Innovation/tech

Buyouts do better in US states that vote Republican. That’s the conclusion of research by HEC’s Oliver Gottshalg and NYU’s Aviad Pe’er.

Republican views are better aligned with buyout value-creation strategies (such as outsourcing labor, shutting down less efficient units, lower commitment to social responsibility, and deunionization) than Democratic views are.

I’ll file it next to ”Foxes Report Feeling Less Hungry When Hen Houses Left Open”.

Elsewhere:

In recruiting Joel Podolny, the dean of Yale School of Management, has Steve Jobs just raised the bar for in-house management training?

Prof Podolny is to be dean of something called “Apple University”. He’ll be replaced by Sharon Oster at Yale.

So what is Apple University? Prof Podolny can’t talk about it. The Apple PR person hasn’t been blabbing either.

Yale Daily News reckons it knows, saying Prof Podolny’s role will “focus on executive education within the company”.

If so, it would be quite a coup for Apple’s personnel department.

Those looking to know more about entrepreneurship  – and particularly the way it is taught at business school – might find an excellent new module on the FT’s MBA Gym site useful.

The MBA Gym gives registered users a free, interactive preview of topics covered on a typical MBA course. The new entrepreneurship module covers issues such as business plans, funding needs and the differences between entrepreneurs and managers. Other modules cover topics such as leadership, marketing, strategy, accounting and finance.

The wisdom of Robert Shiller, described by the FT’s Clive Crook as ”one of the world’s outstanding economic thinkers”, is being brought to a wider audience.

Yale University, where he teaches, has just published online the 26 lectures that comprise Economics 252, his introductory course on financial markets. They can be viewed for free or downloaded as MP3 or video files. Transcripts are also available.

I’ve only had the time to dip into the lectures. Much has happened since they were filmed in the spring, so some of the content has inevitably been overtaken by events.

But if you look at lecture eight for instance – Human Foibles, Fraud, Manipulation and Regulation – there are lots of timeless insights into the psychological tics that influence investor behaviour (including one derived from a cruel experiment on pigeons).

Finally, if Prof Shiller’s lectures don’t appeal, you could always eavesdrop on a class discussion of Nabokov’s Lolita or a course of 24 lectures on France since 1871.

Technology – it doesn’t always make us more stupid.

Stefan Stern

A fascinating chat with Canadian web guru Don Tapscott – author of Wikinomics – who was passing through London last week. His new book, Grown Up Digital – how the net generation is changing your world, is out later this year.

Mr Tapscott prefers the term “net generation” to “generation y”, as for him it helps signal that the under 30s are truly different, and not just the next cohort to come along.

“These kids have different brains,” he told me. “They have bathed in [computer] bits.”

I look forward to reading the new book, which promises to offer useful insights into these young multi-media heroes.

But the remark that really stayed with me was Mr Tapscott’s confident – very confident – assertion that “Obama will win”. “He has 13.4 million under 30s, all talking to each other on Facebook, and they are going to vote. This is unprecedented,” he told me.

“Obama will win.”

I merely report these words without further comment.

Stefan Stern

You’ll never guess what I’ve just heard. No, really. It has to do with your business, a sensational, unexpected predator who is about to come forward, and a worrying story about some of those rock-solid assets you have taken for granted for so long. I am sorry to have to bring you such startling news. But I read about it just now on the internet. It must be true.

OK, I admit it – I made that all up. But these last few weeks have shown how vulnerable any company can be to the latest piece of tittle-tattle and rumour. In the internet era, lies and distortion can circumnavigate the globe a thousand times before the truth has booted up.

Which comes as a bit of a disappointment, naturally, to Tim Berners-Lee, the moving spirit behind the development of the world wide web. Last week he spoke about his concern at the amount of disinformation being spread around the world every day. He is launching a World Wide Web Foundation, and hoping to see some kind of accreditation or labelling system emerge which might help “filter good information from bad”.

Continue reading “No hiding in misinformation age“. Please post comments below.

I’ve spent most of this week editing a video lecture by Pankaj Ghemawat, professor of global strategy at Iese, the Spanish business school. It is about the limits of globalisation and how companies need to think hard about the various types of difference that still exist in what he calls a “semi-globalised” world. He’s an excellent speaker. Do check it out.

Anyway, as a consequence of all those hours getting a headache in front of Final Cut Pro, I haven’t read much in recent days so this is a rather brief round-up, consisting of just one other link, and it is very “off topic”. But if you are feeling in need of a bit of moral support in the struggle to innovate in a manner that satisfies your own, potentially deranged, potentially inspired agenda, then read this absolutely marvellous obituary from Wednesday’s FT.

Stefan Stern

ck-prahalad.jpgYou always know you will be in for an interesting time when you talk to the great management guru CK Prahalad, but I must admit I hadn’t expected to hear the name Euclid cropping up in our conversation.

This was not a case of gratuitous name-dropping. CK, who is professor of strategy at the University of Michigan’s Ross school of business, was trying to explain to me how all his major publications of the past 20 years have really followed the great mathematician’s example: establish a clear premise that is robust, and then follow the logic of your own argument.

This is what he had done (together with Gary Hamel) with Competing for the Future, with The Future of Competition and The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid.

And this is what has done with his latest book, The New Age of Innovation.

The liquidity crisis in the debt markets led to credit rating agencies being put under the spotlight. Now research from Stanford University questions the usefulness of corporate governance ratings applied to businesses by specialist advisory firms.

Media coverage includes an intriguing quote attributed to Robert Daines, one of the authors of the study:

[Good] governance is a little bit like porn. I can spot it when I see it but it is hard to say what it is.

Not much one can add to that, really.

Meanwhile:

  • AG Lafley of Procter & Gamble talks about involving consumers in innovation at the prototype stage;
  • Tips on staging meetings that resolve rather than create conflict from the senior mediator at the Church of England’s Lambeth conference;
  • Three MBA students announce the imminent launch of a social networking site aimed at fostering links between students at elite schools;
  • A Spanish take on managing Generation Y.


About the authors

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

This blog is no longer active but it remains open as an archive.

Twitter feed

RSS feed

The FT’s management blog: a guide

Commenting: We welcome your comments. You need to be registered with FT.com to comment; you can register for free here. Please also see our comments policy here.
Contacting us: You can reach us using this email format: first.surname@ft.com
Timing: UK time is shown on our posts.
Follow us: Links to our Twitter and RSS feeds are at the top of the blog. You can also read us on your mobile device, by going to www.ft.com/managementblog
FT blogs: See the full range of the FT's blogs here.

Elsewhere on FT.com: Lucy Kellaway

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.

Elsewhere on FT.com: Luke Johnson

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.

Elsewhere on FT.com: Dear Lucy

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.

Featured blogs

Don Sull's blog

LBS academic blogs on leading in turbulent times

MBA blog

Students blog about their MBA experiences