their visions into enterprises that end up growing much faster than the average large corporation and in the process create many new jobs and opportunities for growth for their employees?

With Steve Jobs stepping down this past week as CEO of Apple and moving to the role of Chairman of the Board, I thought back to the first time I met Steve. It was in the spring of 1992 and I had recently moved to the Bay Area to join IDG as President of InfoWorld. I was teamed with Bob Metcalfe by Pat McGovern, the founder and guiding force behind IDG. Bob joined InfoWorld as Chairman and Publisher. His tech credentials were outstanding. He had worked at Xerox PARC and was the inventor of Ethernet. He went on to found 3Com, one of the early networking companies. One day early in our tenure my phone rang and Bob asked me to come down the hall to his office. As I entered, I saw someone on the floor with his back to me tearing pages out of a number of magazines that were scattered on the floor in front of him. He briefly turned to see who had entered the room and Bob introduced me to Steve, who then went back to tearing pages out of issues of NeXTWorld.

This was during his years of exodus from Apple, when John Sculley had convinced the board to allow him to remove Steve, one of the co-founders of Apple, from the company. Steve knew Bob and was making a pitch on why we, InfoWorld, would be a much better publishing partner for NeXT than the division of IDG that was publishing NeXTWorld. What struck me was Steve's enthusiasm for a computing platform that never gained much traction. That platform would eventually provide the foundation for a new Mac OS X operating system when when Steve returned to Apple in 1996 with the acquisition of NeXT by Apple.

In many ways, the spring of 1992 was the midpoint for Jobs in his exile from Apple and yet one could sense that he still had a unique sense of confidence and a desire to have the world share his vision. At that point he was not the iconic innovator the world has come to admire, but an entrepreneur trying to gain recognition and market share for his latest venture.

I realized many years later that his persistence, when combined with his creativity and innovative sense of style, set him apart from many of the other entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley. You knew in speaking with him that failure was not an option. There would be setbacks and detours along the way, but Steve Jobs was determined to bring his vision to the rest of the world, well beyond The Valley. Shortly after he returned to Apple with the purchase of NeXT and had taken over as CEO of Apple, I had an appointment with him along with two other colleagues (I was then a board member of Mac Publishing, a joint venture between IDG and Ziff Davis). We went to see him regarding the Mac clones, which at the time were providing significant advertising dollars to our publication and also providing market share growth for the Macintosh. Steve listened and was cordial and then one week later made a decision with regards to licensing that effectively ended the clones. He knew where he was headed and partners were not part of his plan.

Today we celebrate his brilliance for the launch of the iPod, iPhone and iPad and for creating the most valuable company in America, based on market capitalization, but his persistence was what carried him through those middle years in the '80s and early '90s and allowed him to triumphantly reach the pinnacle of success as an entrepreneurial legend.