Peerview Data Insights

From Inc.:

If you knew with absolute certainty that you could put one dollar into investment and get two in return, what would you do? Chances are, you would pour as much money as you could into that investment as quickly as possible and smile all the way to the bank. This simple scenario is an example of an arbitrage opportunity, in which you can buy something at a low price and sell it again at a higher price with minimal risk.

Arbitrage opportunities are essentially precursors to growth, especially in a startup. They signal when and where you should spend your money in order to produce the largest return on an investment. The challenge is knowing definitively that every product you sell and dollar you spend is going to contribute to a positive bottom line.

How do you decide where to put your money?

Oakland A’s GM Billy Beane changed the way MLB teams analyzed players by replacing traditional metrics with metrics that – in his view — more accurately evaluated and ranked players. The result was an improved record and a best-selling novel.

According to this article in Inc., however, he may be abandoning the principles:

Like Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy?”

Hate it?

Forget rocket fuel, what it really takes to send something into orbit is money — lots of money. Yet SpaceX is doing it. How?

As this Harvard Business Review article points out, the secret to it’s success is due in part to the way the company has applied innovation to something that’s usually overlooked: cost reduction.

Remember any of these?

Given the economic turmoil of the last few years, it’s easy to understand why so many companies have scrutinized their marketing budgets. “How much are we spending?” “What kind of results are we getting?” “Can we get by with less?”

A case study in Forbes reports on a company that asked those questions and then spent two years tracking the impact of their marketing efforts on sales. Their conclusion?

If it weren’t for Thomas Edison, where would we be?

What’s surprising is the man many consider to be the world’s greatest inventor was also the world’s greatest innovator. So what lessons can he teach us that we can still use today?

Despite being known for saying “Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration,” the true secret to his success, according to his great-grandniece, Sarah Miller Caldicott, was his approach to team-building.

What’s the best way to motivate employees?

Hard to believe, but a recent experiment by German and Swiss researchers quoted in the Harvard Business Review suggests that thoughtful, non-monetary incentives have a greater impact on productivity than cold, hard cash.

You know ‘em when you see ‘em — but what sets successful people apart from everybody else? Turns out there’s a specific set of traits, attitudes and attributes successful people have in common.