Academia M&A

When I was shaving this morning, an interesting but stupid topic jumped into my mind.
So, comparing the higher education system in UK and United State, it is quite different since UK is still predominated by elite college system but US is pretty much all university style.

Then I was using using the competitive advantages (RBV) to compare the both systems. One factors determining the advantages in RBV is the economy of scale, and the economy of scale on the other end.

So, US is system seems more one the economy of scale, but theoretically, it may be able to offer the education at cheaper cost (even with the skyrocketed tuition). And on the other hand, UK is more lean to the economy of scope, with certain college only focus on certain area, to ensure providing the best quality of education.


Then I was thinking this is just like to normal business competition. Of course there are debates about the purpose of education, like government subside or not child left behind whatever. But with higher education, it is more like capitalism business that the rich and smarter will get into it but not else. Anyway, so, I assume the competition between school/college/university will be similar just like companies compete in the same fields.

so, will the competition between elite college and university just the competition between Microsoft and niche player like Adobe!? I am saying yes.

Now, here is the real question after go through this path: so, will there be two types of growth for university/college? organic or acquisition? like oracle and SAP?

We certainly don't see much acquisition between college or with university are we? but will there be.... that actually is the question.

I will say mostly are organic. At least that is the impression I had.
The only acquisition case I knew is the case in the town near by. A medical college - Medical College of Virginia MCV merged into Virginia Commonwealth University VCU. MCV definitely had better reputation than VCU, but it used this tactic to take advantage on economy of scale. But whether VCU gained the same and enjoy any economy of scope is unknown. And whether this tactic can help VCU's overall reputation is unclear either.

Well apparently I don't have much background knowledge and no detail research at all during a length of a tooth brush... But I just simply note this down and may be motivated to look into it later in my life... When my life is bored.

Kia Rondo

I just checked the price of this car on msn autos. damn, this car is so so cheap.
the rental car company made a very bad job for cleaning this car. so, it smell stincky.
but driving is surprisingly pleasant thought, considering the price. its handling is notbad. the seat position is high but feel comfort. the engine is doing ok with just enough power. nothing particular about the dashboard. the space is good since it is designed to be a crossover (but think it seems more like a wagon rather than a SUV though). it is a nice plain vallina car, but the price tag is certainly make it appealing and make it a good value-to-money.

Wintergreen resort

Well. so, last year my wife and I were thinking to go ski resort. at that time, we thought it will be just a mission impossible, with a new baby on the way in the mid of this year.
however, from mid of November, we started to feel it is not something infeasible and start to gear up towarding that.
it turned out excellent. from location picking to the content of this 4 days 3 nights outting.
first, I have to mention the location, wintergreen resort, one major resort in Virginia. we considered snowshoe in west virginia seriously since beginning. but consider the distance of travel, purpose of trip and the family accommodation, wintergreen definitely had its merits.
we had a rental vacation townhouse, which is ok for size, cozy and comfortable. and never need to worry about noise. and it is far less expensive than snowshoe.
secondly, as most of us are first/second snow exposed, wintergreen's weather turned out perfect. not too cold, but cold enough to have perfect snowmaking. we are actually extremely surprised by the quality of snow on slope, and no snow anywhere else to reduce the inconvenience.
as mentioned, not many od us has serious snow experience. so, just couple snow tubing trips and some ground playing are sufficient. my 2 years spent more time having fun stumbling in snow rather than taking tube.she definitely had fun.
Me and wife spent couple hours on the slopes only, which is perfect and beyong expectation already since we ourself did not plan to go initially. It was really good feeling to know I have not forgot skiing and really had fun. the condition of slopes are excellent.
we actually didi not use the facilities of wintergreen too much except tubing park and slopes. but overall it is a well organized resort and definitely enjoyed.

Chevolet TrailBlazer

hahaha....
this is quite a classical american car. the dashboard everything are pretty much standard layout for a chevolet. the handling is not too bad but sort of unstable at high speed (I don't want to kill myself for sure)
not having enough power regarding the engine. but acceleation was ok.

Blackfriday 2008

ok. looks better this year since went throught all the Ads and did not see too many things worth to buy. so I guess we are at a stage that the electric at home is sufficient.

Toyota Yaris

My mom was initially thinking to buy this tiny sporty oriented, but cheap entry level car. I start to worry about Civic's market share. but I think its domaination will not be changed. Yaris is still achieve that level of techical excellence from my perspective.
not enough juice for sure. the dashboard is nice, apparently more fashion and modern than corolla. Handing is fine. I think it is ok to be the first car for college kid (but think still too spoiled).

Toyota 4Runner

I was quite happy to get this car. well, nothing to with whether I like this car or not. it just I bookeda lower class car but they ran it out. so I have to pick a bigger one with no extra charge ( who knows they will kick my back later or not)

overall, quite a smooth car. the seating position is high which gave me a good vision on highway. the dash board is sort of cramped. the engine is not particularly power, probably the only obvious issue. sort of spacy. but I believe it could do a better job with this size of chassis.

MDA with strange SIM ---> MAD

Two weeks ago(at the time when I was renting this Envoy), my MDA started losing signal time to time. After a week struggling, it is getting worse and worse. after rebooting and even reformatting my MDA, it kept struggling to get receptions. I was quite concerned since I really don't want to spend another $200 bucks to get a new smartphone, but I also will jeopardize my productivity badly without one.

Then one day I noticed repositioning the SIM card helps, a little. After reposition it, it will quickly find the signal and keep it for a while. After couple hours, it gets back to norm and keep searching for signal, eventually gave up.

Then I replace the SIM card with another phone... what stroke me was, both phones work great!!!.... Damn... but because I use MDA with my company number. I really cannot switch it.

So, I came down to the last option, gave T-mobile customer service a call and ask them to issue me a new SIM card. They were amazed by the issue but agreed to have me replaced it to try out.

I stopped by a local T-mobile shop and pick up a new SIM, put it in.... BANNN...... 5 secs, my MDA is back to full reception! data connection is working too!!! wooopy!

So, we now know that SIM card does affect the reception. It could turn a phone MAD easily....

GMC Envoy

I lost my notes since I reformat my MDA. it is actually an interesting story. I am going to post it on a separate note. Because of MDA went MAD at that time, I did not get a chance to take a picture of this wacky car!!!

It probably ranked as lowest as the car I have ever driven. Before this, I am actually under the impression that GMC does have a pretty good reputation in the section of trunk/SUV/crossover. I am hoping this is the worst car in GMC family, otherwise, I don't think it deserves the reputation I heard.

The major merit and probably the only one is the engine. It just has enough power, "just" but not more. The seat is cramy.. the dashboard is notwell arranged. the electronic system was so out dated like dirivng a 70s car. The interior seems trying to make it a higher class, but all just make it more like driving a slightly more luxury trunk.

I was wondering whether this is for people want to drive a "upper class trunk" and who have never drive a different car but trunk in their whole life. Compare to the comfortness and steering of passenger car, it is far away. Compare to the spacy, no way close to a ordinary Van. Even just compare to a SUV which I thought the market it is asiming. man, don't want to do that. Overall, it seems just a nicer trunk with roof but I doubt how much trunking job it can do.

Maybe I was wrong... but the fact is.. this car does not impress me at all in the begiining, and actually disapppoitning me by the end.

Toyota RAV4

here is the famous RAV4
it is bigger than I thought. it is pretty nice to drive except the engine is sort of lack of juice.

Buick Terraza

Do you believe there is a buick van actually? I didn't. I never realized it exists until I saw this one.

the engine is mild. interior is crop. cannot believe they are positioning Buick as an higher end class.
but reversely thinking, Chrysler's Caravan is even worse. I guess US car marker never think to make a upper class Van. no wonder honda odyssey and toyota sienna keep beating them up. even the over hill nissan quest still edge on them

Ego in Automative

Was quite busy recently because my newborn son came in June. That is another length note which I have not had time to work on. Anyway, this is just about a interesting story from my friend/college classmate.

My BS is mechanical enginerring. I quite focused on automative industry and was friend with a group of "car geek". I then went to the pilgrim school, U of Michigan. For an automotive engineering, that is the dream school. But ironically, during the final stage of my graduate degree, I decided to leave car industry and tought it is failing (which is kind of true now).
Back on track. This is one of the friend from this group. He came to here, went to the MBA program of one of the elite school. It was quite a investment but we all think it should be worthful.

The interesting part comes. Finally he landed a nice job and graduated. When relocation is still going on and student loan is not cleaned yet, he decided to buy a new car.
A BMW 335xi!!!
This car is more than 40K and in a upper class among BMW family.
This made me recall the last time I drove BMW. It was Autumn of 2005 when I was managing a project in Regensburg, Germany. I had some photos. But I really cannot recall what exact they were. I remembered the first time I got a BMW 318, then 320 I believe. Whether I got 325 or not, I am not sure. Funny thing is, I kept all the rental records back 2004, but I just cannot find any of these.

I always rent BMW mainly because I need GPS and client was ok for the higher rate. So, I managed to stay away from VW which my client keep saying they are crap. Oh... one point here, having a GPS in a country which you can not speak the language is a life saver. I ended up using the GPS more fluent than my own product I guess.318 was not impressed. The space is not sufficent and the engining is crying all the time... I managed to drive up to 200Km/Hr on AutoBahn but the whole car was getting shaky. 320 (or 325) was relatively better. The space is about the same (actually better because the 32x was the new model). But the smoothness around 150-200Km/Hr is quite improved.

BMW 318 when reaching 200 Km/hr

I then got couple chances to take rides with client's IT manager, who was driving a BMW 525. I just think I will never accept the tiny space in 3 series to be a family car. Overall, it is a car for two adults only, a hippy car.

Before my daughter came, we actually went to the car dealer and tried the 3 series. We also then tried Mercede C220 (I think). Well, my wife was apparently not even putting them in consideration.

Oh... when looking for photos (and rental records but return nothing), I recalled all the days I had in that small nice town in Germany. Regensburg is quite a peaceful place and may be I should post some photos later. I also noticed I actually got a Mercede B series one time. Maybe I should talk it a little bit since B series is quite rare out of Europe.

Ok... the point is, I am quite happy for my friend actually. Even thinking about all the financial implication. Car is consumer good, we all agree. And it go depreciate all the time and does not preserve value well. But from car guy ego, I can sort of understand. And I kind of thinking that if I could, I may go crazy because of this ego thing once a life time.

Jeep Liberty

I picked it up because I did not have much chance to drive a Jeep and the experience has never been great. so, with a short trip, picking a jeep seems optimal.
I have to say that it drives mostly ok if you don't want to drive it aggressively. I would never get used to its transmition. it seems tuned very wiredly. too much when you try to park but too less when you kick down the pedal on the highway.
the space is not great. it is just barely acceptable. I was making joke of this that it is sort of uncomfortable to drive on road so you would like to drive it offroad.
anyway, Jeep is Jeep. it has its brand name, history and prestige.

Buick LeSabre

just realize how long I had this note sitting here without sending it out. almost a month. that pretty much means I did not travel for about a month. I got to say that is a good thing. start to really enjoy the no-travel life. This is quite an old model. but driving it can tell what means 'American car'. the suspension is so soft that you actually feel you are rowing a boat.
the dashboard is not bad. but can say the things are really made cheaplly. it is not designed to be stylish. you probably can image this is the car for the old grandpa grandma.

Chevolet Malibu

Well, I got to say that recent driving of American cars did change some of my perceptions. I guess the newer generation of american car does catch up foreign cars a lot and seems improve a lot. or just because I am getting used to?
first, I have to say that I am not really interested in luxury car, except Hummer and Mercede CLK. I definitely more interested in mid price range, mid size car. Because car is the most popular ttansportation tool, a lot of people are using it to demostrate their social status, just like the girl's wearing Hemes and Prada on tokyo subway. But ultimately, car is just a transportation tool and that is why people drive it. so I definitely admire the companis who make car for driving more than the companies making car for other purposes.
anyway, the Malibu did run smoother than I expected. I intended pick a V6 version instead of normal one when selecting the car. the interior is properly arranged. nothing extraordinary.

Pontiac G6

I was sort of surprised about the horsepower and the smoothness I am getting from this engine. It seems better than the most US car I got so far. this makes me nervous since I do't have much chance to drive on highway and mostly are local roads. needto be extra cautious not speeding.
The handling is not bad too, even the steering is a little bit heavy and the car weight seems to have influence on mavourving.
the seating is lean to hard. and lack od some advance adjusting features like its japanese and europian competitors.
it is not that spacy. the room is sort of clamp. and the view is pretty narrow. tend to give you a feeling that ur actaully in a racing oriented car.
the exterior is good. do look like a muscle car One funny thing was that when picking up the car, they have two options, fresh hot red G6 and a dark grey one. the red one seemssaying 'Mr.policeman, I am here!' so I got the dark grey one.
just a little disappointing that the one I got did not equip with the signature full-open sky window. it was quite a attracting feature when G6 came out years ago. I remembered this is also the car that oprah gave to her audiences. anyway, sometimes I just feel her behaviors are odd. but just a little. mostly her thinking seems still following the tradition culture and ethic, which is much better than most folks in hollywood.

Chrysler PT Cruiser

one of the cars which I had thinking to drive at least once. It turned out ok. the engine is proper. not extremely powerful but not lack of juice. the sitting position is sort of high and made me a little bit uncomfortahble until I get used to.
it tried to make it classic. the external style is ok. particularly the one I am driving is black. but the interior is not. heavy plastic feeling and sort of cheap layout. it tried to add some walnut insert, but seems not helping much for me. I have no chance to try the backseat yet, but does not seem extremely spacy.
I am kind of confused bt the position of this car. except being classic, what is the characterisitics of this car? I don't see anything particular

Saturn VUE

Sort of odd looking car. probably because it is the first time I drive a saturn (or I just cannot remember it).
it was a pretty interesting that at the moment I sat into the cockpit and turned the key, I immediately feel - this is a cheap car. Considering all these premium brands like lexus and BMW are marketing 'pushing start', I think this car is just going opposite. They may just want to make it look cheap, feel cheap even I doubt how cheap it really is. It probably not costing much for the product manager to design a better keylock, or spend a liitle more to find a supplier with better quality. thus I really do not appreciate this point.
the engine is pretty good. sort of surprised. Drove CRV (which I felt was in the similar class), this car definitely has more juice. the intefrior and layout are fine with me. Did not have too many problem to operate compare to Europian car (see my previous Pinto note).

I just saw a note that the engine was provided by Honda. that explain why. it was funny that in the note it mentioned that Honda is not favoring to provide engines for Saturn anymore. kind of interesting. other than producing powerful engine for particular purposes or for rich people (since they drink oil like water), it seems US is losing the competences to build the engine which is generally better for average human being. Maybe this is just a reflection of current position of United States.

Politics

Yesterday, I saw a sticker - 'politics is good'
Well, it is a sticker definitely good to stir up conversation. Actually, the attitude toward politics is comparatively calm and cool.
My personal conclusions are two points, one is good and one is bad (not exactly bad). the good point is in a well-developed countries. the legal and bureaucratic system are pretty much well definited. that means much less flexibility and ... loopholes. thus, it could reduce the interest and motivation to get involved in politics significantly. the other point is the history, europe and asia are relatively more passion about politics. the reason to be passion is not really just because they love it. Think about white terror and some harness caused by government (french revolution or china's culture revolution). If an area has been suffered from these big time, then people care about what is going on in politics, isn't it?

The first point is well supported by the low voting rates cross all developed counties. the second one may not be true, but might be applicable to US. The people here seems not sophisticated and care less about politics. the second one I was not that sure. the government suppression is another major factor. maybe it can say that developed area like US or Japan, seems there is no such history and not much government suppression in modern history, people gradually became less sensitive about politics atmosphere.

Ripley, Tennessee

I recently start traveling to Ripley,TN. Not far from people's expectation. this is really a place in the countryside!