Lessons from Mavericks: Staying Big by Acting Small

Lessons from Mavericks: Staying Big by Acting Small

by Martin Reeves, George Stalk, and Jussi Lehtinen

JUNE 17, 2013

In an era in which scale-based leadership is both less durable and less valuable than it once was, many large corporations find themselves looking over their shoulders for the next disruption—the iPhone equivalent that could reshape their industry. In many cases, these disruptions come from mavericks—small outlier companies that think and act differently from incumbents. Read more of this post

Cadbury: The great tax fudge; The beloved British confectioner ran aggressive tax avoidance schemes at odds with its image

June 20, 2013 6:58 pm

Cadbury: The great tax fudge

By Jonathan Ford, Sally Gainsbury and Vanessa Houlder

The beloved British confectioner ran aggressive tax avoidance schemes at odds with its image

It was a deal that provoked visceral reactions in Britain. Even before Kraftcompleted its contentious £11.5bn purchase of Cadbury three years ago, politicians were warning the US group against trying to make a “fast buck” out of the UK confectioner. Read more of this post

Balance: The Economics of Great Powers from Ancient Rome to Modern America

Balance: The Economics of Great Powers from Ancient Rome to Modern America [Hardcover]

Glenn Hubbard (Author), Tim Kane (Author)

Publication Date: May 21, 2013

In thisgroundbreaking book, two economists explain why economic imbalances cause civilcollapse and why the United States could be next.

From theMing Dynasty to Ottoman Turkey to imperial Spain, the Great Powers of the worldemerged as the greatest economic, political, and military forces of theirtimeonly to collapse into rubble and memory. What is at the root of their demiseandhow can the United States stop this pattern from happening again?

Aquarter century after Paul Kennedys The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers,Glenn Hubbard and Tim Kane present a bold, sweeping account of why powerful nationsand civilizations break down under the heavy burden of economic imbalance.Introducing a profound new measure of economic power, Balance traces thetriumphs and mistakes of imperial Britain, the paradox of superstateCalifornia, the long collapse of Rome, and the limits of the Japanese model of growth.Most importantly, Hubbard and Kane compare the twenty-first-century UnitedStates to the empires of old and challenge Americans to address the realproblems of our countrys dysfunctional fiscal imbalance. If there is not a neweconomics and politics of balance, they show that there will be an inevitable demiseahead. Read more of this post

Brand Breakout: How Emerging Market Brands Will Go Global

June 19, 2013 4:26 pm

Local brands pursuing global recognition

By Rob Minto

Brand Breakout: How Emerging Market Brands Will Go Global
By Nirmalya Kumar and Jan-Benedict Steenkamp 
Palgrave Macmillan, £16.99/$28

Unless you have been living in a world where you reject the notion of product identities, you are a sucker for brands. You may not be aware of it, but branding is why you bought the Financial Times today. It is why you drive the car you drive and it is why you don’t say: “Let me just Bing [rather than Google] that.”

So, given that emerging markets account for more than 40 per cent of global output, why are there no really well-known global emerging market brands?

That is the question put by Nirmalya Kumar of London Business School and UNC Kenan-Flagler’s Jan-Benedict Steenkamp. They think they have the answer. In Brand Breakout, they identify the factors they believe have stopped a big emerging market brand becoming a household name from Rio de Janeiro to Paris to Shanghai. Read more of this post

What Paintbrush Makers Know About How to Beat China; Change your business all the time. Or don’t ever change a thing.

June 18, 2013

What Paintbrush Makers Know About How to Beat China

By ADAM DAVIDSON

As I toured Israel Kirschner’s Bronx paintbrush factory earlier this month, I couldn’t stop feeling amazed that it was still in business. Many days, Kirschner feels the same way. The charming, energetic 69-year-old joked about his ancient equipment (“That could be 100 years old,” he said of a bristle-cleaning machine); his two least-committed employees, his son and daughter (“They come late, they leave early”); and how his business has been increasingly undercut by Chinese manufacturers. After introducing me to his star brush maker, Fermin Gil, a Mexican immigrant who “can just see” when a brush isn’t right, Kirschner handed me a one-inch boar-bristle brush with a wooden handle. A Chinese manufacturer sells it for 30 cents. If he made it himself, he told me, it would cost significantly more. Read more of this post

Titans can always be cut down to size; Ingenuity and ambition are all that the pioneer needs to take on established businesses

June 18, 2013 3:09 pm

Titans can always be cut down to size

By Luke Johnson

Ingenuity and ambition are all that the pioneer needs to take on established businesses

Is it harder to succeed as an entrepreneur because big companies control more industries than they did? This was the suggestion of a recent article by Ben Casselman in the Wall Street Journal. He made the case that start-ups are declining because animal spirits are fading in the US. Read more of this post

Dolce and Gabbana Convicted of Tax Evasion and sentenced to one year and eight months in prison

Updated June 19, 2013, 3:27 p.m. ET

Dolce and Gabbana Convicted of Tax Evasion

By MANUELA MESCO and GIADA ZAMPANO

Katy Perry wears a dress by Domenico Dolce, left, and Stefano Gabbana, right at New York’s Met Museum.

MILAN—An Italian court on Wednesday sentenced Italian fashion designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana to one year and eight months in prison for tax evasion.

The pair’s lawyer, Massimo Dinoia, said they planned to appeal, adding that the case is “groundless.” The designers, known for their sexy styles favored by celebrities such as Madonna, Naomi Campbell and Katy Perry, have denied the charges. Read more of this post

Ticket Master Schulenberg Becomes Billionaire in Germany

Ticket Master Schulenberg Becomes Billionaire in Germany

Selling tickets to Depeche Mode concerts and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, has made Klaus-Peter Schulenberg a billionaire. The founder and chairman of Munich-based CTS Eventim AG (EVD), Europe’s largest ticketing service, has seen his fortune soar as shares of Eventim have risen almost 40 percent in the past seven months. Schulenberg owns half of Eventim, according to the company’s annual report, a stake that is valued at about $975 million based on yesterday’s closing price. He also has collected more than $150 million in dividends and proceeds from stocks sales since the company’s 2000 initial public offering. That gives the 62-year-old a net worth of about $1.1 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Read more of this post

LOGITECH CEO: ‘I Love Hiring English Majors’; “The older I get, the more I realize the power of words and the power of words in making you think … the best CEOs and leaders are extremely good writers”

LOGITECH CEO: ‘I Love Hiring English Majors’

VIVIAN GIANG JUN. 20, 2013, 3:43 PM 5,577 17

Don’t fret, English majors: There are employers out there looking for you. One such empolyer is Bracken Darrell, the CEO of Logitech. He loves hiring English majors. In fact, he thinks graduates of the liberal arts are so rare that he calls them “endangered species.” “If you find one, you need to run over and catch them in a conversation,” he tells Business Insider.  Read more of this post

Forget ethics training: Focus on empathy

Forget ethics training: Focus on empathy

Craig Dowden, Special to Financial Post | 13/06/21 | Last Updated:13/06/21 9:50 AM ET
The sheer volume and diversity of recent scandals in the corporate world, various levels of government, and even the media, has been astounding. Even though initiatives to get tough on corporate malfeasance were introduced and promoted in the early 2000s, it seems the only lesson learned is how to shield bad deeds more effectively while keeping up the appearance of compliance. Read more of this post

Google Admits Its Crazy Interview Questions Were ‘A Complete Waste Of Time’; Google HR Boss Explains Why GPA And Most Interviews Are Useless

Google Admits Its Crazy Interview Questions Were ‘A Complete Waste Of Time’

ALYSON SHONTELL JUN. 20, 2013, 9:38 AM 27,219 26

If you have ever experienced a job interview with Google, you know it can be grueling. Until a few years ago, Google was infamous for asking brainteasers such as, “How much should you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?” and “Why are manholes round?” It now admits that those questions were useless. “We found that brainteasers are a complete waste of time,” Laszlo Bock, Google’s Senior VP of People Operations, tells The New York Times. “How many golf balls can you fit into an airplane? How many gas stations in Manhattan? A complete waste of time. They don’t predict anything. They serve primarily to make the interviewer feel smart.” In addition to trashing brainteasers, Google is also moving away from GPA requirements. Bock says there is a correlation between good employees and high GPAs and test scores if you’re just a few years out of school. But for every other candidate, Google no longer asks for that information. What’s Google’s hiring tactic now? Bock says his team uses behavioral interviews and asks for examples of how a person acted in a particular situation. It no longer asks hypothetical questions. Google also uses structured behavior interviews with a consistent rubric for assessing each person. “The interesting thing about the behavioral interview is that when you ask somebody to speak to their own experience, and you drill into that, you get two kinds of information,” Bock says. “One is you get to see how they actually interacted in a real-world situation, and the valuable “meta” information you get about the candidate is a sense of what they consider to be difficult.” Google also looks for leadership examples among candidates. 

Google HR Boss Explains Why GPA And Most Interviews Are Useless

MAX NISEN JUN. 19, 2013, 10:44 PM 67,133 31

Google likely sees more data than any company on the planet. And that obsession carries through to hiring and management, where every decision and practice is endlessly studied and analyzed. Read more of this post

MONEYBALL AT WORK: They’ve Discovered What Really Makes A Great Employee

MONEYBALL AT WORK: They’ve Discovered What Really Makes A Great Employee

MAX NISEN MAY 6, 2013, 1:00 PM 58,031 33

Hiring decisions have always been limited to a few imperfect factors, including what appears on a resume and what impression a candidate gives off in an informal interview. That’s all changing. As Dan Shapero, LinkedIn‘s VP of Talent Solutions and Insights puts it, “Recruiting has always been an art, but it’s becoming a science.” Read more of this post

When winner takes all, science loses

When winner takes all, science loses

Science may be humankind’s greatest success as a species. Thanks to the scientific revolution that began in the 17th century, humans today enjoy instant communication, rapid transportation, a rich and diverse diet, and effective prevention and treatment for once-fatal illnesses.

11 HOURS 20 MIN AGO

Science may be humankind’s greatest success as a species. Thanks to the scientific revolution that began in the 17th century, humans today enjoy instant communication, rapid transportation, a rich and diverse diet, and effective prevention and treatment for once-fatal illnesses. Read more of this post

It’s Just Like Magic: The Economics of Harry Potter

It’s Just Like Magic: The Economics of Harry Potter

Darwyyn Deyo George Mason University – Department of Economics

Marta Podemska-Mikluch Beloit College

May 31, 2013

Abstract:      
Do the laws of economics apply in the magical world of Harry Potter? We argue that even though J.K Rowling placed her characters in a world of magic, wizards remain subject to the implications of scarcity and must obey economic principles. As a result, the series is abundant with illustrations of choice within constraint, marginal thinking, the power of incentives, and the role of institutions. The contents of the books, along with their extraordinary popularity, provide a tool powerful enough to inspire students to adopt the economic way of thinking for life. We demonstrate the pedagogical potential of the series by providing examples for each of Mankiw’s Ten Key Principles of Economics.

The Gift of Doubt: Albert O. Hirschman and the power of failure.

THE GIFT OF DOUBT

Albert O. Hirschman and the power of failure.

by Malcolm GladwellJUNE 24, 2013

Hirschman was a planner who saw virtue in the fact that nothing went as planned. Illustration by Ricardo Martinez.

In the mid-nineteenth century, work began on a crucial section of the railway line connecting Boston to the Hudson River. The addition would run from Greenfield, Massachusetts, to Troy, New York, and it required tunnelling through Hoosac Mountain, a massive impediment, nearly five miles thick, that blocked passage between the Deerfield Valley and a tributary of the Hudson.

James Hayward, one of New England’s leading railroad engineers, estimated that penetrating the Hoosac would cost, at most, a very manageable two million dollars. The president of Amherst College, an accomplished geologist, said that the mountain was composed of soft rock and that tunnelling would be fairly easy once the engineers had breached the surface. “The Hoosac . . . is believed to be the only barrier between Boston and the Pacific,” the project’s promoter, Alvah Crocker, declared. Read more of this post

Becoming a Better Judge of People

Becoming a Better Judge of People

by Anthony K. Tjan  |   9:00 AM June 17, 2013

In business and in life, the most critical choices we make relate to people. Yet being a good judge of people is difficult. How do we get better at sizing up first impressions, at avoiding hiring mistakes, at correctly picking (and not missing) rising stars?

The easy thing to do is focus on extrinsic markers — academic scores, net worth, social status, job titles. Social media has allowed us to add new layers of extrinsic scoring: How many friends do they have on Facebook? Who do we know in common through LinkedIn? How many Twitter followers do they have?

But such extrinsic credentials and markers only tell one part of a person’s story. They are necessary, but not sufficient. What they miss are the “softer” and more nuanced intrinsic that are far more defining of a person’s character. You can teach skills; character and attitude, not so much. Read more of this post

In the Google age, approach to education needs a rethink

In the Google age, approach to education needs a rethink

Would a person with good handwriting, spelling and grammar and instant recall of multiplication tables be considered a better candidate for a job than, say, one who knows how to configure a peer-to-peer network of devices, set up an organisation-wide Google calendar and find out where the most reliable sources of venture capital are, I wonder? The former set of skills is taught in schools, the latter is not.

BY SUGATA MITRA –

4 HOURS 32 MIN AGO

Would a person with good handwriting, spelling and grammar and instant recall of multiplication tables be considered a better candidate for a job than, say, one who knows how to configure a peer-to-peer network of devices, set up an organisation-wide Google calendar and find out where the most reliable sources of venture capital are, I wonder? The former set of skills is taught in schools, the latter is not.

In school examinations, learners must reproduce facts from memory, solve problems using their minds and paper alone. They must not talk to anyone or look at anyone else’s work. They must not use any educational resources, certainly not the Internet. Read more of this post

Montreal Mayor Arrested by Quebec Anti-Corruption Police; charges are linked to illegal payments in two real-estate transactions

Montreal Mayor Arrested by Quebec Anti-Corruption Police

Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum faces 14 criminal charges, including fraud and breach of trust, after being arrested today by Quebec’s anti-corruption task force as part of a bribery case.

The charges are linked to two real-estate transactions that involved “tens of thousands of dollars” in illegal payments between 2006 and 2011, Robert Lafreniere, head of Quebec’s anti-corruption unit, told reporters at a televised press conference in Montreal today. Applebaum was arrested at his home, police said in a statement posted on the provincial government’s website. Read more of this post

Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King: “There’s always been a willingness to be overly impressed by people who appear to be extraordinarily financially successful”

June 14, 2013 11:58 am

Lunch with the FT: Sir Mervyn King

By Martin Wolf

The Bank of England governor talks to the FT’s Martin Wolf about exits, euro solutions and the ‘audacity of pessimism’

Sir Mervyn King, who is to end 10 years as governor of the Bank of England at the end of the month, has organised this lunch himself. Uli in Notting Hill, he has explained in advance, is a favourite local restaurant, specialising in east Asian food. It is normally closed on Saturday lunchtime but Sir Mervyn has arranged for it to be opened especially for us. He has also asked the owner, Michael, to choose the food. The result is as excellent as it is excessive: soft-shelled crab; spicy scallops; Mongolian lamb, Singaporean laksa (a soup); steamed turbot; lamb curry; special fried rice; aubergine in sweet chilli; and seafood udon (noodles). The meal is devastatingly large. Read more of this post

Fashion designer Lisa Ho’s company will shut its doors after administrators failed to find a buyer of her business; “Lisa Ho is an iconic Australian fashion brand and one of the bastions of fashion landscape in last 30 years”

Lisa Ho to close its doors forever

by: By Melissa Hoyer

From:news.com.au

June 18, 2013 1:18PM

Fashion designer Lisa Ho’s (L) label is reportedly riddled with $11m in debt.

WELL-REGARDED industry stalwart and a star performance at the recent Australian fashion week weren’t enough to keep designer brand Lisa Ho in business, with stores set to close.

Today, administrators for the Lisa Ho Group, Barry Taylor and Todd Gammel of HLB Mann Judd, announced that despite considerable interest, ‘a sale of the Lisa Ho Group business as a going concern has not been achieved within the sale program’.

Discussions are continuing with a number of interested parties in relation to the purchase of intellectual property, stock and other assets of the Lisa Ho Group.

“The Administrators are now focused on an orderly closure of the remaining Lisa Ho Group stores.”

For the past 30 years the Lisa Ho label followed a modern, fashion-now aesthetic but like most fashion retailers, particularly following the GFC, there has been thwarted demand growth and increased competition of numerous online retailers. Read more of this post

A cup of tea may be the best way to engage employees; People may come to dislike their jobs a little less, but seldom learn to love them; Most people find it easier to like work that involves a craft of some sort

June 14, 2013 5:02 pm

A cup of tea may be the best way to engage employees

By Lucy Kellaway

People may come to dislike their jobs a little less, but seldom learn to love them

Last week I met a professor of office design who talked excitedly about creating visionary spaces for people to work in and filling the air with the scent of fresh linen. After a bit, I protested that surely all we wanted from an office building was natural light and something relatively comfortable to sit on.

“It’s all very well for you to say that,” he snapped. “You don’t care about your surroundings because you love your job. Most people don’t love theirs.”

It is true that I do like my job. It’s also true that most people don’t like theirs one bit. (I’m avoiding the word “love” here, let alone “passion”, as both are unseemly in an employee.) Every week brings another survey telling how occupational dislike rules in offices. Last week there was a study showing that 77 per cent of UK workers felt they had chosen the wrong career. In the US, a recent report stated that only 19 per cent of workers professed themselves satisfied with their jobs. Read more of this post