83 Posts found for Source: The Atlantic Monthly

But relationships that seem causal and permanent in one market era often vanish in the next, taking many “superior investment strategies” down with them. Today’s markets are also annoyingly efficient. The more studies that demonstrate that socially responsible stocks do better than regular stocks, the more investors will rush to buy them (and not just for “the greater good”). The resulting torrent of money flowing … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Finance, Social Responsibility (ESG) | Industry: Investing

By taking the conditions of supply and demand as given and declaring government intervention the ultimate evil, laissez-faire ideology has effectively banished income or wealth redistribution. I can agree that all attempts at redistribution interfere with the efficiency of the market, but it does not follow that no attempt should be made…Wealth does accumulate in the hands of its owners, and if there is no … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

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Magazine and journal articles are usually the best forum for bold and original arguments…most books…tend to have (at best) a kernel of an important idea, padded with superfluous case studies and second-rate reporting.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Learning

If it’s reminiscent of the kind of toothless wisdom offered in self-help literature, that’s because management theory is mostly a subgenre of self-help. Which isn’t to say it’s completely useless. But just as most people are able to lead fulfilling lives without consulting Deepak Chopra, most managers can probably spare themselves an education in management theory.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Management

The world of management theorists remains exempt from accountability. In my experience, for what it’s worth, consultants monitored the progress of former clients about as diligently as they checked up on ex-spouses (of which there were many). Unless there was some hope of renewing the relationship (or dating a sister company), it was Hasta la vista, baby. And why should they have cared? Consultants’ recommendations … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Consulting / Analytical Tools

Between them, Taylor and Mayo carved up the world of management theory. According to my scientific sampling, you can save yourself from reading about 99 percent of all the management literature once you master this dialectic between rationalists and humanists. The Taylorite rationalist says: Be efficient! The Mayo-ist humanist replies: Hey, these are people we’re talking about! And the debate goes on. Ultimately, it’s just … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Management

The best business schools will tell you that management education is mainly about building skills–one of the most important of which is the ability to think (or what the M.B.A.s call “problem solving”). But do they manage to teach such skills?

What they don’t seem to teach you in business school is that “the five forces” and “the seven Cs” and every other generic framework … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: MBA Related

All of business is about values, all of the time. Notwithstanding the ostentatious use of stopwatches, Taylor’s pig iron case was not a description of some aspect of physical reality–how many tons can a worker lift? It was a prescription–how many tons should a worker lift? The real issue at stake in Mayo’s telephone factory was not factual–how can we best establish a sense of … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Management, Values

It has always been imagined, especially by conservatives, that to associate all, or a large part, of economic activity with the state is to endanger freedom…

The greater danger is in the subordination of belief to the needs of the modern industrial system. As this persuades us on the goods we buy, and as it persuades us on the public policies that are necessary for its … [ Read more ]

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

When societies aren’t organized so that the old vested interests can be brushed aside, entrepreneurs cannot emerge. Social systems have to be built in which entrepreneurs have the freedom to destroy the old. Yet destroying the old can too easily be seen as a step into chaos. Societies that aren’t ready to break with the past aren’t willing to let entrepreneurs come into existence.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Economics, Entrepreneurship

Great creativity requires hard facts, wild imagination, and nonlogical jumps forward that are then proved to be right by working backward to known principles. Only the rebellious can do it.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Creativity, Innovation

The modern capitalist is a fair-weather sailor. As soon as a storm rises, he abandons the duties of navigation and even sinks the boats which might carry him to safety by his haste to push his neighbor off and himself in.

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

The two questions most asked about an economic system are whether it serves man’s physical needs and whether it is consistent with his liberty and general happiness.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Economics

New regulations could, and probably should, force companies to give shareholders more power over managers. But today’s shareholders, individual and institutional alike, rarely exercise the rights they already have. Often, when managers let owners down and confidence in capitalism falters, investors are at least partly to blame. Even if they are not cheering the managers on to greater feats of daring, they are failing to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Corporate Governance

To judge by the example of Canada, which began an experiment in free trade with the United States in 1989, the proposed U.S. free-trade agreement with Mexico is a threat to the social comity on which prosperity depends.

Editor’s Note: this was written back in 1992 but the analysis it provides is really interesting and of long-lasting value when evaluating free trade concepts (thanks to … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Jonathan Schlefer | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Economics, Trade

A new survey seeks to get behind the well-publicized-and much criticized-college rankings and measure schools by how good a job they do of actually educating their students.

Editor’s Note: not specifically about MBA programs but the analysis is equally applicable…

Content: Prospective MBA Content | Author: Nicholas Confessore | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subject: Choosing a Program

Law school worships understanding, business school worships skill. Law-school students scrutinize what has been done. If business-school students don’t quite learn by doing, they learn how things have been done.

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Education, MBA Related

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The fact that the New Economy is real, however, doesn’t mean that we’ve understood it. In explaining our success in the nineties to ourselves and the world we have largely drawn on a set of myths that desperately need debunking: that deficit reduction by itself led to the economic recovery of the 1990s; that the brilliance of our economic leaders created our newfound prosperity; that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Source: The Atlantic Monthly | Subjects: Economics, International