Ken Fisher, founder and CEO of Fisher Investments, is perhaps best known for his monthly investment strategy column in Forbes magazine as well as his seven books – four of which have been best sellers.
Fisher will be in town next month to speak at a June 7 Columbia River Economic Development Council and Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce-sponsored luncheon titled, “Building a Company for the 2030 Business Environment.”
In an interview with the Vancouver Business Journal, he gave us a sneak preview of what he plans on talking about.
“It’s really about if you were starting a business today, how would you design it differently in its model than if you were designing it 30 years ago,” he said.
Fisher said a perfect example of new age business design can be found at Apple.
“People think of Apple as a technology company, but it’s really not a technology company at all,” Fisher explained. “A tech company builds technology. Apple consumes technology to design great consumer products.”
As a consumer product company, Fisher said Apple has focused on designing a product that makes consumers want to do things that they didn’t think about doing before the product came along.
“That span between where the benefit lay is going to increasingly tilt to the sophisticated consumer of technology,” said Fisher. “So, for example, if I had a toy company I would be putting my emphasis in how to design technology into it. And you can apply that idea into every facet of the world including finance and basic manufacturing.”
Fisher said the ability to identify and to attract these forward-thinking companies would be a huge win for Clark County – a region he said clearly wants to think about how to develop and build business.
“You want to attract the business today that will be successful 30 years from now as opposed to attracting a business that comes here today and is dead in the water in 30 years.”
For more of our interview with Ken Fisher, including new details about his investment firm’s future in Clark County, read the Friday, May 27 edition of the Vancouver Business Journal.
For more information about next month’s CREDC/Chamber luncheon featuring Ken Fisher, visit www.vancouverusa.com and click on events/registration.
