Wednesday, November 17, 2010

At Facebook, Dot Com
According to this Forbes article, Facebook’s latest novelties will not only be the college kid’s playground, but a boon for companies as well.  Gone are the days, says Forbes, when employees would block workers’ access to social networks. Integrated networks like Facebook may very well be the language of business communications.


What are these novelties? On November 15, Facebook announced that it will soon launch an upgrade of its messaging service, Facebook Messages. This new and improved communication platform will merge the most popular communication media: Facebook Messages, SMS, chat and email.
This allows a live conversation to happen through a juggling of any of these media. If you’re a fan of SMS, for instance, you can reply to a Message using your phone, directly to the inbox of the sender. The inbox, soon to be the ‘Social Inbox,’ will act as a ‘net,’ trapping any sort of message sent or received. The Facebook Message may become Every Message.
That’s not all. Facebook will give an @facebook.com email address to everyone who wants one, whether they have a Facebook profile or not. @facebook.com  will also be merged with the Social Inbox.
Many predict that if Facebook can match the functionality of email clients like Gmail, it will give the Hotmails and the Gmails a run for their money. On a similar vein, Gartner says 20% of workers will use social networks as their preferred vehicle for business communications by 2014.
The Facebook blog claims that the idea behind Messages is to tear down barriers to communication. If there is something worth saying, the message should reach its recipient right away, unimpeded by something as technical as the recipient not currently being online on MSN messenger, or not checking their Yahoo!mail often enough.
Perhaps the idea beneath this idea is that Facebook wants to ensure that people’s attention is on Facebook, all the time, everywhere.
For a change.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

It Says To Be Human is To Be Wired

Thanks to Lenore for alerting me to this AT&T video, It Says, which I am adding to my short list of brilliant if nefarious ads which promote technology as benevolent, empowering, and totally embedded (or about to be, or should be) in our day-to-day lives and key rituals--

--here represented by bedtime, driving, shopping, and dating, and culminating in getting married!

Anyone else uncomfortable with this representation or have comments?

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Business, Evil Business



Some schools are stepping it up from a nondescript honor code to a more specific honor code of business.

Leslie Wayne tells us more in this New York Times article: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/30/business/30oath.html?_r=2. According to this, 20% of Harvard's business grads have signed 'The MBA Oath,' which urges tomorrow's business managers to care about how they fill up their bank accounts; to pursue their "narrow ambitions" less and to serve society a little more than, say, the Enron days.

Basically, it's an affirmation of CSR's increasing importance in business. It is probably naive to roll out the peace signs, but  it is true at least that business schools are offering a lot more business ethics courses than they did twenty years ago.
Modern life seems to be squeezing business down a funnel, forcing it to reshape itself into a more ethical social actor. More than ever, we are aware of the admonishing fingers pointed at Business, evil Business. We are now raising kids who will have the weight of the gasping environment on their shoulders. We are also still licking our wounds (and stiching up our wallets) after an economic let-down that was so much more than a "technical blip."  At face value, it seems business is starting to reflect people's desire for lives that mean more, and for organizations that care more. 

And beyond face value? Time, and products, will tell. But for now, let's assume that all the rallying for sanity is starting to pay off. Pun decidedly not intended. 


Thursday, October 28, 2010

Should we disconnect? Or just teleport to China?


My student James Fine brought the video "Disconnect to Connect" to my attention. What do you make of it, especially given the fact that it appears to be sponsored by Thailand's second-biggest cell phone provider?

Also worth viewing, on only a slightly different topic, Cisco's video starring Ellen Page (image to the right) contrasting the seeming joys of virtual field trip to China with the horrors of a real-world field trip (who knew cows could be so scary?)

(Also, note how Ellen is ACTUALLY in the classroom--she is not virtual.)

Could someone please explain these two videos to me and what they say about our current age of digital distraction?

Thursday, October 14, 2010

High Frequency Trading

This 60 Minutes story about how Wall Street traders are making money off of what are called “high frequency trades” kind of reminded me of Office Space.

The project has nothing to do with value, creating value, or even companies. It’s just a way to make a profit off of the slight fluctuations in stock price, but of course doing so with a high volume of stock.

Another interesting story from This American Life about the mentality these days on Wall Street, and why traders, analysts, and CEO’s feel glum. See Act One.

-Pete

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Chronemics: A Mini Science
Scenario: DC-born Judy is sitting in a café in Piazza Navona, in Italy, on an irresistible day of marauding tourists and Italian sunshine. She and her new Italian friend, Carla, had agreed to meet for coffee. Their exact words were: “How about Saturday afternoon, at three or four?” “Perfect, perfecto.” [Giggles] It is now 3:45, Judy has been waiting since 3:00 and Carla is still a no-show.
Carla’s tardiness incenses Judy’s annoyance and indignation. Alas! if only she knew about chronemics, she would spare herself the grief and sip her frappé more happily.
Chronemics is the study of the use of time in non-verbal communication (chronos is Greek for ‘time’). The way we perceive time, structure it and put it to use can carry meaning and color relationships. Interestingly, just like language and gestures require translation, so too does the cultural approach to time.
People from the U.S., Switzerland, Germany, to name a few, are called monochronic: they partition time into precise units according to the tasks they must complete. Appointment times are deferentially adhered to and work schedules have a precise start and finish. Anthropologist Edward T. Hall points out the importance of time management for the U.S. business person, for whom time is a precious commodity that requires respect in order for things to work: ‘time is money,’ ‘time is wasted,’ ‘time is of the essence.’
On the other hand, Latin American, Arabic, southern European and Indian cultures are polychronic. They focus on the relationship rather than the clock, striving for interactions that are good and look good to others. They don’t mind crossing time boundaries, which are fluid anyway:  they’ll get there when they get there. Theirs is a high-context form of non-verbal communication, meaning there are many codes and cues that they intuitively take for granted.
So, for Carla, it is not an issue that she will arrive as late as “three or four in the afternoon” allows, especially because she was lunching with family and it was baby Beppe’s birthday (he said “boopa,” people cooed). Judy expects an apology, but Carla won’t think of providing one…at least, until she sees how much redder Judy’s cheeks look than the day before.

That is not to say that a Chilean will be late for everything. In fact, business people on either end of the cultural spectrum will have to recognize and tweak their habits for the sake of effectiveness. But if your Italian client walks in late, the mini science of chronemics will help you understand why you’re so mad and she’s as cool as a lemon gelato.

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Banned Books (For the Whole Family)

In honor of Banned Books Week, DC’s very own Takoma Park library hosted a Read-Out this past weekend, where volunteers read excerpts of selected children’s books that have been challenged. Examples of “misbehaved” books were Heather Has Two Mummies, Daddy’s Roommate, and Elbert’s Bad Word. (Visit http://www.takomapark.info/library/children/archives/002343.html for more spicy titles.)

For the record, “challenging” a book means attempting to ban it, but not quite achieving the goal. As for “banning” a book, sanctions come in degrees. Hitler’s autobiographical manifesto, Mein Kampf, for instance, is explicitly denounced in Germany. There, it cannot be republished, sold or even held under possession. The Netherlands, on the other hand, allows lending it and reading it but prohibitis people from selling it.

On the subject of book banning, there isn’t a prevailing consensus. Some people feel that the amorality of a book never, ever trumps the amorality of prohibiting free speech and free access to information. Others think that silencing these rights is worth it if a book threatens public health.

Really, it’s one thing condemning  The Catcher in the Rye for dropping f-bombs. That’s conservatism gone astray. But when a book like Mein Kampf is the building block for one of the most calamitous events in recent history, maybe banning is the good way, the only way.

Or how about The Global Bell Curve, by psychiatrist Richard Lynn, whose premise is that intelligence is racially inherited and that Sahel Africans are at the bottom of the…erm, race? According to loon Lynn, East Asians are the most genetically intelligent. Frankly, it reminds me of the scientist who claimed that Caucasians are more intelligent because he managed to fit more marbles in a Caucasian skull. I wish I knew more about this, but I also regret hearing about it at all.

The First Amendment does protect free speech. But in no way does it endorse the license to harm.

In my mind’s ear, however, I can’t stop myself from hearing German playwright, Heinrich Heine, whispering: “Where they burn books, so too will they in the end burn human beings.”

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Drama King
One of my favorite authors is coming to campus: Andre Dubus III, mastermind behind House of Sand and Fog.
When I found out he’d be in town, I said to myself that I hadn’t been this excited since fourth grade, when Picachu evolved into Raichu for the first time. This particular novel was a New York Times bestseller, a National Book Award finalist and—wait for it, it’s intense—an Oprah Book Club selection.
The eponymous movie also garnered quite a bit of attention, as well as 3 Oscar nominations. But let’s not go into Ben Kingsley and DreamWorks SKG. It is the flesh of the novel’s pages and the blood of its beautifully embroidered drama that matters.
The story is bi-fold: it tangos back and forth between the perspective of Kathy Nicolo, a recovering divorcee who is losing her house to the inclement government (yes, taxes tax even those among us lucky enough to have been wrought by Dubus’ imagination), and Massoud Behrani, a Persian immigrant who is buying the house from the government in the hopes of giving his family a morsel of their once dignified lifestyle.
Far beyond realty disputes, however, the narration delves so deeply into the bruised lives and minds of Kathy and Massoud that the reader can’t help but develop an attachment to both of them; until you, the reader, realize that you cannot love both their fates at the same time. One’s path grinds against the other’s. Dare I say Kathy is fog and Massoud is sand?
Just like when you were watching Crash, or The Titanic, you know in your heart of hearts that this story probably won’t turn out well for everyone. And down goes Jack…The book is steeped in bitterness, reminiscence, the putrid smell of things lost, desperation disguised as racism and, just to really keep your attention, furtive sex.
More about Dubus’ visit is revealed on this CAS Literature webpage,  http://www.american.edu/cas/literature/news/visiting.cfm, which gives info on the whole host of writers visiting AU in the upcoming months. This site is where I found out that the handsome Mr Dubus,


is a quasi-ringer for Harrison Ford.


Successfully added to Dubus' look is the furrowed brow of writers beleaguered by their plot-twisting brilliance. Do you see it? I know I do.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Elevator Pitches

While the elevator pitches that we work on will be slightly different than the kinds employed for the MIT Entrepreneurship Competition (the ones we focus on at Kogod deal with selling yourself and your skills, rather than an idea), this may provide some chuckles. This link will provide another resource to think about when you’re selling your big idea.
-Pete

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Facebook and Job Hunting

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on whether employers should be able to peek at your Facebook page to help them decide whether to hire you. Apparently, Germany is moving against this policy. Should the U.S. do the same, or should job hunters be smarter about what they put on Facebook? (Or, should Facebook make clearer their privacy policy?)
-Pete

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Transcendent

Rather than examine what texting, computerizing, and general electronic multi-tasking does to our brain, this article follows the researchers who study this sort of thing for a few days on a camping trip. What I got a kick out of was seeing the head of a lab for which I volunteered my brain when I was a graduate student at Johns Hopkins. I want to get in touch with him to get the free images of my brain that I never received (I did get about $20).

I don’t know if it’s much of a surprise that we think more clearly when less is going on around us, or when we are “in” nature. It does kind of surprise me to know that multi-tasking doesn’t really help us think better or more on our toes. What I think would be most interesting would be to examine the “why nature?” question. In other words, would we enjoy more clarity in an empty room, a quiet car, or on an airplane?

And if we were thinking our best in nature, would I be able to solve one of most unsolvable math and computer science proofs of all time – the P versus NP proof? Find more our here. If you can solve it, stop by the CBC and you will get a prize!
-Pete

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Keeping Up With the Joneses

Don’t you hate it when you get hedonically adapted to your Ferrari after a couple of years? Or when the recessed lighting on your G5 jet doesn’t seem so rosy?

Maybe it’s no surprise that we suffer from this—hedonic adaptation—or losing interest in the stuff we’ve bought, but are we really going to stop buying those treats?

This article suggests that doing so may make us happier. Or rather, that spending on the vacation, golf lesson, or cooking class—purchases that are more experiential—will indeed make us happier. Evidently, little research has been done on the subject of which things you buy make you the happiest.

One of the effects of the recession has been this push towards purchasing experiences, or goods that foster an experience, and Wal-Mart and other retailers are taking notice. The implication for potential business professionals and marketing professionals seems evident, and I’d love to hear what you think.
-Pete

Friday, July 30, 2010

Crashing the Boards

If it’s the case that you don’t necessarily need to be pre-med to do well in medical school, as this article examines, should a student be pre-business before going to business school?

What is the most valuable course one should have under their belt before entering business school? Economics? Accounting? Business ethics? Or British Lit? This New York Times article explores how certain medical schools value and permit a number of humanities students into their programs, and what kind of success those students enjoy later on as doctors.

Looking further out, if there is one class an entrepreneur should take, what would it be?

-Pete

Friday, July 23, 2010

The Fine Print











We recently got an HDTV as a gift, and I’ve tried to hook up my computer to it to watch Netflix. I’ve just embraced Netflix, believe it or not. It’s terrific. What’s not terrific is that when I use this special cord, an HDMI cord, I don’t get audio. An hour later, after some research, I discover that it’s a very common problem. Thousands of people have encountered it, but when I go to call Dell, who makes my computer, I discover that because my warranty is expired, I can’t so much as online chat with a technical representative.

So I ask you: future inventors, sellers, and distributors of products, how long should a company stand by its wares? I have an Eddie Bauer backpack that must be fifteen years old that I could return today, for a full refund (at least according to Eddie). Break it down for me—why backpacks but not computers? Is this just based on cost, and if so, is that based on the number of users, difficulty of correcting the problem, or what?

And can anyone help me get audio from this HDMI cable?

-Pete

Friday, July 16, 2010

Crystal Clear?

Confusing times. While Goldman Sachs is required to pay $550 million (part fine, part investor restitution), it is not required to admit it did anything wrong. Technically. Read more about what this really means here and here.

Clarity is at issue: the lack of clarity in Goldman’s marketing materials and lack of clarity in the design of the financial instrument in question, the CDO. What do you make of all this?

Wall Street isn’t the only place plagued by reversals and upheavals. Apparently, Bristol Palin and Levi Johnston are engaged, again!

-Pete

Friday, July 9, 2010

Cat and Mouse









It would seem that this New York Times article about cheating misses the point to some extent. It’s not about whether a student cheats, it’s about whether a student recognizes that what they are doing is cheating. Much of the discussion I’ve been involved in has been in the context of writing, and has centered on hashing out the minutiae of what constitutes cheating, or plagiarism.

When Turnitin.com or SafeAssign brings back a report after you’ve run a student’s paper through their program, what often happens is that you’ll find a student has failed to appropriately cite, not that they were purposefully aiming to pawn off someone else’s work as their own.

I like how The New York Times characterizes it all as a cat and mouse game. Perhaps a better example is this



Thursday, June 24, 2010

Apples and Oranges and Bananas

How to compare these two problems: the Gulf oil spill and the Haiti earthquake? On the surface, it would seem as if the Gulf oil spill is the result of a particular problem, which is itself the result of certain failures. Corporations are easy to blame, and in hindsight, shortcomings easy to identify.

But in a case like the Haiti earthquake, a natural disaster, placing blame is more difficult. However, what this piece on This American Life does so well is examine how the fallout from the earthquake is part of a systemic failure to improve a country over long periods. Listen to Part I and find out why.

On a lighter note, if you’re in search of finding out what you know and what you don’t know, take this short survey offered by PEW Research, and let us know how you did.

-Pete

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Big Guns















An interesting examination of the Toyota recall was aired on CNBC. You can check it out here. Business communication, crisis communication, corporate social responsibility, and corporate personhood are all players in the story.

The other famous crisis communications case that came to mind was the 1982 Tylenol recall, which you’ve probably heard about. Find out more here.

-Pete

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

The Field of Battle



An interesting side-effect of the BP oil spill is raised in this article. It feels like a no-brainer to blame Britain-based BP and to demonize them, as oil spreads across the Gulf. But the British say Halt! Thou forgetteth my pension!

I suppose I might have more complicated feelings on the matter if I stood to lose a portion of my retirement. Rather than ratchet up international tensions, it’d be a lot easier if these matters could be settled on the football field of battle, but alas.

Did you know that you can use hair to clean up oil? Hair! Well, actually, hair won’t resolve this particular spill, but something to keep in mind.

-Pete

Thursday, June 10, 2010

When the Going Gets Tough



I love this article. Maybe it’s because I’m not a quantitative person, but it makes the case for the humanities, the soft majors, which are slipping in interest during this economy. It also highlights that while being a deft accountant might get you far, the ability to effectively communicate your findings to the CEO will get you farther.

I think the general feeling is that when push comes to shove, the hard disciplines will and should win out. We often hear politicians talk about the need for our country to be producing more engineers and scientists to ensure our competitiveness. Rarely do we ever hear anyone argue for the critical role of sculptors, philosophers, or Victorian lit experts.

So, is what David Brooks argues here idealistic? Can we really make the case that we should be taking a class on Ulysses over Accountancy 101 or Calc? What evidence do we have that when the going gets tough, the tough need Kant?

Friday, June 4, 2010

Big Brain



This article, published in the Harvard Business Review several years ago, suggests that brainstorming doesn’t work. At least not in the way that we often think about it. It reminded me of my first job at big PR agency. The entire account staff spent a day at a loft in an industrial area of Chicago brainstorming.

The loft looked like Pee Wee’s Playhouse, and we had to take off our shoes and walk around in our socks while coloring, throwing Koosh balls around, and brainstorming. At the end of the day, we did karaoke. No big idea came out of it, probably because the session failed to adhere to the rules that this article suggests a good brainstorming session should adhere to. (As a side-note, after that session, our office spent a great deal of money designing and building a room where we could go to have official brainstorm sessions. It also looked liked Pee Wee’s Playhouse.)

As I’ve already blogged, the vast majority of us soon got the can because of the tech bust, which made me wonder if anyone had a brainstorming session about whether it’d be a good idea to invest in brainstorming sessions and a dedicated brainstorming room.

The point of these brainstorming sessions is to pinpoint the moment of innovation. On a semi-related note (not really), here’s a story about another kind of innovation, called tinnovation. It’s cool, check it out.

On an even more unrelated note, this article in The New York Times suggests you become happier the older you get. Who knew?

-Pete



Friday, May 28, 2010

Liquid













I caught this interview (sorry, the video is only available to HDNet subscribers) done by Dan Rather with a young CEO named Barry Silbert. Silbert, a former Goldman Sachs employee, is thirty-four but looks even younger. A lot younger. His company, Second Market, aims to create a marketplace for illiquid assets—a new kind of eBay-like domain where people can trade things like shares of Facebook or LinkedIn, or other non-traditional assets.

What struck me, in addition to the novelty of Silbert’s idea, was whether we prefer our leaders young or old, green or seasoned? Conventional wisdom suggests that a young leader brings innovation and energy, new ideas to replace outmoded ones. On the other hand, the veteran leader brings the kind of knowledge an organization needs, the kind only obtained through years of experience.

By now, you might have read Malcolm Gladwell’s Tipping Point, which often points to the scholar K. Anders Ericsson’s notion that one needs ten years, or 10,000 hours, to be an expert at something.

Which do we want and why? We saw this debate crystallized during our most recent presidential election, but what about when it comes to business? Perhaps another question is whether these perceptions (young=innovative, old=wise) are even valid.

-Pete

Monday, May 17, 2010

A Tangled Web












At first I thought this New York Times article on the perils of PowerPoint was pretty funny. But as I think more and more about it, and read the comments people have posted, I feel increasingly torn. As a writer and a teacher of writing, I argue for simplicity and clarity.

However, what this article makes clear (in this case, we’re talking about overly-complex PPT slides) is that simplicity can be dangerous, leaving out important nuances and complexities. Some issues, many argue, can’t (or shouldn't) be boiled down into three bullet points.

In our communication we battle against time, cognition, and complexity. Even as I enumerate this brief list, I realize it’s too brief, and fails to thoroughly address our task as communicators. A meta-problem, I guess.

Certainly I don’t have the answer, but always welcome feedback.

-Pete

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Convocation









The swarm of business ethics papers have subsided, and many of you are headed into finals and then off (or staying in DC) for the summer. I was impressed by the range of sticky dilemmas the first year b-school students tackled. It was a lot of fun listening to your recommendations about ways your chosen company could overcome what often seemed like impassable obstacles. This all came at a time when you are tackling your own dilemmas about career, school and, well, life!

So, perhaps this is a mini-convocation, and one written with ethics on the brain.

I’ve been thinking of these guys recently, and how quickly opinions and perceptions can shift.

Here’s to our own good character and judgment remaining strong, and a fruitful (and relaxing) summer.

-Pete

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Expensive Genes


Did you know that there are certain genes in your body that you don’t own? If you wanted to find out if you had a specific gene, you would have to pay a company a lot of money for the test, because they own it.


This kind of blew my mind; it’s one of the stories discussed on 60 Minutes.


In fact, there are a host of companies that hold patents on genes, and they have for decades. It’s an interesting case where a company doesn’t invent something, but simply discovers something—and then lays claim to it.


Only, it’s not that simple.


In order to discover a gene that causes, say, a mutation, someone needs to invest money. And those investors expect a return. But what happens when capitalism gets in the way of public health? Watch the episode and let us know what you think.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Bubble









Some of you may listen to the show Marketplace on NPR. They recently did a story on the “baseball card bubble.” Apparently, having a mint condition card is not all we used to think it was when we were kids. There were stories of finding that rare but flawed Honus Wagner card, selling it, and living like you’d just won the lottery.

This notion seems to have been fueled by that show Antiques Roadshow, where people bring in their junk, and discover that Grandpa’s teakettle is worth $20K.

Find out what’s happening (or not) on the baseball card front here.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

The Big Short

In the past two days I’ve seen the writer Michael Lewis on 60 Minutes and The Charlie Rose Show. His new book, The Big Short, is just out. Through the stories of three men, it chronicles the subprime mortgage debacle. Lewis was a Wall Street banker himself. You may have heard of his first book, Liar’s Poker.

Charlie Rose’s introduction went something along the lines of how Lewis had, nearly 30 years ago, told the story of Wall Street greed in that book. Well, at least he thought he had. His latest book may not be the last chapter, but it is the most recent.

A question put to Lewis was whether or not the big Wall Street banks will continue to draw the best and the brightest students, despite the stain that culture now carries with it. You can see Lewis’ answer here.