Why Machiavelli Still Matters

December 9, 2013

Why Machiavelli Still Matters

By JOHN T. SCOTT and ROBERT ZARETSKY

FIVE hundred years ago, on Dec. 10, 1513, Niccolò Machiavelli sent a letter to his friend Francesco Vettori, describing his day spent haggling with local farmers and setting bird traps for his evening meal. A typical day for the atypical letter writer, who had changed from his mud-splattered clothes to the robes he once wore as a high official in the Florentine republic. Read more of this post

Thomas Friedman: Why Mandela Was Unique

December 10, 2013

Why Mandela Was Unique

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN

The global outpouring of respect for Nelson Mandela suggests that we’re not just saying goodbye to the man at his death but that we’re losing a certain kind of leader, unique on the world stage today, and we are mourning that just as much. Mandela had an extraordinary amount of “moral authority.” Why? And how did he get it? Read more of this post

Thinking for the Future: What modes of thought will be most valuable in a future economy defined by machine intelligence?

December 9, 2013

Thinking for the Future

By DAVID BROOKS

We’re living in an era of mechanized intelligence, an age in which you’re probably going to find yourself in a workplace with diagnostic systems, different algorithms and computer-driven data analysis. If you want to thrive in this era, you probably want to be good at working with intelligent machines. As Tyler Cowen puts it in his relentlessly provocative recent book, “Average Is Over,” “If you and your skills are a complement to the computer, your wage and labor market prospects are likely to be cheery. If your skills do not complement the computer, you may want to address that mismatch.” Read more of this post

The finance chiefs of GE and Unilever on the importance of talking directly with customers—and keeping businesses aligned on performance, talent, and M&A

Keeping multibusiness companies running smoothly

The finance chiefs of GE and Unilever on the importance of talking directly with customers—and keeping businesses aligned on performance, talent, and M&A.

December 2013 | byJean-Hugues Monier

Most CFOs play a key role in sustaining a company’s performance over time, whether in planning strategy, allocating resources, or setting and monitoring performance targets. The best among them do so with an independence deeply rooted in a connection with the outside world, the markets, and leaders across the company—lest they be so wedded to one business or the person running it that they are unable to be objective when it comes to challenging metrics, evaluating growth plans, or cutting and adding to businesses. Read more of this post

The $600-an-hour private tutor

December 12, 2013 3:44 pm

The $600-an-hour private tutor

By Emma Jacobs

As an English teacher in New York City’s public school system at the height of the crack epidemic in the late 1980s, Matt Bardin was not surprised that some of the children who claimed to dodge bullets to get to class had problems reading. It seemed to the young Mr Bardin that the task was futile. “They were lovely kids, but when you’ve got 30 of them at a time, you just feel like you’re being pretty useless and you’re not really having much of an impact on them.” Read more of this post

Missing From Science Class; Too many girls and minorities are being held back from success in science, technology and engineering fields

December 10, 2013

Missing From Science Class

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

A big reason America is falling behind other countries in science and math is that we have effectively written off a huge chunk of our population as uninterested in those fields or incapable of succeeding in them. Read more of this post

Mary Barra, the engineer and incoming GM boss summoned to tune up a Detroit classic

December 13, 2013 7:36 pm

Mary Barra, the engineer summoned to tune up a Detroit classic

By Robert Wright and Henry Foy

The incoming boss must steer the carmaker to global success, write Robert Wright and Henry Foy

©Cummings

It was like watching your daughter graduate from college.” Dan Akerson sounded positively emotional as he told reporters about handing over the reins as chief executive of General Motors to Mary Barra – a protégé of his since he arrived at the car group three years ago. She is now taking on the most coveted and closely watched job in the industry. Read more of this post

Learn some Mandarin but master English too

December 11, 2013 3:05 pm

Learn some Mandarin but master English too

By Michael Skapinker

Future Chinese executives will hear foreigners struggle with Mandarin and switch to English

Ditch your French and German textbooks and start learning Mandarin, David Cameron told the UK’s school pupils after his return from a visit to China last week. The UK prime minister should be happy with any language skills his young compatriots manage to pick up. But it is true that it would be useful if more people spoke the main language of the world’s soon-to-be largest economy. Read more of this post

How to Fake It in America: Historian Amanda Foreman on great pretenders, from George Washington’s ghostwriter to Marilyn Monroe’s real voice.

How to Fake It in America

Historian Amanda Foreman on great pretenders, from George Washington’s ghostwriter to Marilyn Monroe’s real voice.

AMANDA FOREMAN

Dec. 13, 2013 7:51 p.m. ET

The philosopher Gilbert Ryle coined the term “ghost in the machine” to make fun of Descartes ‘ influential idea that the human mind (“the ghost”) is utterly separate from the body. But it was the English rock band The Police who popularized the expression, making it the title of their classic 1981 album. Today “ghost in the machine” shows up everywhere. It has become a metaphor for the assorted forms of fakery that are constantly revealed in the mashup of modern culture. Read more of this post

How T. Boone Pickens Built His Empire

How T. Boone Pickens Built His Empire

From lawn mower to oil tycoon and multi-billionaire, T. Boone Pickens on his biggest investment ups and (even bigger) downs

JEN WIECZNER

Dec. 13, 2013 11:23 a.m. ET

Back when he was an oil drill worker in the 1950s, T. Boone Pickens earned just $5,000 annually. Fast-forward about eight IPOs and 15 corporate raids and takeovers later, and the 85-year-old is now worth about $950 million—down from $4 billion before the market collapsed in 2008 and losses in wind-energy investments. But he’s not pinching pennies yet: “I’m back trying to make another billion,” he tells us. Here’s how he did it the first time around. Read more of this post

How Isaac Newton Went Flat Broke Chasing A Stock Bubble

How Isaac Newton Went Flat Broke Chasing A Stock Bubble

Tyler Durden on 12/10/2013 15:14 -0500

Submitted by Tim Price of Sovereign Man blog,

For practitioners of Schadenfreude, seeing high-profile investors losing their shirts is always amusing.

But for the true connoisseur, the finest expression of the art comes when a high-profile investor identifies a bubble, perhaps even makes money out of it, exits in time – and then gets sucked back in only to lose everything in the resultant bust.

An early example is the case of Sir Isaac Newton and the South Sea Company, which was established in the early 18th Century and granted a monopoly on trade in the South Seas in exchange for assuming England’s war debt. Investors warmed to the appeal of this monopoly and the company’s shares began their rise. Read more of this post

Finding Your Company’s ‘Controversy Sweet Spot’

Finding Your Company’s ‘Controversy Sweet Spot’

Dec 05, 2013

As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as bad publicity. Extend the aphorism, and there is no such thing as bad controversy — especially if that controversy causes conversation. By that thinking, any buzz-generating event, even if wrapped around something less than wholesome, should be a positive for a company or brand looking to get some attention. Read more of this post

Embracing the J&J Credo: For a guide to Johnson & Johnson’s future, Alex Gorsky turned to a document written 79 years ago by a scion of the firm’s founding family

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 14, 2013

Embracing the J&J Credo

By LESLIE P. NORTON | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

For a guide to Johnson & Johnson’s future, Alex Gorsky turned to a document written 79 years ago by a scion of the firm’s founding family.

It was do-or-die time for Johnson & Johnson . The sprawling health-care giant had just announced the eighth recall of Tylenol in less than two years, two factories were operating under a consent decree with the Food and Drug Administration, and it was being sued over the failure of some of its artificial hips — major embarrassments for a company once regarded as the gold standard in ethics and quality. Read more of this post

Differences in How Men and Women Think Are Hard-Wired; Recent Studies Raise the Possibility That Male Brains Are Wired for Focus, Female Brains for Multitasking

Differences in How Men and Women Think Are Hard-Wired

Recent Studies Raise the Possibility That Male Brains Are Wired for Focus, Female Brains for Multitasking

ROBERT LEE HOTZ

Dec. 9, 2013 7:04 p.m. ET

Researchers are finding brains of women and men display distinctive differences that are shaped by the interplay of heredity, experience, and biochemistry. Science writer Robert Lee Hotz explains on Lunch Break. Photo: Getty Images.

So many things come down to connections—especially the ones in your brain. Women and men display distinctive differences in how nerve fibers connect various regions of their brains, according to a half-dozen recent studies that highlight gender variation in the brain’s wiring diagram. There are trillions of these critical connections, and they are shaped by the interplay of heredity, experience and biochemistry. Read more of this post

Business is buzzing in South Africa as ‘Brand Mandela’ profits from former president’s death

December 13, 2013 6:15 pm

Business is buzzing in South Africa as ‘Brand Mandela’ profits from former president’s death

By Javier Blas in London and Andrew England in Pretoria

At a junction in one of Johannesburg’s affluent leafy suburbs on Friday two young men weave among cars waiting at a traffic light, hawking shiny, hologram-style portraits ofNelson Mandela that change colour as they move. The asking price is 100 rands, or just under $10. “After Mandela passed away we bought these so people can have a memory of him,” says Tshepo Mabaso, 21, one of the street vendors. Read more of this post

Best Business Books 2013

December 2, 2013 / Winter 2013 / Issue 73

Business Literature: Best Business Books 2013

Best Business Books 2013

Our annual review of the year’s best business books. See also Best Business Books 2013—in Pictures.

by Theodore Kinni

Best Business Books 2013 – In Pictures

Click here for a slideshow of our picks for the Best Business Books of 2013 in seven categories. Welcome to the 13th annual edition ofstrategy+business’s best business books. Every year we strive to assemble a reading list that will not only engross and entertain you, but also provide concepts, tools, and insights that can help you lead your company to a better future. Read more of this post