Bamboo Innovator

CEOs: Own the Crisis or It Will Own You

CEOs: Own the Crisis or It Will Own You

by Lauren Leader-Chivée  |   2:58 PM March 26, 2014

The terrible press for GM keeps coming. The New York Times reported this week that GM lied to grieving families about the reasons for their loved ones’ deaths and even aggressively threatened families should they sue the company. This comes on top of recent revelations that GM officials knew about the faulty and deadly ignition switch issue in the Chevy Cobalt for years before recalling the cars. All this hits only months into Mary Barra’s tenure as CEO. While GM’s crisis is dramatic and specific, the crisis and the way Barra is handling it offer a broad array of lessons and a fair dose of controversy about what good leadership looks like and how some in the media judge male and female leaders differently. Read more of this post

Midsize Companies Must Prioritize Ruthlessly

Midsize Companies Must Prioritize Ruthlessly

by Robert Sher  |   8:00 AM March 27, 2014

The world is littered with the hollowed-out shells of firms that tried to do too much and spent too big trying to grow too fast. Many of those firms were midsize companies; they didn’t have the resources of the big firms to sustain setbacks, nor were they scrappy like most small companies, making do with the resources they had. Read more of this post

Where to Find Authentic Entrepreneurs

Where to Find Authentic Entrepreneurs

by William Barnett  |   1:00 PM March 27, 2014

I still remember when Steve Jobs was featured in business school case studies as an example of bad leadership style. At the time, Apple was a less-than-successful computer company, and Steve – ever the loner – had moved on to create Next, another less-than-successful one. When things go poorly for a nonconformist, how easy it is to call them the fool. But on those rare occasions when the loner gets it right – see Jobs a few years later when he returned to Apple – he does so in a big way. Nothing pays off so well as a nonconformist strategy that wins. Read more of this post

Mapping the future: Jack Dangermond, founder of Esri, the market leader in geographic info systems, says passion and good old-fashioned business values are behind

PUBLISHED MARCH 29, 2014

Mapping the future

Jack Dangermond, founder of Esri, the market leader in geographic info systems, says passion and good old-fashioned business values are behind By Anna Teo

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Bamboo-Munching Giant Panda Also Has a Sweet Tooth

Bamboo-Munching Giant Panda Also Has a Sweet Tooth

By Will Dunham on 12:36 pm Mar 28, 2014

1.  Giant pandas eat plenty of veggies, but apparently they like dessert, too.

Scientists studying the endangered black-and-white bears said on Thursday that while pandas almost exclusively eat bamboo, which contains only tiny amounts of sugars, they showed a strong preference for natural sweeteners in an experiment. Read more of this post

The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone

The Deepest Human Life: An Introduction to Philosophy for Everyone Hardcover

by Scott Samuelson  (Author)

Sometimes it seems like you need a PhD just to open a book of philosophy. We leave philosophical matters to the philosophers in the same way that we leave science to scientists. Scott Samuelson thinks this is tragic, for our lives as well as for philosophy. In The Deepest Human Life he takes philosophy back from the specialists and restores it to its proper place at the center of our humanity, rediscovering it as our most profound effort toward understanding, as a way of life that anyone can live. Exploring the works of some of history’s most important thinkers in the context of the everyday struggles of his students, he guides us through the most vexing quandaries of our existence—and shows just how enriching the examined life can be.   Read more of this post

Would You Hire Socrates? It turns out that studying the humanities is not such a bad career move. But its real value lies elsewhere

Would You Hire Socrates?

It turns out that studying the humanities is not such a bad career move. But its real value lies elsewhere.

SCOTT SAMUELSON

March 28, 2014 6:34 p.m. ET

The myth that studying the humanities doesn’t pay was recently exploded by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Read more of this post

Finances and the Aging Brain: The latest research on why even smart investors fall prey to financial predators

Finances and the Aging Brain

The latest research on why even smart investors fall prey to financial predators

JASON ZWEIG

March 28, 2014 12:12 p.m. ET

BRUCE MARTIN IS nobody’s fool. The former chairman of the chemistry department at the University of Virginia is the author of more than 200 scientific papers and a textbook on biophysical chemistry. After a lifetime of diligent saving, Martin, 84, is also a wealthy man, with several million dollars in assets. Read more of this post

Advice for a Happy Life by Charles Murray: Consider marrying young. Be wary of grand passions. Watch ‘Groundhog Day’ (again). Advice on how to live to the fullest

Advice for a Happy Life by Charles Murray

Consider marrying young. Be wary of grand passions. Watch ‘Groundhog Day’ (again). Advice on how to live to the fullest

CHARLES MURRAY

Updated March 28, 2014 8:29 p.m. ET

Consider marrying young. Be wary of grand passions. Watch “Groundhog Day” repeatedly. Charles Murray, author of “The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead,” joins the News Hub with some advice for young adults on living a good life. Photo: Getty Images. Read more of this post