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Be the Hero by Noah Blumenthal

Be the Hero
By Noah Blumenthal
Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2009

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“Perception is reality” comes to mind when reading this book. Perception is a powerful influencer of how we see others, situations, and ourselves.

Author Noah Blumenthal uses a parable of an average guy who is struggling with purpose in his life, to guide the reader on a path of revelation and understanding of how we can use our own perception to paint ourselves and others as victims, villains, or heroes. He shows how perception is something that we can control and therefore, we influence the outcomes of how we interact with others. Blumenthal also offers insight into how to deal with our own demons.

The book is a short 137 pages, of which the first 120 tells the story and the remainder provides a resource guide. This little book is full of insights into how people perceive others, situations and themselves. It contends that we view each of these to paint others and ourselves as a victim, villain, or hero. In almost every instance, though, we have the choice on which one will apply.

The main characters in the book include Jeff, a generally good guy that is struggling in his work and home life and Martin, an old high school friend and management coach. They spend a few days together in which they have several discussions over lunch, about how people tell themselves stories regarding other people, situations and themselves. Martin guides Jeff to alternative views of the situations, his boss, and himself that lead to a better relationship—not by changing the situation, but by changing how Jeff chooses to look at it. Martin uses examples from his life and some “heroes” that he has met along the way to help Jeff understand how people create and control their reality to the benefit of a more fulfilling life.

The heroes in life see and deal with things with an attitude that helps them overcome adversity and enjoy the gifts of life. A wise man once told me that attitude is one of the few things we can control in life. This book provides a model of how to recognize that and, more importantly, how to do something about it.

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2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money: Interview with social entrepreneur Mark Albion
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editor’s Note: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• In Memory of Robert Hockenberg
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editor’s Note
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Alternative Dispute Resolution

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value
• New: GBR Blog Videos

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• IT Matters
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• The IT Governance Road Map
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• The Practical Nuances of Leadership
• Editor’s Note
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note – Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny? – Graziadio Business Review
• Conversation on Leadership with Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner
• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• The Twin Deficits
• GBR Conversation with Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired
• Editorial – Don’t Panic!
• Seek and You Might Find
• GBR Conversation with Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• E-Business at the Graziadio Business Review
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial – Onward and Upward?
• IT Matters: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Do Not Call!*
• Improving R and D Performance Teamwork trumps solo endeavors
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Shock and Awe
• IT Matters: Webhosting
• Conversation with Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Lacy Edwards of Evoke Software
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT Matters: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• GBR CONVERSATION With John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• GBR Conversation With Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• GBR Conversation with Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• GBR Conversation with Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• GBR Conversation Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• GBR Conversation Dr. Clyde Oden Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• GBR Conversation with Boyd Clarke
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting – Graziadio Business Review
• GBR Conversation with senior economist
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• GBR Conversation with Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• GBR Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• GBR Conversation with Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?
• T.I.P.S.

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets – Graziadio Business Review
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume I, Issue 4
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• A conversation with Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• A conversation with Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• A conversation with George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merrill

The Speed of Trust

By Stephen M.R. Covey with Rebecca R. Merrill
Free Press, 2006

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Ordinarily I am not a fan of the offspring of famous people writing a book, but Covey has forged his own way in the business world and has written a book that covers the most important thing anyone or any organization can possess— trust. If you don’t have this as a foundation, you have nothing, as many of our “leading” companies and governments have discovered. Lose trust and you can lose all. The good element of the book lies with Covey’s optimism that you can recover trust.

This is not a “feel good” book or a manuscript on morals (although that is covered), but mainly an exploration of the things that make us who we are in others’ eyes, which ultimately helps us look into our own beings.  While a lot of this book is about business, it also covers personal relationships. I found myself reflecting on my own as I read through. Covey talks to two main characteristics about people—character and competence. He likens these to a tree with four core characteristics: the roots, which you can’t see, represent integrity; more visible is the trunk—intent—that emerges from the roots; the branches are capability, which you develop over time; and the leaves are results. It is easy to understand these and Covey takes a long time to develop them. While there are many books on each of these subjects, this book puts them together.

The actions that impact trust are covered in the section “Thirteen Behaviors.” These seem pretty basic but, once again, Covey covers them comprehensively and in context. Such behaviors as “Talk Straight,” “Right Wrongs,” and “Practice Accountability” ring true. He cites examples of people who demonstrate these behaviors as well as giving examples of what a bad behavior might look like.

Around these behaviors are what Covey describes as “waves of trust”—meaning the effect of what you do can ripple from a personal to a societal level. So, through some “simple” concepts, Covey weaves a book that can help you assess both yourself and your organization, and offers some concrete how-to’s on becoming the trusted person or organization you want to be.

See more reviews

2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money: Interview with social entrepreneur Mark Albion
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editor’s Note: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• In Memory of Robert Hockenberg
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editor’s Note
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Alternative Dispute Resolution

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value
• New: GBR Blog Videos

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• IT Matters
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• The IT Governance Road Map
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• The Practical Nuances of Leadership
• Editor’s Note
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note – Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny? – Graziadio Business Review
• Conversation on Leadership with Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner
• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• The Twin Deficits
• GBR Conversation with Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired
• Editorial – Don’t Panic!
• Seek and You Might Find
• GBR Conversation with Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• E-Business at the Graziadio Business Review
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial – Onward and Upward?
• IT Matters: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Do Not Call!*
• Improving R and D Performance Teamwork trumps solo endeavors
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Shock and Awe
• IT Matters: Webhosting
• Conversation with Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Lacy Edwards of Evoke Software
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT Matters: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• GBR CONVERSATION With John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• GBR Conversation With Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• GBR Conversation with Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• GBR Conversation with Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• GBR Conversation Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• GBR Conversation Dr. Clyde Oden Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• GBR Conversation with Boyd Clarke
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting – Graziadio Business Review
• GBR Conversation with senior economist
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• GBR Conversation with Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• GBR Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• GBR Conversation with Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?
• T.I.P.S.

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets – Graziadio Business Review
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume I, Issue 4
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• A conversation with Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• A conversation with Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• A conversation with George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success by Karl Albrecht

Social Intelligence: The New Science of Success

By Karl Albrecht
Jossey-Bass, 2006

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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In a 2006 national survey, 1,000 employers ranked “interpersonal skills” and “communication skills” first and second in a list of mandatory qualities they sought in new hires. Although lumped as “people skills” in common parlance, the author, consultant Karl Albrecht, asserts that what employers are really seeking is something more nuanced and multi-dimensional: “social intelligence.” To Albrecht, it is a single element of the six-sided model of intelligence crafted in 1980 by professor Howard Gardner and coined ASPEAK, for abstract (IQ), social, practical, emotional, aesthetic, and kinesthetic. Gardener’s research formed the foundation for Daniel Goleman’s breakthrough 1995 bestseller, Emotional Intelligence and his subsequent 2006 volume, published a few weeks after this one by Albrecht and also titled Social Intelligence.

In Albrecht’s version of social intelligence, these innate abilities can be measured using five dimensions of assessment, in yet another acronym—SPACE: Situational Awareness; Presence; Authenticity; Clarity; and Empathy.

Albrecht supplies short self-assessment quizzes to measure one’s aptitude in each aspect of “SPACE”—tools that could be readily adapted for use in workshops or the classroom. In a bonus for Career Resource staff or Organizational Development faculty, there’s a multiple-choice assessment section on social interaction style preferences. Based on Jung’s familiar four-part model—Driver, Energizer, Diplomat, or Loner, it could be a very useful guide for teaching students to augment their natural strengths with techniques that mitigate opposing weaknesses. The final third of the book deals with adapting various style preferences in the workplace.

In sum, Albrecht’s Social Intelligence is a simple-to-read, yet thought-provoking response to Daniel Goleman’s 1995 bestseller, Emotional Intelligence, which emphasized intrapersonal skills as the critical key to societal success. Instead, it is inter-personal skills, or “social intelligence,” that is more crucial than either IQ or emotional mastery in fueling success at work in the 21st century. I’d give the book three stars. It’s interesting and valuable, but not something that belongs on everybody’s bookshelf. For people in HR, it should be rated a four.

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2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money: Interview with social entrepreneur Mark Albion
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editor’s Note: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• In Memory of Robert Hockenberg
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editor’s Note
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Alternative Dispute Resolution

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value
• New: GBR Blog Videos

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• IT Matters
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• The IT Governance Road Map
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• The Practical Nuances of Leadership
• Editor’s Note
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note – Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny? – Graziadio Business Review
• Conversation on Leadership with Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner
• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• The Twin Deficits
• GBR Conversation with Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired
• Editorial – Don’t Panic!
• Seek and You Might Find
• GBR Conversation with Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• E-Business at the Graziadio Business Review
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial – Onward and Upward?
• IT Matters: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Do Not Call!*
• Improving R and D Performance Teamwork trumps solo endeavors
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Shock and Awe
• IT Matters: Webhosting
• Conversation with Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Lacy Edwards of Evoke Software
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT Matters: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• GBR CONVERSATION With John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• GBR Conversation With Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• GBR Conversation with Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• GBR Conversation with Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• GBR Conversation Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• GBR Conversation Dr. Clyde Oden Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• GBR Conversation with Boyd Clarke
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting – Graziadio Business Review
• GBR Conversation with senior economist
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• GBR Conversation with Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• GBR Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• GBR Conversation with Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?
• T.I.P.S.

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets – Graziadio Business Review
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume I, Issue 4
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• A conversation with Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• A conversation with Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• A conversation with George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life by Alice Schroeder

The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life

By Alice Schroeder
Bantam, 2008

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I confess to having read The Snowball twice since its release in September 2008, prior to offering to review the book for GBR. This 836-page biography traces the life and career of arguably the most interesting businessman since the captains of industry during the Gilded Age. The author, who was an insurance analyst for Morgan Stanley, became Buffett’s biographer upon his invitation. Buffett provided her an extraordinary level of access to his archives, as well as over 2,000 hours of interviews with him and numerous friends, relatives, and associates. The result is a fascinatingly comprehensive story of how a stockbroker and subsequent U.S. senator’s son reached the pinnacle of accomplishment in the financial and business leadership spheres. The irony of this man is the simple, informal nature that underlies all he is and does. The book aptly illustrates that Buffett as a child displayed three prodigious traits that foretold his potential. Young Buffett loved to collect things, he loved to tally and keep an accounting of these things, and he had a towering capacity for learning and retaining knowledge. The biography follows a loose chronology weaving together the subject’s well documented business deals and associations, personal friendships, and family life. Typically an investment banking analyst with a background as a CPA and project manager at FASB might not be expected to craft a rich, complexly layered, and free-flowing work; but that is exactly what Schroeder does. She allows the reader to freely observe, without being noticed, an anthology of prominent people and business events. Far from being a heavily structured timeline, The Snowball reads like a series of interrelated anecdotes.

It is a very highly decorated book. It debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times and Publishers Weekly lists of nonfiction best-sellers. Time Magazine named The Snowball one of the 10 best books of the year. Other best-of-the-year lists on which The Snowball appeared were Publishers Weekly, The Financial Times, Business Week, USA Today, and The Washington Post. The book was selected a Top 100 Editor’s Pick and one of the five best biographies of the year by Amazon.com editors.

While many books about Buffett have simply focused on him as a businessman or investor, Schroeder has created a comprehensive narrative of this extraordinary life.  Therefore, those who seek a management guide or investing manual are surely to be perplexed by the numerous personal insights. However for the reader who enjoys biographies, history, and business, this panoramic view of an iconic life could not be more entertaining.

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2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money: Interview with social entrepreneur Mark Albion
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editor’s Note: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• In Memory of Robert Hockenberg
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editor’s Note
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Alternative Dispute Resolution

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value
• New: GBR Blog Videos

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• IT Matters
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• The IT Governance Road Map
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• The Practical Nuances of Leadership
• Editor’s Note
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note – Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny? – Graziadio Business Review
• Conversation on Leadership with Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner
• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• The Twin Deficits
• GBR Conversation with Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired
• Editorial – Don’t Panic!
• Seek and You Might Find
• GBR Conversation with Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• E-Business at the Graziadio Business Review
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial – Onward and Upward?
• IT Matters: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Do Not Call!*
• Improving R and D Performance Teamwork trumps solo endeavors
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Shock and Awe
• IT Matters: Webhosting
• Conversation with Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Lacy Edwards of Evoke Software
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT Matters: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• GBR CONVERSATION With John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• GBR Conversation With Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• GBR Conversation with Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• GBR Conversation with Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• GBR Conversation Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• GBR Conversation Dr. Clyde Oden Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• GBR Conversation with Boyd Clarke
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting – Graziadio Business Review
• GBR Conversation with senior economist
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• GBR Conversation with Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• GBR Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• GBR Conversation with Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?
• T.I.P.S.

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets – Graziadio Business Review
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume I, Issue 4
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• A conversation with Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• A conversation with Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• A conversation with George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

Roadmaps and Revelations by Paul R. Niven

Roadmaps and Revelations
By Paul R. Niven
Wiley, 2009

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There are tens of thousands of books available on the subject of strategy.  Over 110,000 are available on Amazon.com alone. Books by authors including Norton, Kaplan and Porter are a staple in many MBA strategy courses.

So how does Paul R. Niven, a strategy consultant, hope to stand out in a sea of established works? His attempt is “a business fable.” Niven’s three previous works on balanced scorecards are basically how-to books. Roadmaps and Revelations is a story of a road trip that takes many metaphorical turns.

The book is a quick read at 215 pages. The first 184 are the fable and the remaining 21 pages are a summary of Niven’s approach to strategic planning.

The main characters in the book include Rory Newman, Director of Planning for a privately held company, and Sydney Wise, a serial entrepreneur and strategy guru. The two are thrown together through a series of circumstances that results in a road trip down California’s Pacific Coast Highway from Napa Valley to San Diego. An acquisition of the privately held company puts Rory on the spot to develop a strategic plan for the company in a few days. He stresses about how he might approach this and then fate delivers Sydney. What ensues is a two-day road trip with a number of experiences and conversations that help Rory develop his strategic “story.” As quickly as Sydney enters Rory’s life, he disappears again, making an emergency departure at LAX. The fable, like PCH, has many twists and turns. Many of these are contrived experiences to make the author’s point on strategic development. Some, however, are just distracting.

The author’s message is clear:

• Many companies take a poor approach to developing strategies.
• A clear mission is at the center of a solid strategic planning process.
• Strategy development does not have to be an overly complex process.

Niven weaves his 10-step process of strategy development and implementation into the fable. Or if you just want to get to the point, you can simply fast forward to page 185 and read the “Process and Model Summary.” The author also promotes his Web site and consulting practice at the end.

This book is not for everyone. If you learn better by reading stories, this book will be helpful in underscoring the lessons you picked up at business school. If you learn better by having real fact-based examples of strategic planning or a reference manual, there are other books you should read.

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2011 Volume 14 Issue 4

• Editor’s Note
• Financial Swiss Army Knife: A User-Friendly Tool for Facilitating Financial Analysis and Due Diligence
• Achieving Enterprise Stability Based on Economic Capital
• The Internet and Globalization: Ten Tips to Building an Effective Digital Strategy for Global Success
• Learn to Expect the Unexpected in Global Retail Expansion
• VIDEO: Stop the Madness: A Recipe to Jump-Start the Global Economy
• The Book Corner
• Video Library
• Dean’s Executive Leadership Series

2011 Volume 14 Issue 3

• Editor’s Note
• Labor Pains: The Recovery of the U.S. Labor Market is about to be Pushed Back
• Creating Advocates: A Values-Oriented Approach to Developing Brand Loyalty
• Leveraging Action Learning as a Talent Management Strategy during Economic Uncertainty
• Protecting Descriptive Brands in Trademark and Trade Dress Law:
• VIDEO: Transforming the Relationship between Business and IT Executives
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 2

• Editor’s Note: Finding Distinctiveness
• Secondary Meaning in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Financial Elements of Business Resilience
• Positive Organizational Scholarship and Practice: A Dynamic Duo
• VIDEO: Currency Wars, a Faculty Panel
• The Book Corner

2011 Volume 14 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note
• A Consequence Analysis that Needs to be Shared
• Family Business Succession
• The Quest for Distinctiveness in Trademark and Trade Dress Law
• Self-Organizing Conversation as an Invitation to Serendipity
• The ABC’s of Effective Feedback
• “Spiritual Capital and Virtuous Business Leadership” with Yale’s Ted Malloch
• “The Role of the CIO” with Harvey Koeppel
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 4

• Attn: The Corner Office – Why U.S. Firms Should Pay Special Dividends Before Year-End 2010
• The Charisma of Twitter
• Lessons from the New Dodd-Frank Financial Regulatory Reform Law
• The Changing Role of the Residential Real Estate Broker
• 2010 Student Paper Winner: Using Social Media to Grow Your Business
• Editor’s Note: New Look, New Name, Still Great Content
• What to Do when Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail – Revisited
• Great Leaders are Great Decision-Makers
• The Four Levels of Innovation
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 3

• The Spoiled American
• Choosing Your Negotiation Site
• Editorial: Systems Thinking
• Improvisation as a Way of Dealing with Ambiguity and Complexity
• Economic Recovery Gaining Traction
• The Book Corner
• City National Bank’s Robert Iritani Discusses the Future of Financial Management
• An Interview with Clean Tech Start-up Advisor Susanna Kass
• Servanthood Leadership

2010 Volume 13 Issue 2

• Carl Schramm Talks Expeditionary Economics
• Highly Effective Technical Personnel Strategies
• Real Options: The Value Added through Optimal Decision Making
• 10 Lessons for Entrepreneurs
• Utilizing Business Service Management Concepts to Improve Healthcare Information Services
• Editor’s Note
• Strategies for Leading through Times of Change
• Editorial: Will commercial real estate will follow in the footsteps of the residential property market?
• The Book Corner

2010 Volume 13 Issue 1

• Six Steps for Confronting the Emerging Leadership Succession Crisis
• Interview with Robert Eckert, Chairman of the Board and CEO of Mattel, Incorporated
• Political Connections: The Missing Dimension in Leadership
• How Coach, H-P, Zara, and Ford Profited from a Comprehensive Application of Market Orientation
• Three Ways Larger Monitors Can Improve Productivity
• The Role of Finance in the Strategic-Planning and Decision-Making Process
• Editorial: Is Robotics America’s Ticket to Continued Global Competitiveness?
• The Power of Collective Wisdom and the Trap of Collective Folly By Alan Briskin, Sheryl Erickson, John Ott, and Tom Callanan
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 4

• Women, the Recession, and the Impending Economic Recovery
• The Power of Sharing in an Uncertain World
• How to Communicate Change to Employees
• Five Tactics to Create a Sustainable Restaurant Business
• IT Solutions for SMBs in an Economic Downturn
• What’s Next, Hollywood?
• Eight Key Attributes of Effective Leaders
• What to Do When Traditional Diversification Strategies Fail
• Video Interview on Corporate Social Responsiblitiy with Golden State Foods

2009 Volume 12 Issue 3

• Offshoring May Slow Impending U.S. Economic Recovery
• In Memory of Luis Villalobos
• IT Outsourcing: China Grasps for the Lead
• The Buffett Approach to Valuing Stocks
• Audio Interview with McKesson U.S. Pharmaceutical President John Figueroa
• Editorial: E-Learning is Green Learning
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 2

• The Root Causes of Unethical Behavior
• Price Fixing and Minimum Resale Price Restrictions Are Two Different Animals
• Investing for Income in a Down Economy
• What Determines Which Businesses Win and Which Lose?
• Editorial: Writing a Business Plan to Attract Investors
• What’s Next LA: The Road to Economic Recovery
• Owner-Occupied Commercial Real Estate for the Entrepreneur
• The Winner’s Curse and Optimal Auction Bidding Strategies
• The Book Corner

2009 Volume 12 Issue 1

• Private vs. Public Real Estate Markets
• More Than Money: Interview with social entrepreneur Mark Albion
• The Successful Expatriate Leader in China
• Recognizing Organizational Culture in Managing Change
• Editorial: Taking Advantage of California’s Retirees to Help Close the Budget Gap
• Believe It: Complaints Are Gifts
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix A
• Active Alpha Portfolio Management: Appendix B
• The Book Corner

2008 Volume 11 Issue 4

• Best Practices for Headcount Reporting
• 2008 Graziadio School Student Paper Competition – How Intercultural Competence Drives Success in Global Virtual Teams
• Discovering Leadership Potential
• Discovering Leadership Potential – Evaluation Guidelines
• Corporate Governance, SOX, and the Business Judgment Rule
• What Will The International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) Mean to Businesses and Investors?
• Who are Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac?
• Crisis in America: A Nation at Risk
• The End of the Beginning for the Global Credit Crisis
• The Book Corner
• All IFRS-Compliant Statements Are Not Equal

2008 Volume 11 Issue 3

• The Book Corner
• IT-Enabled Information Transparency: A Strategic Approach
• Editor’s Note: The Top 10 Embracements for Difficult Economic Times
• Servicing the Software Industry (SaaS)
• Where Do Older Workers Go?
• Creating Wealth in Low Income Communities
• Supplier Diversity and Competitive Advantage: New Opportunities in Emerging Domestic Markets
• The Last 100 Feet of the Supply Chain
• America’s Financial Crisis

2008 Volume 11 Issue 2

• The Tie-In Decision
• The Trybaby Syndrome
• California Greening: Boom or Bust?
• High CEO Pay Could Draw Renewed Attention in Election Year
• Empowering Employees to Success
• Commercial Banking and Treasury Management in Mexico

2008 Volume 11 Issue 1

• Venture Capital Audio Interview
• Learning to Love Financial Market Barbarians
• The Top 10 U.S. Economic Issues to Monitor
• Putting Performance and Happiness Together in the Workplace
• In Memory of Robert Hockenberg
• Harassment Prevention Training 2008
• Editorial: No Child Left Behind-A Blueprint for Success
• A Class with Drucker by William A. Cohen
• The Book Corner
• Is Managed Futures an Asset Class?

2007 Volume 10 Issue 4

• Organizational Design and Implementation
• Managing the Critical Role of the Warehouse Supervisor
• Editor’s Note
• Creating a Community in Southern California that Values Sharing Knowledge
• The Book Corner
• Commercial Banking in the U.S. Versus Canada

2007 Volume 10 Issue 3

• Developing a Barometer for Workplace Attitude (WPA)
• The Employers’ Legal Obligations to Employees in the Military
• Employee Incentives
• Will the Sub-Prime Meltdown Burst the Housing Bubble?
• Strategic Leadership – Part Two
• Editor’s Note
• Assertive Performance Feedback
• To Tell or Not to Tell?
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 2

• The Trader Joe’s Experience
• Strategic Leadership
• Managing Organizational Knowledge
• The Family-Owned Business
• Editor’s Note
• Emotional Dynamism: Playing the Music of Leadership
• Benefits of International Portfolio Diversification
• Aligning Business with a Value Statement
• The Book Corner

2007 Volume 10 Issue 1

• The Death of Time and Distance
• The Moral and Financial Conflict of Socially Responsible Investing
• What You Need to Know about Labor Shortages
• Women Entrepreneurship
• SEC Quest to Regulate Hedge Funds Hits Speed Bump
• The Book Corner

2006 Volume 9 Issue 4

• Seasonality and the Stock Market
• Airline Industry Key Success Factors
• Seven Neurotic Styles of Management
• IT in Healthcare
• Wings of the Great Northwest
• Gratitude at Work
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Alternative Dispute Resolution

2006 Volume 9 Issue 3

• Making Marketing Accountable
• Conversations about Conscientious Capitalism
• Gen Y and Organizational Life
• Class Action Shareholder Suits Face Legal Setbacks
• The Book Corner
• Achieving Corporate Success and Maximized Value
• New: GBR Blog Videos

2006 Volume 9 Issue 2

• Business Survival Skills
• Six Components of a Model for Workplace Spirituality
• HR’s Strategic Partnership with Line Management
• The Book Corner
• Obesity, Social Responsibility, and Economic Value
• Graziadio Faculty Discuss Ethics

2006 Volume 9 Issue 1

• A Winning Tool to Manage Price: The Pricing Checklist
• Update: The Price of Oil
• Mapping IT Resources for Successful Implementations
• Is the Real Estate Market a House of Cards?
• Whither Now Dow?
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 4

• Whistleblowers
• Editorial: Does a Non-Public Business Need SOX?
• IT Matters
• A New Imperative for Management: Sexual Harassment Training
• The Company Director’s Role In Company Growth
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• Fair Trade or Strategic Concern: The Unocal War

2005 Volume 8 Issue 3

• The IT Governance Road Map
• Avoiding Ethical Misconduct Disasters
• The Positive Psychology Approach to Goal Management
• Antitrust Law in the European Union
• Editor’s Note
• The Book Corner
• D & O Policies: Greater Risks Less Coverage
• A Blueprint for Change: Appreciative Inquiry

2005 Volume 8 Issue 2

• Connecting Enterprise Information and People in a Web World
• The Leader’s Role in Strategy
• The Practical Nuances of Leadership
• Editor’s Note
• Corruption Across Borders
• Resolving Intra-Organization Conflicts
• An Uphill Battle
• Leading and Managing Change
• The Book Corner

2005 Volume 8 Issue 1

• The Link Between Price and Profit Margin in a Global Market
• IT MATTERS
• The Impact of Empowered Employees on Corporate Value
• What You Need to Know about Attorneys’ Fees
• Editor’s Note – Phishing
• The Book Corner
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 3)
• Will Your Company’s Electronic Records Storage Withstand Legal Scrutiny? – Graziadio Business Review
• Conversation on Leadership with Jeff Shell

2004 Volume 7 Issue 3

• Litigate or Arbitrate?
• Presidential Elections and Stock Market Cycles
• Businesspersons Beware: Lying is a Crime
• Strengthening Value-Centered Ethics (Part 2)
• Attempting to Control Health Care Costs – Again
• Editor’s Note
• The Crude Facts About the Price of Oil
• Conversation with Stephen Baum
• The Book Corner
• The Uncertain World of Trademark Dilution

2004 Volume 7 Issue 2

• Does Corporate Social Responsibility Pay Off
• Strengthening Values Centered Leadership
• The Twin Deficits
• GBR Conversation with Robert Miller
• The Book Corner
• From Michelangelo to the Modern Boardroom
• Preparing for a Future Labor Shortage

2004 Volume 7 Issue 1

• Slowing Runaway Juries
• Merger and Acquisition Strategies
• Slips, Trips, and Falls
• Using Conflict to Your Advantage
• Wired
• Editorial – Don’t Panic!
• Seek and You Might Find
• GBR Conversation with Tom Ross
• The Dollar vs. the Euro
• The Book Corner

2003 Volume 6 Issue 4

• Negotiating Effectively
• Why Good Leaders Do Bad Things
• Editorial: Cybersatire
• Main Street and Hedging
• E-Business at the Graziadio Business Review
• What Stays and Who Pays?
• Inflation to Deflation and Back?
• Conversation with Betsy Bernard
• The Car Deal
• The Book Corner
• Using Dashboard Based Business Intelligence Systems

2003 Volume 6 Issue 3

• The Cost of Lost Data
• Consolidate All IT?
• Blowing the Whistle
• Creating and Sustaining an Ethical Workplace Culture
• Editorial – Onward and Upward?
• IT Matters: Portal Combat
• Facing Up to the Possibility of Deflation
• Dialogue With Four Executives

2003 Volume 6 Issue 2

• Hedging Strategies for Uncertain Times
• Do Not Call!*
• Improving R and D Performance Teamwork trumps solo endeavors
• Just-in-Time to Just-in-Case
• Increasing the Firm’s Strategic IQ
• Special Purpose Entities
• Shock and Awe
• IT Matters: Webhosting
• Conversation with Bert Boeckmann

2003 Volume 6 Issue 1

• Communicating Your Strategy
• Reforming Corporate America
• Recognize the True Cost of Compensation
• Learn from Experience
• Use Emotional Intelligence to Cope in Tough Times
• Conversation with Lacy Edwards of Evoke Software
• Editorial
• Predicting Bankruptcy in the WorldCom Age

2002 Volume 5 Issue 4

• Build Value in a Small Business
• Protect Your Trade Secrets
• Managing in an Era of Multiple Cultures
• Pros and Cons of Expensing Stock Options
• IT Matters: Web Services May Bridge the Great Culture Gap
• Editor’s Note
• Conversation with Paul Orfalea
• Calculating the Strategic Value of Customer Satisfaction

2002 Volume 5 Issue 3

• Encourage Your Employees to Play
• Managerial Leadership at Twelve O’Clock
• Remembering George L. Graziadio
• Editor’s Note: Bad Boys in the Board Room
• Who’s Driving American Firms?
• Supreme Court Sides With Business
• Using Asset Allocation Strategies to Recover from a Bear Hug
• Mediate, Arbitrate or Litigate?
• IT MATTERS: The Wonderful World of the Wireless Web

2002 Volume 5 Issue 2

• Will China Float the Yuan?
• Does Market Efficiency Trump Behavioral Bias in Finance Decisions?
• Making Mergers a Growth Strategy
• Sealing Cracks in the Capital Markets
• Artificial Intelligence Techniques Enhance Business Forecasts
• Editor’s Note: Weapons of Mass Disruption
• E-Commerce Reboots
• IT MATTERS: Web Services Prevail Despite Travail
• Go Directly to Jail?
• GBR CONVERSATION With John Shields

2002 Volume 5 Issue 1

• Build a Culture of Value Creation
• Choose Tomorrow’s Leaders Today
• Small Firms Keep R&D Vibrant
• Teams Use IT to Manage Client Impressions
• Putting Spirituality to Work
• IT MATTERS: Fifty Years and Counting
• Defining Disability Under the ADA
• GBR Conversation With Joe Rokus
• Editor’s Note: Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

2001 Volume 4 Issue 4

• Gender Impacts Virtual Work Teams
• Doing Business in a Volatile World
• The Strategic Downside of Downsizing
• Editor’s Note: Corporate Citizenship in the Wake of September 11!
• The Economic Downturn is No Surprise
• IT MATTERS: ROI for Tech Deployments in the Downturn
• Supreme Court Faces Key Business Cases
• GBR Conversation with Michael Josephson
• Are Workplace Bullies Sabotaging Your Ability to Compete?

2001 Volume 4 Issue 3

• Suddenly Unemployed?
• Too Late for an IPO?
• Electricity Price Gouging in California?
• Editor’s Note: Surf’s Up!
• The Fine Art of Delegation
• Waiting Games People Play
• Business at the Bar
• GBR Conversation with Senator Sandra Bowen

2001 Volume 4 Issue 2

• Knowledge Management and Business Portals
• Trust as a Competitive Advantage
• Is Price Everything?
• Editor’s Note: A Quarter Without Quarter
• Has the Dow Really Escaped the Bear?
• Dot.Gone
• IT MATTERS: E-Business is Definitely an E-Ticket Ride!
• Downsizing with Dignity
• GBR Conversation Mitchell J. Held
• The California Electricity Crisis

2001 Volume 4 Issue 1

• Repetition Leads To Innovation
• What’s the Problem?
• Editor’s Note: Quakes, Flakes, and Double Takes
• IT MATTERS: CRM Solution Seekers Beware!!!!
• Language, Culture and Global Business
• GBR Conversation Dr. Clyde Oden Jr.
• Personality Traits and Workplace Culture
• Who Wants to Lose a Million?
• The Power of Performance Profiling

2000 Volume 3 Issue 4

• Building Wealth
• How Small Firms Plan to Grow
• Using Internet Portals to Manage the Information Deluge
• Editor’s Note: Messy Brains and Global Opportunities
• SEC Requires Fair Disclosure
• IT MATTERS: MP3.com Completes Settlements
• GBR Conversation with Boyd Clarke
• Planning in a Complex World
• Business Be Advised!

2000 Volume 3 Issue 3

• Do Japan’s High Tech Failures Open Doors for Western Firms?
• Managing Earnings … or Cooking the Books?
• The Battle Over Merger Accounting – Graziadio Business Review
• GBR Conversation with senior economist
• Editor’s Note: Friends, Romans & Countrymen…
• What Directors Need to Know
• Still Thinking of Doing an IPO?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 2

• Managing Innovation through Corporate Venturing
• The Death of the Sales Force
• Thinking of Doing an IPO?
• Serving Each Other on the Inside
• Editor’s Note: Screaming Into the Future!
• GBR Conversation with Stephen J. Goldman
• Will Marketers Survive the Information Age?

2000 Volume 3 Issue 1

• Re-Assessing the Health of the Asian Tigers
• Knowledge Management and the Internet
• The Learning Organization in Practice
• Economic Forecasting
• Editor’s Note: A Short Hello!
• Are You Ready for E-Commerce?
• E-Business: The New Management Challenge
• GBR Conversation with Raytheon’s Daniel Burhnam
• The Bull Market’s Flawed Foundation

1999 Volume 2 Issue 4

• The Electric Day Trader and Ruin
• Teambuilding for Competitive Advantage
• Parable of the Commons
• Preserve and Strengthen a Business Partnership
• Editor’s Note: Here to Be Thrilled!
• GBR Conversation with Mike Roberts
• Telecommuting… Out of Sight, Out of Mind?
• Balancing Act for Employers in Today’s Labor Market
• Editor’s Note: Too Much Fun!

1999 Volume 2 Issue 3

• How Gerber Used a Decision Tree in Strategic Decision-Making
• Customer Satisfaction Measurement
• Get Your Message Across!
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Dr. Gary Hamel
• To Join or Not To Join..?
• T.I.P.S.

1999 Volume 2 Issue 2

• Defamation Vs. Negligent Referral
• Maximize Business Achievement
• Preserving Family & Business Assets – Graziadio Business Review
• Knowledge is Power…
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the Graziadio Business Review
• E-Commerce & Taxation
• GBR Conversation with Wayne “Buz” Knyal
• Cultivating the Customer Asset
• Decision-Making in a Global Environment

1999 Volume 2 Issue 1

• Business and Universities Moving to Collaborative Technologies
• Tips for Reducing Executive Stress
• Russia at the Crossroads
• Editor’s Note: Volume I, Issue 4
• GBR Case Study
• Launching an Effective Citizen Advisory Panel

1998 Volume 1 Issue 3

• Retirement Call to Action
• The European Directive On Data Privacy
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 3
• Debt Tied to Lower Firm Performance
• A conversation with Angelo Mozilo
• Boosting Country Club Memberships With Innovative Marketing and Pricing Concepts

1998 Volume 1 Issue 2

• Management Skills for the 21st Century
• Middlaning
• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR, Volume I, Issue 2
• A conversation with Jeffrey Rigsby
• Cultural Insights on Doing Business in China
• When Worlds Collide

1998 Volume 1 Issue 1

• Editor’s Note: Welcome to the GBR
• Guide to Personal Investment Software
• Southeast Asia: Crisis To Recovery
• Growth Strategies for High Tech Firms
• A conversation with George L. Graziadio
• The Human Realities of Corporate Downsizing
• AB Corporation Case Study

The Spoiled American

An underlying shortcoming exists that prevents U.S. companies from globalizing— U.S. companies and the managers and executives who run them are spoiled.

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At the start of his administration, President Obama set a goal to double exports from U.S. companies. The hope was that increasing exports would dramatically benefit the U.S. economy in a number of ways. Chiefly among these would be to significantly improve the U.S. balance of payments, and also to measurably decrease unemployment as more workers were needed to produce U.S. exports.

Tremendous opportunities do exist for U.S. companies to expand exports (and international business in general). However, an underlying shortcoming exists that prevents U.S. companies from globalizing—U.S. companies and the managers and executives who run them are spoiled. In this article, I assert that because U.S. companies have achieved relatively easy success in serving their domestic markets compared to their counterparts in other countries that have had a lengthy history of serving multi-country markets, it will be difficult to achieve the Obama administration’s goals until U.S. companies overcome their “domestic complacency.”

Do the Numbers Make Sense?

Is the assumption that doubling U.S. exports will benefit the U.S. economy true? In 2009, the U.S. trade balance suffered an estimated deficit of approximately $450 billion (exports of $1 trillion, imports of $1.45 trillion). Assuming no reduction in imports, simple math tells us that doubling exports would produce a swing from a $450 billion deficit to a $550 billion surplus ($2 trillion less a constant level of imports of $1.45 trillion). So, we can conclude that achievement of the administration’s goal of simply doubling exports would certainly resolve the problem of a negative trade balance.

The implications for employment could be just as strikingly positive. Assuming that the economy has increased by the $1 trillion in exports (or approximately an additional 7 percent in 2009 GDP of over $14 trillion), we must also assume an equivalent increase in the number of jobs needed, thus unemployment would decrease from approximately 15 million (about 10 percent) to 5.34 million, or a 3.5 percent unemployment rate. In other words, a 7 percent increase in the GDP would result in an increase of 7 percent in the number of employed. While this model may be oversimplified, for our purposes, I believe that we could agree that such dramatic increases in exports would doubtlessly result in very attractive positives for the U.S. economy.

Potential for More Exports?

The real question is, is the doubling of exports a realistic goal? Is there room in the market for more exporters? How maxed out are companies in the U.S. in their export capabilities? How many U.S. companies could export more and to more countries? Or do more U.S. companies who do little or no exporting need to be convinced to begin exporting (and then presumably assisted in doing so)? Implicit in the Obama initiative is the desire to get companies who already export to expand their reach to more countries under the assumption that it’s a lot easier to convince the “converted” than to convert non-exporting U.S. companies to think globally for the first time.

In terms of how many U.S. companies are currently involved in exporting, the short answer