Monday, June 11, 2012

Morning Advantage: The European Crisis You Don't Know About (Yet)

Morning Advantage: The European Crisis You Don't Know About (Yet):




This third quarter outlook of Europe from Oxford Analytica will take you around the Continent quicker than most "If it's Tuesday, this must be Amsterdam" tours. Taking a look at the region's prospects in the coming months, they see cause for alarm. But before you shrug, "Quelle surprise," it's not just the much-publicized risks in Greece and Spain. In South-eastern Europe, "few seem to grasp or to be preparing for the depth of the region's problems." In that region, "several economies are stagnating if not in recession." As households have had no chance to recover since 2009, this "may in turn lead to political or inter-ethnic clashes."


The Guardian, meanwhile, examines how two Baltic countries are faring under their extreme version of austerity measures. Latvia and Estonia both passed the kinds of reforms that leaders in Greece (and dare I say, the United States) would be ousted for. But while both countries have since returned to positive growth rates, skeptics point out that this is more likely due to their close proximity to healthy trading partners such as Scandinavia, Poland, and Germany. And as the Oxford Analytica report points out, those countries are themselves bolstered by good trading relationships with high-growth emerging markets.






As with so much in business, it seems it's not just what you know, but who.








CREEPY OR COOL?



Google Knows You're About to Quit (Talent Management)


The power of predictive analytics has already made waves — remember when Target knew a teenage girl was pregnant before her own parents did? Now companies are starting to apply those methods not just to customers, but to employees. Analytics might tell your boss when you're ready for a new assignment — or, if your boss is Laszlo Bock, Google’s head of HR, that you're at risk for quitting. Even before you're aware of it yourself.





MANAGEMENT LESSONS FROM COOKIE MONSTER



A Unified Theory of Muppet Types (Slate)


Dahlia Lithwick, razor-sharp US Supreme Court analyst, turns her inimitable pen to the vital question: what kind of muppet are you? Chaos Muppets, like Animal or Cookie Monster, "make their way through life in a swirling maelstrom of food crumbs, small flaming objects, and the letter C" while Order Muppets, like Bert and Kermit, "tend to be neurotic, highly regimented, averse to surprises and may sport monstrously large eyebrows." The lesson for managers: every productive organization requires a careful ratio of both. "Remember the old rue of thumb: Too many Order Muppets means no cookies for anyone."





BONUS BITS:



More Coffee Is Not the Answer


Become More Successful by Revamping Your Mornings (Inc.)

Cracking the Venture Capital Glass Ceiling (Fast Company)

Individual Effects Trump Organizational Effects (StrategyProfs)






















No comments:

Post a Comment