#Videocrux - Drivers of the New Economy Panel
Drivers of the New Economy Panel More than 400 alumni and friends gathered on November 5 for an inside look at how the Carnegie Mellon community is making an impact on key areas of importance to New York and the world, including energy, information systems, arts and entertainment, and the financial/investment industry.
Brief description of the panel members Panelists included Jay Apt, Executive Director of Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center. HE is also an Associate Research Professor, Tepper School of Business as well as a distinguished Service Professor in Engineering and Public Policy. Alfred Z. Spector is the Vice President of Research and Special Initiatives at Google, Inc. David S. Steiner is the Chairman, Steiner Equities Group and is also the Co-Founder of Steiner Studios. David A. Tepper is the President/Founder of Appaloosa Management L.P. and also the member of Carnegie Mellon Board of Trustees; and Raymond J. Lane (Moderator), Managing Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Chairman, Carnegie Mellon Board of Trustees.
New York to produce $100 billion in electric power industry Jay Apt begins by saying New york is about money. Recalling what he studies in electrical engineering he says that electric power industry is $450 billion industry. But with carbon Dioxide control in US, it's going to be $100 billion a year. And if New York is producing $100 billion every year, then a lot of people are going to show interest in it.
New York is the center of finance and commerce in US New York will never stop because new businesses keep starting up and never stop. No matter wherever you are working in USA, you ultimately end up in New York. It is a center of commerce and finance and will always be. David looking from a film perspective says that New York has some of the best infrastructure and trained people and it is the technology in which the city excels. Also according to him various industries such as financial, insurance and real estate are in New York only by choice, these industries would be going to the lowest placed as they have the appropriate technology for it.
New York has got the talent that can suit perfectly in IT industry According to Robert, New York is the incredible draw for talent and that is the reason why Google is there. This is be because IT requires with creative skills. It is concerned with everything else. Everything is represented in New York and if there is talent, then the sphere of IT can be expanded in many directions. Also there has been attempts to break all the barriers and create a really transparent world of information sharing.
Energy requirement is going to increase tremendously in New York New York barely has the energy that it requires but still the energy situation is better unlike many other mega Asian cities like Mumbai etc. New York certainly needs to develop more sources of energy to meet it's future requirements and that too in a clean way. Currently, the city has a pretty clean energy.
It gets 30% of the energy from the nuclear, 20% from hydro, 30% from natural gas and a very little amount from coal compared to the rest of the countries. Currently a large number of wind energy plants are being built on the Canadian border, but the major source of energy in future would come from natural gas.
Setting up a new business is tough in a city like New York New York is the city which has been home to several financial companies and the authorities have been trying to regulate the financial industry but fortunately this not the only city which is trying to regulate the industry. London which is a competing financial center has been more effective in regulating financial sector. There is no such financial sector in Asia but is expected to be there in future. Coming to the young talent who wants to enter in financial sector, some concrete steps needs to be taken as the are limited opportunities available in leading brokerage firms. It is difficult to set up a new business due to no. of reasons like fundraising, people, back office people etc. which gives an advantage to already established firms.
New York needs proper facilities to be a leader of film industry New York film is a massive industry. It's net worth which was $5 billion in 2005 has increased to $7.5 billion in 3 years. There are 100,000 people, 200-300 cable networks in the industry and the government too have been providing tax credits upto 35% to people who are interested in this industry and want to set up new business. But the problem with this industry is of continuity. People who are ready to invest aren't sure whether the tax credits being provided to them will continue for a long period. People cannot enter the film business until they have an assurance that the tax credit is going to continue. New York can take away the title of entertainment hub from LA, provided it gets the right resources.
Google has been using Madison Avenue for advertising Google may be one of the most revolutionary forces to hit advertising in recent memory, but it's far from the sexiest, at least so far as Madison Avenue is concerned. The search giant hopes to change that with a sprawling new Manhattan outpost, opened yesterday, which executives say will help the company court ad agencies and media partners here. In addition to housing a legion of engineers, product managers and UI testers, the Chelsea facility provides a base of operations for "several hundred" Google ad sales staffers and some of the 100-plus New York advertiser training sessions the company conducts each year. The total official headcount is "over 500," and it's nowhere near filled to capacity.
New York can certainly grow by bringing diverse industries together IT is common to several kind of industries like films, health care, education, media, advertising etc. Because New York has large no. of IT universities and the talent in the research labs, it brings all industries together. Also in the energy sector, the focus engineers have the same focus as that of the finance sector. Moving to renewable sources of energy will require fluidity.
New York can certainly grow by bringing diverse industries together IT is common to several kind of industries like films, health care, education, media, advertising etc. Because New York has large no. of IT universities and the talent in the research labs, it brings all industries together. Also in the energy sector, the focus engineers have the same focus as that of the finance sector. Moving to renewable sources of energy will require fluidity.
Innovation is a way to put New York on the path of continous improvement Market volatility is because of functional leverage. If leverage could be changed in the system, then volatility could be changed in the system. But sometimes a little volatility in a system is not a bad thing as it promotes innovation. Being an small entrepreneur, it is not easy to set up a new business as the line of credit provided by the bank is limited. The banks need to shell out money in order to promote small businesses as the country develop only because of these small businesses and not these industrial giants. On the other hand innovation has been taking place in various fields such as healthcare, education, energy, bio tech etc. and therefore it depends on the ability of the society to open new opportunities and try to leverage each others talent.
Infrastructure has been neglected in US for 20-30 years The people of New York have the confidence that the things are being done. There is a blue water tunnel coming up in the city despite large no. of problems being faced. One of the renewable sources of energy that has not been tapped yet is off- shore wind. In the future some lines are going to be connected with the east coast to make the electricity generated by these off-shore industries available. There are some nuclear plants coming up in southern part of USA and if they are successful as well as cost effective, then some more can come in distant future. The infrastructure has basically been neglected for 20-30 years and all that money that is required to maintain and develop the infrastructure has been spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.
New York needs to be made the center of power in order to be cost effective Film industry likes be under one roof and LA has been successful in doing that. There is an absence of special effects industry in New York. LA has been able able to reduce the cost to the minimum and New York in order to reduce the cost by shifting the business overseas that will only lead to increase in the competition. What needs to be done is to bring all the resources and the center of power to New York to where it belongs.
New York has a better scope for hydro energy and natural gas as compared to solar There is a good amount of tidal energy available in US but it is comparatively small as compared to wind and solar energy. Solar energy has been given a low profile because it is very costly. It is 5 times costlier than the wind energy which is again 30% costly than natural gas power plant. However the cost of solar energy is coming down. another problem with solar energy is New York is that it get less sunlight as compared to California or Mexico and therefore transmission lines needs to be laid down to transport the electricity. Talking about globalization, as it increases some of the industries would loose. Therefore the government needs to interfere in order to keep the working smooth so that people don't loose jobs on a large scale.
Follow Us
Find Us