To Boost Your Chance of Success, Better Choose the Right Parents

To Boost Your Chance of Success, Better Choose the Right Parents

By Clive Crook on 07:25 pm Mar 17, 2014

Gregory Clark’s startling new book, “The Son Also Rises: Surnames and the History of Social Mobility,” asks you to rethink everything you thought you knew about social mobility. His research, if it’s correct, isn’t good news. It says that socio-economic status is mostly a matter of nature not nurture, and suggests that trying to help the disadvantaged move up won’t make much difference. Read more of this post

Astronomers Discover Echoes From Expansion After Big Bang

Astronomers Discover Echoes From Expansion After Big Bang

By Irene Klotz & Sharon Begley on 09:51 am Mar 18, 2014

New York. Astronomers announced on Monday that they had discovered what many consider the holy grail of their field: ripples in the fabric of space-time that are echoes of the massive expansion of the universe that took place just after the Big Bang. Read more of this post

The Art of Collaboration vs The Art of War; When Chinese Admiral Zheng He set sail on his seven voyages, he had at his command the largest and most powerful naval fleet ever seen

The Art of Collaboration vs The Art of War

By: Think Business Editor
Wednesday, 12 March 2014 00:00 | Be the first to comment

When Chinese Admiral Zheng He set sail on his seven voyages, he had at his command the largest and most powerful naval fleet ever seen.
With such a force at his disposal – backed by the might of the Ming imperial throne – he could easily have used it as a tool of conquest and subjugation. Instead, he used this strength as the basis for building a network of partnerships and peaceful cooperation. Read more of this post

Question your sources of information

Updated: Tuesday March 18, 2014 MYT 12:14:39 PM

Question your sources of information

BY NORLIN WAN MUSA

When I was small, my parents used to drag me to all kinds of kenduri (feasts) by relatives, family friends and neighbours. My siblings and I often attended loads of ceremonies celebrating significant life events like weddings and the birth of a newborn. Read more of this post

From Youtiao dough fritter pushcart to 20-outlet franchise chain

From pushcart to franchise chain

By Jessica Lim

MyPaper

Wednesday, Mar 12, 2014

It all began with a pushcart in the 1920s. Read more of this post

John Lewis lauded for caring capitalism

March 17, 2014 7:03 pm

John Lewis lauded for caring capitalism

By Andrea Felsted, Senior Retail Correspondent

When it comes to the mutual model, one of the most successful examples is in retail.

The John Lewis Partnership, which owns John Lewis department stores and Waitrose supermarkets, has been lauded as both a successful retailer and a model for caring capitalism. Read more of this post

Corporate storytellers are best left on the shelf; What starts as a way to guide and motivate people becomes a plot from which bosses cannot escape

March 17, 2014 4:17 pm

Corporate storytellers are best left on the shelf

By Andrew Hill

What starts as a way to guide and motivate people becomes a plot from which bosses cannot escape

Once upon a time, a worried manager realised staff were ignoring his instructions. He paid a handsome fee to sages and soothsayers, who advised him to use a compelling tale to season the facts and figures he wanted his team to digest. And so, business storytelling was born and spread throughout the land. Read more of this post

The sun never sets on Eton’s empire; Controversy over the school reflects the increasing polarisation between rich and poor

March 17, 2014 6:24 pm

The sun never sets on Eton’s empire

By Brian Groom

Controversy over the school reflects the increasing polarisation between rich and poor

In class-conscious Britain no word has such resonance as “Eton”. Old Etonian actor Dominic West, star of US television series The Wire, once said that being a former pupil of the world’s most famous fee-paying boys’ boarding school carried “a stigma that is slightly above ‘paedophile’ in the media in a gallery of infamy”. Read more of this post

How wars can be started by history textbooks; The imposition of an authorised version of events turns education into brainwashing

Last updated: March 17, 2014 6:32 pm

How wars can be started by history textbooks

By Gideon Rachman

The imposition of an authorised version of events turns education into brainwashing

©Ingram Pinn

When political leaders start rewriting the past, you should fear for the future. In Russia, Hungary, Japan and China, recent politically sponsored efforts to change history textbooks were warning signs of rising nationalism. Read more of this post

How the universe cast its oldest light on its oldest secret; Scientists offer clues to how the Big Bang made something out of nothing

March 17, 2014 6:37 pm

How the universe cast its oldest light on its oldest secret

By Anjana Ahuja

Scientists offer clues to how the Big Bang made something out of nothing, writes Anjana Ahuja

Fourteen billion years ago, within a monstrously energetic, infinitesimally small fraction of a second, nothingness exploded into everything. For decades, scientists have been scouring deep space for gravitational echoes of the Big Bang, in an attempt to prove key features of the only credible explanation for the origin of the universe. Read more of this post

‘Knowledge and Power’ by George Gilder; Economists as far back as Adam Smith have undervalued entrepreneurs-the restless, inventive, job-creating engines of the economy

Book Review: ‘Knowledge and Power’ by George Gilder

Economists as far back as Adam Smith have undervalued entrepreneurs—the restless, inventive, job-creating engines of the economy.

MATTHEW REES

March 17, 2014 7:50 p.m. ET

Businesses can succeed in two ways. They can improve upon the stock of existing goods and services, or they can offer something new and different. The second course creates more value but faces more obstacles, as Henry Ford is said to have put it: “If I had listened to my customers, I would have built a faster horse.” Steve Jobs said something similar decades later: “It’s really hard to design products by focus groups. A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.” Read more of this post

Success Outside the Dress Code: The subtle cues that help nonconformists break from the pack and thrive; Power of sweatpants

Success Outside the Dress Code

The subtle cues that help nonconformists break from the pack and thrive; Power of sweatpants

SHIRLEY S. WANG

March 17, 2014 7:13 p.m. ET

Even though humans are wired to conform and be part of a group, being a nonconformist can sometimes increase a person’s status and perceived competency. Shirley Wang reports on Lunch Break. Photo: Videoblocks. Read more of this post

Wharton Names New Dean; Garrett, of Australian School of Business, to Succeed Robertson as Elite B-School Faces Challenges

Wharton Names New Dean

Garrett, of Australian School of Business, to Succeed Robertson as Elite B-School Faces Challenges

MELISSA KORN

Updated March 17, 2014 7:55 p.m. ET

The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School surprised many with its choice for a new dean, as the elite business school fights to remain in the very highest echelon of M.B.A. programs. Read more of this post

Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, the Listerine fortune heiress, died at 103 years old; “She worked quietly behind the scenes for many years to support horticulture and the arts. She leaves behind a meaningful legacy.”

Rachel ‘Bunny’ Mellon, arts patron and confidante of Jackie Kennedy, dies at 103

View Photo Gallery — Kennedy confidante and arts patron Rachel ‘Bunny’ Mellon dies: Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, a close friend of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who redesigned the White House Rose Garden, died at age 103. Read more of this post

Are we a nation of zombies? People forfeiting their identity to fit in with the corporate world

Are we a nation of zombies?

March 14, 2014

James Adonis is one of Australia’s best-known people-management thinkers

Walk through most workplaces and what you’re bound to see is sameness. Dull and robotic sameness – people forfeiting their identity to fit in with the corporate world. Read more of this post

The Art Of Self-Promotion: 6 Tips For Getting Your Work Discovered; guidelines for promoting your work without spamming

THE ART OF SELF-PROMOTION: 6 TIPS FOR GETTING YOUR WORK DISCOVERED

BY JESSICA GROSE

Writer and author Austin Kleon shares some guidelines for promoting your work without spamming from his new book, Show Your Work! 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered.

The subtitle of the writer and artist Austin Kleon’s new book, Show Your Work!, is “10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered.” But that subtitle could just as easily be, “How to Self-promote Without Being a Jerkface.” It’s an incredibly useful and compulsively readable short book about how to use social media and networking if you’re a creative person of any stripe. Read more of this post

Art of Accounting: Be a Sounding Board to Your Clients; Entrepreneurs are the most focused and determined people I know. But it is also lonely for many of them

Art of Accounting: Be a Sounding Board to Your Clients

MARCH 14, 2014

BY EDWARD MENDLOWITZ

Entrepreneurs are the brightest, most focused and determined people I know. But it is also lonely for many of them.

There are few people they can trust, and sometimes they just need a sounding board of someone who won’t pass judgment but might point out inconsistencies or illogical conclusions. That is a role for CPAs, and sometimes great things come out of it. Read more of this post

How to find the right co-founder: Right Click Capital’s Benjamin Chong

How to find the right co-founder: Right Click Capital’s Benjamin Chong

Published 17 March 2014 13:29, Updated 17 March 2014 13:40

Benjamin Chong

Building a startup requires hard work and perseverance. It’s difficult to do it alone and something, I suggest, you shouldn’t do alone. You need a cofounder with whom you can share the ups and downs of starting a business. Read more of this post

“In all probabilistic fields, like investing and gambling, the best performers dwell on process.”

Five Stinkin’ Feet

Posted on March 14, 2014

Robert Seawright

Investment Belief #5: Process Should Be Prioritized Over Outcomes

My first baseball memory is from October 16, 1962, the day after my sixth birthday, by which time I was already hooked on what was then the National Pastime. In those days, all World Series games were played during the day. So I hurried home from school on that Tuesday afternoon to turn on the (black-and-white) television and catch what I could of the seventh and deciding game of a great Series at the then-new Candlestick Park in San Francisco between the Giants and the New York Yankees. Read more of this post

When Giovanni Castiglioni’s father died in 2010 he left a massive legacy – and the seemingly impossible job of turning round the legendary motorbike brand MV Agusta. In just three years, Giovanni has done it

THE REMARKABLE RETURN OF MV AGUSTA

ARTICLE | 14 MARCH, 2014 03:27 PM | BY JEREMY HAZLEHURST

It would be an exaggeration to say that Giovanni Castiglioni was born riding a motorbike, but only just. He got his first pushbike at the age of two and his first engine-powered bike when he was four. Now aged just 33, he is the CEO of MV Agusta, a legendary racing marque which he has turned from a moribund relic into a thriving concern. Just 18 months after his family re-took control of the business, sales have increased by 300% and are on an upward trend. Many have tried to revive MV Agusta, and all have failed – including Harley Davidson and Giovanni’s father Claudio. Many thought it was a poisoned chalice. But now it is winning a whole new generation of fans, and when Castiglioni talks about an IPO that would rival Ducati’s, he is taken seriously. How did he do it? And why? Read more of this post

25 Books That Will Blow Your Mind

25 Books That Will Blow Your Mind

PAIGE COOPERSTEIN THE LIFE  MAR. 16, 2014, 8:37 PM

Sometimes a book is so good, it not only sticks with you long after you put it down, but it alters the way you view the world going forward. Read more of this post

This Is What Bill Gates Thinks When People Say: ‘You Should Feel Guilty About Being So Wealthy’; “Well, it’s not that I have money, if I’m supposed to feel guilty [about something], it’s my consumption.”

This Is What Bill Gates Thinks When People Say: ‘You Should Feel Guilty About Being So Wealthy’

JULIE BORT TECH  MAR. 15, 2014, 11:57 PM

Bill Gates has been the richest man in the world for the better part of two decades, andhe’s getting richer all the time.

People tell him that he should feel guilty about it, he said in an interview with the American Enterprise Institute on Thursday. Read more of this post

The word for good, 良い (yoi, also read ryō), is often written using only hiragana. However, sticking with the kanji opens the door to many words, since 良 can be used as a descriptive prefix to indicate that anything is good

Good and bad, for better or worse

BY MARK SCHREIBER

SPECIAL TO THE JAPAN TIMES

MAR 16, 2014

One approach to acquiring new vocabulary that I’ve always found effective is to seek out the 反対語 (hantai-go, antonyms) of words. To prove my point, how about looking at words that relate to “good” and “bad,” which are about as opposite as you can get. Read more of this post

Why gaining from value investing is hard

March 16, 2014 2:34 pm

Why gaining from value investing is hard

By John Authers

In the financial context, the word ‘value’ sets off emotions

Values in common parlance elude definition. Equally decent people can hold contrasting values with deep fervour. In the financial context, the word “value” sets off emotions that are almost as deep. Read more of this post

Small proves beautiful at boutique banks

Last updated: March 16, 2014 2:22 pm

Small proves beautiful at boutique banks

By Ed Hammond in New York and Daniel Schäfer in London

On an August evening in 2012, Jim Mooney and Mike Fries gathered for an informal dinner at the Hamptons house of Aryeh Bourkoff, the Wall Street dealmaker. Mr Bourkoff, who had launched his own investment bank LionTree a month earlier, had chosen his guests carefully. Read more of this post

‘Big Data @Work’ by Thomas H Davenport

March 5, 2014 4:15 pm

‘Big Data @Work’ by Thomas H Davenport

By Hannah Kuchler

Like bacteria, big data is lurking in the stomachs of cows. Some farmers are using sensors and software to analyse it and predict when a cow is getting ill.

Just like customers, cows do not always speak out when something is wrong. But companies can use data to predict potential risks and opportunities in cows and customers alike. Read more of this post

My top tip: ignore everyone else’s top tips; Pieces of advice are positioning statements that tell the world about the values the issuer holds

March 16, 2014 1:27 pm

My top tip: ignore everyone else’s top tips

By Lucy Kellaway

Pieces of advice are positioning statements that tell the world about the values the issuer holds

Last week I got an email from a young reader asking me to pass on the wisest piece of advice that I’d ever been given. Read more of this post

Giving 100% effort is too much; When ‘good enough’ really is good enough

WORKING SMARTER

March 16, 2014 1:32 pm

Giving 100% effort is too much

By Rhymer Rigby

Conventional business wisdom is big on perfection. We are constantly exhorted to give 100 per cent – or even a mathematically impossible 110 per cent. But is this really the absolute virtue it is held up to be? Or is there a case to be made for doing a “good enough” job most of the time? Read more of this post

How to be a Productivity Ninja: Worry Less, Achieve More and Love What You Do

How to be a Productivity Ninja: Worry Less, Achieve More and Love What You Do Paperback

by Graham Allcott (Author)

An accessible guide to staying cool, calm and collected, getting more done, and learning to love your job again.

Product Details

Paperback: 304 pages

Publisher: Icon Books (September 9, 2014)

Editorial Reviews

Review

‘[Allcott] has distilled the wisdom of hundreds of business seminars into this handy little book to help us get organised, de-clutter our minds and desks and become altogether calmer, happier and more productive … this book makes for a well-rounded manual to sharpen up your work methods.’ — Claudia Sunderhauf Waterstones.com ‘All the tips and techniques you need to stay calm, get through your tasks, make the most of your time and stop procrastinating. It’s fun, easy to follow and practical – and may just be the kick up the bottom you need!’ Closer Read more of this post

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered

Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered Paperback

by Austin Kleon  (Author)

In his New York Times bestseller Steal Like an Artist, Austin Kleon showed readers how to unlock their creativity by “stealing” from the community of other movers and shakers. Now, in an even more forward-thinking and necessary book, he shows how to take that critical next step on a creative journey—getting known. Read more of this post