Going to Market in Developing Economies: Winning Big by Targeting Small

Going to Market in Developing Economies: Winning Big by Targeting Small

by Samir Agrawal, Shiv Choudhury, Ghirish Pokardas, Vaishali Rastogi, and Ravi Srivastava

APRIL 23, 2014

This article is part of a series on how companies can transform their “go to market” approach in emerging economies. Earlier articles focused on excellence in consumer insight, channel management, and in-store execution. Read more of this post

Making better decisions about the risks of capital projects; A handful of pragmatic tools can help managers decide which projects best fit their portfolio and risk tolerance

Making better decisions about the risks of capital projects

A handful of pragmatic tools can help managers decide which projects best fit their portfolio and risk tolerance.

May 2014 | byMartin Pergler and Anders Rasmussen

Never is the fear factor higher for managers than when they are making strategic investment decisions on multibillion-dollar capital projects. With such high stakes, we’ve seen many managers prepare elaborate financial models to justify potential projects. But when it comes down to the final decision, especially when hard choices need to be made among multiple opportunities, they resort to less rigorous means—arbitrarily discounting estimates of expected returns, for example, or applying overly broad risk premiums. Read more of this post

The John Malone Complex – A Study in Financial Brilliance

The John Malone Complex – A Study in Financial Brilliance

by VW StaffMay 10, 2014, 10:26 pm

This is an excellent white paper on John Malone by Denali Investors (a great value oriented hedge fund, run by Kevin Byun). Also see Cable Cowboy: John Malone and the Rise of the Modern Cable Business, The Billionaire Shell Game: How Cable Baron John Malone and Assorted Corporate Titans Invented a Future Nobody Wanted, and The Outsiders: Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success Read more of this post

A Q.&A. With the Author of a Buffett-Praised Book on 3G Capital

A Q.&A. With the Author of a Buffett-Praised Book on 3G Capital

Warren Buffet’s $23 billion deal to buy H.J. Heinz was promoted at the exhibition hall of the Berkshire meeting.

RICK WILKING / REUTERS

By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Read more of this post

To sleep, perchance to control your dreams

To sleep, perchance to control your dreams

Sun, May 11 2014

By Sharon Begley

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Nighttime dreams in which you show up at work naked, encounter an ax-wielding psychopath or experience other tribulations may become a thing of the past thanks to a discovery reported on Sunday. Read more of this post

A Memoir From the Eye of a Financial Storm: In ‘Stress Test,’ Timothy F. Geithner Recalls Crisis Days

A Memoir From the Eye of a Financial Storm

In ‘Stress Test,’ Timothy F. Geithner Recalls Crisis Days

MAY 11, 2014

One afternoon in the summer of 2008, as the financial system was careening toward the abyss that would send the United States into the worst economic emergency  since the Great Depression, Timothy F. Geithner — then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and later, President Obama’sTreasury secretary — tried to lighten the mood in his office with “an impromptu contest for the best metaphor for what was happening.” Read more of this post

Former Party Chief Zhao Zhiyang’s Downfall a Central Act in Tiananmen Drama

Party Chief’s Downfall a Central Act in Tiananmen Drama

By CHRIS BUCKLEY

MAY 11, 2014, 7:00 PM 5 Comments

“We came too late,” Zhao Ziyang told students at Tiananmen Square on the morning of May 19, 1989. Read more of this post

The great trailblazer: Economists everywhere should mourn the passing of Gary Becker

The great trailblazer: Economists everywhere should mourn the passing of Gary Becker

May 10th 2014 | From the print edition

IF THERE is one person to blame for economists’ habit of opining on everything, it is Gary Becker, who died on May 3rd. Not content with studying the world’s economies, he was the first prominent economist to apply economic tools to all aspects of life. His revelation was the sort that seems obvious only in hindsight: that people are often purposeful and rational in their decisions, whether they are changing jobs, taking drugs or divorcing their spouses. This insight, and the work that followed from it, earned him a Nobel prize in 1992. No less an eminence than Milton Friedman declared in 2001 that Mr Becker was “the greatest social scientist who has lived and worked in the last half-century”. Read more of this post

Tourists beware: A report from the seamy underworld of unlicensed tour guides

Tourists beware: A report from the seamy underworld of unlicensed tour guides

May 10th 2014 | WASHINGTON, DC | From the print edition

A TERRIBLE threat stalks the streets of Washington, DC: unlicensed tour guides. These brazen lawbreakers imperil the public by showing them around the nation’s capital without a permit. Your correspondent went undercover to observe at first hand the dangers tourists face in their clutches. It was harrowing. First, your correspondent had to balance on a Segway, a two-wheeled vehicle from which she could have fallen several inches to the cold, hard pavement. “Just try to relax,” purred Bill Main, the outlaw guide, “It’s easy.” With white knuckles and a pink helmet, the tour began. Read more of this post

Academic prestige: Why climb the greasy pole? Getting a job at a top university will not make you a better researcher

Academic prestige: Why climb the greasy pole? Getting a job at a top university will not make you a better researcher

May 10th 2014 | From the print edition

MOST academics would view a post at an elite university like Oxford or Harvard as the crowning achievement of a career—bringing both accolades and access to better wine cellars. But scholars covet such places for reasons beyond glory and gastronomy. They believe perching on one of the topmost branches of the academic tree will also improve the quality of their work, by bringing them together with other geniuses with whom they can collaborate and who may help spark new ideas. This sounds plausible. Unfortunately, as Albert-Laszlo Barabasi of Northeastern University, in Boston (and also, it must be said, of Harvard), shows in a study published in Scientific Reports, it is not true. Read more of this post

Genes and intelligence: The 3% solution; A potent source of genetic variation in cognitive ability has just been discovered

Genes and intelligence: The 3% solution; A potent source of genetic variation in cognitive ability has just been discovered

May 10th 2014 | From the print edition

PEOPLE are living longer, which is good. But old age often brings a decline in mental faculties and many researchers are looking for ways to slow or halt such decline. One group doing so is led by Dena Dubal of the University of California, San Francisco, and Lennart Mucke of the Gladstone Institutes, also in San Francisco. Dr Dubal and Dr Mucke have been studying the role in ageing of klotho, a protein encoded by a gene called KL. A particular version of this gene, KL-VS, promotes longevity. One way it does so is by reducing age-related heart disease. Dr Dubal and Dr Mucke wondered if it might have similar powers over age-related cognitive decline. Read more of this post

Culture and psychology: You are what you eat; Or, rather, what you grow to eat

Culture and psychology: You are what you eat; Or, rather, what you grow to eat

May 10th 2014 | From the print edition

THAT orientals and occidentals think in different ways is not mere prejudice. Many psychological studies conducted over the past two decades suggest Westerners have a more individualistic, analytic and abstract mental life than do East Asians. Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain this. Read more of this post

A Dozen Things I have Learned from Howard Schultz

A Dozen Things I have Learned from Howard Schultz

25iq  

1. “Success is best when it’s shared.”  “Culture and values trumps strategy.” “Business is a team sport.” “Service is a lost art in America.  It’s not viewed as a professional job to work behind a counter. We don’t believe that. We want to provide our people with dignity and self-esteem, so we offer tangible benefits.”

Read more of this post

Global impact of Muslim discoveries

Updated: Thursday May 8, 2014 MYT 7:23:17 AM

Global impact of Muslim discoveries

BY MARINA MAHATHIR

Muslims are benefiting from other people’s inventions, but in Malaysia all sorts of schemes are invented to relieve other Muslims of their money.

AS those who are familiar with Japan will know, their toilets are the best in the world. Not only are they clean and odourless, they have also invented toilets that clean, dry and warm you. They can even provide music while you sit on the potty. Read more of this post

From ‘I’ to ‘we’: how to give up control and shift to shared leadership

From ‘I’ to ‘we’: how to give up control and shift to shared leadership

Published 09 May 2014 10:28, Updated 09 May 2014 13:18

Roma Gaster

Business leaders today face multiple demands on their time as well as their emotional and physical resilience. The imperative to deliver results, drive profits, manage multiple stakeholder interests and do more with less leaves many executives and senior managers burdened. Many feel that the success of a business relies on their efforts alone. Read more of this post

Fashion brand’s logo likened to Nazi eagle symbol; A London fashion house has been asked to change its logo by shoppers who think it looks like the Nazi eagle symbol

Fashion brand’s logo likened to Nazi eagle symbol

A London fashion house has been asked to change its logo by shoppers who think it looks like the Nazi eagle symbol Read more of this post

How Elizabeth Gooch came back to save eg solutions, the company she founded

How Elizabeth Gooch came back to save eg solutions, the company she founded

Gooch set up the software company in 1988 but was ousted by a board she appointed Read more of this post

Bringing the wisdom of samurai into the modern world

Bringing the wisdom of samurai into the modern world

BY TYLER ROTHMAR

MAY 10, 2014

The astrophysicist Carl Sagan famously called writing “perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs.” “Books,” he said, “break the shackles of time.” In that sense, reading “Hagakure: The Secret Wisdom of the Samurai” lets the reader escape into Japan’s feudal past for a chat with a warrior. Read more of this post

After the crash, we need a revolution in the way we teach economics; Students who claim that economics courses fail to explain the 2008 crash are gaining support from British business

After the crash, we need a revolution in the way we teach economics

Students who claim that economics courses fail to explain the 2008 crash are gaining support from British business. Here, two Cambridge academics agree it’s time for a change Read more of this post

Three Underrated Reasons for Berkshire Hathaway’s Enormous Success

Three Underrated Reasons for Berkshire Hathaway’s Enormous Success

May 6, 2014 by Shane Parrish

Berkshire Hathaway is widely regarded as one of the most successful companies in the world. If you look at Warren Buffett’s 49 year track record with Berkshire, it almost looks easy in hindsight. Make no mistake, however, it wasn’t easy and he certainly didn’t do it alone.

Read more of this post

This company wants to make your DNA untraceable

This company wants to make your DNA untraceable

By Kwame Opam on May 2, 2014 10:00 pm Email @kwameopam30COMMENTS

As the scope of the NSA’s bulk surveillance program becomes all too clear, less attention has been paid to the issues surrounding genetic information and surveillance. BioGenFutures, a new company-cum-art-project launched by information artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg, hopes to bring DNA surveillance back to the fore. The company just announced a product it calls “Invisible,” which endeavors to make it harder for authorities to trace left-behind DNA evidence back to people. Not only is the product actually launching to consumers, but Dewey-Hagborg believes solutions of its kind will be commonplace within five years. Read more of this post

A Family’s Watch Legacy: How a father and his young son bonded over watch collecting, a bond now shared with the family’s next generation

A Family’s Watch Legacy

How a father and his young son bonded over watch collecting, a bond now shared with the family’s next generation.

PAUL BOUTROS

May 10, 2014 2:29 a.m. ET

Watches are my family legacy, somehow imbued with a deep and emotional bond shared between my father and me, and now between me and my children. It all began when I was 10 years old. My father was a coin collector and I, having already inherited the collecting bug from him, had built my own small collection of coins and baseball cards. Read more of this post

Masala Dosa to Die For: How the founder of one of the world’s largest vegetarian restaurant chains got away with murder

Masala Dosa to Die For

By ROLLO ROMIGMAY 7, 2014

P. Rajagopal, center, at home surrounded by his staff. CreditMahesh Shantaram for The New York Times

Read more of this post

The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere

The Peril of Knowledge Everywhere

By QUENTIN HARDY

MAY 10, 2014, 1:16 PM Comment

Thanks to advances in technology, we may soon revisit a question raised four centuries ago: Are there things we should try not to know? Read more of this post

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Lately, Coding; Backed by some of the biggest names in tech, Code.org aims to make computer science part of the curriculum everywhere

Reading, Writing, Arithmetic, and Lately, Coding

By MATT RICHTELMAY 10, 2014

MILL VALLEY, Calif. — Seven-year-old Jordan Lisle, a second grader, joined his family at a packed after-hours school event last month aimed at inspiring a new interest: computer programming. Read more of this post

CNBC Transcript: Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Bill Gates

CNBC Transcript: Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger and Bill Gates

Alex Crippen | @alexcrippen

Monday, 5 May 2014 | 2:17 PM ET

CNBC.com May 2014 | 9:45 AM ET

Here are five things Berkshire Hathaway Chairman Warren Buffett said during an interview with CNBC’s Becky Quick today. Read more of this post

Picasso on Success and Why You Should Never Compromise in Your Art

Picasso on Success and Why You Should Never Compromise in Your Art

“Imagine immensities. Pick yourself up from rejection and plow ahead. Don’t compromise,” Debbie Millman advised in her magnificent meditation on what it takes to design a good life. But how does one resist compromising one’s creative ideals when straining to meet the practical essentials of survival? An uncompromising answer comes from one of the greatest creators humanity has ever known. Read more of this post

Vincent van Gogh on Art and the Power of Love in Letters to His Brother

Vincent van Gogh on Art and the Power of Love in Letters to His Brother

“You can only go with loves in this life,” Ray Bradbury memorably proclaimed. Whether love be bewitchingor tormenting, whether pondered by the poets or scrutinized by the scientists, one thing is for certain – it is art’s most powerful and enduring muse, fuel for the creative process more potent than anything the world has known. A poignant testament to this, and a fine addition to history’s most beautiful reflections on love, comes from iconic painter Vincent van Gogh in My Life & Love Are One (public library) – a lovely slim 1976 book that traces “the magic and melancholy of Vincent van Gogh” by culling his thoughts on love, art, and turmoil from his letters to his brother Theo, which were originally published in 1937 as the hefty tome Dear Theo: The Autobiography of Vincent van Gogh. The title comes from a specific letter written during one of the painter’s periods of respite from mental illness, in which he professes to his brother: “Life has become very dear to me, and I am very glad that I love. My life and my love are one.” Read more of this post

The Lion and the Bird: A Tender Illustrated Story About Loneliness, Loyalty, and the Gift of Friendship

The Lion and the Bird: A Tender Illustrated Story About Loneliness, Loyalty, and the Gift of Friendship

Once in a long while, a children’s book comes by that is so gorgeous in sight and spirit, so timelessly and agelessly enchanting, that it takes my breath away. The Lion and the Bird (public library) by French Canadian graphic designer and illustrator Marianne Dubuc is one such rare gem – the tender and melodic story of a lion who finds a wounded bird in his garden one autumn day and nurses it back to flight as the two deliver one another from the soul-wrenching pain of loneliness and build a beautiful friendship, the quiet and deeply rewarding kind. Read more of this post

Will Berkshire Hathaway Be Worth $1 Trillion by 2030?

Will Berkshire Hathaway Be Worth $1 Trillion by 2030?

by Published on May 09, 2014

by Thomas Young
Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A – Snapshot Report) (BRK.B – Analyst Report) is worth about $315 billion, up about $270 billion since January 2000. Given the incredible $20 billion per year average gain in market value as the backdrop, one might wonder–will Warren Buffett be alive when Berkshire Hathaway is worth a trillion? What would drive Berkshire to that level?
First, here’s a look at how Buffett’s empire has grown over the past 14 years. Read more of this post