The New Paradigm of Advantage (there is enough food in the world to feed everyone) - Harvard Business Review

Here's something you might not know. There's enough food in the world to feed pretty much everyone. So why are more than 1 billion people — nearly 20% of the world's population — either starving or malnourished? And why, over the last two decades, has global hunger steeply risen? The answer has everything to do with the past — and future — of advantage. Over the last few months, I've discussed in depth the tectonic shifts rocking the macro and micro economy. Let's put it all together. Here's what the 21st century demands from firms of all stripes: a paradigm shift in the nature of advantage. The past of advantage was extractive and protective. The future of advantage, on the other hand, is allocative and creative. I made a little Prezi to illustrate it, below. Let's go through each category in turn.

Click to read more ...

The World's First Stand Up Economist - Just for Laughs.

I had to blog this wonderful video from Yoram Bauman PhD (yep he genuinely has a PhD in econonics) . His new comic book The Cartoon Introduction to Economics is now out.

2010 Nobel Prize Winning Political Economist Identifies 8 Ways For Groups To Manage Their Own Affairs Sustainably and Successfully

A lot of data interpreted by the right kind of theory was required before Lin Ostrom's could identify the eight ingredients that enable groups to manage their own affairs. A warning is in order before I proceed: After you learn them, you are likely to think "Of course! Aren't these obvious?" The answer is "Only in retrospect". The ingredients did not emerge from neoclassical economic theory, a long intellectual journey was required for Lin to discover them, and all successful explanations, obvious or not, must be understood in terms of a formal theoretical framework. Without further ado, here is Lin Ostrom's recipe for success, taken from the final chapter of her book Understanding Institutional Diversity. 1) Clearly Defined Boundaries. The identity of the group and its rights to the common resource must be clearly delineated.

Click to read more ...

The Innovation Delusion - Ralph Gomory, the Huffington Post

In the United States, innovation has become almost synonymous with economic competitiveness. Even more remarkable, we often hear that our economic salvation can only be through innovation. We hear that because of low Asian wages we must innovate because we cannot really compete in anything else. Inventive Americans will do the R&D and let the rest of the world, usually China, do the dull work of actually making things. Or we'll do programming design but let the rest of the world, usually India, do low-level programming. This is a totally mistaken belief and one that, if accepted, will consign this nation to second- or third-class status. The latest offender to advance this line of thought is Thomas Friedman, who has prominently displayed this familiar and entirely incorrect line of thought in the New York Times. Unfortunately, this idea is one that is widely accepted without careful thought about either its truthfulness or its consequences.

Click to read more ...

Creating Value from Information - Aggregate - from the Innovation Leadership Network

How do we create value when we’re busy tweeting, blogging, reading and writing? I have been arguing that to create value from information, we need to have systems in place that allow us to aggregate, filter and connect information – and that this is true for people, and for business models. These are the things that go on all the time behind the scenes when people are creating blog posts, and I thought it would be interesting to see how this actually happens. Shortly after the unveiling of the iPad, Venessa Miemis wrote a post called ‘iPad: Overhyped Flop or a Case of Great Design Thinking?‘ Venessa has a distinctive talent for writing about complex topics in an integrative and creative manner, so I thought it would be interesting to ask her about how she put this post together.

Click to read more ...