The innovators: Britain’s economic future relies on seeking out the new; Introducing a new weekly column that will showcase innovation – and the key role it plays in business success

The innovators: Britain’s economic future relies on seeking out the new

Introducing a new weekly column that will showcase innovation – and the key role it plays in business success

Birgitte Andersen

The Guardian, Monday 10 March 2014

Sir Tim Berners-Lee – a man whose innovation helped create the world as we know it. Photograph: Ed Quinn/Ed Quinn/Corbis Read more of this post

CEO of Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator advises Koreans to be bolder; “Startups tend to be chaotic, crazy and make a lot of mistakes. But here, there’s a lot of top-down planning, being too careful, making sure everything is in place.”

2014-03-09 14:47

CEO of Silicon Valley-based startup accelerator advises Koreans to be bolder
By Kim Bo-eun
Korea is being hyped for a startup boom. With the government’s renewed focus on fostering startups, together with the country’s tremendous Internet speed, bandwidths and penetration rates, the future for venture companies looks promising. But such businesses will not take off unless people become more comfortable with failure, according to the head of a major startup investment company based in Silicon Valley. Read more of this post

The Four Keys to Being a Trusted Leader: Selflessness, Safety, Service, and Sacrifice

The Four Keys to Being a Trusted Leader

by John Dame  |   9:00 AM March 10, 2014

Self-aggrandizement and even plain old greed has become standard fare in the executive cafeteria. And yet CEOs wonder why their employees and the public exhibit such a high degree of mistrust toward business and business leaders. The truth lies in the way many CEOs talk and behave.  Read more of this post

The Secret History of the Financial Crisis

HAROLD JAMES

MAR 7, 2014

The Secret History of the Financial Crisis

PRINCETON – Balzac’s great novel Lost Illusions ends with an exposition of the difference between “official history,” which is “all lies,” and “secret history” – that is, the real story. It used to be possible to obscure history’s scandalous truths for a long time – even forever. Not anymore. Read more of this post

In Praise of Foxy Scholars: In a world of diverse and changing circumstances, economists and other social scientists can do real harm by applying the wrong model. Unfortunately, they get virtually no training in how to choose among the alternatives

MAR 10, 2014

Dani Rodrik is Professor of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, New Jersey. He is the author of One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth and, most recently, The Globalization Paradox: Democracy and the Future of the World Economy.

In Praise of Foxy Scholars

PRINCETON – We live in a complicated world, so we are forced to simplify it. We categorize people around us as friends or foes, classify their motives as good or bad, and ascribe events with complex roots to straightforward causes. Such shortcuts help us navigate the complexities of our social existence. They help us form expectations about the consequences of our and others’ actions, and thereby facilitate decision-making. Read more of this post

Rethinking organizational ties: Keeping clients when rainmaker leaves

Rethinking organizational ties: Keeping clients when rainmaker leaves

Michelle Rogan, INSEAD | Business | Sat, March 08 2014, 11:53 AM

Business News

When Tesco severed its £50 million (around US$83 million) account with advertising giant, Interpublic to follow former Interpublic executive and veteran ad man, Sir Frank Lowe to his new start-up, there was always going to be fallout. The multinational took legal action, accusing the original “Mad Man” of breaching a non-compete clause. Lowe responded by threatening to sue the group for defamation. Read more of this post

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind

The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind [Hardcover]

Michio Kaku (Author)

Book Description

Release date: February 25, 2014 | ISBN-10: 038553082X | ISBN-13: 978-0385530828

NOW A #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
“Compelling….Kaku thinks with great breadth, and the vistas he presents us are worth the trip”
—The New York Times Book Review Read more of this post

The Dalai Lama’s Capitalist Contradictions: The longtime Marxist doesn’t seem to realize markets are the best way to ‘take care of others.’

The Dalai Lama’s Capitalist Contradictions

The longtime Marxist doesn’t seem to realize markets are the best way to ‘take care of others.’

MOLLIE ZIEGLER HEMINGWAY

March 6, 2014 7:14 p.m. ET

The Dalai Lama is wrapping up more than two weeks in the U.S. with a speech Friday at the National Cathedral in Washington. The spiritual leader of the Tibetan people has had a packed agenda, including leading the Senate in prayer, a meeting with President Obama at the White House, and a speech for a Los Angeles crowd that included newly minted Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o. But meeting with heads of state is nothing new for the Buddhist leader. Meeting with free-market capitalists is another story. Read more of this post

String Theory Genius Explains The Coming Breakthroughs That Will Change Life As We Know It; Keep the flame of curiosity and wonderment alive. That is the well from which we scientists draw our nourishment and energy

String Theory Genius Explains The Coming Breakthroughs That Will Change Life As We Know It

GUS LUBIN SCIENCE  MAR. 10, 2014, 4:36 AM

String field theory co-founder Michio Kaku did not even try to explain his controversial yet undeniably brilliant cosmological theory of everything during his interview on Reddit, beyond this analogy: Read more of this post

LEGENDARY VC Ben Horowitz: Here’s The Number One Thing I look For In An Entrepreneur: The willingness to think for yourself

LEGENDARY VC: Here’s The Number One Thing I look For In An Entrepreneur

STEVE KOVACH TECH  MAR. 10, 2014, 6:12 AM

AUSTIN, TEX — Ben Horowitz, partner at legendary VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, spoke at the South By Southwest Interactive conference Sunday in a fireside chat with rap star Nas to go over some entrepreneurship advice in his new book, “The Hard Thing About Hard Things.” Read more of this post

Design for a New College: Arizona State’s President Says It’s Time to Rethink Tenure and Other Academic Traditions

Design for a New College

Arizona State’s President Says It’s Time to Rethink Tenure and Other Academic Traditions

DOUGLAS BELKIN

March 9, 2014 7:47 p.m. ET

‘No matter what ideas you come up with in academic institutions, there will be people opposed to it.’Arizona State University Read more of this post

At Popeyes, Recipe for a Turnaround: CEO Cheryl Bachelder Says Rebuilding Trust With Franchisees Was a Key Ingredient

At Popeyes, Recipe for a Turnaround

CEO Cheryl Bachelder Says Rebuilding Trust With Franchisees Was a Key Ingredient

JULIE JARGON

March 9, 2014 7:47 p.m. ET

‘We came back with a new store design, and we laid out all the costs.’ Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen

Cheryl Bachelder, chief executive of Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen Inc., PLKI -0.02% joined the company at a less-than-ideal time. Read more of this post

The CFO as Change Agent: Finance People Need to Ask the Tough Questions, Says Steven Paladino of Henry Schein

The CFO as Change Agent

Finance People Need to Ask the Tough Questions, Says Steven Paladino of Henry Schein

NOELLE KNOX

March 9, 2014 7:47 p.m. ET

Over the past 25 years, Henry Schein Inc. HSIC +0.01% has transformed itself from a family-owned business with $125 million in annual sales into a $10 billion provider of products and services to dental, medical and veterinary offices world-wide. Read more of this post

A CFO With Many Jobs-and Challenges: Baidu’s Jennifer Li Talks About China’s Booming Internet Industry

A CFO With Many Jobs—and Challenges

Baidu’s Jennifer Li Talks About China’s Booming Internet Industry

PAUL MOZUR

March 9, 2014 7:47 p.m. ET

‘You depend on [employees] to think for themselves and take action.’ Bloomberg News

BEIJING— Jennifer Li is the No. 2 executive at the company often called the Google of China—and by extension the most powerful woman in the booming Chinese Internet industry. Read more of this post

Caves found in Patagonia may unlock secrets of how continents formed

Caves found in Patagonia may unlock secrets of how continents formed

Fri, Mar 7 2014

SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Chilean and French scientists have discovered a network of underground caves on a remote island in Patagonia that could provide valuable clues as to how continents were formed. Read more of this post

C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success

July 21, 2007

C.E.O. Libraries Reveal Keys to Success

By HARRIET RUBIN

Michael Moritz, the venture capitalist who built a personal $1.5 billion fortune discovering the likes of Google, YouTube, Yahoo and PayPal, and taking them public, may seem preternaturally in tune with new media. But it is the imprint of old media — books by the thousands sprawling through his Bay Area house — that occupies his mind. Read more of this post

Richard Feynman: The Universe in a Glass of Wine; all life is fermentation

Richard Feynman: The Universe in a Glass of Wine

March 7, 2014 by Shane Parrish

A poet once said, “The whole universe is in a glass of wine.” We will probably never know in what sense he meant that, for poets do not write to be understood. But it is true that if we look at a glass of wine closely enough we see the entire universe. There are the things of physics: the twisting liquid which evaporates depending on the wind and weather, the reflections in the glass, and our imagination adds the atoms. The glass is a distillation of the earth’s rocks, and in its composition we see the secrets of the universe’s age, and the evolution of stars. Read more of this post

What Makes Art Popular? Science Says It’s Luck, and the Opinion of Others

WHAT MAKES ART POPULAR? SCIENCE SAYS IT’S LUCK, AND THE OPINION OF OTHERS

BY JENNIFER MILLER

You’d like to think that artistic merit drives commercial success. Unsurprisingly, a Princeton study says that artworks gain popularity based on social influence, and chance. Read more of this post

SingPost celebrates Hello Kitty’s 40th anniversary with limited edition stamps

SingPost celebrates Hello Kitty’s 40th anniversary with limited edition stamps

Sunday, March 9, 2014 – 12:44

AsiaOne

SINGAPORE – In conjunction with Hello Kitty’s 40th Anniversary, SingPost will issue five limited edition MyStamp sets progressively in 2014 showcasing the evolution of Hello Kitty. Read more of this post

The Cookie Monster Knows More About Willpower Than You; I had no idea how much thought actually went into the programming of Sesame Street before reading Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence.

The Cookie Monster Knows More About Willpower Than You

March 4, 2014 by Shane Parrish

I had no idea how much thought actually went into the programming of Sesame Street before reading Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence. Read more of this post

Angela Belcher is a materials scientist who makes things with viruses. She is now using them to attack cancer

Brain scan: The DNA of materials

Angela Belcher is a materials scientist who makes things with viruses. She is now using them to attack cancer

Mar 8th 2014 | From the print edition

“IT’S getting a little challenging,” says Angela Belcher. “I feel I am having to make choices now, which I never really wanted to.” But there are only so many hours in the day and she already combines multiple academic disciplines into a repertoire of research that spans an ambition to drive an electric car powered by a virus battery to building better touch-screens for digital devices and lately to giving surgeons new tools to detect and potentially treat minute traces of cancer. Read more of this post

Global warming: Who pressed the pause button? The slowdown in rising temperatures over the past 15 years goes from being unexplained to overexplained

Global warming: Who pressed the pause button? The slowdown in rising temperatures over the past 15 years goes from being unexplained to overexplained

Mar 8th 2014 | From the print edition

 ]

BETWEEN 1998 and 2013, the Earth’s surface temperature rose at a rate of 0.04°C a decade, far slower than the 0.18°C increase in the 1990s. Meanwhile, emissions of carbon dioxide (which would be expected to push temperatures up) rose uninterruptedly. This pause in warming has raised doubts in the public mind about climate change. A few sceptics say flatly that global warming has stopped. Others argue that scientists’ understanding of the climate is so flawed that their judgments about it cannot be accepted with any confidence. A convincing explanation of the pause therefore matters both to a proper understanding of the climate and to the credibility of climate science—and papers published over the past few weeks do their best to provide one. Indeed, they do almost too good a job. If all were correct, the pause would now be explained twice over. Read more of this post

Religion and advertising: Competing to be the real thing

Religion and advertising: Competing to be the real thing

Mar 8th 2014, 12:01 by B.C.

TWO recent bits of news will be of interest to people who worry about the offence which advertising and other marketing tools can cause to religious believers. As it happens, both items concern Christians in Britain, but one could find many similar stories from other countries and faiths. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), a self-regulatory body,rejected a complaint from 30 people who said they were upset by a Christmas commercial for KFC, a fast-food chain. The ad poked lightish fun at some secular aspects of the winter-holiday celebration (like shoppers squabbling over an item they both wanted) and showed carol singers trying to soften the heart of a Scrooge-like figure with what they self-mockingly called “stupid songs”. It was the latter two words which offended some; but as the ASA noted, the singers were just making a point about their grumpy listener’s state of mind. Read more of this post

How to be Happier and More Productive by Avoiding ‘Decision Fatigue’

How to be Happier and More Productive by Avoiding ‘Decision Fatigue’

Posted on Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

Written by Brian Bailey

Let’s say it’s your birthday.

First, happy birthday! We got you a cake.

We’ll come back to the cake in a moment. Read more of this post

Think you’re a thought leader? You’re probably wrong. but here are 3 ways to become one

Think you’re a thought leader? You’re probably wrong… but here are 3 ways to become one

Cheryl Kim, Special to Financial Post | March 7, 2014 | Last Updated:Mar 7 11:57 AM ET
Thought leadership. A term bandied about daily by public relations people trying to build the reputation of their CEO. But most people talking about thought leadership have no clue what it means. And most content labelled as “thought leadership” is actually missing the elements of both “thought” and “leadership”. Read more of this post

Fastenal’s CEO Sweats the Small Stuff: Will Oberton climbed Fastenal’s ranks by sticking with basics and solving problems creatively. Even Warren Buffett is impressed

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2014

Fastenal’s CEO Sweats the Small Stuff

By DYAN MACHAN | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Will Oberton climbed Fastenal’s ranks by sticking with basics and solving problems creatively. Even Warren Buffett is impressed. Read more of this post

Counting our blessings: We should learn to be thankful for the many good things in life that we often take for granted

Updated: Sunday March 9, 2014 MYT 7:21:10 AM

Counting our blessings

BY SOO EWE JIN

We should learn to be thankful for the many good things in life that we often take for granted.

THERE are some realities in life that we sometimes find difficult to embrace. Read more of this post

What parasites can teach you about being a better human

What parasites can teach you about being a better human

By Rachel Feltman @rachelfeltman 4 minutes ago

Nature is gross, messy, and dangerous. If you pretend otherwise, you’re missing out on the best of the natural world—and probably making some bad decisions about the best way to live your life and run your business. That’s the premise of Mother Nature is Trying to Kill You, written by Dan Riskin of Animal Planet’s parasite-centric show Monsters Inside Me and released this week. Read more of this post

A Chess Master Scans the Market for a Checkmate; Grandmaster Capital’s Patrick Wolff discusses strategy, stocks he likes and dislikes, and his global outlook

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 2014

A Chess Master Scans the Market for a Checkmate

By LAWRENCE C. STRAUSS | MORE ARTICLES BY AUTHOR

Grandmaster Capital’s Patrick Wolff discusses strategy, stocks he likes and dislikes, and his global outlook.

Patrick Wolff’s résumé includes two U.S. chess championships, first in 1992 and again in 1995, when playing professionally during his time off from college. The Harvard-educated philosophy major earned the distinction of grandmaster, an elite level. Nowadays, Wolff, 46 years old, is running Grandmaster Capital Management, a hedge-fund firm in San Francisco overseeing about $230 million. And though he doesn’t play professionally any longer, he hasn’t stored his chessboard in the attic just yet. In recent years at Berkshire Hathaway’s annual meeting, Wolff, wearing a blindfold, has played multiple chess games simultaneously. Read more of this post

Why companies drive away their talents

Updated: Saturday March 8, 2014 MYT 2:21:17 PM

Why companies drive away their talents

BY EUGENE MAHALINGAM

Vogiatzakis: ‘It is not all about the money as there is always someone who will offer more.’ Read more of this post