Pick of the week
Wharton professors share their thoughts on the implications for the corporate governance debate in the current financial crisis.
An unexpected (and unexpectedly sentimental?) outbreak of support for General Motors from William Kristol in the New York Times.
An unflinching message from Lucy Kellaway about the new realities of work in 2009.
And finally, advice from Dilbert (aka Scott Adams) in Fortune magazine on how to save your job.
Pick of the week
Best business books of 2008
When Markets Collide: Investment Strategies for the Age of Global Economic Change
By Mohamed El-Erian
McGraw-Hill Professional £15.99, 304 pages
Winner of the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award 2008. El-Erian’s serious analysis of the new economic world order has won admirers in every major financial market. As we struggle to work out what the “new normal” will look like, El-Erian provides readers with market-tested insights.
Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth and Happiness
By Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein
Yale University Press £18, 293 pages
The policy wonks’ favourite, this treatise by two Chicago economists has proved highly influential. Top-down government diktat is proving less and less effective, they argue. People cannot be told what to do. For better outcomes, “nudge” them: make suggestions, use peer pressure. Less convincing on what happens when nudging isn’t enough.
The Logic of Life: Uncovering the New Economics of Everything
By Tim Harford
Little, Brown £18.99, 288 pages
The FT’s undercover economist comes out into the open with an entertaining look at behavioural economics, and the rational motivation behind our apparently quirky and unexpected actions. Does going Dutch at a restaurant make economic sense? When is it right to bluff at cards?
A Sense of Urgency
By John Kotter
Harvard Business Press £11.99, 208 pages
One of the world’s leading gurus of change, Kotter revisits his eight steps of change theory and focuses on its most important element: a sense of urgency. Managing change successfully really does come down to that. An elegantly written book that proves you don’t have to drone on endlessly to make a point.
A new web-based service called Rypple is offering workers private, anonymous feedback from colleagues and bosses.
Members use the site to ask their peers how they performed in a specific task, or how they are doing in general. The peers write down what they think and these opinions are returned to the feedback-seeker without their names attached.
This nameless character assassination dispassionate evaluation enables members to work on their weaknesses on a rolling basis, instead of having to wait for their annual career appraisal, the company says.
Glib politicians and CEOs rejoice: research suggests that sidestepping questions can be a good policy if you do it artfully enough.
Todd Rogers, executive director of the Analyst Institute, and Michael Norton, a Harvard Business School professor, looked at public speakers who, when faced with a difficult question, provide a slick answer to a different question that they would rather have been asked.
Their conclusion? Listeners mind this less than a straight answer delivered badly.
Elsewhere:
The difference between managers and entrepreneurs was highlighted this week by University of Cambridge research on the latter’s mental tolerance for risk – and how that might be simulated through the use of drugs.
The findings are discussed in a podcast by Shai Vyakarnam, director of the Judge Business School’s entrepreneurial learning centre.
On a similar theme, you might also like to check out the FT’s video lectures on managerial psychology, our podcast interview with Stanford’s Baba Shiv on how to master emotions when making decisions and our MBA Gym entrepreneurship workout.
Elsewhere:
Now that the waves of redundancies are spreading from financial services to other sectors, more and more people are having to rely on their networking skills to find new jobs. But how do you network from such a position of weakness?
This is one of the questions discussed in a new FT Management podcast featuring two executive search specialists – Samuel Johar, chairman of Buchanan Harvey, and David Peters, Heidrick & Struggles’ regional managing partner for Europe, the Middle East and Africa – and Paul Danos, dean of Tuck business school.
Mr Peters says those who haven’t been very good at maintaining a professional network should not feel that this precludes them from ringing old contacts at times of great need.
I think people often worry too much about this and make the mistake of thinking that, because they may call somebody that they haven’t been in touch with for a while, they will look awkward or seem as if they were a supplicant…
Most people, especially good people, do understand that [networking] is a circular business and everybody needs help at some point in their career.
Elsewhere in the podcast – which can also be downloaded through iTunes – Mr Johar and Professor Danos discuss the extent to which emerging markets and regulatory bodies might hire those who have lost jobs in finance and other industries.
Tom Peters has given managers some tips on how to carry themselves during a recession.
“Banish gloomy from your personal demeanor,” he suggests, before adding that a sunny demeanour “is pretty stupid, too: who do you think you’re kidding?”.
A determined look – “gettin’ on with gettin’ on” – is best, he concludes. Inevitably, there is a garish PowerPoint slideshow.
Elsewhere:
Malcom Gladwell has written an article for the New Yorker examining whether self-made successes from the wrong side of the tracks have an advantage over those who never had to battle for acceptance by the establishment.
He focuses on Sidney Weinberg, who left school at 15 and became a famous senior partner at Goldman Sachs. Long after becoming powerful, Mr Weinberg still played the role of “dumb, uneducated kid from Brooklyn” when advantageous.
Mr Gladwell says his underprivileged past eventually became an aid rather than a hindrance, even though he was operating in a relationship business that normally rewarded cultural insiders (or so one would assume).
“There are times when being an outsider is precisely what makes you a good insider,” he suggests.
Playing up humble origins can indeed be a good career strategy. But the article got me thinking about other ways in which canny individuals exploit dual identities in the workplace, often to disguise the extent to which they are part of the establishment.
Column: stamp out “too risky by half” decisions
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome aboard this Schlep Air flight 41108 to Shanghai. We will be pushing back shortly and taxiing to the eastern runway prior to take-off.
In a moment we will be showing you a short safety video, and cabin crew will be on hand to demonstrate a few key features. Please feel free to ignore all that crap. I mean, what’s the point? If we’re going down do you think that kicking off your high-heeled shoes first is going to help?
Some of you may be tempted to put your newspaper down and pretend to pay attention.
The remainder of the article can be read here. Please post comments below.
Stefan Stern writes a column on Tuesdays on management. He is winner of the 2010 Towers Watson award for excellence in HR journalism, and has previously won awards from the Work Foundation and the Management Consultancies Association.
Ravi Mattu is the editor of Business Life, the FT's management features
section, and a former editor of the Mastering Management series. He joined the FT in 2000 from Prospect magazine
Lucy Kellaway writes a column on Mondays on work , poking fun at management fads and jargon and celebrating the ups and downs of office life. She is also the FT's Agony Aunt.
Luke Johnson writes an FT column on Wednesdays on entrepreneurship. He runs Risk Capital Partners, a private equity firm, and is chairman of the Royal Society of Arts.
Lucy Kellaway, FT columnist and associate editor, offers her solution to your workplace problems in a column in the Financial Times. In the online edition of her Dear Lucy 'agony aunt' column, readers are invited to have a say too.
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