Edward J. Strafaci ~ Academic Blog

Why trying to be the best … competing like crazy … makes you mediocre Every few years a book—through a combination of the author’s unique voice, storytelling ability, wit, and insight—simply breaks the mold. Bill Bryson’s  A Walk in   the Woods  is one example. Richard Feynman’s “ Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”  is another.   Now comes Youngme Moon’s  Different,  a book   for “people who don’t read business books.” Actually, it’s more like a personal conversation with a friend who has thought deeply about how the world works … and who gets you to see that world in a completely new light.    If there is one strain of conventional wisdom pervading every company in every industry, it’s the absolute importance of “competing like crazy.” Youngme Moon’s message is simply “Get off this treadmill that’s taking you nowhere. Going tit for tat and adding features, augmentations, and gimmicks to beat the competition has the perverse result o...

NEW YORK TIMES  BESTSELLER WALL STREET JOURNAL  BESTSELLER One of America’s most accomplished entrepreneurs—a pioneer who made the Internet part of everyday life and orchestrated the largest merger in the history of business—shares a roadmap for how anyone can succeed in a world of rapidly changing technology. Steve Case’s career began when he cofounded America Online (AOL) in 1985. At the time, only three percent of Americans were online. It took a decade for AOL to achieve mainstream success, and there were many near-death experiences and back-to-the-wall pivots. AOL became the top performing company of the 1990s, and at its peak more than half of all consumer Internet traffic in the United States ran through the service. After Case engineered AOL’s merger with Time Warner and he became Chairman of the combined business, Case oversaw the biggest media and communications empire in the world. In  The Third Wave , which pays homage to the work of the futurist Alvin Tof...

Our brains are incredible landscapes that medical science is just beginning to understand. They are made up of a vast territory of firing neurons bathed in chemicals that enable us to inhabit our bodies with authority and purpose. As humans, we exercise the most powerful machine of recall on the planet, with a memory capacity that far exceeds any modern-day hard drive. When faced with the challenge of assimilating new information, the human brain goes through a specific method of cognitive processing. All input is stored initially in short-term memory, but this piece of our processing is like a small bucket, constantly overflowing and losing facts under a deluge of information and sensation. Studies indicate short-term memory can hold up to 7 items for only twenty seconds at a time. Extensive research into learning strategies in the past few decades have enabled scientists to identify a few methods that ensure your brain will hold onto and remember the factual items you proce...

General Motors placated activist investors with help of return on invested capital ENLARGE NO CREDIT By   DAVID BENOIT Updated May 3, 2016 3:45 p.m. ET 37 COMMENTS Last year,  General Motors  Co.  fended off a group of activist investors with the help of an esoteric financial metric to which it had previously paid little heed. The century-old auto maker began publicly touting the statistic, known as return on invested capital, or ROIC. It tied compensation to a 20% target and said that above a $20 billion cushion, cash it couldn’t earn that return on would be handed back to shareholders. The steps placated the activists. GM’s move underscores that, as much as a financial metric can be, ROIC is all the rage. The popularity of the figure is also more evidence of the influence activists have come to wield in boardrooms. For ROIC lovers, which also include traditional stock pickers, the measure is the best way to dis...