Kansetsu Hashimoto’s Chinese rebellion: From the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867), Japanese art began to shift its fundamental cultural orientation from China to Europe

Kansetsu Hashimoto’s Chinese rebellion

BY MATTHEW LARKING

SEP 25, 2013

A detail of Kansetsu Hashimoto’s ‘Southern Country’ (1914) | HIMEJI CITY MUSEUM OF ART

From the end of the Edo Period (1603-1867), Japanese art began to shift its fundamental cultural orientation from China to Europe. Kansetsu Hashimoto, however, (1883-1945) initially abjured, and this had much to do with his upbringing Read more of this post

Losing Is Good for You; Awards can be powerful motivators, but nonstop recognition does not inspire children to succeed. Instead, it can cause them to underachieve

September 24, 2013

Losing Is Good for You

By ASHLEY MERRYMAN

LOS ANGELES — AS children return to school this fall and sign up for a new year’s worth of extracurricular activities, parents should keep one question in mind. Whether your kid loves Little League or gymnastics, ask the program organizers this: “Which kids get awards?” If the answer is, “Everybody gets a trophy,” find another program. Trophies were once rare things — sterling silver loving cups bought from jewelry stores for truly special occasions. But in the 1960s, they began to be mass-produced, marketed in catalogs to teachers and coaches, and sold in sporting-goods stores. Read more of this post

Architecture: Designs on immortality: Bold designs for headquarters say something about a company’s ambitions and priorities

September 24, 2013 6:20 pm

Architecture: Designs on immortality

By Edwin Heathcote

Bold designs for headquarters say something about a company’s ambitions and priorities

The skyscraper index, long discussed but never formally introduced, is one of the great irreverent economic indicators. The idea is that there is a correlation between the periods in which the tallest skyscrapers are built and the imminence of financial crisis. Think of the Empire State Building opening into the Wall Street crash of 1929, the Twin Towers being completed as New York City was flirting with bankruptcy or the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur taking the mantle of the world’s tallest building and presaging the Asian financial crisis. Most recently the construction of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest structure, foreshadowed the collapse in the Dubai property market. Read more of this post

Corporate beasts are their own enemy; Managers blessed with a great business have been known to embark on destructive adventures

September 24, 2013 4:48 pm

Corporate beasts are their own enemy

By Luke Johnson

Managers blessed with a great business have been known to embark on destructive adventures

In some ways winning can be almost as bad as losing. When companies become very successful, they frequently fall prey to a variety of diseases. These undermine the very reasons why a business achieved success in the first place. For example, hugely profitable businesses tend to allow bureaucracy to proliferate like a virus. And it does not just increase expense; it inhibits change and becomes an end in itself. Read more of this post

Undisciplined mind cause of corruption

Undisciplined mind cause of corruption

Wednesday, September 25, 2013 – 10:15

China Daily/Asia News Network

When fallen corrupt officials confess in a Chinese court, they often repent having let their mind stray while in power, which they say has pushed them down the road to self-destruction. Take Zhang Shuguang, a former top railways official charged with accepting 47.55 million yuan (S$9.6 million) in bribes. On September 10 he admitted in court that after making some personal achievements, he turned to criminal activities as he “let his mind loose” and slackened in studies. Read more of this post

To Be Successful You Have To Decide What Not To Do

To Be Successful You Have To Decide What Not To Do

MAX NISEN SEP. 24, 2013, 11:53 AM 3,306

As a business owner, if you don’t keep a short leash on your time, the day quickly slips away. You have to make the most out of every hour to succeed, Hello Design CEO and Creative Director David Lai says. “When I was growing up my father would always tell me, ‘We all only have 24 hours a day. It’s what we choose to do with that time that defines us,'” Lai says. “It’s the one thing you can never get back.” Read more of this post

Why Aggressively Investing Even In Hard Times Is One Entrepreneur’s Secret To Success

Why Aggressively Investing Even In Hard Times Is One Entrepreneur’s Secret To Success

MAX NISEN SEP. 24, 2013, 10:57 AM 1,463 1

Anthony Buonocore bought Westway Electrical Supply, an Upper Darby, Pa.-based supplier for electricians, at exactly the wrong time. It was 2008, the beginning of the financial crisis, and businesses around the country were pulling back or shutting down. “I had to make a decision: Either try to hunker down and save cash or spend what little cash was left to grow the business, despite the recession,” Buonocore says.  Read more of this post

FD-Johnson: How to maximise a partnership

September 23, 2013 5:19 pm

FD-Johnson

By Bruce McKern, George Yip and Fan Yuan

The story

Chinese business Four Dimensions Industry Company was set up by Yan Wang in 1996 to make security vehicles for transporting cash. In China, most cash-in-transit vans had armed guards. But an increase in robberies exposed flaws with this model, as innocent people were often injured. Dr Wang judged that he could be the first in China to create a higher standard of safety and quality with unarmed CIT vehicles. Read more of this post

Disrupters in the right place at the right time; The brothers behind Nowy Styl have thrived in the years since the fall of communism in Poland

September 24, 2013 4:43 pm

Disrupters in the right place at the right time

By Jan Cienski

Hot seat: Adam Krzanowski is chief executive while his brother Jerzy oversees the Polish factories

Over the last 25 years, Poland has been transformed. A dysfunctional country ruled by incompetent communists where people received a pittance for their work has become a wealthy and sophisticated economy – a change the Krzanowski brothers, Adam and Jerzy, tracked closely as they became two of Poland’s wealthiest men. Their company, Nowy Styl , which means New Style, is expected to become Europe’s third-largest maker of office furniture by the end of this year and the brothers are now worth more than $100m. Their company had revenues last year of 1bn zlotys ($317m) and has projected revenues of 1.2bn zlotys in 2013. Read more of this post

Zoom: Surprising Ways to Supercharge Your Career; see how van den Brink, at the age of 36, rose to become the CEO of Heineken U.S.A. in 2009

Dolf van den Brink stands fast with Heineken

By Daniel Roberts, writer-reporter  @FortuneMagazine September 19, 2013: 5:47 PM ET

These days, ambitious Gen-Xers and Millennials tend to bounce from company to company in their race to the top. Not Dolf van den Brink, 40, who joined Heineken straight out of college and has stayed with the global brand, gaining experience in a variety of titles on multiple continents. In this excerpt from Fortune’s new book Zoom: Surprising Ways to Supercharge Your Career, see how van den Brink, at the age of 36, rose to become the CEO of Heineken U.S.A. in 2009:

On a plane ride back to the Netherlands after a series of job interviews with banks and financial institutions, Dolf van den Brink was thinking, “I’m not so sure whether I’m going to be happy in this world.” It was 1991, and the Dutchman was in his final year at the University of Groningen. He was focusing on business administration (and philosophy), and he liked “analytical challenges,” he says, but he was also discouraged that so many of the job opportunities coming his way were “so purely focused on dealmaking and making money.” Read more of this post

The importance of being relentless

The importance of being relentless

Lauded by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 “most intriguing” entrepreneurs of 2012, Mr George Slessman, 39, has been inventing and delivering disruptive technologies as well as creating over US$1 billion (S$1.25 billion) of value for investors over 14 years.

BY –

5 HOURS 50 MIN AGO

Lauded by Goldman Sachs as one of the 100 “most intriguing” entrepreneurs of 2012, Mr George Slessman, 39, has been inventing and delivering disruptive technologies as well as creating over US$1 billion (S$1.25 billion) of value for investors over 14 years. From a team starting out with a folding table, three on-sale laptops and used office chairs, it took Mr Slessman six years to grow IO into a data centre industry leader with operations throughout the United States. Its first international data centre — located here in Singapore, to service Goldman Sachs in the Asia-Pacific — was officially opened on Sept 18. Read more of this post

New Approaches to Teaching Fractions; The government is funding new research on more effective ways to teach the often-dreaded subject

September 24, 2013, 7:19 p.m. ET

New Approaches to Teaching Fractions

The government is funding new research on more effective ways to teach the often-dreaded subject.

SUE SHELLENBARGER

Many students cruise along just fine in math until fourth grade or so. Then, they hit a wall—fractions. The wall is about to get taller. With mastery of the topic seen as a crucial stepping stone to progressing in math, federal standards are stepping up emphasis on fractions starting in third grade. National tests show nearly half of eighth-graders aren’t able to put three fractions in order by size. Read more of this post

Dynamic Duos: 5 Brilliant Business Lessons From Warby Parker’s CEOs

Dynamic Duos: 5 Brilliant Business Lessons From Warby Parker’s CEOs

LAUNCHED IN 2010, EYEWEAR RETAILER WARBY PARKER HAS TRANSFORMED THE WAY MANY CONSUMERS THINK ABOUT GLASSES, SELLING ULTRA-STYLISH SPECS–ONLINE–FOR LESS THAN $100.

Neil Blumenthal and David Gilboa, Cofounders and CEOs

Warby Parker started with a casual conversation among friends. Four Wharton MBA students were hanging out one morning on campus, and one of them, Dave Gilboa, happened to mention how annoyed he was with the high price of eyeglasses. They talked over the problem a bit, wondering if glasses might somehow work as an online business. “I remember going home and just constantly thinking about this idea, having trouble going to sleep that night,” recalls Neil Blumenthal, who, along with Gilboa and the other two friends, founded the transformative web retailer in 2010. Three years later, Warby Parker is a major success. The online business–which has received $55 million in funding so far–combines innovations like home try-on with high-end design and a smooth user experience. And the company is now expanding to brick-and-mortar stores, an effort that should get a boost now that J. Crew CEO Mickey Drexler has joined Warby Parker’s board. Co-CEOs Blumenthal and Gilboa have made plenty of smart decisions while growing the business. They recently talked to Fast Company about their approach. Read more of this post

Chanel’s Wertheimer Family Seen With $19 Billion Fortune

Chanel’s Wertheimer Family Seen With $19 Billion Fortune

Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, with his shock of white hair, black glasses and leather gloves, will be the center of attention in Paris next Tuesday when he debuts the luxury-goods company’s latest ready-to-wear collection during the city’s Fashion Week. “The Chanel show by far generates the most interest,” Dana Thomas, the author of “Deluxe,” a book on the luxury industry, said in a phone interview from the French capital. “If you only go to one show a season, Chanel’s the one you have to go to.” Lagerfeld’s billionaire patrons of 30 years, Chanel owners Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, will walk in unnoticed, according to Thomas. The brothers will sit in the fourth or fifth row and slip away afterward. The pair keep their private lives — and their finances — out of the spotlight to such an extent that their combined $19.2 billion fortune is more than double previous estimates. According to its annual report filed with Kamer van Koophandel, the Dutch chamber of commerce, Chanel International BV reported consolidated net revenue of $5.9 billion in 2011, and earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization of $1.4 billion. Read more of this post

How do you spot a real van Gogh? Van Gogh himself was characteristically gloomy in his own assessment of his efforts: it was “well below what I’d wished to do”

The Economist explains

How do you spot a real van Gogh?

Sep 23rd 2013, 11:31 by T.W.

ON SEPTEMBER 24th a newly discovered painting by Vincent van Gogh is due to go on show in Amsterdam. “Sunset at Montmajour”, a dazzling depiction of a landscape near Arles, in southern France, was painted in 1888 but lay unloved in an attic for decades because it was believed to be a fake. But earlier this month experts at the Van Gogh Museum, where it will be on show, declared that it was the real thing after all, sending its value soaring. How do they know it is genuine? Van Gogh famously sold only one painting during his short life. “Sunset at Montmajour”, a 37-by-29-inch canvas, was bought in 1908, 18 years after his death, by a Norwegian businessman, Christian Nicolai Mustad. According to the AP news agency, Mustad had it on display until the French ambassador to Sweden told him (wrongly, it turns out) that it was a fake. The masterpiece was promptly hidden away in the attic. When Mustad died in 1970 the painting was bought by a collector. Experts at the time said they too thought that the unsigned canvas was a fake, or the work of a lesser painter. Read more of this post

Henry Blodget: Let’s Get One Thing Straight — Apple Had No Choice But To Oust Steve Jobs

Let’s Get One Thing Straight — Apple Had No Choice But To Oust Steve Jobs

HENRY BLODGET SEP. 23, 2013, 3:22 PM 4,720 14

I am finally reading Walter Isaacson’s excellent biography of Steve Jobs.

I’m about a third of the way through: Jobs has dropped out of college, founded Apple, helped grow Apple into a $1+ billion public company, and launched the Macintosh. He has also resigned from Apple in disgust after being stripped of his operating role as head of the Mac division. As I was reading through the latter episode (listening, actually — I have the audiobook version), I was struck by several things, one of which is important. In the past 15 years, the story has spread that the dumbest decision in corporate history was the Apple board’s decision to oust Steve Jobs from the company in the spring of 1985  If the board hadn’t ousted Steve Jobs, the story goes, Apple would have much more rapidly become what it later became — the most successful, valuable, and beloved technology company on earth. Read more of this post

Billionaire Richard Branson Says Personalty Is More Important Than Skill When Hiring Employees

Billionaire Richard Branson Says Personalty Is More Important Than Skill When Hiring Employees

JULIE BORT SEP. 23, 2013, 8:18 PM 2,144 4

Billionaire business mogul Richard Branson says that the single most important attribute when considering whether to hire someone is personality. This is even more important than if the person has the skills for the job. People who are “fun, friendly, caring and love helping others” are winners and the rest of the job can be taught, he wrote in an column published on LinkedIn on Monday. He explains:

“You can learn most jobs extremely quickly once you are thrown in the deep end. Within three months you can usually know the ins and outs of a role. If you are satisfied with the personality, then look at experience and expertise. Find people with transferable skills – you need team players who can pitch in and try their hand at all sorts of different jobs. While specialists are sometimes necessary, versatility should not be underestimated.”

That’s an interesting way to think about staffing up the workforce, especially in the tech industry, where startups are in bidding wars for developers and designers with certain tech skills and a good track record. He’s also not a big fan of what he calls “hiring in bulk,” where companies are so desperate to get help, that they relax their standards to fill the ranks. That would perhaps make him not so keen on the whole acqu-hire trend, unless the acquired company has a corporate culture that fits really well with the one doing the buying. He also cautions managers to be careful of jumping to judgement about personality from one interview. Interviews are stressful and introverts can get a bit quiet while extroverts can get a bit over-the-top. He advises managers to make an effort to really see a person’s personality. Yet, he says, managers shouldn’t be looking for a personality that conforms. It’s not about sameness, it’s about a well-balanced team. “Don’t be afraid of hiring mavericks. Somebody who thinks a little differently … Some of the best people we’ve ever hired didn’t seem to fit in at first, but proved to be indispensable over time.”

Lord Karan Bilimoria is the founder and chairman of Cobra Beer. He developed the beverage in 1989 to complement Indian food and started importing to the UK in 1990. Today, Cobra has a retail sales turnover of £144m in the UK

September 13, 2013 6:20 pm

Lord Bilimoria: a heady brew of beer and politics

By Natalie Graham

Lord Karan Bilimoria is the founder and chairman of Cobra Beer. He developed the beverage in 1989 to complement Indian food and started importing to the UK in 1990. Today, Cobra has a retail sales turnover of £144m in the UK and has a global joint venture with Molson Coors, one of the world’s largest brewers. Born in Hyderabad, India, to a military family, Bilimoria gained a degree in commerce before qualifying in London as a chartered accountant. In 2006 he became Lord Bilimoria of Chelsea. Read more of this post

Gandhi’s formative years: To understand a biographical subject, we must understand the people around them

September 20, 2013 7:10 pm

Gandhi’s formative years

By Ramachandra Guha

To understand a biographical subject, we must understand the people around them

Iwas given my first tutorials in the craft of biography some 20 years ago. My teacher was the great Goethe scholar Nicholas Boyle, then a colleague at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin. At the time, I was working on a life of anthropologist Verrier Elwin (1902-64), an Oxford scholar and renegade priest who had made his home among the tribal people of Central India. It was my first biographical project, and I was naturally keen to seek the counsel of a master of the genre.

Read more of this post

The Friendship Bank: How and Why Even the Most Giving Friend Expects Payback; Being helpful and giving makes friendship better—as long as it is a two-way street

September 23, 2013, 6:58 p.m. ET

The Friendship Bank: How and Why Even the Most Giving Friend Expects Payback

Being helpful and giving makes friendship better—as long as it is a two-way street

ELIZABETH BERNSTEIN

For 20 years, Christina Steinorth was happy to help one of her close friends with whatever she needed—last-minute baby sitting, a drive to work when her car was in the shop, countless hours of free marriage advice (Ms. Steinorth is a licensed marriage and family therapist). She didn’t expect anything in return. When Ms. Steinorth and her husband decided to adopt a baby a few years ago, she asked her pal to write a letter of recommendation. The friend agreed enthusiastically, Ms. Steinorth says, but months went by and no letter arrived. She asked again and the friend apologized profusely, but still no letter. After several more months, Ms. Steinorth asked one more time. Her friend ignored her. “I learned a very painful lesson—that she wanted more from me than she was willing to give back,” Ms. Steinorth said. Have you ever tried to make a withdrawal from the friendship bank, only to find your balance was much lower than you thought it was? Read more of this post

“Disgustologist” digs deep into science of revulsion

“Disgustologist” digs deep into science of revulsion

2:02am EDT

By Kate Kelland, Health and Science Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) – Valerie Curtis is fascinated by faeces. And by vomit, pus, urine, maggots and putrid flesh. It is not the oozing, reeking substances themselves that play on her mind, but our response to them and what it can teach us. The doctor of anthropology and expert on hygiene and behaviour says disgust governs our lives – dictating what we eat, wear, buy, and even how we vote and who we desire. Read more of this post

Why Is It Hard for Some People to Swallow Pills? Mind Over Medicine: Getting Over the Fear of Taking Pills

September 23, 2013, 6:55 p.m. ET

Why Is It Hard for Some People to Swallow Pills?Mind Over Medicine: Getting Over the Fear of Taking Pills

Strategies to Make Medicine Easier to Swallow

HEIDI MITCHELL

For some healthy adults, getting sick enough to require medication is only half of the problem. The other is getting that pill to go down. Stephen Cassivi, a thoracic surgeon at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who specializes in esophageal disorders, offers one explanation for why some people find it difficult to swallow pills.

—Heidi Mitchell

Fear Factor

Dr. Cassivi says the reasons some people can’t even get a baby aspirin to go down the esophagus are varied. “People who have underlying swallowing difficulties, called dysphagia, may have trouble swallowing pills, but that is generally the result of other problems, such as stroke or surgery or gastroesophageal reflux,” he says. Read more of this post