Transcendental Generalization

Ev Erlich of NPR had elquent commentary on the transition of US economic policy from Alan Greenspan to Ben Bernanke.

A nice article featuring Ingvar Kamprad, founder of Ikea.

This arrived in my inbox today. Whether you call Chris Bliss’s performance juggling, dancing, or something else, he is phenomenal.

This book, by the authors of Creating New Market Space (Harvard Business Review, January-February 1999, pp. 83-93) starts like many others written by management consultants. From their work, the authors formulate a hypothesis reflecting a novel perspective on business practices, industry trends, and strategic moves. They then test that hypothesis against what companies have actually done historically, to determine whether it is a good predictor of success. The results are worded in ways that make past strategies look deliberate when they are actually emergent. I’ve read enough of these books to conclude that the best strategy is a meta-strategy consisting of four rules that are easy to state and hard to follow:

1. Ensure your employees are tightly connected with your customers
2. Encourage employees to propose ideas for additional value, cost savings and business growth
3. Rapidly move ideas through a consistent, transparent, objective, widely-understood evaluation process
4. Execute wholeheartedly on the few initiatives that make it through the process

Getting back to Blue Ocean Strategy, Part One states the hypothesis that companies prosper by finding “blue oceans”–market definitions that render existing competition irrelevant. Companies that fail to find blue oceans get stuck in cutthroat one-upmanship against competitors–in oceans that are rendered blood red.

Part Two prescribes deliberate actions for managers to use in finding blue oceans. A key tool is the strategy canvas. This is a diagram in which the bases of competition are enumerated, and the company and its competitors are ranked or rated on those bases of competition. The company discovers a blue ocean by defining brand new bases of competition. It shifts its focus by deliberately abandoning or lowering its ranking on certain existing bases.

The gem in this book is the first chapter of Part Three, which describes ways to overcome the following organizational hurdles through tipping point leadership:

• The cognitive hurdle, in which managers don’t see problems or don’t think they are severe enough to warrant change. This can be overcome by making managers experience first-hand the problems with the status quo.
• The resource hurdle, in which managers have insufficient resources to devote to the new strategic initiative. This can be overcome by moving resources away from cold spots (activities with diminishing returns on invested resources) and toward hot spots (activities with multiplicative returns on invested resources).
• The motivational hurdle, in which commitment to new strategic initiatives must be spread throughout the organization. This can be overcome when performance management focuses on kingpins who have strong influence or access to resources.
• The political hurdle, in which vested interests resist change. This can be overcome by amplifying the voices of the “angels,” silencing the “devils,” and identifying a consigliere.

The mug shown below looks pretty nice. Here are some reasons why I purchased it:

• Insulated to keep coffee hot
• 20 oz. size to hold a large amount of coffee
• Rubber mesh wrapping for improved grip
• Sipping hole in lid, and a valve to close it
• Attractive shape and color
• Low price

Like most travel mugs, this one has an additional small hole in the lid (marked with an arrow). This lets air in while you are sipping.

Now here is what actually happened when I tried to use it:

1. It came with a folder of instructions. Now why would a person need instructions for using a coffee mug? Anyway, among the instructions was that you should not put this mug in a dishwasher. I suspect it is insulated with styrofoam which doesn’t do well in the dishwasher environment.

   Manufacturers, please stop making food containers that can’t be put in the dishwasher! It will have to add a lot of value to my life before I accept the hassle of hand washing it! In this case, I decided to ignore this instruction when it came time to wash it.

2. For my first use, I filled the mug with hot coffee, pressed the lid on, and closed the sipping hole. I put the mug in my car’s cup holder and and drove off. While I was taking my first turn, the mug jumped out of the cup holder onto the passenger seat! Coffee dribbled out of the air hole and onto the seat. You see, the shape of the mug makes it top-heavy (marked with an arrow) especially when filled with beverage!
3. I was now forced to hold the mug in the cup holder while taking turns. While doing this, I noticed that the lid had come off, so I pressed it back on. After a while it would come loose again! Finally, I realized that the inner surface of the mug widens near the opening (marked with an arrow). So when you push the lid on, it tends to get pushed off again!
4. I finally got around to drinking some piping hot coffee. I slowly lifted the mug to sip a tiny amount. For a while, nothing happened. Then a large amount of coffee splashed into my mouth! This kept happening. While at a stop sign, I tipped the mug slowly, and a bit of coffee came out of the sipping hole. But when I would try to drink the coffee, it would suddenly splash into my mouth! It was only after I got to my destination that I realized the problem. The air hole is too far from the edge (marked with an arrow). When I would try to sip coffee, my nose was blocking the air hole! So instead of a bit of coffee coming out smoothly, it would splash out! With my other travel mug, the air hole is close to the edge, so my nose wouldn’t block it.

This mug is going to be returned. Please, no funny comments about my nose!

This came into my inbox. Julian Beever is a pavement artist who creates impressive 3-D effects. Here is a sample of his work. More can be seen at his web site.

This came into my inbox today, and has been attributed to Maya Angelou.

I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.

On old debate questions what determines the condition of offspring: nature (genetics) or nurture (environmental factors including relationship with parents). This article describes epigenetics, “the study of genetic changes that don’t involve mutations in DNA”. Epigenetics may help explain certain stark differences in twins, who haveidentical DNA.

From American Public Media’s Marketplace.

The United Arab Emirates is considering shifting 10% of the country’s foreign exchange holdings from US dollars into euros, twice as much as previously planned.

This is on the tail of the recent uproar in the American public and US Senate over a UAE company making a deal to operate American ports. There has also been talk in the Senate of limiting foreign ownership of US assets.

Will the US dollar plummet in value with respect to other currencies, and if so, when? This question has been on my mind for about a year and a half. I was pleased to discover this book, which provides a comprehensive survey of the economic factors behind this eventuality.

Duncan’s central thesis is as follows: Easy availability of credit (low interest rates) have precipitated recessions around the world and even the Great Depression in the US. The US trade deficit along with China’s currency policy have kept interest rates low recently and Duncan predicts a global recession that will make the dot-com bust look microscopic. Of course the size, start time, and duration of the recession are difficult to predict, and Duncan doesn’t try. His solutions involve cooperative global economic policy changes that face insurmountable political and social obstacles (e.g. a global minimum wage).

The book is a couple of years old and recent news suggests one of his predictions may turn out wrong. Duncan says that Japan’s zero-interest-rate monetary policy hasn’t helped the country, but the Bank of Japan recently raised (imposed!) interest rates, seeing recovery in the Japanese economy.

The writing and organization leave something to be desired. There is unnecessary repetition. Duncan explains some elementary concepts well, but neglects to explain other things that are more difficult to understand.