Topics
Business & Economics
Business Sustainability
SAP presents a series on Business Sustainability, featuring the views of many of today's top business leaders and thinkers on how companies can survive and thrive in the current economy.
Part 1 of 25
Professor of Management, Harvard Business School
The face of hiring is changing in light of the economic crisis. Harvard management professor Bill George weighs in on how a company should approach measuring emotional intelligence.
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Efficient Market Hypothesis: The Meltdown’s Biggest Casualty
The takeaway of the crisis: individual players pursuing individual interests collectively will not always create an outcome which is good for the collective or even for those individual players, says Chrystia Freeland, U.S. Managing Editor of the Financial Times. Watch
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Contrary to popular belief, Andrew Ross Sorkin thinks TV coverage of the financial meltdown stood up quite well. Watch
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There’s a reason why economies have based their currencies on something tangible since at least the Roman Empire. As John Allison explains, if we don’t do the same, high government debt and the threat of stagflation will never go away. Watch
Related Blogs
The Voice of Big Think
February 8, 2010 — 1:32 AM
Why Donating Is More Popular Than Voting
These are, to say the least, intimidating times for non-profits. With the coffers of even the wealthiest companies and individuals under such pressure, efforts to find a donor can seem fanciful and futile. Luckily, as today’s guest and president of the Lincoln Center Rey Levy makes clear, such fear is unjustified. Even when money is scarce, the prospects for donors are still ripe, as giving has shifted to the most legitimate form of active citizenship in America today, with more people donating to charities and non-profits each year than vote. Read more
Resurgence
February 7, 2010 — 11:54 PM
Can A Retired Alan Greenspan Still Produce A "Greenspan Effect"?
Alan Greenspan issued his own verdict about the American economy earlier today when he appeared on Meet The Press with former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. When Meet The Press host David Gregory asked Greenspan about the country’s economic prospects in the near future, Greenspan said the recession "is essentially over." Read more
Latest Ideas
Why Donating Is More Popular Than Voting
These are, to say the least, intimidating times for non-profits. With the coffers of even the wealthiest companies and individuals under such pressure, efforts to find a donor can seem fanciful and futile. Luckily, as today’s guest and president of the Lincoln Center Rey Levy makes clear, such fear is unjustified. Even when money is scarce, the prospects for donors are still ripe, as giving has shifted to the most legitimate form of active citizenship in America today, with more people donating to charities and non-profits each year than vote. Read More
February 8, 2010
Google News: Rise of the Aggregator
Since its beta launch in 2002, the Google News aggregator has become one of its company's most successful innovations. In the process, and perhaps inadvertently, it started making headlines of its own. Most famously, NewsCorp's Rupert Murdoch complained that Google is just plain stealing his content and threatened last November to make it invisible to their search crawlers. Others, too, have accused Google of violating its motto, "Don't be evil" (and not just in the news domain, either). In his Big Think interview this week, Josh Cohen, Senior Business Product Manager for Google News, responds. Read More
February 6, 2010
Why Two Heads are (Sometimes) Better than One
It started with an ox. New Yorker staff writer James Surowiecki tells the old story involving the British scientist, Francis Galton, who assembled a diverse group of people to guess the weight of an ox. Turned out the group's average was on target. It's a testament to the wisdom of a crowd, right? But are crowds always wiser than individuals? Surowiecki explains. Read More
February 5, 2010
When it comes to investment advice, should you ignore everyone and think for yourself? Read More
February 4, 2010
The Crowd Didn’t Call the Crisis
The systemic problems on Wall Street skewed the collective judgments of the market in the last decade. Read More
February 4, 2010
The Importance of Loose Connections
James Surowiecki gives tips on how to use the Internet to stay competitive without a job. Read More
February 4, 2010
What makes some crowds smarter than others? Hint: you don’t always want people who fit the mold. Read More
February 4, 2010
Big Think Interview with James Surowiecki
A conversation with the author of "The Wisdom of Crowds'' and the business columnist for The New Yorker. Read More
February 4, 2010
There’s a reason why the subtle trivialities of office life have long been a springboard for some of our most absurd humor: much of our day-to-day duties are arbitrary, unnecessary, yet seem to linger on in almost every profession. As today’s guest and co-founder of 37signals, Jason Fried, explains, we may have finally reached a point where we have the tools and incentives to actually move past the stifling pettiness of cubicle-culture and develop work spaces that are not only more human but also produce results. Read More
February 3, 2010
Have a Big Idea, Break it in Half
What good is Wi-Fi on a plane that’s always two hours late? Or a lavishly decorated room with an uncomfortable bed? As Jason Fried explains, many of us pay a price for enacting too ambitious of an idea without focusing on the essentials first. Read More
February 3, 2010
Daily Ideafeed
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Connecticut
Deadly Explosion -
A massive gas explosion ripped through a Connecticut-based power plant yesterday morning as workers cleaned a piping system, killing at least five and injuring many more.
February 8, 2010
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Unemployment
9.7% -
The unemployment level unexpectedly dropped to below ten percent when new employment figures were released yesterday signalling a slow but steady recovery in the labor market.
February 6, 2010
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Greek Debt
€uro in Trouble? -
The European Union is worried that mounting Greek debt will be perceived as insecure, detracting investors and threatening the value of the Euro as a whole.
February 6, 2010
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Toyota
Auto Stalled -
The Washington Post's Eugene Robinson describes car manufacturer Toyota's recent fall from grace and why its craftmanship has suffered in the face of expansion.
February 5, 2010
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Giacometti
Master Price! -
Alberto Giacometti’s “Walking Man 1” sculpture has smashed global auction records by selling for the equivalent of $104.4m at Sotheby’s auction house in London last night.
February 4, 2010
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Economic Patient
World Convalescence -
The Financial Times' columnist Martin Wolf writes that this year’s World Economic Forum at Davos was like sitting at the bedside of someone who had survived a heart attack.
February 3, 2010
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CIA Operatives
Banking Spies -
Two of the most reviled professions, spies and bankers, have joined forces to create an even scarier beast as Wall Street firms begin hiring CIA agents to root out lying colleagues.
February 3, 2010
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Wealth Balance
Feng Shui Will -
The dispute over the will of one of Asia’s wealthiest women, Nina Wang, was found in favor of her family’s charitable foundation despite her feng shui expert lover claiming a stake.
February 3, 2010
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Plans Scrapped
No Moon Feat -
President Barack Obama has scrapped US plans to return astronauts to the moon. The plan forms part of a cost saving initiative designed to reduce the country’s fiscal deficit.
February 2, 2010
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Deficit
Budget Cuts -
President Barack Obama will propose a $3.8tr budget for fiscal 2011 that foresees the deficit hitting a record $1.6tr in the current fiscal year but falling by about 4% by 2013.
February 1, 2010
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GDP Growth
Big Boost -
Consumers and manufacturers helped the GDP grow nearly six percent last quarter, the highest growth rate in as many years.
January 30, 2010
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Gun Lovers
Hunting, Shooting -
Gun lovers converged on the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas for the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show to check out the highest tech offerings.
January 29, 2010
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Washington
US Corruption? -
How can America’s banks be regulated properly if the Senate is owned by Wall Street? asks The Independent writer Johann Hair, who fears corruption is “smothering America’s future.”
January 29, 2010
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Davos
Double Dip, Up Ahead! -
Delegates at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland are predicting that the global economic recovery could lose pace later this year as heavy debts weigh on the beleaguered.
January 28, 2010
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Apple iPad
“Fatal Attraction” -
While enthusiasts will claim a fatal attraction to Apple’s new touch screen tablet “iPad”, critics have warned that the Wi-Fi and 3G device will suffer for its exclusivity to the AT&T network.
January 28, 2010
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Unexpected
“Volcker Rule” -
The Financial Times columnist John Gapper welcomes what has been termed “Volcker rule” as Obama’s “tall guy” provokes angst on Wall Street and in Washington.
January 28, 2010
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Air NZ
Bedding Down -
Air New Zealand is offering what it calls “the first major improvement in economy class travel in 20 years”: the provision of beds in coach class flights.
January 26, 2010
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Bernanke Fears
Double Dip? -
A defeat of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s quest for another four-year term could raise the risk of a “double dip” recession, economists have warned.
January 25, 2010
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Banking Regulation
Risky Business -
President Obama’s new plan to stop big banks from taking big risks could be circumvented in dangerous ways having perverse effects on risk-taking says Bloomberg.com.
January 24, 2010
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Banking Regulation
Ironic Markets -
Stock markets around the world have fallen after President Obama’s plan to reform the American financial industry received broad support from other world leaders.
January 23, 2010
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Hush Money?
Gag Order -
Former “The Tonight Show” host Conan O’Brien has been given a whopping $45 million settlement to walk away “gracefully” from NBC which means keeping his mouth firmly shut.
January 22, 2010
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Cautious Backing
“Bank Curbs” -
The world’s markets are reeling after French and British politicians have offered cautious backing to a recommendation by President Barack Obama to curb banks’ size and risk-taking.
January 22, 2010
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New Shape?
Box of Apple -
Apple’s much awaited tablet device aims to reshape businesses like textbooks, newspapers and television in the same way that the iPod revolutionised the music industry.
January 21, 2010
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Auto Airspace
Ford in Space? -
Car maker Ford has got together with United Space Alliance to take tips from the gaming industries and movement simulation software to make better cars and spaceships.
January 21, 2010
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Grande Coffee
Starbucks Grows -
Coffee giant Starbucks has posted its first quarterly financial growth for its US arm in two years giving rise to suspicions that recession-weary consumers are beginning to spend again.
January 21, 2010