Jackson Library

Fortune magazine has created a map which will tell you exactly how many millionaires are in your state total as well as how many per 1000 households. Take a look at this snapshot of the Almanac of American Wealth.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that more than 20 Americans contributed a whopping $100 million dollars or more to charitable causes last year. Leading the honor list was Warren Buffett, who donated (or pledged) $43.5 billion dollars. Next in line were Herbert and Marion Sandler, at $1.3 billion, Bernard and Barbra Osher at $732 million, and Jim Joseph at $500 million. Other familiar names include David Rockefeller at $252 million, T. Boone Pickens at $171.5 million, GSB alumnus Philip Knight at $105 million, George Soros at $60 million, and Oprah Winfrey at $58.3 million. And this may just be the beginning. Mr Pickens, for example, has stated that he hopes to give away 80% of his fortune, estimated at $2.7 billion. Such stunning philanthropy boggles the mind. Like Frank Morgan's Wizard of Oz, for lack of a better word, we'll just call them 'good-deed doers'.

Had enough of the Oscars? Check out some prizes with a very different slant: The CRO Magazine 18th Annual Business Ethics Awards. Highlighted in the CRO Winter issue, the awards salute four companies for their heightened corporate responsibility: Starbucks, Patagonia, Hypertherm and Berrett-Koehler Publishers. Included are detailed descriptions of how these companies won. (These awards are the first since Business Ethics merged into CRO Magazine, but the criteria were the same as previous years.)

For a complete listing of award winners since 1987, including the latest, visit the CRO Website. Also at the site, see the CRO 100 Best Corporate Citizens list.

Well it's not the whole world just the online advertising giants, Google and Yahoo. The New York Times reports that his small company is trying to challenge the big guys in acquiring more online advertising business. What Quigo offers is transparency and control in what can often be an opaque business: advertisers pay Yahoo and Google for contextual ad placement on a wide variety of Web pages, but get little say over where those ads run or even a list of sites where they do appear. Read more about it.

The apparel industry is leaning more and more towards the made-to-measure clothing. The boost to this trend is caused by appearance on the market the photo booth-sizes scanners which within minutes scan the person’s body and create true-to scale 3D digital model. The trend to custom apparel is growing but this process has its pros and cons. To learn more, read the article in the Feb. 12 issue of Red Herring in Jackson Library.

Safeway is 'Cultivating Female Leaders'. That's the title of the February cover story of HRMagazine. According to a 2004 study by Catalyst, a research group that targets women's issues, Fortune 500 firms with the highest percentages of female corporate officers saw a 35.1 % higher return on equity, on average. While the rate of women entering the upper echelons of American business seems to have slowed, some companies are making significant progress in diversity. Safeway is such a company. 70% of its customers are women, and the company wanted to reflect that base in its structure. Among the resources available to women is a women's leadership network, which sponsors events like the 'Women's Road Show', presentations that highlight female success stories from the company. Read more about how Safeway, in the words of CEO Steve Burd, approached gender diversity as a business issue -- "just like we do any other important objective."

Included on the Web is a link to Catalyst survey data.

The recent blunder disclosed on Feb. 12 by Johnson & Johnson on their "improper payments in connection with the sale of medical devices" in two foreign countries draws attentions yet again to the aggressive business practices of drug companies and medical- device makers. According to a recent story from BusinessWeek, "federal and state investigators are looking into drug companies for everything from improper pricing to illegal marketing. Fines are raining down, and the crackdowns show no sign of letting up." Read more at BusinessWeek Online.

Her Excellency Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi, minister of economy of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) since 2004, is one of the most prominent female politicians in the Middle East.

Sheikha Lubna has steered the country’s economic modernization by diversification into oil- and non-oil-based manufacturing and service activities, encouragement of the private sector, and reform of the capital markets.

In order to create an environment for economic growth, surplus money from the oil bloom is used to invest in infrastructure and major projects in greater Middle East and beyond, to support joint ventures with other countries in the region, and to facilitate FDI.

Sheikha Lubna earned BS in computer science in 1981 from California State University, Chico and MBA in 2002 from the American University of Sharjah. She is the first woman in the country’s history to assume a cabinet position.

McKinsey Quarterly (Web exclusive, February 2007) reports the interview with Sheikha Lubna.

Can happiness be taught in school? According to a New York Times Magazine article (1/7/07), Happiness 101, many Ivy League schools are giving it the ol' college try. In a fast-paced, high-tech world where we are expected to do more in less time, finding an affirmative focus can be a challenge.

'Positive Psychology' is one of Harvard University's most popular courses, basically a class in how to be happy taught by instructor Tal Ben-Shahar. Ben-Shahar absolutely believes you can teach people to be happier by increasing their levels of optimism. He wants his goal-oriented students to learn that happiness is the ultimate currency, not money or success -- a difficult challenge in the new millennium. George Mason University was voted one of the 'unhappiest' campuses in America by the Princeton Review, but a class there taught by Todd Kashdan, called the 'Scientific Pursuit of Happiness', attempts to approach the subject scientifically, though the class discussion tend to be very unscientific. His ultimate goal is to show "there are ways of living that research shows lead to better outcomes."

For all you marketing aficionados out there, Lane library has an exhibit surrounding the use of doctors espousing the safety of smoking in advertising. The ads cover the period from the 1920’s thru 1950’s and are beautifully displayed. In some cases smoking was even suggested as a cure for a sore throat! Reactions from people vary from astonishment to humor. The exhibit is called Not a cough in a carload: Images from the tobacco industry's campaign to hide the hazards of smoking, and was put together by Robert Jackler, Professor and Chair of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, and Professor of Neurosurgery and Surgery, Laurie Jackler, Artist, and Robert Proctor, Professor of History. It’s worth going over to Lane and taking a look.

"Second Life was just unfundable." Who said THAT ? Philip Rosedale, CEO of Linden Lab and creator of Second Life -- the runaway sensation which drew almost a million new 'residents' in the last two months of 2006, doubling its previous population. This, according to an article in the February Inc Magazine. It began in 1999 when Rosedale quit his job at RealNetworks to realize his lifelong dream of creating a virtual-reality world. Many thought he would fall on his face, but real business in this secondary world is booming like never before. Companies like Toyota and Dell are getting involved; IBM announced it was spending $10 million in developing a presence in Second Life. Harvard University is incorporating it into its teaching. Do these organizations know something you don't?

To follow up on all the other Second Life postings in this blog, it turns out that Linden Lab and Philip Rosedale are doing quite well. The exchange rate for today is $1 = L$186 (Linden Dollars). Who wouldn't want their money to be worth almost 200 times more than what it is in real life. The Second Life website also gives you a complete list of what people are paying for real estate and other services. A February 5, 2007 Fortune magazine article estimates that about $600.000 is spent every day on Second Life with a yearly GDP of $220 million.

Toy industry veteran Jay Horowitz introduced the Sudoku Cube, a hybrid of Rubik's Cube and the popular puzzle Sudoku, at the American International Toy Fair, which run February 11-14 in New York City.

Horowitz first encountered Sudoku just last year when a woman sitting next to him on a plane explained the puzzle to him. Sudoku's number grids got him thinking about the Rubik's cube mold sitting in his warehouse. ... He then worked feverishly to find a way to combine the two and when he got it, he said he didn't sleep for three days. He expected the sale to be in the millions. Read the story at The-Review.com.

Related video and articles:

YouTube shows a video clip using quantum computing to solve a Sudoku puzzle instantly.

Also check out an article at IEEE Spectrum Online: Sudoku Science - "a popular puzzle helps researchers dig into deep math".

The Toyota Corporation has unveiled the newly designed Toyota Tundra at the Detroit auto show in January. Jim Lentz, one of the company’s North American executives, told the audience that this vehicle "changed everything" for Toyota. It was researched, designed, engineered and built in America, Lentz pointed out; and it seemed, from his presentation, to be the toughest, brawniest and most iconically masculine pickup truck anywhere, ever. Read more about it in the New York Times.

Steven Levitt of Freakonomics fame talks about medical advances on his blog. He notes a paper by Doug Almond that studied the lives of babies in utero at the time of the great influenza pandemic of 1918. Almond observed that these babies grew up with an increased level of disabilities, lower social status, lower income, and the like. Levitt feels this underscores the fact that the past century’s huge gains in life expectancy were due in large part to small, simple measures like access to flu shots and clean water, rather than more expensive, dazzling medical technologies that are more heavily promoted. He draws attention to the FluMist vaccine, a nasal spray, and for increasing awareness of the need for flu prevention among young humans, in utero or out.

Intel’s teraflop, a super new chip that does tera-scale computing which uses less electricity will deliver a supercomputer-like performance to PCs, servers, and handheld devices. Read more at Yahoo News, BBC News.

Corporate bigshots out of touch? In his blog, Tom Peters denounces unhealthy elitist impulses in corporations such as Home Depot under former CEO Bob Nardelli, where Management purposely segregated itself from the company's 'worker bees' -- avoiding, for example, the company cafeteria. Peters lauds Frank Blake, new CEO at Home Depot, for trying to reshape the culture. For example, executives will now join lower echelon workers at lunch. Quoth Peters: "If we would only bother to ask, the answers are on the front lines." He goes on to argue the crucial importance of allowing a healthy interface between Talent and the Top in any corporation.

Our very own California governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, is no.1 on the Fast Company magazine annul ranking list, Fast 50. Based on thousands of readers’ nominations, the magazine every year compiles a list of top 50 people and companies which correspond to the selection criteria of "leaders who are fueled by courage, integrity, passion, and a commitment to results". Check out the list in the March 2007 issue of Fast Company in the Library’s magazine display area. The article is not yet available online.

Is your success due to your IQ, or due to your belief in yourself? According to Stanford Professor Carol Dweck, an individual’s "self-theory" about intelligence can have a profound effect on his or her success. In a Stanford Report article, Dweck discusses how our mindset drives every aspect of our lives. She talks about the two mindsets – fixed, and growth. People with a 'fixed' mindset tend to believe talents and mental abilities are set from birth–either you have them or you don’t. Those with a 'growth' mindset tend to believe that practice makes perfect, and through hard work they can achieve success. An interesting article that makes you think about your mindset -- and where it has taken you.

Since today is Valentine's Day, the San Francicso Chronicle has a very timely piece on how to find love if you are a Silicon Valley executive. Face it, making money and developing the next Google takes time! When is there time to find the love of your life. Read more about it.

"Think humanity's problems are too big to be tackled by business? Think again." So begins the article 'Go Green. Get Rich" in Business 2.0. The article outlines major problems -- global warming, oil dependency, dirty water, epidemics, among others -- and in each case outlines the Background, the Solution, the Payoff, and The Opportunity. Highlighted are innovators trying to make a difference, such as Peter Pascali, who has developed a plasma torch which filters toxins, or Cubist Pharmaceuticals, which is developing technologies to fight ultraresistant infections, or Kona Blue, whose aquaculture could save declining fish populations. Included in the magazine is a list of books, and Websites -- such as Social Edge and Cleanwatch -- plus 8 technologies for a cleaner future, such as wind power, wave power, solar stations -- even cow power.

Jim Collins is thinking big these days. At least, that's the title of the interview in the January / February issue of BizEd magazine: 'Thinking Big'. Collins, formerly of the GSB, co-author with GSB Professor Emeritus Jerry Porras of the phenomenal hit Built to Last, and author of a subsequent blockbuster, Good to Great, is keeping busy developing curricula with the University of Virginia, among other things. He's hoping business faculty today will embrace B.H.A.G.s -- Big Hairy Audacious Goals -- whether they find definitive answers or no. "The best research has to be open-ended," Collins opines. " We have to be open-minded about what we'll find. Maybe it will be relevant, but maybe it won't." Collins describes what is relevant for himself in the interview, including "Level 5 Leadership", passion, teaching, and rockclimbing. "I've been climbing since I was 13 ... For me, climbing has been the ultimate classroom."

A growing, resourceful workforce helped the 2006 list of Chron 200 companies turn in an impressive performance with hefty gains in revenue and market capitalization. The standout performers include Genentech, Chevron, Wells Fargo and ebay. Read more about it in San Francisco Chronicle.

Say Hello to the Journal of Performance Measurement, a new addition to the library's periodicals collection. Along with academic articles pertinent to the industry, each issue features an interview with an authoritative member of the business community, such as an interview with Barton Biggs in summer 2006 issue. Barton Biggs, the author of Hedgehogging and a managing partner at Traxis Partners, shares his views on hedge fund industry. Library’s holdings start with summer 2006 issue.

Say Good Bye to Electronic Business. With Dec. 2006 issue this magazine wrapped its publication cycle. The last issue features the article about Eli Harari, founder, chairman, and CEO of SanDisk, who is named the "CEO of the Year" by the editors of Electronic Business.

Asshole Rating Self-Exam, that is. Stanford Professor Robert Sutton, author of the upcoming No Asshole Rule, offers the ARSE for public viewing. Sutton blogs about this device for gauging if, well, you are one. He notes that as of February 8 there have been over 9,000 responses to the ARSE. Check it out at Sutton's blog.

And lest we be accused of a posteriori reasoning, take a look at Guy Kawasaki's blog 'Is Your Boss an Asshole?'

The American magazine gazes upward in its January / February issue to a new generation of super-skyscrapers. The article 'Lust for Height' describes building projects that are raising the bar, such as the Burj Dubai, scheduled for completion in 2009, which will rise 160 + stories (the final height is a secret.) Most of the engineers and architects are American, but most of the projects are in Asia or the Middle East. Currently, Taipei 101 holds the world title, but architectural ambition may have no upper limit. Will we see the fulfillment of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous dream of the mile-high building? Read more in the issue in Jackson Library.

'Beyond the Green Corporation' is the title of the BusinessWeek cover story for January 29. "Imagine a world in which eco-friendly and socially responsible practices actually help a company's bottom line. It's closer than you think." The article goes on to note how corporate reponsibility and social concerns are inextricably intermixed with competitive strategy and entrepreneurship these days. Today's executives speak of ecology and global healthcare in the same breath as income statements and profit margins. Included is a global roster of firms who are 'doing well by doing good', including Toyota, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Marks & Spencer, Aeon, Roche and Ericsson. Also included is the flip-side: firms assigned low marks, such as Allegheny Energy, Wal-Mart and Bank of China. Check out this issue in Jackson Library, or read an online version.

Molly Ivins, syndicated columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, died January 31, aged 62. When I first heard Molly Ivins speak on a radio program, I couldn’t stop laughing. She was raucous good fun, lambasting politicians on both sides of the aisle with wicked satire -- especially those of her home state, Texas. There was a method to her humor: holding the powerful accountable. She was a frequent contributor to Mother Jones, Esquire, The Atlantic and The Nation, as well as the author of several books. According to Paul Krugman in his New York Times piece “Missing Molly Ivins” (February 2, 2007), "Molly Ivins never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the times when it is most important to do so. " Ivins was never afraid to shout 'The Emperor has no clothes!' As one reporter wrote, 'Good ol-Guvment watchdog is Dead.' And watchdog she was, in the best sense. She will be missed.

• Lenovo brings computers to Tibetan kids through road show visits to 1,000 tier five and tier six cities and towns across China, leveraging its Olympic sponsorship at home. With the promotion about two-thirds finished, sales in China's tier five and six cities have grown over 50%. And 80% of participants said the roadshow improved their image of the company.
• Pepsi Cola followed the habits of young, urban Chinese by launching its seasonal campaign via mobile phones to celebrate Chinese New Year this year.
• Coca-Cola spends more than $10 million on Coke brand advertising in China annually, according to ACNielsen.
• Advertising expenditure in the top three categories -- pharmaceutical, toiletries and retail & service -- accounted for over half of the total growth in all fields in China.
• An estimated total of $41 billion spent across TV, newspapers and magazines, China recorded an increase of 21% in the 12 months to March 2006
• China will be the third-largest ad market in the world, after U.S. and Japan. The numbers are predicted to go up as the nation gears up for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Bloomberg news, audio books, podcasts, Blink, and chocolate! All of this and more in the February JacksonLine.

The United States does not rank among the most environmentally friendly countries of the world, however the EPA released their yearly list of organizations that purchase electricity generated from clean, renewable resources such as solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass and low-impact hydro. This is the first year in which the top spots are taken up by private industry. See a complete list of companies.

I must blog today about the Super Bowl ads. In my opinion not a good crop this year. The game was actually better than the ads this year and Michigan State University advertising professor Bruce Vanden Bergh backs me up in this claim. Read the Wall Street Journal article (full-text available on Stanford network) which talks about the Super Bowl advertisiements. I did like the Anheuser-Busch commercial about the wanna be "Dalmatian" though.

One of our readers, Roger Dwarte, pointed out a way to link to this publicly available article.

The New York Times reports today that the Chinese internet company Tencent co-founded by Mr. Pony Ma, has rivaled Google in performance and popularity. No other Internet company in the world — not even Google — has achieved the kind of dominance in its home market that Tencent commands in China.

China Business Review January-February issue targets tourists with 'The New Face of Tourism in China'. Gone are the days of risky adventures and dubious lodging in the Mainland; China's tourism experience has dramatically improved in the last few decades. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, China's travel and tourism industry generated almost $354 billion in 2006. And the 2008 Olympics in Beijing are on the way. By 2010, China is expected to become the number three global destination. Articles in the issue include coverage of the Chinese hotel industry, trade shows, maps of tourist destinations -- and Disneyland in Hong Kong. Read more here or in the issue in Jackson Library.

Knocking 'em dead in the aisles, or sending 'em to sleep in their seats? On his blog Ed Batista warns of pitfalls when speaking to a crowd about yourself. In "What We Talk About When We Talk About Ourselves", Batista offers words to the wise on how to avoid meltdown when called upon to present your own life and work to an audience. Among other things, avoid 'winging it' -- you're likely to ramble aimlessly. And skip tiring details; tell them who you are, not what you've done. Read more at his blog and become your own favorite toastmaster.

Was oil responsible for the end of the Soviet Empire? Can it spell doom for Iran? Thomas Friedman discusses oil’s impact on the fall of the Kremlin, and finds parallels with Iran in this New York Times op-ed piece "The Oil Addicted Ayatollahs" (2/2/2007)

Stanford users can access the article online via the Factiva database.

This is a captivating title of a feature article in Feb. 5 issue of Fortune magazine. Cambridge-based start-up company 'Citris Pharmaceuticals' is working hard on implementing the second part of this headline. The company lead by its co-founder and a CEO, Christoph Westphal, is trying to produce a drug based on amazing qualities of resveratrol, the ingredient contained in red grapes skin and consequently in red wine. Resveratrol slows down an aging process, boosts metabolism at least on experimental level. To find out more about the research and its remarkable leader, read this interesting and, really, very encouraging article.

Visitors to Shanghai would not want to miss having xiaolongbao (小籠包, known as soup dumplings) for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. The famous place for this traditional steamed delicacy is at Nanxiang (南翔) Steamed Bun Restaurant in Yu Garden (豫園). Nanxiang is opening up restaurants in Indonesia, Singapore, and Hong Kong in addition to its branches in Japan and Korea. Its stiff competition is Din Tai Fung (鼎泰豐), a restaurant chain from Taiwan, located in Xintiandi (新天地).
Many said that Din Tai Fung makes better xiaolongbao than Nanxiang. If you are in Los Angeles, a Din Tai Fung restaurant is located in Arcadia. The chain has many branches in Taiwan, Japan, U.S.A., China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, and Indonesia.

You can read about xiaolongbao in Wikipedia. Read also Economist.com's Cities Guide - Shanghai - Restaurants.

Managers beware - don't underestimate the press. In cases of financial fraud, the press is a watchdog that bites more often than we think, says HBS professor Gregory Miller. His research shows that the press uncovers about a third of incidences of accounting malfeasance before auditors or analysts are aware of them. Bethany McLean of Fortune was one of the first to take a hard look at Enron. It turns out that the financial and trade press are out talking to suppliers, and people who work in the field and they develop such knowledge of these companies that they start to get a sense when something is not right and are willing to pursue it.

Internet population in China reaches 137 million from 111 million reported in January of 2006. At a growth rate of about 24%, China is set to surpass U.S. in 2 years.

Read more at Metrics 2.0.