Archive for November, 2015

Perspectives on Climate Change …

November 30, 2015

Since Bernie Sanders has said that Climate Change is a far bigger threat than ISIS

… and since Prince Charles has declared that Climate Change is what’s causing all the havoc in the Middle East

… and since President Obama says that the U.S. is demonstrating that it’s still relevant in the world by the “leading on Climate Change” (apparently from the front, not the back this time)

… and since this is the week of the Global Climate Change Convention in Paris …

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I decided to get up to speed on the topic and do a couple of posts on the subject.

For openers let’s get some perspective from political commentator (and comedian) Dennis Miller …

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Posted in Comedy - Jokes, Global Warming - Climate Change, Miller, Dennis | 1 Comment »

Happy Thanksgiving !

November 26, 2015

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Posted in Holidays | Leave a Comment »

Life: E + R = O

November 25, 2015

OK, I.m a control freak.

There, I said it.

Along the way, somebody passed along a memorable observations:

“You can’t control everything that happens to you, but you can always control the the way you respond to it.”

Fast forward.

I’m an Ohio State football fan. Last weekend, I was watching the Buckeyes play Michigan State..

The announcers said that Urban Meyer – OSU’s head coach —   preaches the E+R=O principle to his players … even has them wear wristbands.

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Say, what?

I ran and googled E+R=O

Answer: Event + Response = Outcome

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Hmmmm … sounds familiar.

And, there’s more …

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Posted in Lessons for Life, Lifestyle, Philosophy, Sports & Athletics | Leave a Comment »

How much do Congressmen get paid?

November 24, 2015

With the constant political mess in Congress, I started to wonder (again): why do these guys work so hard to get elected?  Is it worth it?

Since Congress is gridlocked  … and, since the President is end-running  Congress on most matters … the fulfillment can’t be “having an impact”.

So, it must be something else.

Money, maybe?

Raises the question: how much dough gets thrown into the pot?

 

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 Here’s the scoop…

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Posted in Congress - Senate | 1 Comment »

What’s the most prevalent undergrad major these days?

November 23, 2015

The WaPo published some education statistics extracted from the National Center for Education Statistics.

Note: The source –  ”Digest of Education Statistics” – is a veritable treasure trove of education statistics

One dissected data series was the distribution of undergrad degrees granted.

I was a bit surprised to see that roughly 1 in 5 undergraduate degrees granted are in business.

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Note: The gray lines are at the 10% and 20%

Here are a few other points that caught my eye …

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Posted in Business Schools, Education - Academics, Undergraduate degrees | 3 Comments »

Women & children, widows & orphans … a week of mumbo jumbo.

November 20, 2015

We’re all used to politicians and government officials saying dumb stuff, but still, this week stands out, doesn’t it?

First, President Obama declares confidently he has ISIS contained.

A few hours later, ISIS radicals kill 129 innocent people in Paris.

Contained?

Contained where? To the face of the earth?

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Then, to show sympathy to the French, he declares the murderers’ rampage to be a “minor setback” in the non-war on terror.

Minor setback?

Tell that to the families of the 129.

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When asked about the Paris massacres, Hillary refused to even call the perps “radical Islamic terrorists”, for fear that their feeling might get hurt.

Say, what?

Then she declared that “we’re not at war with Islam, we’re fighting jihadists, not radical Islamic terrorists”.

Memo to Mrs. Clinton from Merriam-Webster:

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In other words, a jihadist is a radical Islamic terrorist, you knucklehead.

And, it doesn’t end there.

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Posted in Clinton, Hillary, Kerry, John, Mumbo jumbo, Obama | Leave a Comment »

Millennials: Poets or Quants?

November 19, 2015

Not so fast.

According to the Washington Post, ETS (the College Board folks) analyzed the results of a test given by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The test was meant to assess adult skill levels in 3 areas: problem-solving, literacy and “numeracy”..

ETS broke out the numbers for U.S. millennials, defined as people 16 to 34 years old..

The vast majority of American test-takers lacked a high school degree

The bottom line: in problem solving, U.S. millennials second from the bottom … edging out Poland,

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Of course, problem solving is a blend of quant skills (numeracy) and language skills (literacy).

How did our millennials stack up as poets and quants?

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Posted in Millennials, Poets & Quants, Standardized Tests | Leave a Comment »

Clipping the “long tail” … vive la blockbuster.

November 18, 2015

Current & former students:  Remember Dewey the Cat?

Sure, you do … a blockbuster cat book that tried to ride the long tail to riches.

Anita Elberse, the HBS prof who wrote the Dewey case has a new book out called “Blockbusters”.

 

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Here are a few snippets from a WSJ review of the book…

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Posted in Blockbusters, Books & Publishing, Long Tail, Music | Leave a Comment »

Taco Bell: “Don’t say our beef isn’t beef …”

November 17, 2015

A couple of weeks ago we posted a Business Week report titled “Keeping the Mystery Out of China’s Meat”

The essence of the article was that some Chinese retailers were selling donkey meat that was diluted with fox meat. If you don’t understand why that’s a show-stopper, see Tainted donkey meat … say, what?

Fearing that I might inadvertently get stuck with some bad donkey meat, I’ve been alert to mystery meat stories.

Right on cue, here comes Taco Bell.

 

C’mon, admit it … when you bite into a TB taco don’t you wonder if you’re really eating beef?

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Posted in Food & Drink, Restaurants | Leave a Comment »

$$$: How much do MBA interns get paid?

November 16, 2015

According to Business Week, top school MBAs haul in an average of about $1,750 per week for their summer internships.

At HBS, the median is $7,000 per month … that’s about $1,650 per week … which annualizes to about $90k.

Of course, there’s wide variation based on the school and the industry.

Note that Kellogg –- a general management and marketing school – tops the list

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Posted in Careers & Interviewing, MBA Degree, MBAs | Leave a Comment »

Amazon and the “power of free” …

November 13, 2015

Yesterday in class, I mentioned some work by Chris Anderson of Wired on the “Power of Free”

Free: How Today’s Smartest Businesses Profit by Giving Something for Nothing

Here’s a real life example of the power of free.

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Everybody knows that Amazon’s free shipping program has been a resounding success.

So much so. that the company has announced that it will be moving the minimum qualifying order up from $25 to $35 … inducing shoppers to fill  their carts fuller or switch to the highly profitable Amazon Prime program.

The free shipping program’s success was highly predictable based an an apparently inadvertent “matched market test” that Amazon did.

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Here’s the skinny on the Amazon’s inadvertent market test …

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Posted in Amazon, Free - Power of Free, ObamaCare, Price customization, Price elasticity, Prices | Leave a Comment »

GOP Debate: 2 zingers worth highlighting …

November 12, 2015

I watched most of Tuesday’s debate and listened to the rest driving home.

Here are the two zingers that I thought were noteworthy.

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The first was Ted Cruz on illegal immigration

After ranting about how insulted he was that some folks say he’s anti-immigrant, he quipped:

“When the mainstream media covers illegal immigration they do not see it as an economic issue, but I can tell that for millions of Americans watching this [debate] at home it is a very personal economic issue.

Things would be reported differently if the jobs being threatened by illegal immigration were those that hit a little closer to the pocketbooks of disinterested parties.

I will say, the politics of it would be very, very different if a bunch of lawyers or bankers were crossing the Rio Grande.

Or if a bunch of people with journalism degrees were coming over and driving down the wages in the press.

Then we would see stories about the economic calamity that is befalling our nation.”

Nicely put, Ted

But, my overall favorite was from Rand Paul.

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Posted in 2016 Presidential Election, Debates | Leave a Comment »

Does playing basketball make you taller?

November 11, 2015

Of course not … that’s silly.

OK let’s try a variant of the question: Does education make you smarter?

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I bet a lot of you would bet the over on that one.

Here’s what the researchers say …

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Posted in Ed, Education - Academics, Heredity - Genes, Int, Intelligence | Leave a Comment »

What do colleges have in common with Kohl’s?

November 10, 2015

I oft say that anybody who pays sticker price at Kohl’s should look over their shoulder to make sure that Darwin isn’t chasing them.

Maybe the same should be said of parents who pay list price tuition to fund their kiddies through college.

Lots of talk re: how college costs are soaring.

According to the WSJ …

Published tuition rates have soared in the last decade, but only a small percentage of families actually pays full freight.

Between grants to needy students and merit scholarships to entice other desirable candidates, schools these days are giving back nearly 50% of gross tuition revenue in the form of aid and awards.

In other words, list prices are going up, but more stuff is being sold at sale prices.

 

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Increasingly, colleges are using pricing methods previously the domain of airlines and discount retailers …

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Posted in College, Price customization, Pricing, Pricing analytics, Tuition & fees | Leave a Comment »

Gotcha: This is an unrecognized computer …

November 9, 2015

If you do any banking online, you’ve probably gotten that message at one time or another.

Maybe it was when you got a new computer … or, when you used a friend’s computer to pay a bill.

You probably didn’t think much of it.

You just answered the security questions and paid your bill.

Bet you didn’t stop to wonder: How did Bank of Boise know that this wasn’t my usual computer?

Better yet, ask: How does the bank know when I am on my regular computer?

Well, now that I’ve aroused you curiosity, the answer is ….

Your computer has its own distinctive “device fingerprints” that make it identifiable on the Net as your computer.

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I worry about stuff like this.  So, I’d thought about this one.

And, my thinking was wrong.

Here’s what’s going on …

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Posted in Device fingerprinting, Fingerprinting digital devices, Internet Tracking, NetTrax, Predictive Analytics, Privacy, Privacy issues | Leave a Comment »

Nums: Which professions contribute the most (and least) to society?

November 6, 2015

According to a recent Pew poll, folks perceive that …

Military and teachers contribute the most to society … with doctors, scientists & engineers in the hunt.

Lawyers and business execs contribute the least … with less than 1 in 5 people perceiving that lawyers contribute to society’s well-being.

 

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Here are some of the details that caught my eye …

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Posted in Careers & Interviewing, Social Responsibilty | Leave a Comment »

Base Rates: How often do Derby & Preakness winners nail the Triple Crown?

November 5, 2015

Two coinciding events …

In my Strategic Business Analytics course, we’re dealing with “base rates” — the likelihood of something occurring given prior results in relatively similar situations.

And,  a couple of weeks ago, Triple Crown winner American Pharoah won the Breeder’s Cup.

So, I thought it would be a good time to flashback to last May, when American Pharoah was heading into the Belmont as the odds-on favorite to win the Triple Crown … a case study in base rates.

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Originally posted May, 2014

On Saturday, American Pharoah will try to win the Belmont — capping off his Derby & Preakness wins to capture the oft-elusive Triple Crown.

Based on Triple Crown history, what are his chances?

The simple – but very deceiving answer is 35%.

31 horses have won both the Kentucky Derby & the Preakness …

11 of them have won the Belmont and the Triple Crown.

35% … about 1 out of 3.

That’s not bad, right?

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Let’s slice the numbers a little finer …

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Posted in Cognitive biases, Horse racing, Sports & Athletics | Leave a Comment »

Bloomberg: There’s a gender gap in MBA pay … and, it’s a big deal!

November 4, 2015

Biennially, Bloomberg (Business Week) ranks MBA schools based, in part, on surveys of employers, current students, and alumni.

This year, they used the alumni sample to assess career progression – how well MBAs are doing (and getting paid) a few years after their b-school graduation.

The general finding: “The data shows that 6 to 8 years after graduation, the typical alum makes $169,000 … triple their pre-MBA compensation.”

That’s pretty good, right?

But, there’s a big divide.

“Within a few years of graduation, women with MBAs earn lower salaries, manage fewer people, and are less pleased with their progress than men with the same degree.”

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What the heck is going on?

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Posted in Gender equality, inequality, Income - Earnings, Income Inequality, MBA Compensation, MBA Degree | 1 Comment »

Business Week: 2015 MBA Rankings … new process, new results.

November 3, 2015

Bloomberg (Business Week) changed the way it compiles its MBA rankings “with a sharper focus on what people most hope to get after business school.”

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Specifically, BW beefed up its emphasis on alumni feedback to calibrate how they’re doing,  what they’re earning and how happy they’re feeling.

And, BW says “Older elements of our ranking, including a tally of faculty research, have been scrapped because they don’t get at our fundamental question: How well does this business school channel its graduates into good jobs?”

Here is the revised list of metrics for scoring MBA programs.

  • Employer Survey (35 percent of total score):  recruiter feedback on the skills they look for in MBAs, and which programs best equip their students with those skills
  • Alumni Survey (30 percent):  feedback from the classes of 2007, 2008, and 2009 on how their MBAs have affected their careers, their compensation change over time, and their midcareer job satisfaction
  • Student Survey (15 percent):  the class of 2015’s take on academics, career services, campus climate, and more
  • Job Placement Rate (10 percent):  the most recent data on how many MBAs seeking full-time jobs get them within three months of graduation
  • Starting Salary (10 percent):  most recent data on how much MBAs make in their first jobs after graduation, adjusted for industry and regional variation

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Here are the 2015 rankings …

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Posted in Education - Academics, MBA Compensation, MBA Degree, Rankings | 1 Comment »

How badly did the CNBC moderators shoot themselves (and their network) in the foot?

November 2, 2015

My view: the debate debacle was career-limiting for the moderators, a serious blow to CNBC’s brand image and competitive standing, and a financial hit to NBC.

There seems to be a broad consensus across the political spectrum that the CNBC debate was a disaster.

Even a leaked internal CNBC email called it a train wreck.

NBC execs admonished “news” folks at NBS, MSNBC and CNBC not to “pile on”.

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Let’s do a quick damage assessment …

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Posted in CNBC, Debates, FBN - Fox Business, Media Bias | Leave a Comment »