Morning Advantage: Take My CFO, Please
HBR.org 2012-08-07
At first blush, it sounds like something straight out of the mind of Scott Adams, but John McCallum's guide to management one-liners in the Ivey Business Journal has its sincere merits. McCallum mines the cannon of executive aphorisms from the likes of Stephen Covey and Warren Buffett — but also Socrates, physicist Lord Kelvin, and Donald Rumsfeld — for those pithy phrases that really do capture the essence of common situations. Among the crisp turns of phrase McCallum recommends you master: Covey's “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing," William James's "The art of being wise is knowing what to overlook," and Buffett’s “There is never just one cockroach in the kitchen.” Yes, there's a fair dose of cliché among the 15 one-liners recommended (and elucidated) here, but never underestimate the stickiness of the right piece of pith at just the right time.
HE LIKES ME, HE REALLY LIKES ME
The Far Reach of Supportive Senior Managers (Strategy+Business)
Managers at different levels of a company affect their employees’ morale in different ways, finds a recently published study by three George Washington University researchers. In fact, note Strategy+Business editors in this research brief, "employees’ motivation and retention are more influenced by supportive executives in senior leadership positions than by a similar-minded immediate boss, confirming the trickle-down effects of visionary and compassionate leaders and the immense value of CEOs who have star power." Take note, leaders.
Can a Newspaper Really Make It Without Print? (The Guardian)
"There's a predictable buzz of futurology," writes Peter Preston, as the Financial Times announces that its digital subscription circulation has passed its print sales for the first time. "How long will it be before pink paper and pounding presses are mere memories," he asks? With subscriptions swelling, "the FT looks far better placed for such online transition, a digital trailblazer by choice rather than force of circumstance." But is the end of the print edition really nigh? Preston has his doubts: cloudy online economics and the power of print in marketing make a digital-only future still seem somewhat suspect in the near term.
Dining and Wining
Does Chick-fil-A Controversy Risk Turning Off Young Employees? (Washington Post) How To Lose $440m in the Time it Takes To Eat Lunch (The Telegraph) The 'Uncorking' Of South American Companies (Bain Insights/Forbes)