Being an advocate of open management systems, an article by Inc. Magazine: Why You Should Let Your Employees Do Whatever They Want, drew attention. Caution, however, was raised by the tag line: “Focus and discipline are relics of 20th century business. Here’s what’s taking their place in the virtual, open source era”. No, sadly, that …
Continue reading Open management.
Category:3 The World of Money
Show love! Philanthropy doesn’t match wealth growth.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy notes that “Gifts surge from US donors“. That’s good, especially in difficult times. But BloombergBusinessWeek read between the lines and saw that “Billionaires’ Wealth Is Skyrocketing. Their Philanthropy Is Not“. Sadly. It is unfortunate because this is another sign of a widening wealth gap between the top and everyone else, between …
Continue reading Show love! Philanthropy doesn’t match wealth growth.
A minimum wage stimulates the economy?
I’ve always been against the hand of the state in private decisions and forcing a minimum wage is one of those interferences which has always grated. However, in a world where technology is raising productivity and reducing the demand for labour there ought to be a popular desire for everyone to have the ability to …
Continue reading A minimum wage stimulates the economy?
Maps that explain the world
This article in the Washington Post presents 40 maps that explain the world. They are all interesting and easy to digest. The three maps below are examples which illustrate key issues the world grapples with now. This map shows where the wealth is. It shows national wealth and density of people, but not individual income. …
Continue reading Maps that explain the world
Winning without trying.
Sun Tzu’s philosophy was to avoid conflict if possible. He recognised the waste of resources and the cost of the risk that aggression creates. Many modern managers think that he was all about fighting, but his philosophy was much ore about fighting without fighting, as Bruce Lee said, and if you have to fight, do …
Continue reading Winning without trying.
85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world
That’s a shocking fact. The timing of that headline is appropriate as the rich gather to enjoy the luxuries that Davos, in the Swiss Alps, has to offer the World Economic Forum. Anyone reading this is unlikely to be one of those 85 people, but you are definitely in the top 10%. And everyone at …
Continue reading 85 richest people as wealthy as poorest half of the world
The work climate, like the weather, is changing .
The world is changing. Not just volatile weather – snow in Florida, tempest in Ireland – but in the socio-economic dynamic that has borne humanity to this position in civilisation. We are running out of jobs. Technology is taking over all employment, except the lowest paid, menial tasks and the highest paid, bespoke services. Even …
Continue reading The work climate, like the weather, is changing .
We are still not prepared to pay for our planet.
In the past decade there has certainly been a huge increase in awareness and care about sustaining nature in the face of overconsumption by humanity. Now, most people have heard the terms “sustainable”, “organic”, “eco”, “green” and associate positive initiatives with these terms. Sadly we also associate a cost with these terms, a cost we …
Continue reading We are still not prepared to pay for our planet.
Obama: The idea that so many children are born into poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth is heartbreaking
Barack Obama gave a speech in Washington DC which described economic themes for the rest of his term. “The combined trends of increased inequality and decreasing mobility pose a fundamental threat to the American Dream, our way of life, and what we stand for around the globe,” he said. “The idea that so many children …
Continue reading Obama: The idea that so many children are born into poverty in the wealthiest nation on Earth is heartbreaking
You are twice as likely to pay a bribe if you live in a poor country
That’s a simple summary of Transparency International’s 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index. A big headline this year was the drop in Spain’s ranking because of a number of public scandals. But do not imagine that corruption in Spain has actually gone up or down, just because perception has changed. Actual corruption is pretty much the same …
Continue reading You are twice as likely to pay a bribe if you live in a poor country