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Anthony Tjan: Learning to Inspire Yourself

by on September 8, 2010

This guest post was written by Tsun-yan Hsieh. Early in my consulting career, the late Marvin Bower, one of the early pioneers and legends in management consulting, shared a story that inspired me. He told me he had decided to write a letter to a CEO, challenging him to consider that he might be at the heart of his company’s prolonged performance problems. Marvin’s forthrightness succeeded in inspiring the CEO to change course. Since then I have often reminded myself of Marvin’s frankness. Human nature most often pushes us towards conflict avoidance, but Marvin gave me the courage to speak directly on tough issues, even if it has meant in some cases risking my relationships with my clients and colleagues. Not everyone who knew about Marvin’s actions at the time felt inspired. Some considered his behavior reckless, disruptive, and undiplomatic. For those of us who were inspired by his values, the important question is: What did I do with that inspiration? Inspiration only begins its useful work when our spirits are moved to thought and action. The self is the weak link between all things inspiring and inspired thought and action. Blaming others for not inspiring us when we are not inspired externalizes the problem. And we cannot inspire others if we are not inspired ourselves. To become self-inspired, I have found it useful to build three reinforcing processes within me — evolving self, congruent self and courageous self. Evolving self (a term used by Robert Kegan, an authority on adult development) is the first step in the process of achieving inspiring self. Evolving self occurs when one seeks to push forward to his full potential by willing to shed elements of their old self and induct new (and better) elements into their inner core. Ask people who are in their 50′s or older, and they will tell you how they have changed in some important ways while remaining otherwise the same in the last 30 years. Some people change as a result of their responses to life events; others put in the hard work to evolve to become a better person and/or leader. Yet, many remain stuck well below their potential because the tensions between the comfort of staying with the familiar on the one hand, and the pain of shedding the skin in which we have grown accustomed, are often unbearable. Evolving self is the recognition, desire and action towards continuous learning about yourself. Congruent self begins with the unwavering drive to be true to oneself. It results in a deep self-awareness and an unbroken flow from being and thinking to feeling and expressing. In other words: I say what I think, what I think is how I feel, and how I feel is who I am. Incongruence dampens the full emotional response to an inspiration and blocks the urge to act on it. It takes inner strength and hard work to resolve the tensions among conflicting desires in favor of truth about one’s self. Courageous self is the resolve to act consistently with our congruent self, even in situations that harbor significant risk. Consider whistle-blowers reporting corporate wrongdoing: they know that by speaking up they risk being discredited, oppressed, and made unemployable. But their will to abide by their own values in the face of adversity inspires them to act for the greater good. Inspiring self is integral to the never-ending journey of becoming a better person. Without it, the inspiration we receive from others does us no good. Tsun-yan Hsieh is Director Emeritus at McKinsey & Company where he has been for 30 years. He sits on the Board of Directors of Sony Corporation and is a member of Cue Ball’s Collective brain trust. This article first appeared on Harvard Business Publishing on July 2, 2010.

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Anthony Tjan: Learning to Inspire Yourself

Riki Ott: BP, Governments Downplay Public Health Risk From Oil and Dispersants (PHOTOS)

by on July 7, 2010

Pensacola Beach, FL — When Ryan Heffernan, a volunteer with Emerald Coastkeeper, noticed a bag of oily debris floating off in Santa Rosa Sound, she ran up to BP’s HazMat-trained workers to ask if they would retrieve it. “No, ma’am,” one replied politely. “We can’t go in the ocean. It’s contaminated.” Ryan waded in and retrieved the bag. That was Wednesday, June 23, the first day visible oil hit Pensacola Beach. Ryan had been swimming off the beach the day before, as she said, “to get in my last swim before the oil hit.” The trouble is that not all of the oil coming ashore is visible. Dispersed oil – tiny bubbles of oil encased in chemical dispersants – are in the water column. On Thursday Ryan was treated at a local doctor’s office for skin rash on her legs. Three days later on Pensacola Beach, I watched BP’s HazMat-trained workers shovel surface oiled sand and oily debris into bags early in the morning. The workers followed the waterline like shorebirds, scurrying up the beach in front of breaking waves and moving back down with receding waters. The late morning sun retired the workers to the shade of their tents and the job of “observing,” while it brought out throngs of beach-goers — children, parents, grandparents — who happily plunged into the “contaminated” ocean without a second thought. I was astounded. Why did people think the ocean was safe for swimming? There were five HazMat tents, four front-loaders, and at least two dozen HazMat workers on the beach. HazMat workers wore yellow over-boots duct-taped to their long pants’ legs to minimize risk of contact with the water. The white surf popped with visible black tar balls as it rolled towards the beach. Waves left an oily signature of tar balls on the beach, melting in the sun. The treads of my Chacos weighed down with oily sand despite trying to avoid the mess. Most people were barefoot. Hotels set up oil cleaning stations on their premises – and signs saying the water advisory (put in place after Ryan’s incident) had been lifted. What’s wrong with this picture? Lots. For starters, Ryan’s story from Pensacola Beach is not an isolated incident. I have received emails and heard personal stories from Louisiana to Florida of people who have developed skin rashes and blisters from going in the ocean. People describe stings by “invisible jellyfish.” Turtle patrol volunteers who walk beaches daily write of blisters and bronchitis. And then there are individuals like Sheri Allen who took her dog for a walk on a beach in Mobile Bay in May. Sheri wrote me that her “arms and legs were burning, even after the shower. The following morning … (there were) … small blood blisters. By evening the blisters had begun to welt. By the fourth day, the areas had got larger and swollen.” She went to see a doctor but the sores remain and they have begun to scar her arms and legs. For several days after Sherri’s incident, her husband found fish kills on the beach. William Rea, MD, who founded the Environmental Health Center-Dallas , treated a number of sick Exxon Valdez cleanup workers. He once told me, “When you have sick people and sick animals, and they are sick because of the same chemical, that’s the strongest evidence possible that that chemical is a problem.” It’s not just skin rashes and blisters. At community forums, I commonly hear from adults and children with persistent coughs, stuffy sinuses, headaches, burning eyes, sore throats, ear bleeds, and fatigue. These symptoms are consistent across the four Gulf states that I have visited. Further, the symptoms of respiratory problems, central nervous system distress, and skin irritation are consistent with overexposure to crude oil through the two primary routes of exposure: inhalation and skin contact. Most distressing to me are stories about sick children. “Dose plus host makes the poison,” I learned in toxicology. A small child is at risk of breathing a higher dose of contaminants per body weight than an adult. Children, pregnant women, people with compromised or stressed immune systems like cancer survivors and asthma sufferers, and African Americans are more at risk from oil and chemical exposure – the latter because they are prone to sickle cell anemia and 2-butoxyethanol can cause, or worsen, blood disorders. Public officials have failed to sound an alarm about the public health threat because three federal agencies – DHHS, EPA, and OSHA – cannot find any unsafe levels of oil in air or water. Perhaps the federal air and water standards are not stringent enough to protect the public from oil pollution. Our federal laws are outdated and do not protect us from the toxic threat from oil – now widely recognized in the scientific and medical community. BP is still in the dark ages on oil toxicity. BP officials stress that, by the time oil gets to shore, it is “weathered” and missing the highly volatile compounds like the carcinogenic benzene, among others. BP fails to mention the threat from dispersed oil, ultrafine particles (PAHs), and chemical dispersants, which include industrial solvents and proprietary compounds, many hazardous to humans. If oil was so nontoxic, then why are the spill response workers giving hazardous waste training? Our federal government should stop pretending that everything is okay. What isn’t safe for workers isn’t safe for the general public either. Ryan’s rash was getting better until she sat on Pensacola Beach to watch fireworks on July 4. The next day her skin erupted in fiery red burns. She is worried about her health. So are many other people along the Gulf. Perhaps it is time for the government to protect public health first and BP’s profit second. Riki Ott, PhD, is a marine toxicologist from Alaska, volunteering in the Gulf. She has written two books on surviving the Exxon Valdez oil spill – Sound Truth and Corporate Myths on biological impact of oil to people and wildlife, and Not One Drop on emotional impact of disaster trauma and litigation to people and community. www.rikiott.com . Ott is working with Emerald Coastkeeper and others to petition the EPA to delist toxic chemical products in oil spill response.

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Riki Ott: BP, Governments Downplay Public Health Risk From Oil and Dispersants (PHOTOS)

Bristol-Myers Drugs Advance Treatment for Skin, Blood Cancers in Trials

June 5, 2010

By Shannon Pettypiece June 5 (Bloomberg) — Two cancer drugs from Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. could change the standard of care for patients with deadly skin and blood malignancies, according to new studies. The leukemia pill Sprycel worked better and faster at eliminating malignant cells than Novartis AG’s Gleevec, the standard treatment, a study of newly diagnosed patients found. The drug ipilimumab kept about a quarter of patients battling late-stage melanoma alive for two years — about twice the proportion with current therapies, a separate trial showed. The drugs are central to a plan by the New York-based drugmaker to bolster its share of the $52 billion cancer market, and counter generic competition by 2016 to products with $11 billion in annual sales. Sprycel sales could rise with expanded approval as a first-choice therapy. Ipilimumab, if approved, would be the first new melanoma drug in more than a decade, and the only one shown to extend survival in the sickest patients in a large-scale study, said Renzo Canetta , Bristol-Myers’s vice president of oncology clinical research. “I’ve been taking care of patients with melanoma for almost 25 year and these results are really significant,” said Lynn Schuchter, chief of hematology at the University of Pennsylvania Health System, at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, where the data was reported today. “We have not had any therapy that has prolonged survival for patient with stage-four melanoma, period.” $1 Billion in Sales Once approved, ipilimumab may have $1 billion in annual sales within five years, said Linda Bannister a health-care analyst at Edward Jones & Co. in Des Peres, Missouri. Expanded use of Sprycel, already approved as a second-line option for patients who fail on Gleevec, could more than double sales to $900 million by 2015, said Tony Butler , an analyst with Barclays in New York. Bristol-Myers said it plans to use the Sprycel finding to seek expanded U.S. approval for the drug as an initial treatment for the form of blood cancer called chronic myelogenous leukemia or CML. The company said in March it plans to seek regulatory clearance for ipilimumab this year and aims to get it in the hands of doctors in 2012. “Sprycel could become the next frontline drug for CML and could replace Gleevec,” said Hagop Kantarjian , a leukemia specialist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who studied the drug. “For anyone who has a new diagnosis, they should consider this new kind of inhibitor as a viable option that could be better.” History of Gleevec Gleevec was the first drug approved that suppresses a cell signal known to cause cancer rather than poison the tumor cells, as with chemotherapy. Before Gleevec became available, CML patients lived an average of three to five years, according to the American Society of Hematology. Novartis is also racing to get a next-generation leukemia drug, Tasigna, approved as a first-line therapy. The latest study on Sprycel focused on its ability to attack cells with a defective chromosome in the bone marrow called the Philadelphia chromosome, named after the city where it was discovered. In CML, which affects about 5,000 people a year in the U.S., the Philadelphia chromosome produces a gene called Bcr-AbL, which leads to the overproduction of white blood cells. Gleevec, Sprycel and Tasigna stop this chain of events. In the study, 77 percent of patients taking Sprycel had a confirmed complete cytogenetic response, meaning no cells with the Philadelphia chromosome could be found, compared with 66 percent taking Gleevec. An absence of tumor cells is an indicator of longer survival, said Canetta in a telephone interview. The study followed 519 newly diagnosed patients for at least 12 months. Sprycel Results Patients given Sprycel were more likely to have a loss of platelets and fluid build-up in the lungs while patients taking Gleevec were more likely to have fluid retention under the skin. Patients taking Gleevec were also more likely to have nausea, rash and muscle pain. Doctors will probably need longer-term data on the benefit of Sprycel and Tasigna over Gleevec for 24 to 36 months before they routinely prescribe the newer treatments as a first-line therapy, said Seamus Fernandez , an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. in a research report. Price may also keep doctors and patients on Gleevec, said Kantarjian. When generic copies of Gleevec enter the market in 2015 it will cause the price to fall from its average wholesale price of $4,340 for a month’s supply. The wholesale price of Sprycel is $6,950 at the 100-milligram dose, Bristol-Myers said. Cancer Institute said in a July 2008 report. Ipilimumab Trial The ipilimumab trial, funded by Bristol-Myers, followed 676 patients with advanced melanoma who had failed to benefit from two treatments currently available, interleukin-2 or dacarbazine. It was divided into three parts, with one group getting ipilimumab, a second an experimental cancer vaccine developed by the National Cancer Institute called gp100, and the third a combination of the two. Patients taking ipilimumab alone lived an average of 10.1 months, according to the study, almost four months longer than those given the gp100 vaccine. Combining the two drugs produced no additional improvement compared with ipilimumab alone. While 24 percent of patients on the Bristol-Myers drug were still alive two years after entering the trial, only 14 percent of those on gp100 lived that long. Ipilimumab is derived from mice that were genetically altered to create a human version of an antibody, a part of the immune system. The antibody is designed to accelerate the immune system, enabling a second component, white blood cells called T- cells, to go after the cancer the same way they would a foreign invader such as a virus. To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Shannon Pettypiece at spettypiece@bloomberg.net .

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Bristol-Myers Sprycel Drug Beats Gleevec in Leukemia Patients, Study Says

June 5, 2010

By Shannon Pettypiece June 5 (Bloomberg) — Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. ’s cancer pill Sprycel worked better and faster at eliminating leukemia cells than Novartis AG’s Gleevec, the standard treatment for the blood malignancy, a study of newly diagnosed patients found. Bristol-Myers said it plans to use the finding to seek expanded U.S. approval for Sprycel as an initial treatment for the form of blood cancer called chronic myelogenous leukemia or CML. Sprycel is already approved as a second-line option for patients who fail to benefit from Gleevec. The expanded use could more than double sales of Sprycel by 2015 to $900 million, said Tony Butler , an analyst with Barclays. Novartis is also racing to get a next generation leukemia drug, Tasigna, approved as a first-line therapy. Gleevec, Novartis’s second best-selling drug with 2009 sales of $3.9 billion, revolutionized the treatment of CML nine years ago, turning it from a fatal to chronic disease for many patients. Now, the arrival of two new drugs could cut Gleevec’s market share 25 percent in the next five years, Butler said in a report. “Sprycel could become the next frontline drug for CML and could replace Gleevec,” said Hagop Kantarjian , a leukemia specialist at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who studied the drug. “For anyone who has a new diagnosis, they should consider this new kind of inhibitor as a viable option that could be better.” Results from the Sprycel study were released today at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting in Chicago. Tasigna cut levels of a protein linked to chronic myeloid leukemia in three times as many patients as those taking Gleevec after 18 months, Basel, Novartis reported yesterday in a statement. Regulatory Decision Due U.S. regulators are due to make a decision this year on whether to clear Tasigna for newly diagnosed patients, Basel, Switzerland-based Novartis said in April. Like Sprycel, Tasigna already is approved for patients who don’t benefit from Gleevec. New York-based Bristol-Myers plans to seek U.S. regulatory approval this year for Sprycel, the company said in March. The study released today focused on Sprycel’s ability to attack cells with a defective chromosome in the bone marrow called the Philadelphia chromosome, named after the city where it was discovered. In CML, which affects about 5,000 people a year in the U.S., the Philadelphia chromosome produces a gene called Bcr-AbL, which leads to the overproduction of white blood cells. Gleevec, Sprycel and Tasigna stop this chain of events. Cell Signal Target Gleevec was the first drug approved that is designed to suppress a cell signal known to cause cancer rather than poison the tumor cells, as with chemotherapy. Before Gleevec became available, CML patients lived an average of three to five years, according to the American Society of Hematology. With new treatments that have become available over the past decade, 95 percent of CML patients live at least five years. “Gleevec is a great drug, you will never hear me say anything negative about Gleevec, but in this trial Sprycel did even better,” said Renzo Canetta , Bristol-Myers’s vice president of oncology clinical research. “We think Sprycel can offer something more.” In the study, 77 percent of patients taking Sprycel had a confirmed complete cytogenetic response, meaning no cells with the Philadelphia chromosome could be found, compared with 66 percent taking Gleevec. An absence of tumor cells is an indicator of longer survival, said Canetta in a telephone interview. The study followed 519 newly diagnosed patients for at least 12 months. Side Effects Patients given Sprycel were more likely to have a loss of platelets and fluid build-up in the lungs while patients taking Gleevec were more likely to have fluid retention under the skin. Patients taking Gleevec were also more likely to have nausea, rash and muscle pain. Doctors will probably need longer-term data on the benefit of Sprycel and Tasigna over Gleevec for 24 to 36 months before they routinely prescribe the newer treatments as a first-line therapy, said Seamus Fernandez , an analyst with Leerink Swann & Co. in a research report. Price may also keep doctors and patients on Gleevec, said Kantarjian. When generic copies of Gleevec enter the market in 2015 it will cause the price to fall from its average wholesale price of $4,340 for a month’s supply. That price difference could sway some patients to try Gleevec first instead of Sprycel, Kantarjian said. The wholesale price of Sprycel is $6,950 at the 100-milligram dose, Bristol-Myers said. Gleevec Still ‘Reassuring’ “I don’t think this is going to be the end of Gleevec,” Kantarjian said in a telephone interview. “The long-term follow up with Gleevec is very reassuring. Gleevec will also become generic in four to five years so the price difference could become significant.” Bristol-Myers also reported data today that showed its experimental skin cancer drug ipilimumab almost doubled the number of patients alive after two years compared with another experimental treatment called gp100, developed by the National Cancer Institute. Bristol-Myers said it hopes to start selling the medicine by the end of 2012. If approved, ipilimumab could generate more than $1 billion in annual sales, analysts said. To contact the reporter responsible for this story: Shannon Pettypiece at spettypiece@bloomberg.net .

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Robert L. Cavnar: My Industry — the Oil Industry — Should Be Ashamed of Itself

June 4, 2010

Phoom!

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P&ampG’s Consumer Changes to He From She With Men’s Thermal Scrubs

June 4, 2010

By Mark Clothier June 4 (Bloomberg) — After spending decades luring women with products such as Olay skin cream, Procter & Gamble Co. is about to tell men they need pampering too. P&G will introduce a pre-shave thermal scrub, which it likens to a hot towel at the barber shop, along with a cooling after-shave moisturizer next week. The four products, selling for $7 to $9, make up the first skin-care line aimed at men since P&G’s $61 billion acquisition of Gillette five years ago. P&G is seeking to persuade buyers of Gillette razors to take better care of their skin after the company’s sales fell 3.3 percent last year. It’s also a further push into higher- margin beauty products for the world’s largest consumer-products company, which makes Charmin toilet paper and moved into cosmetics in the 1980s. “We have an aspiration to be the biggest and best beauty and grooming company,” Chip Bergh , who heads P&G’s grooming unit, said in a telephone interview. “But we can’t get there unless we win with men.” Gillette’s new ProSeries line, including a face wash for sensitive skin and a moisturizer that protects against ultra- violet rays, will debut in North America June 6 and be available globally by the end of next year, Cincinnati-based P&G said. Trying It Chief Executive Officer Bob McDonald is tapping the men’s grooming market to help reach his goal of adding 1 billion new consumers by 2015. Worldwide sales of skin care, hair care, bath and shower products, and deodorant for men reached $26.6 billion last year, up 44 percent from 2004, according to research firm Euromonitor International Plc. “I expect this to be very profitable for them, but it’s going to require education to get people to try it and to get over the hump of the cost” of the products, said Matt McCormick , a portfolio manager at Cincinnati-based Bahl & Gaynor Inc., which has $2.8 billion under management, including P&G shares. Beauty products are among the more recession-resistant product categories, according to a Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. survey of U.S. consumers released in March. Consumers are less likely to buy a cheaper version of their favorite skin cream or perfume, than of detergent, batteries or diapers, the survey showed. P&G’s products will compete for customers with Beiersdorf AG’s Nivea for Men, L’Oreal SA ’s Men’s Expert and Unilever ’s Dove for Men skin-care lines. Gillette has an edge, because it’s a male brand that doesn’t need to make clear that it’s “for men,” said Bergh, the P&G executive. ‘Education and Marketing’ Getting U.S. men to pamper themselves will still be a hard sell, said Walter Todd , who helps manage $800 million at Greenwood Capital in Greenwood, South Carolina, including about 100,000 P&G shares as of March 31. “I don’t think the majority of men think about how soft their face is or how to care for it,” Todd said. “It’s not something that comes into my mind. Particularly, now with the economy, we’re still kind of watching how we spend our money and the last thing I’m going to go out and buy is some face cream.” Bergh, 52, said the market for men’s lotions can be similar to the last century’s evolution of women’s skin care, which for his mother’s generation consisted of cold cream. “That’s all been driven by education and marketing and the same will happen with guys,” he said. Marketing Campaign P&G, which started selling soap in 1837 and pioneered radio soap operas to promote them, will reach men through websites, blogs and online videos, and in stores, Bergh said. In the U.S., where P&G has about 68 percent of the blade and razor market, the company will include samples of the new products in cartridge refills for the Fusion and Mach3 razors, he said. The Gillette unit made up 9.5 percent of P&G’s $79 billion in sales in fiscal 2009. P&G has advanced 1.9 percent this year, compared with a 1.1 percent decline in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The shares added 6 cents to $61.80 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Last June, the company acquired the Art of Shaving, a boutique chain that offers $100 chrome razors and $75 badger-fur shaving brushes, as well as Zirh, a premium skin-care brand. The brands joined P&G products including Old Spice deodorants and Braun electric shavers. Partnerships with Dolce & Gabbana and Hugo Boss could also be expanded beyond cologne, Bergh said. “We’ve got a portfolio of brands and the company’s support to win with him,” Bergh said of the male consumer. “We’ve got pretty strong plans to do just that.” To contact the reporter on this story: Mark Clothier in Southfield, Michigan, at mclothier@bloomberg.net

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Nicotine Skin Patch Helps More Quitters Resist Cigarettes When Worn Longer

February 1, 2010

By Ellen Gibson Feb. 1 (Bloomberg) — Cigarette smokers trying to quit who wear a nicotine patch for six months, rather than the standard two, may stay away from smoking longer, U.S. scientists said. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that 32 percent of smokers who wore the patch for 24 weeks were smoke-free, compared with 20 percent of those who used it for 8 weeks, according to a report in tomorrow’s Annals of Internal Medicine . Participants used GlaxoSmithKline Plc ’s Nicoderm CQ. Novartis AG makes a competing product. Smoking cigarettes increases the risk for lung cancer, heart attack, stroke and high blood pressure, according to the National Institutes of Health , and adults who smoke die 14 years earlier on average than nonsmokers. Those who puff may become addicted to nicotine, and quitters often undergo withdrawal and have cravings that persist long term. “Nicotine addiction is not an acute condition that can be treated in a couple of months,” said study author Robert Schnoll , an associate professor of psychology at Penn, in a Jan. 29 phone interview. “It’s a chronic condition that needs extended therapy and we hope this research will encourage doctors to keep their patients on the patch longer.” Glaxo’s NicoDerm CQ and Novartis’s Habitrol are patches that supply the body and brain with a steady stream of nicotine absorbed through the skin. Current guidelines recommend using the patches for 8 weeks, the study’s authors said. The nicotine helps to prevent withdrawal symptoms in people who stop smoking, according to the Bethesda, Maryland-based NIH. Study Design The study was conducted at Penn’s Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center in Philadelphia in people who smoked at least half a pack a day. About half of the 568 participants received active nicotine patches for 24 weeks. The rest had eight weeks of nicotine replacement followed by 16 weeks of placebo patches. All were given behavioral counseling. At the end of six months, 89 people in the treatment group were smoke-free for seven days, compared with 58 people in the placebo group, the researchers said. At the one-year mark there was no difference between the two groups, with both having a quit rate of about 14 percent. That statistic reinforces the idea that nicotine dependence should be treated more like opioid addiction, Schnoll said, where users are sometimes given methadone, a detoxification medication, for years. No Cold Turkey The American Lung Association in Washington doesn’t recommend that smokers quit “cold turkey,” without the aid of a prescription or over-the-counter treatment, said Norman Edelman , the organization’s chief medical officer, in a Jan. 29 phone interview. Nicotine supplements also come in the form of gum, lozenges, nasal sprays, and inhalers, according to the NIH. Other treatment options are Chantix, a drug from New York-based Pfizer Inc. that works on the brain’s nicotine receptors, and Glaxo’s Zyban, which is available in generic form under the name buproprion. The two main barriers to keeping patients on the nicotine patch longer are side effects and costs, Schnoll said. Common side effects of the patch include skin redness, headache, nausea, and sleep problems. The researchers found no significant difference in the intensity of side effects between the treatment and placebo groups after the eighth week, according to the report. Safer Than Smoking “We don’t know, longer term, what effect keeping people on the patch would have,” said Schnoll. “But nicotine replacement therapy is definitely safer than tobacco use.” The additional cost per quitter was about $2,482 for the 24-week treatment regimen, the research paper said. Only 8.6 percent of health insurers cover the full cost of the patches, and only 33 states subsidize them for Medicaid patients, the study’s authors said. “If you do the arithmetic,” said the lung association’s Edelman, “you’ll find that if you live in New York City and you smoke a pack a day, you’re already spending about $300 a month.” The study was funded by a grant from the National Cancer Institute and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The study’s senior author, Caryn Lerman , has served as a consultant for GlaxoSmithKline. To contact the reporters on this story: Ellen Gibson in New York at egibson9@bloomberg.net ;

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Amanda Knox Verdict Due From Jury as Italian Student Murder Trial Closes

December 4, 2009

By Flavia Krause-Jackson Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) — An Italian jury will likely deliver its verdict late today or early tomorrow on Amanda Knox , a 22- year-old American student charged in the 2007 murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in the hillside city of Perugia. Knox, a Seattle native, and Raffaele Sollecito , a 25-year- old Italian who’s her ex-boyfriend, have been jailed for two years while standing trial for the murder. Verdicts and sentences for both defendants will be delivered by a six-member jury of Perugia residents and two judges. Rudy Hermann Guede , 22, an Ivorian immigrant, has already been found guilty of the killing in a separate “fast-track” trial in July. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Kercher, a 21-year-old Briton, was found dead in her bedroom, half-naked and strangled and stabbed to death, on Nov. 2, 2007. She was killed in a villa she shared with Knox and two other women. Prosecutor Giuliano Mignini said in court that Knox masterminded a drug-fueled sex game involving Sollecito and Guede that turned violent and ultimately led to Kercher’s murder. The three then staged a burglary to cover up the crime, he said. “I’m afraid of having the mask of a murderer forced onto my skin,” Knox, on the verge of tears, told the jury yesterday. “I’m afraid of being defined as someone I am not and for acts I didn’t commit,” she said, speaking in Italian. Media Leaks Knox’s defense team, led by Carlo Dalla Vedova , argued that there was insufficient evidence to tie her to the crime and claimed that leaks to the media swayed public opinion against Knox. Sollecito’s lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, compared Knox to the naive heroine of the 2001 French film “Amelie.” Prosecutors have asked for life sentences for both Knox and Sollecito. Italy has no death penalty. Knox, Sollecito and Guede have all given different versions of events and maintained their innocence. Each can appeal the verdict twice until the Court of Cassation, Italy’s highest appeals court, has the final say. Kercher, a London native and Leeds University student, had enrolled at Perugia’s University for Foreigners through the Erasmus exchange program shortly before she was killed. Knox was also a student at the university. Both women worked at a bar run by Patrick Diya Lumumba, who Knox named as the possible killer before police corroborated his alibi. Lumumba was held for two weeks before being cleared. The Knox story has garnered international attention, particularly in Britain and the U.S. A Dec. 3 opinion piece in The New York Times said an innocent verdict for Knox would be the “obvious” decision based on “the standard that the law calls for.” Italians have also been fascinated by the case, with newspapers reporting on the love letters Knox has received from admirers, the outfits she’s worn in court and an appearance she made in a documentary about the inmates at her prison. Knox was arrested on Nov. 6, 2007, in connection with the death of Kercher and formally charged with murder, theft and sexual assault on July 11, 2008. To contact the reporter on this story: Flavia Krause-Jackson in Rome at fjackson@bloomberg.net

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Littell’s Sadomasochistic Siblings Win the U.K.’s Bad Sex in Fiction Award

November 30, 2009

By James Pressley Nov. 30 (Bloomberg) — Jonathan Littell won the Bad Sex in Fiction Award , the U.K.’s “most dreaded literary prize,” for his depiction of the sadomasochistic encounters between twin siblings in “The Kindly Ones.” The judges cited Littell for one incestuous scene that unfolds on the bed of a guillotine and another that invokes the myth of Cyclops, “whose single eye never blinks.” These marred what the judges called an impressive work. “It is in part a work of genius,” the judges said in an e-mailed statement about the World War II novel, which won the Prix Goncourt, France’s top book prize, in 2006. Yet Littell clinched the Bad Sex award with one “mythologically inspired passage” and another that compared a sexual climax to “a jolt that emptied my head like a spoon scraping the inside of a soft-boiled egg.” “We hope he takes it in good humor,” the judges said. Previously won by Tom Wolfe , Sebastian Faulks and Norman Mailer , the Bad Sex in Fiction contest seeks to dishonor the author of the year’s “most embarrassing passages of sexual description in a literary novel.” London’s monthly Literary Review inaugurated the prize in 1993 “to draw attention to the crude, tasteless, often perfunctory use of redundant passages of sexual description in the modern novel, and to discourage it.” Actor Charles Dance presented the traditional trophy, a plaster foot, during a ceremony at the Naval & Military Club on St. James’s Square, London. The prize was accepted on Littell’s behalf by his editor at U.K. imprint Chatto & Windus, the statement said. Plenty of Choices Pornographic or expressly erotic works are excluded from the contest. Yet the judging panel, which consists of Literary Review staff, always finds plenty to choose from. The finalists for 2009 included Philip Roth , for a steamy threesome in “The Humbling,” and John Banville , for a tryst ending with “a tangle of arms and legs” in “The Infinities.” Amos Oz made the shortlist with a scene from “Rhyming Life and Death” featuring a nautical theme : “She holds him tight and squeezes her body to his, sending delightful sailing boats tacking to and fro across the ocean of his back. With her fingertips she sends foam-flecked waves scurrying over his skin.” The other finalists were Nick Cave for “The Death of Bunny Munro”; Richard Milward for “Ten Storey Love Song”; Sanjida O’Connell for “The Naked Name of Love”; Anthony Quinn for “The Rescue Man”; Paul Theroux for “A Dead Hand”; and Simon Van Booy for “Love Begins in Winter.” To contact the reporter on the story: James Pressley in Brussels at jpressley@bloomberg.net .

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Mark Coker: Why Publishers are Like Venture Capitalists

October 19, 2009

My roots are in Silicon Valley. For most of the last three decades, Silicon Valley was the world’s hotbed for startup innovation. Our advantage over the rest of the world was our unique ecosystem of talent and funding, and a culture that encouraged creative risk taking, creative destruction, knowledge sharing and yes, even failure. In Silicon Valley, our heroes are the risk-takers. We celebrate those who put their skin on the line to pursue a dream of changing the world. For much of these last 30 years, venture capital provided the entrepreneurs with the money, counsel and connections to make their dreams a reality. Earlier this decade, the Silicon Valley gravy train fell off the tracks. Non-stop success can breed complacency and arrogance. Many in Silicon Valley thought we possessed the secret sauce to building great tech companies. Actually, we did help invent and improve the secret sauce, but like secrets that shouldn’t be kept, the recipe spread around the world and was improved upon, so that today, promising tech companies sprout in every corner of the globe without a VC’s assistance. Silicon Valley has eaten its share of humble pie lately, and that’s a good thing for the future of our industry. For many Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, venture capital was the oxygen that breathed life into what might have otherwise remained an idea scribbled on a napkin. After all, startup creation is expensive. In exchange for the capital, the entrepreneur usually gave the VC anywhere from 20 to 60 percent of their company, and with that ownership the entrepreneur gave up control. VCs are usually super-intelligent people, yet they’re fallible like the rest of us. They have a recurring habit of getting caught up in the greed and feeding frenzy that occurs when a startup in a hot new category hits pay dirt with an IPO. Like drunken lemmings waving fists of cash, they compete against one another to fund similar startups in the same category. The ensuing competition sparks bidding wars that inflate the valuations of the companies and lead to a glut of cookie-cutter startups in the same category. Other entrepreneurs, spellbound by the razzle dazzle of the big dollars, rush to modify their startups to fit the same mold so they too can get funded. Inevitably, consolidation comes because the market can’t support so many clones. Many entrepreneurs who’ve sold their souls to a VC view VCs with equal parts admiration and contempt. Key positives: VCs offer access to capital, advisors and connections that can maximize their odds of getting their company out there. Key negatives: The VCs make promises they often can’t keep (such as “spend our money quickly, we’ll be here to give you more when you need it”); their allegiance is fleeting (VCs are legend for losing interest at the first signs of hardship); and their interests aren’t necessarily aligned with those of the entrepreneur. The last two points are the most critical. A VC’s allegiance is to their investors first and foremost, not the entrepreneur or the entrepreneur’s company. At times these interests are aligned, but more often than not they diverge. VCs play a numbers game. They understand that out of every ten companies they fund, six or seven will be outright failures, maybe two will be “base hits” or “doubles,” and then maybe one will be a home run. The one home run, like the next Cisco, Netscape, Google or what have you, makes up for the other nine duds. This desire to hit a home run will often cause a VC to manage their portfolio contrary to the best interests of the entrepreneur or their company. In other words, if you are one of the three most promising companies in a batch of ten, the VC may encourage (or force) you to take big risks and swing for the home run, even when a base hit or double is a smarter move. By forcing companies to take inappropriate risks, they do create the occasional home run, but they create many more failures along the way. One of the reasons a thousand Silicon Valleys have sprouted up around the globe is that it no longer takes the same amount of funding to create a startup. The tools to build the company are essentially free now. With low cost or free open source software, and limitless free access to knowledge (Wikipedia and Google) and relationships (social networks) acting as equalizers, more and more entrepreneurs are turning their backs on the VCs. Some will utilize angels instead. Angels are service providers or fellow entrepreneurs who have experience in the same field, and who contribute much of the same value as a VC without exacting the same quantity of flesh. Some of these entrepreneurs grow their business to profitability and then have the option, but not the necessity, to partner with a VC. Once an entrepreneur has proven the success of their business (i.e. they’ve eliminated much of the risk), they have the freedom to either forego venture funding altogether, or they can bring on the VC under more favorable terms. Fun with Words So now, my dear HuffPo reader, if you haven’t already come to your own conclusions about why publishing is like venture capital, I invite you to play the word game below to explore the allegory. Enjoy! Instructions : Copy and paste this post into a word processor as plain text. Carefully perform the following search and replace (“CTRL-H” in Microsoft Word) in the following order, and then re-read your creation: replace “entrepreneurs” with “authors” replace “entrepreneur” with “author” replace “tech companies” and “companies” with “authors” replace “startups” with “books” replace “startup” and “company” with “book” replace “VC” with “publisher” replace “venture capital” with “publishing” replace “funded” with “published” replace “an IPO” with “a bestseller” replace “service providers” with “experienced publishing professionals” replace “business” with “writing career” replace “open source software” with publishing tools like Smashwords and Wordclay” replace “venture funding” with “a commercial publisher” replace “Cisco, Netscape, Google” with “Breaking Dawn, Eragon, DaVinci Code”

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Fosters Turns to Tempranillo as Climate Change Bakes Australia’s Vineyards

August 20, 2009

By Robert Fenner Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) — Stuart McNab , head of Australian wine production at Foster’s Group Ltd. , is planting Spanish varieties such as Tempranillo and cooling vines with sprinklers to combat one of the industry’s biggest threats: climate change. “We could see one in ten vintages wiped out,” said McNab, standing on a mechanical harvester at the company’s Robe vineyard, 250 miles south of Adelaide. “If this doesn’t work, we may have to look at moving south.” The world’s second-largest winemaker is harvesting on average three weeks earlier than two decades ago because of global warming, giving the grapes less time to develop flavors needed for wines such as its $500 Penfold’s Grange . The company is trying mist sprays, originally installed to battle frost, to cool grapes, while rival Constellation Brands Inc. is building underground watering systems and planting varieties like Spain’s Tempranillo. Australia , which planted its first vineyards in 1788, has 170,000 hectares (420,000 acres) under vine, generating A$2.7 billion ($2.3 billion) in annual exports, according to government figures. “Climate change is affecting everyone,” Australia’s Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said in a July 31 interview in Sydney. “Grape growers in the Adelaide Hills are being forced to look at other grape varieties.” Australia’s average annual temperature has risen 0.9 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years, according to the Bureau of Meteorology . In grape growing regions, the weather could become a further 2.6 degrees Celsius warmer by 2050, according to modeling by the University of Melbourne . For Foster’s and Constellation, solutions need to be found now to protect future vintages. Foster’s gets 46 percent of its A$4.5 billion of annual sales from wine. Constellation’s wine sales are worth $3.2 billion. “With an agricultural product, which is what wine really is, you need to be conscious of these impacts and have a plan for it,” said Theo Maas , who helps manage $3.5 billion at Fortis Investment Partners in Sydney, including beverage stocks. “It’s creeping onto the radar screen of things to consider.” Warmer weather shortens the growing season for grapes, accelerating the build up of sugar, which converts to alcohol, while limiting the development of flavor in the skin and juice for varieties grown in Australia like chardonnay and shiraz. Spanish Grapes Victor, New York-based Constellation, the world’s largest winemaker, began planting Tempranillo, Montepulciano and Vermentino in some regions to see if the varieties that prosper in warmer parts of Spain and Italy can succeed in the hot Riverland area of Australia. Foster’s is employing technologies such as infra-red sensing to maintain quality. Planes take images of the vineyard to see where growth is most vigorous. The data is sent to GPS- equipped harvesters that adjust their picking, said McNab . About 23 percent of Foster’s vineyards are in regions classified as cool, with that proportion expected to fall to around 3 percent in 2030 if weather trends continue. While only 10 percent of current plantings are considered hot to very hot, that would rise to about 21 percent, according to the company. In the Barossa Valley, which produces more than 25,000 metric tons of shiraz annually, Foster’s picked the 1992 harvest on March 29. In 2007, the grapes reached the desired sugar level on Feb. 28. More Alcohol “If you leave the grapes on the vine longer to develop flavor in the skins, you end up with much more sugar and then alcohol and that is all the drinker ends up tasting,” said Snow Barlow , who heads the University of Melbourne Viticulture Group , which studies vineyard management. “ Climate change affects that whole equation.” In Spain, warmer weather prompted makers such as Miguel Torres SA to develop vineyards in cooler areas such as Catalonia while the French legalized irrigation of some vineyards in the past four years, ending a century-old ban. Colder wine-growing regions like southern England are benefiting, with producers such as Ridgeview Wine Estate Ltd. in Sussex harvesting French grape varieties. Wine writer Oz Clarke said Scotland may one day make the world’s best wine because of climate change. “There are no great wine regions unaffected by this and if you wait until you have the perfect answer you will either be dead or you will be broke,” said Barlow. “You can go back to Darwin to know it’s not the biggest or the most intelligent that necessarily survive, it’s those that adapt.” In addition to the mist sprinklers, new varieties and use of the leaf canopy to shade the grapes, Foster’s is considering buying land on the southern island of Tasmania. Moving South The problems with moving to Tasmania or higher ground in Victoria state are the cost of land, terrain unfit for mechanical harvesters, and competition for water with cities and other crops, said McNab. “You don’t just need enough water for today, you need to know it will be enough in 50 years,” Barlow said. “If you don’t have access to water, it doesn’t matter how much cooler the weather is.” The flow of water into the Murray Darling River Basin , where 83 percent of Australia’s grapes are grown, is at a 117- year low because of a decade-long drought. Ten years ago, McNab decided to end red wine production at the Drumborg vineyard, Foster’s most southerly mainland plantings, because grapes struggled to ripen. “I’m the person who ordered the death sentence for Drumborg cabernet sauvignon because it was only producing a decent wine every 5 years or so,” McNab said. “I might be pushing to re-plant it in 10 years’ time.” To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Fenner in Melbourne rfenner@bloomberg.net ; Gemma Daley in Canberra at gdaley@bloomberg.net

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Fosters Turns to Tempranillo as Climate Change Bakes Australia’s Vineyards

August 20, 2009

By Robert Fenner Aug. 21 (Bloomberg) — Stuart McNab , head of Australian wine production at Foster’s Group Ltd. , is planting Spanish varieties such as Tempranillo and cooling vines with sprinklers to combat one of the industry’s biggest threats: climate change. “We could see one in ten vintages wiped out,” said McNab, standing on a mechanical harvester at the company’s Robe vineyard, 250 miles south of Adelaide. “If this doesn’t work, we may have to look at moving south.” The world’s second-largest winemaker is harvesting on average three weeks earlier than two decades ago because of global warming, giving the grapes less time to develop flavors needed for wines such as its $500 Penfold’s Grange . The company is trying mist sprays, originally installed to battle frost, to cool grapes, while rival Constellation Brands Inc. is building underground watering systems and planting varieties like Spain’s Tempranillo. Australia , which planted its first vineyards in 1788, has 170,000 hectares (420,000 acres) under vine, generating A$2.7 billion ($2.3 billion) in annual exports, according to government figures. “Climate change is affecting everyone,” Australia’s Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said in a July 31 interview in Sydney. “Grape growers in the Adelaide Hills are being forced to look at other grape varieties.” Australia’s average annual temperature has risen 0.9 degrees Celsius in the past 100 years, according to the Bureau of Meteorology . In grape growing regions, the weather could become a further 2.6 degrees Celsius warmer by 2050, according to modeling by the University of Melbourne . For Foster’s and Constellation, solutions need to be found now to protect future vintages. Foster’s gets 46 percent of its A$4.5 billion of annual sales from wine. Constellation’s wine sales are worth $3.2 billion. “With an agricultural product, which is what wine really is, you need to be conscious of these impacts and have a plan for it,” said Theo Maas , who helps manage $3.5 billion at Fortis Investment Partners in Sydney, including beverage stocks. “It’s creeping onto the radar screen of things to consider.” Warmer weather shortens the growing season for grapes, accelerating the build up of sugar, which converts to alcohol, while limiting the development of flavor in the skin and juice for varieties grown in Australia like chardonnay and shiraz. Spanish Grapes Victor, New York-based Constellation, the world’s largest winemaker, began planting Tempranillo, Montepulciano and Vermentino in some regions to see if the varieties that prosper in warmer parts of Spain and Italy can succeed in the hot Riverland area of Australia. Foster’s is employing technologies such as infra-red sensing to maintain quality. Planes take images of the vineyard to see where growth is most vigorous. The data is sent to GPS- equipped harvesters that adjust their picking, said McNab . About 23 percent of Foster’s vineyards are in regions classified as cool, with that proportion expected to fall to around 3 percent in 2030 if weather trends continue. While only 10 percent of current plantings are considered hot to very hot, that would rise to about 21 percent, according to the company. In the Barossa Valley, which produces more than 25,000 metric tons of shiraz annually, Foster’s picked the 1992 harvest on March 29. In 2007, the grapes reached the desired sugar level on Feb. 28. More Alcohol “If you leave the grapes on the vine longer to develop flavor in the skins, you end up with much more sugar and then alcohol and that is all the drinker ends up tasting,” said Snow Barlow , who heads the University of Melbourne Viticulture Group , which studies vineyard management. “ Climate change affects that whole equation.” In Spain, warmer weather prompted makers such as Miguel Torres SA to develop vineyards in cooler areas such as Catalonia while the French legalized irrigation of some vineyards in the past four years, ending a century-old ban. Colder wine-growing regions like southern England are benefiting, with producers such as Ridgeview Wine Estate Ltd. in Sussex harvesting French grape varieties. Wine writer Oz Clarke said Scotland may one day make the world’s best wine because of climate change. “There are no great wine regions unaffected by this and if you wait until you have the perfect answer you will either be dead or you will be broke,” said Barlow. “You can go back to Darwin to know it’s not the biggest or the most intelligent that necessarily survive, it’s those that adapt.” In addition to the mist sprinklers, new varieties and use of the leaf canopy to shade the grapes, Foster’s is considering buying land on the southern island of Tasmania. Moving South The problems with moving to Tasmania or higher ground in Victoria state are the cost of land, terrain unfit for mechanical harvesters, and competition for water with cities and other crops, said McNab. “You don’t just need enough water for today, you need to know it will be enough in 50 years,” Barlow said. “If you don’t have access to water, it doesn’t matter how much cooler the weather is.” The flow of water into the Murray Darling River Basin , where 83 percent of Australia’s grapes are grown, is at a 117- year low because of a decade-long drought. Ten years ago, McNab decided to end red wine production at the Drumborg vineyard, Foster’s most southerly mainland plantings, because grapes struggled to ripen. “I’m the person who ordered the death sentence for Drumborg cabernet sauvignon because it was only producing a decent wine every 5 years or so,” McNab said. “I might be pushing to re-plant it in 10 years’ time.” To contact the reporters on this story: Robert Fenner in Melbourne rfenner@bloomberg.net ; Gemma Daley in Canberra at gdaley@bloomberg.net

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