How a family can guard a luxury brand: Lessons from Patek Philippe

How a family can guard a luxury brand: Lessons from Patek Philippe

by Joachim Schwass, Denise Kenyon-Rouvinez and Anne-Catrin Glemser | Jun 4, 2014

Patek Philippe, the Swiss luxury watchmaker,recently turned 175 years old.The company is Geneva’s oldest independent family-owned watch manufacturer, and its long-term perspective is reflected in its iconic advertising:“You never actually own a Patek Philippe, you merely look after it for the next generation”. Read more of this post

What to Expect From a Corporate Lean Program

What to Expect From a Corporate Lean Program

Research Feature June 03, 2014  Reading Time: 18 min

Torbjørn Netland and Kasra Ferdows

“Lean” programs have helped many manufacturers boost productivity. However, misplaced expectations of how quickly these programs can improve performance can make their implementation more difficult.

Often modeled after the Toyota Production System, corporate “lean” programs — by which we mean programs that find and eliminate unproductive activities while increasing value creation — can be powerful instruments for improving the performance of manufacturing plants. Successful lean programs help to emphasize parts of the production process that add the most value and eliminate those that don’t. Read more of this post

Start with a Theory, Not a Strategy; a theory about strategy: a mental model about how company could create value

Start with a Theory, Not a Strategy

by Todd Zenger  |   10:00 AM June 3, 2014

Well-crafted strategies are road maps to places that yield competitive advantage and generate value for the firm. But once you’ve arrived, they don’t take you anyplace else. That’s a problem for companies under continual pressure from investors to find new sources of competitive advantage.

I recently had lunch with the CEO of a large privately held corporation that illustrated this dilemma. After two decades of strong growth, he recognized that that his strategy had run its course. In the minds of his investors, his success was baked into his company’s current value and they wanted to know where he was going to find more. Read more of this post

The Lives and Times of the CEO: From 100 years back to a quarter century ahead, the evolution of the chief executive officer

May 30, 2014 / Summer 2014 / Issue 75

Strategy & Leadership

The Lives and Times of the CEO

From 100 years back to a quarter century ahead, the evolution of the chief executive officer.

by Ken Favaro, Per-Ola Karlsson and Gary L. Neilson

Imagine a chilly mid-November afternoon in 1914, shortly following the outbreak of World War I. The place: a sumptuous fifth-floor salon in the new Beaux Arts Renaissance Hotel in Chicago. The salon’s electric lamps have just been turned on. The room is decorated with red velvet couches, a long mahogany table, and deep Persian carpets. A fire crackles in the marble fireplace. Read more of this post

100-year-old beggar celebrated as living saint in Bulgaria

100-year-old beggar celebrated as living saint in Bulgaria

Monday, June 2, 2014 – 14:52

AFP

SOFIA – A 100-year-old beggar in a threadbare coat, “Grandpa” Dobri, is already celebrated as a saint in Bulgaria – a symbol of goodness in a country ravaged by poverty and corruption.

For over 20 years, Dobri Dobrev has been begging on the streets of Sofia, collecting alms worth tens of thousands of euros. And he has given it all to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Read more of this post

Gratitude begins at home; Why go to say, Cambodia, to assuage middle-class guilt? Students parachuting in will not have the time nor capacity to comprehend complex issues there

Gratitude begins at home

Monday, June 2, 2014 – 08:04

Melvin Singh

The New Paper

SINGAPORE – Why go to say, Cambodia, to assuage middle-class guilt? Students parachuting in will not have the time nor capacity to comprehend complex issues there. Surely ‘poor’ is not measured by the lack of air conditioning. Read more of this post

25 Books Billionaire Charlie Munger Thinks Everyone Should Read

25 Books Billionaire Charlie Munger Thinks Everyone Should Read

FARNAM STREET STRATEGY  JUN. 3, 2014, 12:46 AM

“In my whole life, I have known no wise people (over a broad subject matter area) who didn’t read all the time — none. Zero. You’d be amazed at how much Warren reads — and how much I read. My children laugh at me. They think I’m a book with a couple of legs sticking out.”

That comment is what really kickstarted my own reading habits. While my 161 books last year pales in comparison to the quality of Munger’s reading habits, it’s a start. Read more of this post

Scientists Have Discovered A Planet They Thought Was Impossible

Scientists Have Discovered A Planet They Thought Was Impossible

LESLIE BAEHR SCIENCE  JUN. 3, 2014, 9:04 AM

The “Godzilla of Earths!” is in the foreground. Behind it is the smaller ‘lava world’. Their sun, in the back, appears to have been created only 3 billion years after the Big Bang.

Based on what we know about how solar systems form, researchers thought that a giant rocky planet could not exist. But they just found one that’s 17 times Earth’s mass. They’ve dubbed it the “Mega-Earth.” Read more of this post

Malcolm Gladwell Explains What Everyone Gets Wrong About His Famous ‘10,000 Hour Rule’; natural ability requires a huge investment of time in order to be made manifest

Malcolm Gladwell Explains What Everyone Gets Wrong About His Famous ’10,000 Hour Rule’

DRAKE BAER STRATEGY  JUN. 3, 2014, 1:00 PM

In his 2008 book “Outliers,” Malcolm Gladwell wrote that “ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness.”

His examples included:

Bill Gates, who was able to start coding as a teen since he attended a progressive Seattle high school

the Beatles, who played eight-hour gigs in German clubs long before they invaded America Read more of this post

São Paulo-based MCassab Group is the face of today’s prosperous, entrepreneurial Brazil. An 86-year-old Brazilian family-run conglomerate with interests spanning Lego distribution to fish farming, its revenues are expected to double to $1 billion b

FROM CHEMICALS TO COSMETICS (AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN)

ARTICLE | 2 JUNE, 2014 10:07 AM | BY PETER SHAW-SMITH

Two miles north-west of the famous Interlagos Formula One racing circuit stands a group of offices, laboratories and warehouses that is the centre for one of the most successful family-run, and yet relatively unknown, conglomerates in Latin America’s biggest economy – MCassab Group. 

Outside the turnstile at the entrance to the complex, scores of afternoon-shift employees and delivery workers jostle to gain admittance, a process that takes at least 10 minutes. Security at every major Brazilian office is extremely tight. Behind a one-way screen, an invisible woman briskly repeats and confirms appointments via intercom, and the queue inches forward. It is a rare chance to step inside MCassab’s headquarters and to meet the company’s chief executive Fábio Cutait and his son-in-law, Alexandre Vasto.  Read more of this post

Five reasons franchisees fail, and how to avoid the pitfalls; Being motivated by the misconception that running a franchise will be easy and highly profitable

Five reasons franchisees fail, and how to avoid the pitfalls

Published 03 June 2014 14:11, Updated 03 June 2014 14:55

Steven Clare

Franchising is big business. In Australia, the franchise sector contributes $153 billion to the national economy. At present, there are an estimated 1200 individual franchise systems operating in Australia, and we have the highest number of franchises per head of population anywhere in the world.

It’s obvious Australians are keen to invest in franchises, but there are pitfalls for new franchisees. Read more of this post

Bus tour in Alishan offers chance to taste tea, coffee

ASM Taiwan Dec 2015…

—

Bus tour in Alishan offers chance to taste tea, coffee

Monday, June 2, 2014
The China Post news staff

TAIPEI, Taiwan — Lion Travel Service Co. (雄師旅遊) and the Chiayi County Government have teamed up to provide a NT$999 bus tour, giving the public a unique opportunity to taste quality coffee and tea on Alishan.

Alishan, located in Chiayi County, has optimal temperatures and moisture levels for tea and coffee growing. With the assistance of the Council of Agriculture, locally produced coffee beans have won the nation’s championship title as well as recognition from the Coffee Review.

Even monarchs don’t have job security anymore

Even monarchs don’t have job security anymore

June 3, 2014 – 4:04PM

Leonid Bershidsky

King Juan Carlos of Spain should have no regrets as he steps down from the throne: His abdication reflects the same values that have made him a great monarch. Read more of this post

4 ways to provide value rather than sell; When you believe in what you’re offering, you are providing an opportunity for someone else to participate in something you care about. Authentic passion is infectious and attracts prospects and clients

4 ways to provide value rather than sell

Young Entrepreneur Council

In the minds of many, sales is associated with shady salesmen. Tynesia Boyea Robinson shares 4 ways to provide customer value without selling

If you’re anything like me, you hate the idea of being a salesperson. Even though my friends affectionately call me “Faceman” (after the suave and slippery character from The A-Team), I never took it as a compliment.  To me, being a salesperson always conjured images of sleazy tricksters who pressure and hustle people into buying things they neither need nor want. Read more of this post

The Writing Workshop Glossary; putting your work out there for critique can be a difficult – and even mysterious – process

The Writing Workshop Glossary

By AMY KLEIN

JUNE 2, 2014 8:20 PM 1 Comments

Draft is a series about the art and craft of writing.

Most writers, at some point in their lives, join a writers’ workshop, a weekly gathering of a dozen or so scribes who read one another’s work and offer constructive criticism in a group setting. They hope that by sharing their material and receiving feedback they will improve their craft. But take it from me, putting your work out there for critique can be a difficult – and even mysterious – process. Here is a glossary that can help you understand the terms you may hear in a workshop: Read more of this post

What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades: “With handwriting, the very act of putting it down forces you to focus on what’s important. Maybe it helps you think better.”

What’s Lost as Handwriting Fades

By MARIA KONNIKOVAJUNE 2, 2014

Does handwriting matter?

Not very much, according to many educators. The Common Core standards, which have been adopted in most states, call for teaching legible writing, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis quickly shifts to proficiency on the keyboard. Read more of this post

The Art of Focus: The secret to winning the internal battle against distraction is not to say “no” to trivial things but to say “yes” to powerful longings

Wow!

The Art of Focus

JUNE 2, 2014

David Brooks

Like everyone else, I am losing the attention war. I toggle over to my emails when I should be working. I text when I should be paying attention to the people in front of me. I spend hours looking at mildly diverting stuff on YouTube. (“Look, there’s a bunch of guys who can play ‘Billie Jean’ on beer bottles!”) Read more of this post

Piketty: A Wealth of Misconceptions; Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty’s thoughtful manifesto, sadly gets capitalism all wrong

Piketty: A Wealth of Misconceptions

Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas Piketty’s thoughtful manifesto, sadly gets capitalism all wrong.

GENE EPSTEIN

May 31, 2014 12:39 a.m. ET

Reviewed by Donald J. Boudreaux

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century might soon stand with Karl Marx’sCapital, which inspired its title, as one of the most influential economic masterworks of the past 150 years. But sad to say, this 696-page tome, ably translated by Arthur Goldhammer, is no more enlightening about capitalism in the 21st century than Marx’sCapital was about capitalism in the 19th century. Read more of this post

The Simplest Way to Build Trust; In 1914, British and German men who had hours before been trying to kill each other were now sharing trinkets and family photos in complete trust that no violence would occur

The Simplest Way to Build Trust

by David DeSteno  |   1:00 PM June 2, 2014

In the midst of an intense negotiation, it’s hard to know what’s motivating the person across the table — is he willing to cooperate with you to meet both your interests or does he only want to serve his? You need to build trust with your counterpart so you can align your interests and increase the likelihood that he will honor his commitments.

A powerful way to establish trust is to employ one of the mind’s most basic mechanisms for determining loyalty: the perception of similarity. If you can make someone feel a link with you, his empathy for and willingness to cooperate with you will increase. Read more of this post

Billionaire Michael Kors: “I always take two gold watches along with me. One real, another not real. Just in case I lose one.”

Dressing for the fast life

Monday, June 2, 2014 – 09:25

Gladys Chung

Urban, The Straits Times

American designer and jet-setter Michael Kors never leaves home without three things.

First, his aviator sunglasses.

“You need them when you don’t look so fresh. And every woman looks like Angelina Jolie when they put on a pair.”

Next, a beautiful black jacket “that is perfect for all four seasons”. Read more of this post

Constancy in the path to virtue: Moral behaviour ought to be persistently adopted so that it forms a kind of second nature

Updated: Tuesday June 3, 2014 MYT 7:02:36 AM

Constancy in the path to virtue

Moral behaviour ought to be persistently adopted so that it forms a kind of second nature.

ONCE, Aishah, who was a wife of the Prophet Muhammad, was asked about his way in good deeds: did he perform some actions exclusively on some particular days?

She replied that the Prophet did things like a raining cloud, which when it begins to pour knows no stopping; likewise, once the Prophet started doing something, he would do it continuously. (Narrated by Bukhari.)

Aishah reported also that the Prophet said: “The good deeds which are most pleasing to Allah are those which are performed with greatest constancy, even if they amount to little.” (Narrated by Abu Dawud.) Read more of this post

Li & Fung’s strategy to make the maths work

June 2, 2014 5:43 pm

Li & Fung’s strategy to make the maths work

By Demetri Sevastopulo

Different figures: the Juicy Couture brand is owned by GBG, the unit that Li & Fung plans to list separately

When Li & Fung was set up in Canton, now known as Guangzhou, in 1906, it specialised in exporting traditional Chinese goods – from silk and porcelain to tea and fireworks – to the west.

Over the past century it has transformed itself into the world’s biggest sourcing company, with turnover last year approaching $21bn.

Wherever you live, there is a good chance that some of your clothes, toys or household goods were sourced by Li & Fung from factories in China and around the globe for retailers such as Walmart, fashion companies such as Calvin Klein, or brands owned by the group, such as Juicy Couture. Read more of this post

Better to hire big fish from little ponds; Companies are getting better at spotting great character

June 2, 2014 3:34 pm

Better to hire big fish from little ponds

By Philip Delves Broughton

Companies are getting better at spotting great character

In the recent National Football League draft, the New York Giants had an unusual criterion for selecting players from college. Obviously, it wanted big, fast, strong young men, able to endure the brutality of professional American football. But it also wanted them “clean” and upstanding, with no scandals and no behavioural problems. And of its seven draftees, five had served as captains on their college teams.

Tom Coughlin, the Giants’ manager, explained why this mattered: “It’s someone who leads by example. It isn’t about talking; it isn’t about all that stuff. It’s about playing hard, being consistent, having virtues and values that you believe in and are not willing to sacrifice them for popularity.” Read more of this post

How to attract great clients

How to attract great clients

May 30, 2014

Big ideas are what successful business is all about. Each week Alexandra Cain takes a look at anything and everything to help your business shoot the lights out.

I’ve had a couple of instances recently where I’ve bumped heads with clients due to mismatched expectations about how the relationship should progress. It reminded me of a piece of advice I was given when I set up my business: train your clients, or they will run rings around you.

Maybe the word “train” is a bit harsh, but it is important to make sure both sides of the relationship have a common understanding about its nature. If they don’t, guaranteed it will end in tears.

I also think it’s important to keep in mind the client is coming to you for your advice. If they knew how to do the job themselves, they would. But they don’t, so they’ve asked you. Read more of this post

How Can Accounting Researchers Become More Innovative?

Accounting Horizons Vol. 26, No. 4 DOI: 10.2308/acch-10311 2012 pp. 851–870

How Can Accounting Researchers Become More Innovative?

Sudipta Basu

SYNOPSIS: This essay is based on a presentation at the American Accounting

Association Strategy Retreat in May 2011 on the assertion ‘‘Accounting research as of

2011 is stagnant and lacking in significant innovation that introduces fresh ideas and

insights into our scholarly discipline.’’ It poses the question ‘‘How can accounting

researchers become more innovative?’’ and discusses why accounting researchers may

have become less innovative. It also outlines some changes in incentive structures and

editorial processes needed to achieve greater innovation in accounting research.

Is sin always a sin? The interaction effect of social norms and financial incentives on market participants’ behavior

Accounting, Organizations and Society Volume 39, Issue 4, May 2014, Pages 289–307

Is sin always a sin? The interaction effect of social norms and financial incentives on market participants’ behavior

Yanju Liu^a, Hai Lu^b, , , Kevin Veenstra^c

Abstract

Using alcohol, tobacco, and gaming consumption data and people’s attitudes toward these sin products to proxy for social norm acceptance levels, we show a strong interaction effect between social norms and financial incentives, which significantly influence the behavior of market participants. Specifically, institutional investors’ shareholdings and analyst coverage of sin companies increase with the degree of social norm acceptance. The association between shareholdings/coverage and social norm acceptance is less pronounced for firms with higher future expected performance. Our results show that social norms and financial incentives have a powerful interaction effect in determining the behavior of market participants, suggesting that social norms can be crossed when motive and opportunity exist.

Fear and risk in the audit process

Accounting, Organizations and Society Volume 39, Issue 4, May 2014, Pages 264–288

Fear and risk in the audit process

Henri Guénin-Paracini^a, , ,

Bertrand Malsch^b, ,

Anne Marché Paillé^c, 

Abstract

Relying on an ethnographic study conducted in the French branch of a big audit firm and using a psychodynamic perspective to interpret the collected data, we show that auditors’ sense of comfort (Pentland, 1993) arises only at the end of the audit process, and that the rest of the time, public accountants are inhabited primarily by fear. Fear plays a crucial but ambivalent role in auditing. On one hand, auditors and audit firms cultivate this feeling through informal and formal techniques to stimulate vigilance, encourage self-surpassment, mitigate the anesthetizing effect of habit and maintain reputation. On the other hand, audit teams’ members strive to alleviate their fear in order to form and convey their conclusions with a certain degree of comfort. In the field, driven by fear, they manage to finally become comfortable either by mobilizing their ‘practical intelligence’ (an intelligence of the body which helps them handle that which, in their mission, cannot be obtained through the strict execution of standardized procedures) or by adopting defensive strategies (such as distancing themselves from work-related problems, mechanically applying audit methodologies or relaxing their conception of a job well done). Fear and risk are closely related phenomena. Michael Power (2007a, p. 180) notes that ‘the significant driver of the managerialization of risk management is an institutional fear and anxiety’. Yet the experience of fear and the role that fear plays in risk management processes is most often overlooked in the literature. In this respect, our study contributes to ‘emotionalize’ and challenge the cognitive and technical orientation adopted by most academics and regulators in their understanding of audit risks and auditors’ scepticism. We also discuss a number of avenues for future research with a view to encouraging further examination of the role that emotions play in the audit process.

The effect of rankings on honesty in budget reporting

Accounting, Organizations and Society 39 (2014) 237–246

The effect of rankings on honesty in budget reporting q

Jason L. Browna,⇑, Joseph G. Fisher a, Matthew Sooy b, Geoffrey B. Sprinklea

abstract

We conduct an experiment to investigate the effect of rankings, which are pervasive in

practice, on the honesty of managers’ budget reports, which is important for sound

decision making in organizations. Participants in our experiment are ranked in one of four

ways: (1) firm profit, (2) own compensation, (3) both firm profit and own compensation,

and (4) randomly, which serves as our baseline condition. None of the rankings affect

participants’ remuneration. Compared to our baseline (random rankings) setting, where

participants indeed exhibit honesty concerns, we find that rankings based on firm profit

significantly increase honesty and that rankings based on own compensation significantly

decrease honesty. Participants who received both rankings were significantly more honest

than participants in the own compensation rankings condition. We did not, however, find

significant differences in honesty between the both rankings and firm profit rankings

conditions. As such, participants in the both rankings condition seemed to focus more on

the firm profit metric than on the financially congruent own compensation metric. We also

find that our results are stable across periods, suggesting that the effects of rankings

neither increased nor dissipated over time. We discuss the contributions of our study

and concomitant findings to accounting research and practice.

OMG: In China, This Language Teacher Has Swag

Jun 2, 2014

OMG: In China, This Language Teacher Has Swag

Ms. Beinecke poses with fans in Beijing. Ms. Beinecke poses with a fan wearing a fake tattoo with the Chinese characters for ‘swag’

Jessica Beinecke gets this reaction a lot: She’s walking down the street in a Chinese city, and she’ll be recognized by one of her 400,000 Weibo followers or even one of the 40 million who have watched her videos. With platinum blonde hair and big blue eyes, the young woman who has taught Americans how to say “twerk” in Mandarin and students in China how to talk about “House of Cards” stands out. Read more of this post

Where the Father of the Ponzi Scheme Once Slept

Where the Father of the Ponzi Scheme Once Slept

By WILLIAM ALDEN

JUNE 2, 2014 12:34 PM 1 Comments

Rick Friedman for The New York TimesThe home in Lexington, Mass., where Charles Ponzi lived for just a few weeks before his arrest.

LEXINGTON, Mass. – This postcard-perfect town near Boston was where the first patriots died in the Revolutionary War.

It was also where Charles Ponzi, the financial con artist who pioneered the category of swindle that now bears his name, made his last stand.

Mr. Ponzi, a hardscrabble Italian immigrant whose fraudulent scheme allowed him to guzzle cash and briefly taste luxury, was only a short-term resident of Lexington, buying a mansion here in 1920 just weeks before his arrest. Read more of this post