Forget college and change the world?
PayPal founder Peter Thiel thinks he has found a new way to change the world. A recent article describes how his foundation has created $100,000 grants for young superstars to put their college plans on hold, and under the direction of a mentor, work on really difficult problems that require scientific and technical innovation. It's another interesting example of how entrepreneurs give back, and how private money can be used to try to solve major social problems.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 30, 2011
More women in top management = more success as a company
Experts and observers have long argued that there is a benefit to firms of having more women in senior decision-making roles. The reasons are many, including the importance of diversity, the fact that senior women more readily represent female customers (the majority of buyers in many industries), and a general openness to talent. Some new research done at Columbia finds that companies with women in the top team do enjoy a performance benefit. Interestingly, this doesn't apply to firms that have a female CEO (rare though they are). Worth a look.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 26, 2011
Does doing good mean doing well? Research from colleague Ray FIsman
In a recent piece in Columbia Ideas at Work, my colleague Ray Fisman summarizes some research he has done on whether promising to donate a portion of one's proceeds to charity means more profits for eBay sellers.
Among their findings:
Turns out — based on our eBay evidence — the champions of corporate philanthropy have gotten the story at least half right. Take a Giving Works item advertising that 10 percent of proceeds will be given to charity. It’s nearly 20 percent more likely to sell than its noncharity twin at a price that’s about 2 percent higher. (Items where 100 percent is donated to charity — hardly a sustainable business strategy — are nearly 50 percent more likely to sell and result in sales prices that are 6 percent higher).
They also found that sellers new to eBay benefitted more than experienced sellers. He hypothesizes that this is due to the signal of trustworthiness sent by being engaged with charity.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 26, 2011
Strategic Innovation Does Not Equal Dollars Spent
My colleague Gray Hammond sent along this interesting coverage of innovative companies, and I thought it might be of interest to my readers as well.
Booz & Company’s latest annual study of global innovation, The 2010 Innovation 1000: How the Top Innovators Keep Winning, surveyed more than 400 executives at companies worldwide to find out the characteristics of the most innovative firms. Here are the top 10 most innovative companies:
- Apple
- 3M
- GE
- Toyota
- Microsoft
- Procter & Gamble
- IBM
- Samsung
- Intel
Reporting on the study in Forbes, study co-author Barry Jaruzelski shared some of the findings. One finding that might surprise you: Money does not equal innovation. Seven of the top 10 innovators were not in the top 10 spenders on innovation. In fact, many companies identified as top innovators spent well below the average for their industries on R&D.
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 09, 2011
An Internet Kissing Machine? Oh brother, what’s next. Wait, Maybe I Don’t Want to Know…
Believe it or not, reports have surfaced that a group of Japanese researchers are hard at work on an Internet Kissing Machine. Yes, apparently, two people equipped with the devices can exchange more than just emails if they happen to be separated. And I've evidently been hiding under a rock somewhere, because this is proclaimed to be the latest in whole industry of such devices, under the umbrella name teledildonics, which is code word for cyber sex toys. This could be rather awkward if those companies decide to pursue an advertising model...
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- Posted Rita McGrath on May 04, 2011
recent entries
- Why just being young is not a reason to doubt Facebook
- Why advertisements need to get a whole lot better before they will support social media
- Bing, Social Search and the beginning of the App Economy
- In case you missed it, Rita McGrath’s interview about Mark Zuckerberg
- Rita McGrath will be part of the New York Times Business Live on May 11 (tomorrow!) at 10:00am
