83 Posts found for Source: The Atlantic Monthly

The experience of being disastrously wrong is salutary. No economist should be denied it, and not many are.

Content: Quotation | Author: John Kenneth Galbraith | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

Technocratic management, no matter how brilliant, cannot unwind the structural inequalities that are dismantling the American middle class. To think that it can is to be insensible of the real harms that technocratic elites, at McKinsey and other management-consulting firms, have done to America. Such obliviousness may not be malevolent; but it is clueless.

Content: Quotation | Author: Daniel Markovits | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Economics, Industry Specific, Management | Industry: Consulting | Company: McKinsey & Company

Meritocrats … changed not just corporate strategies but also corporate values… Executives who rose up through these companies, on the mid-century model, were embedded in their firms and embraced these values, so that they might even have come to view profits as a salutary side effect of running their businesses well. When management consulting untethered executives from particular industries or firms and tied them instead … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Daniel Markovits | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Management

Because complex goods and services require much planning and coordination, management (even though it is only indirectly productive) adds a great deal of value. And managers as a class capture much of this value as pay. This makes the question of who gets to be a manager extremely consequential.

Content: Quotation | Author: Daniel Markovits | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Corporate Governance, Management

[Raymond] Loewy … believed that consumers are torn between two opposing forces: neophilia, a curiosity about new things; and neophobia, a fear of anything too new. As a result, they gravitate to products that are bold, but instantly comprehensible. Loewy called his grand theory “Most Advanced Yet Acceptable”—maya. He said to sell something surprising, make it familiar; and to sell something familiar, make it surprising. … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

The rot runs deeper than almost anyone has guessed.

Content: Article | Author: Daniel Engber | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: MBA Related

Technocratic management, no matter how brilliant, cannot unwind structural inequalities.

Content: Article | Author: Daniel Markovits | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics | Industry: Consulting | Company: McKinsey & Company

If you can rely on people to do what they say they’re going to do—without costly coercive mechanisms to make them dependable—a lot of things become possible.

Content: Quotation | Authors: Francis Fukuyama, Jerry Useem | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Economics, Organizational Behavior

Trust is to capitalism what alcohol is to wedding receptions: a social lubricant. In low-trust societies (Russia, southern Italy), economic growth is constrained.

Content: Quotation | Author: Jerry Useem | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

Virtually every commercial transaction has within itself an element of trust.

Content: Quotation | Author: Kenneth Arrow | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics, Marketing / Sales

When Raymond Loewy arrived in Manhattan, U.S. companies did not yet worship at the altars of style and elegance. That era’s capitalists were monotheistic: Efficiency was their only god. American factories—with their electricity, assembly lines, and scientifically calibrated workflow—produced an unprecedented supply of cheap goods by the 1920s, and it became clear that factories could make more than consumers naturally wanted. To sell more stuff, … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Customer Related, Marketing / Sales

Your job doesn’t have to represent the most prestigious use of your potential. It just needs to be rewarding.

Content: Article | Author: Arthur C. Brooks | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Career, Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Companies need a new kind of middle manager: the synchronizer.

Content: Article | Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior

Economists and policy makers are worried that the Vanguard model of passive investment is hurting markets.

Author: Annie Lowrey | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

Finding great new workers is hard. A little bit of empiricism can help.

Content: Article | Author: Derek Thompson | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Human Resources

Chances are, your coworkers are better at rating some parts of your personality than you are.

Content: Article | Author: Adam Grant | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Human Resources, Organizational Behavior, Personal Development

Whichever company’s vision wins out will shape the future of the economy.

Content: Article | Author: Mihir A. Desai | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Capitalism, Economics

In some jobs, being in touch with emotions is essential. In others, it seems to be a detriment. And like any skill, being able to read people can be used for good or evil.

Content: Article | Author: Adam Grant | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Organizational Behavior

Evidence shows that women are less self-assured than men—and that to succeed, confidence matters as much as competence. Here’s why, and what to do about it.

Content: Article | Authors: Claire Shipman, Katty Kay | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Career, Organizational Behavior, Women in Business

What happens when Big Data meets human resources? The emerging practice of “people analytics” is already transforming how employers hire, fire, and promote.

Content: Article | Author: Don Peck | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Human Resources