Morning Advantage: Sorry, Environment. Competition Wins Again.
HBR.org 2012-06-15
Although the Environmental Protection Agency is mandating states such as New York to test cars for high emission levels, the policy may be eroding the ethics of some dealerships and garages. According to research by Harvard Business School professor Michael Toffel and several colleagues covered by HBS Working Knowledge, testing centers are incentivized to pass cars with high emission levels. "The study shows that owners of vehicles that fail an emissions test are 11 percent less likely to return to that facility the following year, which implies that those same customers also are less likely to use that business for future repairs and routine service," according to Working Knowledge. So many garages are letting their ethics slide a bit for the sake of customer loyalty. To put it bluntly, it’s just more cost-effective. If a customer leaves for a second opinion, they won’t return in the future for more costly repairs. The problem is worse in areas of intense competition. One solution, the authors suggest, is for regulators to devote more attention to highly-competitive areas.
Microsoft's Emotional Advertising Engine (Ad Age)
Microsoft recently requested a patent for an advertising engine that combs our emails, online chats, and Google searches — but that’s not all. If the future holds, the company may use Kinect, its motion sensor for the Xbox gaming system, to take note of our gestures and expressions too. In turn, marketers could use the information to sell us products based on our moods — vacations to the happy, diet pills to the sad. Yes, that sounds like a sci-fi nightmare. Yet, advertising isn’t going anywhere. So maybe hitting me in my sweet spot isn’t as Orwellian as it sounds?
Smart People Are Dumb Too (New Yorker)
In a New Yorker blog post, Jonah Lehrer cites a new study suggesting smart people are more prone to decision biases than the rest of us. Why? Well, they tend to think they are less susceptible to the mind’s whims, even though they aren’t. Of course, as Lehrer notes, all of us have these blind spots. We’re good at seeing biases in others, but bad at detecting them in ourselves. Turns out, the problem is more pronounced in the smart set because they tend to over-analyze their own thought processes, which can blind them to the primal processes that drive their behavior. Sometimes it just doesn’t pay to be overly-introspective.
Advice for Adult Learners
Radio Interview: Gary Marcus on Learning New Things (BBC) The Multiplier Effect for Innovation Jobs (MIT Sloan Management Review) Prediction: Weak Growth for China for Years (Financial Times)