Oxford Odyssey

Category: Academics

  • Social Entrepreneurship: A Better Alternative to Charity

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    Charities are often seen as the societal safety net, stepping in where governments and private sectors fail. They aim to provide essential services—like food, shelter, and healthcare—to the most vulnerable, offering hope and a chance at a better future. Charities also play crucial roles in advancing medical research, promoting education, and preserving the environment. Ideally,…

  • Startup ecosystems

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    Oxford has a superb entrepreneurial ecosystem. Casting our eyes out, many exist overseas outside of the UK as well. You want to be in an environment that has people building together – just as peers who pressure-test ideas, suggest new avenues for resources, or just give you that motivation to survive one more day. You…

  • Startups and Intellectual Property

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    Intellectual property (IP) forms the backbone of a startup’s value proposition, often serving as the invisible yet invaluable asset that underpins its potential for success. Whether it’s proprietary technology, distinctive branding, or unique content, IP can provide a formidable competitive edge. Understanding and strategically managing IP is essential for budding entrepreneurs, as it can define…

  • The lean startup

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    Before university, I spent hours meticulously crafting business plans for ideas that excited me: edible insect farms, automated restaurants, and drone delivery networks. These plans were my prized possessions—backed up across multiple storage devices like precious relics of entrepreneurial ambition. Diving into new industries and dissecting the intricacies that made them commercially promising was thrilling.…

  • Debt – good or bad for a company?

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    Financial gurus will tell you to keep debt down. There are some quibbles over good and bad debt, where some will argue that you should take a mortgage because of the historical trend of appreciating property prices. Many would argue that taking a loan out to buy consumer items with little chance of price appreciation…

  • When Good Customer Service Becomes Complex – And Why AI Chatbots Can Be Frustrating

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    Contextual ServiceStarbucks is often cited as the epitome of a customer-focused business, inspired by Howard Schultz’s vision of fostering community around coffee. Sitting in Gail’s as I write this, I can’t help but reflect on how many of us equate good service with the cheery greetings and casual chats we share with baristas. However, good…

  • Climate Change – explained in economics

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    Tragedy of the commons If a business was pumping mercury into a river depended upon by a village, you would hear collective outrage. The affected village has a strong interest in stopping the pollution, and will beat on the war drums to spur the rest of us into action.  Carbon diffuses through Brownian motion, distributing…

  • Game Theory

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    Game theory is about anticipating the reactions of the other party and making your move based on that reaction, projecting it out into the future. However, it is often reduced to iconic examples like the Prisoner’s Dilemma, a scenario so frequently cited that it risks trivialising the depth and breadth of this field. While the…

  • Mergers & Acquisitions : Why it hasn’t been great

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    I blame spring week and summer recruiting for the number of times I told an interviewer that M&A was my passion and intellectual calling. I had to read up on so many deals – looking at each bank’s transactions and picking one to express my amazement at the genius of such a deal. Now, I…

  • The value proposition of NFTs – Non-rivalry

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    Despite a staggering increase in interest and valuations of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), there is growing doubt about their value as the era of easy money ends and speculation is curbed. NFTs have often been lauded as a revolutionary way to create a new digital art market, with some NFTs achieving valuations comparable to iconic works…