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Judging a book by the cover (30th July 2010) 
Contributed by Chetan Parikh
Book covers spark the first connection between the book and a reader, especially for impulse purchases, and for books whose author or title the reader is not familiar with. Bill Gross Peers Into the Toilet of the World Economy (30th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh It isn’t a surprise that Bill Gross, the eternal pessimist, thinks the global economy is going down the toilet. Jim Rickards Compares The Collapse Of The Roman Empire To The US, Concludes That We Are Far Worse Off (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Arjun AsharCopyright and Patent in Benjamin Tucker's Periodical (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh "The two principles … are AUTHORITY and LIBERTY, and the names of the two schools of Socialistic thought which fully and unreservedly represent one or the other of them are, respectively, State Socialism and Anarchism." Russia to Sell Off Stakes in State Companies to Fill Budget Gap (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh The Russian government, which just a few years ago was salting away billions of dollars in oil revenue, is now confronting such a gaping budget deficit that ministers approved a wide-ranging plan on Wednesday to sell off state property, senior officials said. The Death Throes of Pro-IP Libertarianism (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh The libertarian IP awakening seems to have caught the old-guard libertarian defenders of intellectual property slumbering, clinging to the fossilized remnants of their arguments. Asian Shares Down on New Signs US Economy Slowing (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Most Asian markets retreated Thursday after fresh evidence of slower U.S. growth blunted appetite for riskier assets like stocks. Mixed Signals (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh It’s time to do a little inventory of market signals, economic signals, and earnings signals to get a reading in the tea leaves on market and economic direction. Right now, the signals look mixed. I think it’s pretty easy to argue both a bullish and a bearish case. Let’s break up the individual signals to get a checklist going of the good and the bad starting off with the stock, bond, and currency markets. Don't Lose Sleep over Deflation (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh After hearing the dire warnings of deflation that have become the standard talking points of most economists, American investors may be reaching for a bottle of Prozac. U.S. Dollar Stress Next? (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh The crisis is dead! Long live the crisis! In an attempt to address the debt crises swirling around the globe, policy makers have responded with a mishmash of somewhat questionable approaches: The Fed Plays the Nuclear QE Trump Card (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Of ten people who hear the same story or speech, each one might understand it differently. Perhaps, only one of them will understand it correctly. On July 21st, Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke was speaking in riddles, as central bankers are apt to do, while delivering his testimony before Congress. Reflections on Thinking Critically (29th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh I first learned to think in 1952. Prior to that time, I was taught using the dogmatic rote and repetition of a religious school until I was fifteen. In 1952, my Dad was transferred to Florida and I entered a public high school (good old Leon High in Tallahassee) for the first time. I felt like I had walked from the darkest mental dungeon into sun shine for the first time in my educational life! Trotsky: The Ignorance and the Evil (28th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Lenin and Trotsky had no connection at all to the process of production and little interest in the real workings of an economic system. Their concerns had been the strategy and tactics of revolution and the perpetual, monkish exegesis of the holy books of Marxism. The Unlimited Power of Suppressing the Interest Rate (28th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh
The uncomfortable truth is this: central banks, as monopoly producers of base money, have the capacity to enforce any yield level they wish to see in credit markets.
Should the Fed Pump Even More? (28th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Loose fiscal and monetary policies are not going to rescue the economy; they will only rescue activities that the economy cannot afford and that consumers do not want.
A man for all seasons (28th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh How to Live: a Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer India Needs Monetary Steps to Cool Inflation, Central Bank Says (27th July 2010)
Contributed by Arjun Ashar India needs tighter monetary policy to cool inflation, the central bank said, signaling the possibility of an interest-rate increase today.
Nomura Faces Loss on Trading, Investment Banking, Analysts Say (27th July 2010)
Contributed by Arjun AsharMinnesota Government Mistreats Ladies (27th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Minnesota's recent crackdown on ladies' night shows that the state's politicians and economists cannot trace out the unseen effects of their own policies. Turning Bread into Stones (27th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh As Kevin Dowd and Martin Hutchinson chronicle in their wonderful new book, there's been plenty of government regulation lately, and as regulations grow, financial booms and panics grow in step. Our Totalitarian Regulatory Bureaucracy (27th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh It would be very difficult to argue against the proposition that the US economy today is even more heavily regulated by the state than Germany was at the time Hayek wrote The Road to Serfdom. The art of slow reading (26th July 2010)
Contributed by Abhay Bhagat Has endlessly skimming short texts on the internet made us stupider? An increasing number of experts think so - and say it's time to slow down . . . Richard Thaler: Level Playing Fields, in Soccer and Finance (26th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh OVER the last month, one question seemed to be on everyone’s mind at the economic conferences I attended in Europe: How did referees miss a goal that England scored against Germany in their World Cup match? The goal in question struck the crossbar, bounced down and landed a full yard inside the goal, then flew out onto the field, all in the blink of an eye. The Struggle for the (Possible) Soul of David Eagleman (26th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh A neuroscientist imagines life beyond the brain. Why Money Makes You Unhappy (26th July 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Money is surprisingly bad at making us happy. Once we escape the trap of poverty, levels of wealth have an extremely modest impact on levels of happiness, especially in developed countries. Even worse, it appears that the richest nation in history – 21st century America – is slowly getting less pleased with life.
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Firing new shots (20th April 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh
Using lasers to trigger fusion could prove cheaper than other techniques Two Technology Executives, Two Views of the Virtues/Perils of Connectivity (12th April 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh When Robert Carter looks over the connected world of online communities that many experts call Web 2.0, it is hard for Carter -- the chief information officer and executive vice president of global shipping giant FedEx Corp. -- to curb his enthusiasm. Al Nugent, the chief technology officer for computer giant CA, surveys the same universe and sees similar promise but worries more about the increased risk of an operational meltdown and the rise of new security concerns. Both men spoke at the recent Wharton Technology Conference 2007. India’s Edge Goes Beyond Outsourcing (4th April 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Outsourcing is breaking out of the back office. Out of the dusty labs (3rd March 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Technology firms have left the big corporate R&D laboratory behind, shifting the emphasis from research to development. Does it matter? Netcore CEO Rajesh Jain: 'In India, the Future of the Internet Will Be Built around the Mobile Phone' (20th October 2006)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Seven years ago, Rajesh Jain ignited a dot-com storm in India when his portal, IndiaWorld, was sold to Sify, an Internet service provider, for $115 million. Today, he is CEO of Netcore, a Linux-based messaging software firm, and also maintains an active blog, emergic.org. Jain met with Knowledge@Wharton at his offices in Mumbai to discuss how mobile phones could hold the key to the Internet's evolution in India and other emerging economies. Language barriers (21st August 2004)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Can a concept exist without words to describe it? Nanotech Gets Down to Business If the excitement at New York's NanoBusiness Conference is any guide, future historians will declare early 2003 to be nanotechnology's tipping point, the pivot on which the industry slid from "not quite ready" to "raring to go."
The Future of Nanotechnology: Molecular Manufacturing The future generations of nanotechnology will rely on being able to effectively arrange atoms. Molecular manufacturing, and the use of molecular assemblers to hold and position molecules, will be key to the future, controlling how molecules react and allowing scientists to build complex structures with atomically precise control. In this essay, Dr. Drexler discusses the benefits and challenges of future molecular manufacturing.
The Telecosm Party. "The story of Qualcomm's CDMA written by George Gilder".
Tech futurist George Gilder talks stocks. "Gilder's theory hinges on a broad and quirky worldview. In an era of material abundance, he says, there are two scarcities that will drive the development of technology. One is a physical limit--the speed of light--and the other is a biological limit--the human lifespan." In Search of Innovation In an era of unrelenting competition, innovation has become a priority for corporations, institutions and nations. Heightened interest is spurring widespread efforts to analyze what underlies the process and assess how firms and countries are doing, because good measurement is central to effective management. Meet the researchers bent on prying the lid off innovation's black box.
Being Wireless. Nicholas Negroponte explains why Wi-Fi "lily pads and frogs" will transform the future of telecom. Surviving the Fibre - Optic Fire Sale. In once-booming telecom country, bankruptcies are up, and assets are up for grabs. Level 3's Jim Crowe surveys the wreckage. Nicholas Negroponte: The Innovation "Void" MIT s Media Lab founder
laments a growing lack of creativity, as seen in bad design and hard-to-use
devices Why the future doesn't need us Contributed by Bill Joy Our most powerful 21st-century technologies - robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech - are threatening to make humans an endangered species. A must read for everybody interested in knowing more about where we're headed. Miss it at your own peril. And for all you guys at Dalal Street trading paper, the Capital Markets may just not exist in a few years! It's a nineteen-page article, and we'd recommend that you read every word of it. It may take a few seconds for the page to download, but its well worth the wait. Take our word for it… From one of the most respected technology gurus An Excellent Article An excellent article about the so called tech downturn. The author feels this is merely a pause-to-catch-breath phase and there is lots more to be done. Sure, dotcom valuations have fallen, with even frontrunners like Yahoo! Losing 76 % of its value. Sure, venture capitalists are tightening their purse strings. Sure HTML has reached the limits of it can do, but is giving way to another language XML. But, concludes the article, there's no turning back Physician, Wire Thyself. "The article visualises the impact of handheld devices on health care industry." Stumbling Onto The Future. "Quite an interesting description of important inventions in the last two centuries." No, This Man Invented The Internet. "The story of the inventor of the internet." Impatient Pendulum. "When the author was a child, the pendulum swung even slower. It was longer then, too. It was shortened (and therefore quickened) in one of those paradoxical compromises of museum management: People stood mesmerized for so long that they blocked the flow of traffic. This speedup of an icon of slowness is symbolically fitting. The tempo of life has quickened." 5 Patents to Watch.
A handful of hot
new patents that may
change the way business and technology get
done. Distributed Computing.
The future of big
computing may lie in
distributing the work. Edible Vaccines.
Vaccines you eat
will make immunization
less painful and more accessible
worldwide. Raman Amplification.
New Raman
amplifiers are key to
building an all-optical Internet. Tissue Engineering.
Tissue engineering
promises to repair
and even replace damaged body parts.
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How to Make an American Job Before It's Too Late: Andy Grove (6th July 2010)
Contributed by Abhay Bhagat
Recently an acquaintance at the next table in a Palo Alto, California, restaurant introduced me to his companions: three young venture capitalists from China. They explained, with visible excitement, that they were touring promising companies in Silicon Valley. I’ve lived in the Valley a long time, and usually when I see how the region has become such a draw for global investments, I feel a little proud. The new pluralism (22nd March 2010)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Power in modern society is progressively being diffused, moving away from central government to interest groups, even to single individuals. Society and the body politic in democratic societies are becoming pluralist in new ways. This phenomenon was analysed by management guru and social science professor Peter Drucker in his book The New Age. A clear understanding of this development would help political and social leaders to cope with changing electoral aspirations. The Drucker School of Management Honored as an 'Excellent Business School' by Eduniversal (24th April 2009)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh The Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management was recognized as an “Excellent Business School” by EDUNIVERSAL, an organization that helps students choose the best business schools worldwide. The Drucker school was honored to be among the 1,000 selected business schools in the world because of its strength in the US and international influence. Peter Senge (21st November 2008)
Contributed by Rohan M. Shah Peter Senge (born 1947) studied aerospace engineering at Stanford University before moving into the field of organisational behaviour and becoming director of the Centre for Organisational Learning at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. He is credited with developing the idea of the learning organisation, based on his study of social systems and the relationship of the whole to its constituent parts. A learning organisation, he once said, “is continually expanding its capacity to create its future”. Economic Depressions: Their Cause and Cure (3rd October 2008)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh We live in a world of euphemism. Undertakers have become "morticians," press agents are now "public relations counsellors" and janitors have all been transformed into "superintendents." In every walk of life, plain facts have been wrapped in cloudy camouflage. Peter Drucker's "Unfinished Chapter:" (6th August 2007)
Contributed by Abhay Bhagat The influence the CEO has on people--individually and collectively. Management: A movie guide (6th July 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh I've read about shamrock organisations, horizontal organisations and federal organisations. I've read about intelligent enterprises and spider-web organisations. The most-quoted management guru Peter Drucker said that managing an information-based organisation is more like conducting a symphony orchestra than running a business on traditional lines. Others have compared it to running a jazz combo, and then there are those who say it's like running a sports team. Q&A with management guru Jim Collins (18th June 2007)
Contributed by Abhay Bhagat The bestselling author answers our readers' questions about business, leadership - and mountain climbing. Beware the 'Walking Dead': Analyzing Customer Data from a Multi-Service Firm (14th June 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Think of them as the "walking dead," a type of customer who currently maintains service with a particular company, but whose next action will most likely be to discontinue that relationship, according to a new study that examines how the customers of a telecommunications firm acquire and discard services over time. The paper -- "Modeling the Evolution of Customers' Service Portfolios," by Wharton marketing professors Peter Fader and Eric Bradlow and a former Wharton PhD student -- focuses in part on whether it is possible to predict future purchasing patterns by looking at past buying behavior.
At 3M, A Struggle Between Efficiency And Creativity (4th June 2007)
Contributed by Abhay Bhagat How CEO George Buckley is managing the yin and yang of discipline and imagination Here Today, Discounted Tomorrow: Strategic Shoppers Know When to Buy, and at What Price (1st June 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Some shoppers just can't help themselves and buy mostly on impulse without regard to price. Others are die-hard bargain hunters, who only open their wallets for a discount. Then there are the strategic consumers, who are willing to buy full-price sometimes, but at other times they will wait for a bargain. According to new research by Gérard P. Cachon, professor of operations and information management at Wharton, and doctoral student Robert Swinney, it's these customers that retailers need to focus on in order to reap the full benefits of lean retail inventory management and variable pricing. Marketers For Charity: Peter Drucker (1st June 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Few have had as great an impact on the business world as Peter Drucker. So, it is more than fitting to have his work amplified on Branding Strategy Insider during this years Marketers For Charity effort.
The best business books of all time? Here are the choices of our panel of CEOs and experts (25th May 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Robert Bruner still remembers the first book he read as a manager. It was 1988, and Bruner, now the dean of the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, was an up-and-coming professor, respected for his work in finance. But he'd never managed people before. And when he was charged with overseeing the first year of the school's M.B.A. program, Bruner began to struggle.Under fire, Bruner scrambled for guidance. He found it in Peter Drucker'sThe Effective Executive. In the book, published two decades earlier, the dean of management thinkers—known for his study of GM under Alfred Sloan—offered advice to managers burdened with exactly Bruner's problems. Strategies: Pray for a public buyer (21st May 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh If you own stock in a company that is ripe for takeover, you should hope the company is not acquired by a private equity firm. A New Take on Corporate Governance and Anti-Corruption Crusades (18th May 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Most people assume that good corporate governance benefits shareholders, and that corruption in a banking system should be rooted out. But just how much benefit does a company really get when it improves its accounting and puts a few outsiders on its board of directors? And when does an anti-corruption crusade start to backfire, causing a chilling effect that denies loans to credit-worthy borrowers? India offers a chance to study both questions, which were the subject of papers presented at a global conference on India's Financial System held in April at Wharton. The conference was organized by Wharton's Financial Institutions Center with the Centre for Analytical Finance at the Indian School of Business in Hyderabad and the Stockholm-based Swedish Institute for Financial Research.
Adobe's Shantanu Narayen: India and Other Emerging Markets Are Going to Drive Trends in Software Evolution (18th May 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh While a number of Indian IT companies are expanding globally, several major U.S. IT firms are increasing their presence in India. Among them is Adobe Systems, which views India as an important development center and a growing market for its products. In the second of a two-part interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Adobe president and chief operating officer Shantanu Narayen discusses the company's strategy regarding India and global expansion. In the first part of the interview, published in Knowledge@Wharton, he talks about Adobe's product strategy for the emerging trend of rich Internet applications.
Shantanu Narayen on Adobe's Future Direction: Product Strategy for the Next Generation of the Web (17th May 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh A key element of what has been called "web 2.0" -- along with ideas such as user-generated content and social networks -- is the concept of "rich Internet applications," which use the web as a platform for innovative types of online experiences. A new generation of Internet-connected applications is beginning to emerge led by such companies as Adobe Systems. Knowledge@Wharton recently interviewed Adobe president and COO Shantanu Narayen about the company's latest product introductions. In the second part of this interview, published in India Knowledge@Wharton, Narayen talks about the key role that India will play in the company's global growth strategy.
Fresh takes on Peter Drucker (12th May 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh IN the past business in China has been predominantly driven by the all-pervasive guanxi or relationships - be it family ties, friendship, or a set of official favors and reciprocation that keep the wheels turning.
Life, not seminars, molds leaders (8th April 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Here comes a truly worthwhile look at leadership, "True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership," by Bill George with Peter Sims.
Big Winners: Hitting That 'Sweet Spot' of Success Year After Year (2nd March 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Alfred A. Marcus, a professor at the University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management, reviewed detailed performance metrics for the 1,000 largest U.S. corporations, identifiying the 3.2% that have consistently outperformed their industries for a full decade. In his book, Big Winners and Big Losers: The 4 Secrets of Long-term Business Success and Failure (Wharton School Publishing), Marcus explains the strategies these companies followed, how they found opportunities in markets that others didn't see, and how they managed the tension between agility and discipline. Below is an excerpt from Chaper Seven, titled "Focus." How Corporate America Came to Recognize Diversity, One Pepsi at a Time (2nd March 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh In 1949, an African-American marketing executive for the Pepsi-Cola company named Edward F. Boyd attended a performance of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. By his own account, Boyd was moved to tears by the play and its echo of his own experiences and disappointments as a salesman in mid-20th century America. Yet Boyd's role in Pepsi's pioneering venture to tap the African-American market by employing African-American sales personnel is a story of triumph, as related in a new book titled, The Real Pepsi Challenge: The Inspirational Story of Breaking the Color Barrier in American Business, by Stephanie Capparell. Corporate Governance in India: Is an Independent Director a Guardian or a Burden? (9th February 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Many Indian companies -- with a few exceptions -- are owned or controlled by business families. This poses a special challenge for corporate governance. According to Wharton management professors Jitendra Singh and Michael Useem, a crucial issue is the approach that the family member who heads the company takes towards independent directors. In well-managed companies, independent directors are viewed as partners of management and as outside guardians whose job is to make sure that management stays focused on delivering shareholder value. Other companies, however, might consider independent directors to be a burden that has to be borne mainly to satisfy regulatory rules for compliance. In this second half of a two-part discussion on corporate governance in India, Singh and Useem discuss these issues and more with India Knowledge@Wharton.
Management guru Ram Charan on leadership (1st February 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Business author and consultant Ram Charan lists the qualities successful leaders possess in Know-How: The 8 Skills That Separate People Who Perform From Those Who Don't. Here is an excerpt. How G. R. Gopinath Got Air Deccan to Fly (27th January 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh Air Deccan's story ... is the story of the new India, the India of possibilities," according to G.R. Gopinath, the founder of India's first low-fare airline. After India liberalized its economy in the early 1990s, Gopinath met a former Army colleague, a pilot who was out of work -- one of hundreds of pilots who needed jobs. The meeting gave him the idea to launch a helicopter company, "because I felt the ecology was right." Starting with one helicopter, Gopinath went on to build Air Deccan, India's second largest airline with 40 aircraft that fly to 60 destinations around the country. In an interview with India Knowledge@Wharton, Gopinath discussed the beginnings of his entrepreneurial journey.
Corporate Governance in India: Has Clause 49 Made a Difference? (27th January 2007)
Contributed by Chetan Parikh The Securities and Exchange Board of India, or SEBI, took a major step toward improving standards of corporate governance a year ago when it asked Indian firms above a certain size to implement Clause 49 -- a regulation that strengthens the role of independent directors serving on corporate boards. Have these steps made a difference to corporate governance in Indian firms? In the first of a two-part interview, India Knowledge@Wharton spoke about these issues with professors Jitendra Singh and Mike Useem of Wharton's Management Department, who, with their colleague Harbir Singh, are putting together an Executive Education program in Mumbai on Corporate Governance in India.
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