Low EQ = High Business Acumen?
Well I’m sure that this post will get me flamed but here’s going anyhow. Emotional intelligence is hot. It’s supposed to make you a better leader. How so? By making you more sensitive to your fellow man, it’s supposed to make your followers more engaged, more loyal to you and so on. The same with […]
Should behavioral economics include animals?
Behavioral economics is gradually winning over more converts. It’s now – justifiably – being applied to the most unlikely facets of human existence. So the natural (to me) question arises: should it be applied to animals too. I interpret animals broadly. Not just the warm-blooded ones we know and love like dogs, kittens, dolphins, elephants […]
Online Dating and M&A 2.0: Towards a New Kind of (Corporate) Loving?
I was just reading an article in the Wall Street Journal about people on dating sites using tiger photos to attract attention from potenotial squeezes. Some of these sites have some great techniques. It seems for example, that one site (Tinder), which is optimized for smartphone use, allows you to swipe right if you like […]
Business Acumen and the Bitcoin Bubble
The Guardian newspaper in the UK just published an article “Is Bitcoin about to change the world?”. When I see articles like that, it’s a big red flag; like appearing as Man or Woman of the Year on the cover page of Time magazine, which seems to always come before a fall The price of […]
The Emergence of Commissar Capitalism? – JP Morgan and the Settlement
We have all read that J.P Morgan has just agreed to pay $13 billion to the Feds for its transgressions during the financial crisis. I think that this is a just decision, otherwise I don’t think JP Morgan would have agreed to it. But there are some aspects of it which really worry me. For […]
Trump or Maxwell? Will Eike Batista Rise Again?
So I guess everyone knows about Eike Batista, the Brazilian who has, at least temporarily, fallen from grace. The big question: can he come back? I can think of two business personalities similar to Batista’s that we can view as possible models. One is Donald Trump (“the Donald”), the New York real-estate tycoon. The other […]
Are you confusing creativity and innovation?
OK this is one of my pet peeves; the frequent confusion between creativity and innovation. As in: “we are teaching people to be innovative by showing them how to brainstorm and create new ideas.” Sorry folks; that’s not innovation. Let me give you an example; when two people make love they can also make a baby. […]
The Twitter IPO – Can a Successful Leader Have Two Different Masters?
So the Next Big Thing is the Twitter IPO. It hits all the high notes. The creation of a new global elite, the Twitterati. Facebook-like dynamics. Creator of revolutions. Steve Jobs sounds-a-like. And Jack Dorsey is not only a bachelor; he’s a vegan to boot (dating a yoga instructor as well!). What’s not to like? […]
The Fed “Taper” – Never Let a Good Deed Go Unvarnished
The Fed has shown itself to be very innovative, with its various programs to try to grow the economy. But in inventing the taper I believe that they have surpassed the already high bar they set with QE3. I think that their innovative usage of the term “taper” has expanded the creative possibilities of literature, […]
Six Strategies to Prepare a CFO to become a Good CEO
Can a CFO move on to become a good CEO? Can a CFO even become a CEO? Often CFOs are seen as being too technical and narrow to take over the strategic and non-technical aspects of a CEO’s job. And, in fact, at least in the US, although some CFOs do become CEOs, they only […]