Bubble 2.0?

Last night I had to attend a dinner at Harvard Business School for a conference on entrepreneurship. I decided to go early and sit in on a presentation by a couple of McKinsey partners to an audience of MBA students. By way of background, these presentations are part of the recruiting process. Many companies come present to sudents on various topics. When I attended HBS (and I'm told this is still true) these presentations usually got an audience of a handful of students...maybe a dozen or two.

So back to this presentation. The McKinsey partners were Scott Nyquist and Thomas Seitz, both from McKinsey's energy practice (Scott heads it up, I think). The presentation was a discussion on the forces transforming the energy industry and the resulting developments in unconventional and alternative energy (wind, solar, shale gas, electric vehicles, etc.). It was an interesting presentation (boy those McKinsey guys know how to make pretty slides!).

But what struck me most about this event is that there were close to 200 students there. It was a packed house...standing room only! Students were sitting on desks, the floor, anywhere you could find room. My conclusion? We're in a bubble (in the energy industry). On a separate note, can we have a bubble and a recession at the same time?

Anyway, when McKinsey can draw 200 HBS students to a presentation on energy, that's a sure sign we've jumped the shark, or nuked the fridge or whatever the expression is for officially declaring a bubble. It reminds me of 1999 (when I graduated) and how a presentation about online retailing would get a similar audience.

In a way, this is exciting. How cool is it that we now have so much interest in solving one of the world's largest problems? On the other hand, this is risky business when folks who know very little about an industry rush into it (along with lots of capital). At one point in the presentation (while talking about transportation) the McKinsey guy asked for a show of hands of those who had driven a pure electric car (not including hybrids)...I think I was the only person who raised their hand. No doubt, we need a "Manhattan" style project to avert an environmental, economic and security crisis, but that requires we educate the next wave of business professionals if we're going to really make major improvements in corporate sustainability.

What do you think? Come discuss on Viridus.