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Forget squeezing millions from a few megahits at the top of the charts. The future of entertainment is in the millions of niche markets at the shallow end of the bitstream.

Content: Article | Author: Chris Anderson | Source: Wired | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Trends / Analysis

FT’s management editor examines the state of the business book publishing world.

Content: Article | Author: Simon London | Source: FT.com | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Personal Development

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The only helpful way to examine organisations and their management is as something neither moral nor immoral, but simply a phenomenon; not to look for proof that industry is honourable or dishonourable, but only for patterns of success and failure… and for the forces which produce them.

Content: Quotation | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Organizational Behavior

Business thinking starts with an intuitive choice of assumptions. Its progress as analysis is intertwined with intuition.

Content: Article | Author: Bruce D. Henderson | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Management, Miscellaneous

By business design, we mean the fingerprint of the (hopefully) unique way a company does business–which customers it chooses to serve, which unique value proposition it offers to customers, which profit models it employs, which scope of activities it engages in, which forms of strategic control it develops to protect profits and customer relationships, and which organizational architecture it uses to implement these decisions.

Content: Quotation | Source: Mercer Management Journal | Subjects: Business Plans, Miscellaneous

The single most important word in strategy formulation is why. Asking why is the basic act of probing. Searching for root causes takes strategy formulation away from the unconscious repetition of past patterns and mimicry of competitors. Asking why leads to new insights and innovations that sometimes yield important competitive advantages.

Content: Article | Author: Jonathan Isaacs | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Miscellaneous

Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations, first published in 1776, helped create the discipline of economics with its conjuring of the invisible hand, self-interest, and other explanations of market forces that have influenced academics, governments, and business leaders ever since. But insights from one of Smith’s earlier works, The Theory of Moral Sentiments, can contribute to modern thinking on everything from our fascination with celebrity … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Adam Smith | Subjects: Economics, Miscellaneous

We need to eat to live; food is a necessary condition of life. But if we lived mainly to eat, making food a sufficient or sole purpose of life, we would become gross. The purpose of a business, in other words, is not to make a profit, full stop. It is to make a profit so that the business can do something more or better. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Miscellaneous

Prudence operates on life in the same manner as rules on composition; it produces vigilance rather than elevation, rather prevents loss than procures advantages; and often escapes miscarriages, but seldom reaches either power or honour. It quenches that ardour of enterprize, by which every thing is done that can claim praise or admiration, and represses that generous temerity which often fails and often succeeds. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Sources: Global Province, Idler 57 | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Personality / Behavior

Badbossology.com features completely free access to over 1200 articles and resources on solving problems with difficult managers.

Content: Online Resource | Source: The CMR Group | Subjects: Career, Miscellaneous

“These questionnaires measure character strengths and aspects of happiness. All are yours to use at no charge. For each one, you’ll immediately receive your score and see how it compares to the scores of others who have used this website.

We’ll keep a record of your scores, so that you can return later and see how far you’ve progressed. To see your earlier scores, log in … [ Read more ]

Content: Online Resource | Author: Martin E. P. Seligman | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Personal Development

This article argues that a big new managerial challenge is to lower transaction costs and that the way to do this is to make trust scalable. It’s not an argument you hear every day. In fact, it may surprise people. Most of us think that IT has lowered transaction costs. But the authors present evidence that our obsession with lowering production costs has led to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Bob Wolf, Philip Evans | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subjects: Economics, Miscellaneous

David West proposes that a key distinction exists between those who seek to control time and those who are willing to respond to it (Monochrons vs. Polychrons).

Content: Article | Author: David West | Source: TheWorkingManager.com | Subjects: Miscellaneous, Organizational Behavior

The book presents the philosophy, the mathematics and the computer modeling needed to take a fresh and practical perspective on managing social systems. The book’s implications go far beyond “industrial” systems(though people interested in the dynamics of businesses won’t be disappointed). The principles presented in this book have subsequently been applied to understanding issues in all sorts of social systems: cities, the environment, epidemics, romantic … [ Read more ]

Content: Book | Author: Jay Wright Forrester | Subjects: Management, Miscellaneous

Profit is not the explanation, cause or rationale of business behavior and business decisions, but rather the test of their validity. If archangels instead of businessmen sat in director’s chairs, they would still have to be concerned with profitability, despite their lack of personal interest in profit.

Content: Quotation | Source: 800-CEO-READ (8CR) | Subject: Miscellaneous

Bus and train systems habitually run at a loss. But public-transit agencies could lower costs and raise the quality of service by emulating best practices from around the world.

Editor’s Note: there is no real management learning value in this article, but if, like me, you have ever used the public transportation facilites around the world, you might find it an interesting read just the same. … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Christoph Wolff, Daniel E. Powell, Martin Jörss | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Industry Specific, Miscellaneous | Industry: Transportation

Answers are a finite game played within boundaries, rules, and expectations. Questions are an infinite game; they play with the boundaries, they define them. Great leaders are called by great questions.

Content: Quotation | Source: Leader to Leader | Subjects: Leadership, Miscellaneous

The importance of leadership is a recurring theme within the business ethics literature, and top executives have been shown to have a great impact when it comes to establishing the ethical tone of an organization. However, if ethical leaders help to inspire ethical organizations, who will inspire those leaders? How can one develop business leaders for this new millennium who can embrace and demonstrate an … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Ken Peattie | Source: Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) | Subjects: Ethics, Miscellaneous