Not the most eventful of weeks but a few interesting stories did crop up in different publications across the globe. The Entrepreneur had an interesting story on threadUp. The article talks about the trio — James Reinhart, Chris Homer and Oliver Lubinhad who had a unique problem on hand — they all had too many clothes and they actually wore only 25% of all their clothes. The rest just lay somehwere in their individual cupboards. The three (Reinhart and Lubin were roommates at Boston College; Reinhart and Homer were friends at Harvard Business School) while trying to solve the problem came up with the creation of the San Francisco-based thredUp company, The idea was simple – the three created an online community where people could inexpensively buy and sell gently used clothing. Read more on it in
“>http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220256
Another news bit as interesting was about “Angry Birds” – the world’s largest mobile app success story and, unofficially, the most seductive game in the history of the universe. David Maisel, a veteran Hollywood studio executive and agent, recently joined the Finnish game developer as a Special Advisor, where he will spearhead the company’s move into feature films, which he also plans to executive produce. The article stated that the The Angry Birds franchise, perhaps as much as Zynga’s Facebook games, has helped indoctrinate millions of new people to video gaming. Finnish developer Rovio has taken these cute characters beyond the addictive game franchise with merchandising and Hollywood aspirations. David Maisel will be leading the way as Angry Birds flies from mobile gaming screens to movie theatres and beyond.” The whole story in http://www.marketwatch.com/story/angry-birds-david-maisel-announced-as-opening-keynote-speaker-at-2nd-annual-3d-gaming-summit-3d-gaming-and-beyondr-2011-09-16
And some news for the music buffs. A huge relief for some of the ‘old is gold’ music makers. The European Union has extended the COPYRIGHT on musical recordings from 50 to 70 years. Many of the earlier songs recorded by bands such as the Rolling Stones and the Beatles were due to go out of copyright over the next few years, which some said was unfair as performers should have their rights preserved for life. Musical artists are protected for 95 years in some countries aborad. Thousands of music performers, from little-known session musicians to Sir Cliff Richard, will receive royalties from songs released in the 60s for an extra 20 years, under new copyright laws ratified by the EU on Monday. The legislation known as “Cliff’s law” after its most high-profile campaigner extends copyright on music recordings from 50 years to 70 years. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/sep/12/musicians-copyright-extension
And now for some MBA news. Nothing new in Johns Hopkins Universitys Carey Business School graduating its first class of full-time MBAs at the end of this school year. But for placements, the b-school sprung a surprise. The choice for employer was the health industry. (Little wonder though since Careys corporate advisory board is filled with people from companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck, Quest Diagnostics, and GE Healthcare). The blog in Businessweek states that Careys full-time program, which launched in August 2010, has attracted students bent more towards science than finance. Twenty-five percent of the inaugural class completed summer internships in the health care industry and 16 percent in tech. Finance internships tied with non-profit work for third place, each taking 13 percent of the class. To help put that in context, at Stanfords Graduate School of Business, for example, 31 percent of its graduating class took full-time jobs in the financial services industry, 29 percent went to consulting and 18 percent went to tech, according to the most recent statistics, the school provided to Bloomberg Businessweek. http://www.businessweek.com/bschools/blogs/mba_admissions/archives/2011/09/whos_looking_to_hire_the_first_grads_of_johns_hopkins_mba_program.html
And still on the MBA scene, The Nigerian Daily had an article quite disturbing to an MBA greenhorn. The article states that ‘when key figures in some of Kenyas most infamous cases of corporate fraud and corruption are professionals and local business schools alumni, it is not surprising that people question their training. Corporate misconduct and unethical practices leave doubt about the kind of principles and management practices the countrys business schools are teaching. The article goes on to question why in the business gurus and commentators publicly condemn business schools in general, and MBA programmes in particular for their lack of attention to ethics in the curriculum. http://www.thenigeriandaily.com/2011/09/13/kenya-are-business-graduates-failing-ethics-test
The Financial Times had one of those gender-based articles which drive men up the wall and women all gleaming. The article said that using research on gender-based leadership differences, schools such as Harvard Business School, IMD in Switzerland and Ceibs in Shanghai have created courses to help women become aware of these differences and improve their leadership style. In these courses, women are taught to build far-reaching networks, because research has shown that women tend to have smaller, although more loyal, networks than men. Workplace confidence is also cultivated, since this is something that comes more naturally to male leaders, according to researchers. If you agree or even don’t agree with the concept, you can always read up http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e2ba5f0a-d947-11e0-884e-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz1YC3WPQn4 for more.
And there is bookish news as well. When Bob Sutton, a renowned management professor at Stanford University, declares that a book just might be the most important business book Ive ever read, it gets anyone and everyone closely connected to business or business education scurrying for the book. This one’s titled The Progress Principle by Teresa Amabile, a professor at Harvard Business School and the countrys leading researcher on creativity in the workplace, and Steven Kramer, a psychologist and independent researcher. The book talks about how seemingly mundane workday events can make or break employees’ inner work lives. But it’s forward momentum in meaningful work-progress-that creates the best inner work lives. Through rigorous analysis of nearly 12,000 diary entries provided by 238 employees in 7 companies, the authors explain how managers can foster progress and enhance inner work life every day. The book shows how to remove obstacles to progress, including meaningless tasks and toxic relationships.
“>http://blogs.hbr.org/hbsfaculty/2011/09/three-ways-to-turn-setbacks-in.html?referral=00563&cm;_mmc=email-_-newsletter-_-daily_alert-_-alert_date&utm;_source=newsletter_daily_alert&utm;_medium=email&utm;_campaign=alert_date