California as the eight-largest economy in the world is a major powerhouse for the U.S. economy as stated by an article put out by the Associated Press. Twenty cents of every revenue dollar California sends to Washington remains there. Most striking is the fact that California is responsible for keeping the retail economy running, more cars are purchased here than in any other state. The question has become will California with its fiscal instability become a major stumbling block to U.S. economic recovery? In the article entitle California Poised to Issue IOUs to Vendors, Local Governments the Sacramento Bee talks about when and what the consequences might be of doing so
New research suggests that woman playwrights may be on the receiving end of sexual discrimination -- from women. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton on his blog describes studies by undergrad Emily Glassberg Sands, mentioned in the New York Times, that purport to turn up bias in unusual places. Other aspects of the research include evidence that works by women on average are 18% more profitable than plays authored by men.
In my internet travels searching for business research, I came across BusinessWeek's site titled "Video View's".
This site features interviews with newsmakers, discussions of current topics such as housing prices, financial crisis or the current state of healthcare costs.
Time to report on the latest arrival of NPQ -- New Perspectives Quarterly. The Spring 2009 issue on our current periodical racks is titled 'Obama's Smart Power', and highlights geopolitical challenges to the President's "smart power" strategy. The issue opens with a statement by Mr Obama, followed by interviews and commentary on this and other topics from the usual gang of suspects, i.e. world leaders, including U.S. Ambassador to Japan Joseph S. Nye Jr, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, author Olivier Roy (Globalized Islam), Afghan President Hamid Karzai, former President Jimmy Carter, former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, ex-Shanghai mayor Xu Kuangdi, President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, author Fareed Zakaria, historian Francis Fukuyama, Nobel Laureate Paul Samuelson, and others. Take a look.
Beginning yesterday Clear, the system whereby you could pay a yearly fee to be enrolled in a program which allowed you to bypass the long security lines at the airport in the U.S., had a message on its website stating the service was no longer available. Frequent business travelers really liked the system which was in place at about twenty airports around the country. The big question now is what will happen to all the confidential information collected on passengers? The Clear program which was owned by the Verified Identity Pass Company and founded in 2003 was unable to make a deal with its creditors and had to shut down
Ray Bradbury, famous science fiction novelist, is helping local libraries in Ventura County to keep their doors open.
Mr. Bradbury frequently speaks at libraries across the state, and on Saturday he will make his way here for a benefit for the H. P. Wright Library, which like many others in the state’s public system is in danger of shutting its doors because of budget cuts.
In January the branch was told that unless it came up with $280,000 it would close. The branch’s private fund-raising group, San Buenaventura Friends of the Library, has until March to reach its goal; so far it has raised $80,000.
Read more about it.
The entrepreneurial inspiration can come from the most unusual sources. For Jess Smith, the studio art grad, the idea of his very successful business was born out of misery of fractured bones as a result of the bicycle accident. Jess painted his whole wrist cast, and when his doctor saw it, he really liked the design and said that he would gladly buy such art if someone offers. Thus, the idea of Casttoos has emerged. It’s simple; the design is printed on the adhesive film which melts into cast after 10 seconds of hairdryer blowing. And the world seems to notice and to like it. How big is Jess’s market? In his words, about 10 percent of the population is healing from a broken bone at any given point in time. You can read this short feature called “If it’s Broke, decorate it!” in July issue of Entrepreneur magazine in Jackson library, and do as I did: go to the company’s website and check out designs yourself.
Harvard researchers recently conducted a study of Twitter. Among its conclusions: women and men both tend to follow men rather than women (reversing a trend in online social networks, where men often follow the lead of women), and the top 10% of prolific Twitter users account for over 90% of tweets. Oxford University Press has also been looking at Twitter; check out their blog. Some bloggers are worrying that Twitter will degrade the language. Is Twitter for the birds ?
The crowd I'm speaking about is "crowdsourcing". Crowdsourcing is the practice of using large, distributed and minimally directed groups to accomplish tasks.
Is this the new way to innovate business and will it last once the recession is over?
Read more about it.
June issue of Entrepreneur magazine comes with a list of 100 companies whose business ideas are innovative and sustainable. Each of the featured 10 companies gets a short story on how the idea emerged and developed into a thriving business, such as a Jiggerbug phone, or distribution of stylish and safe POC ski helmets. However, the remaining 90 companies mentioned in small print are equally exciting and boom with interesting ideas and unorthodox approach to the old practices. For example, Bonded Logic inc. makes insulation material out of recycled denim, and its product provides better sound-blocking capabilities than fiberglass. Much more can be found in print issue in periodicals display in Jackson Library or online.
Stanford Professor Bob Sutton writes about the use (and misuse) of others' ideas. Not that one is always obligated to run one's every attribution to ground; those of us who have tried to verify widely used quotes in our papers know how problematic that can be. Sutton in his blog ruminates on the spread of quotes and ideas, and how easy it is for them to become part of our collective background, so that writers believe that something is burbling up from their own genius. He notes how difficult it is to come up with something truly original, and reminds us that the dogged pursuit of the novel idea or quote at all costs can have a potentially dangerous edge. Sutton concludes with a quote by his colleague Professor Jeff Pfeffer -- that being correct may be worth striving for more than being 'new'.
The July issue of Bloomberg Markets lists The Finance 50, ranking the top 50 earners in Finance during the past year. Who’s at the top? You might ask, none other than the CEO of Godman Sachs Lloyd Blankfein, followed in turn by all the other big recognizable names in finance such as American Express, Citigroup and JP Morgan Chase. The article expanding on the list talks about the future of executive compensation and which parties have the power to change the scale of executive pay. Additionally the article talks about other topics such as “silver handshakes” CEO compensation in the UK and Canada and the largest “Golden Send-offs” of 2008. You can read the article on the Bloomberg website but I recommend if you can get your hands on the print version the graphs and charts are really well done.
It's graduation season at Stanford U. and beyond! I happened across this item from "Inside Edition" which highlights a GSB alumna, Ariane de Bonvoisin, author of "The First 30 Days". She shares her list of the top 10 things current graduates and job seekers can do to make the right career choices especially in this tough economic climate.
Read more about it.
Can shoes make the man? Well, shoes, innovation, great service and a staff of devoted Zapponians (aka employees) have certainly made Tony Hsieh a happy, wealthy man. Zappos.com started as an online shoe retailer but has since expanded to incorporate an array of other goods. Hsieh has not only mastered online marketing but has created an innovative and efficient distribution center with 70 robots that can ship a pair of shoes in 8 minutes flat. But what Mr Hsieh really cares about is making sure his employees and customers feel good, really good. His focus on happiness has brought the company accolades, and Zappos often scores high on lists of best places to work. Hsieh empowers employees to make customer service decisions without having to move up the chain of command. Read the entire Zappos story in the May 2009 issue of INC magazine, or on their website.
GSB Alum Alvaro Fernandez alerts us to the fact that his firm SharpBrains has produced a market report and also a book The SharpBrains Guide to Brain Fitness, co-authored by Alvaro and his co-founder at SharpBrains, Elkhonon Goldberg. The book includes insights from top scientists and detailed descriptions of over twenty products. It's summer time; pamper your body, but give that brain a workout !
A selected group of MBA students from schools such as Cornell University, Rice University, the University of Michigan, the University of Pennsylvania, Stanford University and Yale University, have been selected to join the Environmental Defense Fund's (EDF) innovative 10-week Climate Corps program. The program trains MBA students in energy-efficient strategies and embeds them with leading corporations to analyze the most effective ways to consume less energy.
Read more about the program here.
Each year the MBAs, Sloan Masters program and PhDs recognize the faculty who have provided outstanding teaching during the past academic year. This year the winners were Ilya Strebulaev (MBA), Baba Shiv (PhD), and Alan Jagolinzer (Sloan Masters). View the acceptance speech given by Ilya Strebulaev in which he explains why he cold calls his students and how his class showed that “Finance people can still provide positive net present value.”
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