Bamboo Innovator

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