by Dambisa Moyo ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 2021
A highly useful primer for investors and board members alike.
Economist Moyo, who serves on numerous corporate boards, explains their inner workings in admirably clear language.
“Strong and successful corporations are in the best interest of society. Indeed, the centrality of corporations to human progress cannot be overstated.” So writes Moyo, gainsaying those who argue that corporations are evil, outmoded, or both. As a board member, the author writes that she has seen numerous failures short of bankruptcy and just as many successes, even in difficult times. Agreeing that corporate boards need more diverse membership while arguing against quota appointments, Moyo holds that boards have an overarching function that is often ignored: While a CEO is in charge of daily operations, a board of directors and its various committees are collectively responsible for setting and maintaining long-term goals and visions, with “an important and central role to play in navigating global disruption.” The author is at her best when she focuses on that disruption and its many sources—e.g., competition from China, the imposition of trade barriers and other protectionist measures, the fallout from Brexit, Covid-19, the ascent of social media. For all that, she also notes that boards must fight the temptation to micromanage and to enter the realm of short-term thinking rather than long-term strategic decision-making. Boards must also become more aware of the life cycle of a business. Corporations typically last as long as mortgages do these days, not centuries as in the days of old, and even Jeff Bezos has predicted that Amazon and other large companies of today will be gone in 30 years. Finally, Moyo notes, corporate boards are increasingly called on to safeguard values, enforce ethics, and address social concerns such as gun control, data privacy, and mental health. “Society is holding companies to account precisely because these issues are important and not going away,” she writes. “In fact, the emphasis is likely only to increase.”
A highly useful primer for investors and board members alike.Pub Date: May 4, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5416-1942-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Basic Books
Review Posted Online: March 9, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 2021
Share your opinion of this book
More by Dambisa Moyo
BOOK REVIEW
by Dambisa Moyo
BOOK REVIEW
by Dambisa Moyo
by Erin Meyer ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 27, 2014
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.
A helpful guide to working effectively with people from other cultures.
“The sad truth is that the vast majority of managers who conduct business internationally have little understanding about how culture is impacting their work,” writes Meyer, a professor at INSEAD, an international business school. Yet they face a wider array of work styles than ever before in dealing with clients, suppliers and colleagues from around the world. When is it best to speak or stay quiet? What is the role of the leader in the room? When working with foreign business people, failing to take cultural differences into account can lead to frustration, misunderstanding or worse. Based on research and her experiences teaching cross-cultural behaviors to executive students, the author examines a handful of key areas. Among others, they include communicating (Anglo-Saxons are explicit; Asians communicate implicitly, requiring listeners to read between the lines), developing a sense of trust (Brazilians do it over long lunches), and decision-making (Germans rely on consensus, Americans on one decider). In each area, the author provides a “culture map scale” that positions behaviors in more than 20 countries along a continuum, allowing readers to anticipate the preferences of individuals from a particular country: Do they like direct or indirect negative feedback? Are they rigid or flexible regarding deadlines? Do they favor verbal or written commitments? And so on. Meyer discusses managers who have faced perplexing situations, such as knowledgeable team members who fail to speak up in meetings or Indians who offer a puzzling half-shake, half-nod of the head. Cultural differences—not personality quirks—are the motivating factors behind many behavioral styles. Depending on our cultures, we understand the world in a particular way, find certain arguments persuasive or lacking merit, and consider some ways of making decisions or measuring time natural and others quite strange.
These are not hard and fast rules, but Meyer delivers important reading for those engaged in international business.Pub Date: May 27, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-61039-250-1
Page Count: 288
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: April 15, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
by Abhijit V. Banerjee & Esther Duflo ‧ RELEASE DATE: Nov. 12, 2019
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.
“Quality of life means more than just consumption”: Two MIT economists urge that a smarter, more politically aware economics be brought to bear on social issues.
It’s no secret, write Banerjee and Duflo (co-authors: Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way To Fight Global Poverty, 2011), that “we seem to have fallen on hard times.” Immigration, trade, inequality, and taxation problems present themselves daily, and they seem to be intractable. Economics can be put to use in figuring out these big-issue questions. Data can be adduced, for example, to answer the question of whether immigration tends to suppress wages. The answer: “There is no evidence low-skilled migration to rich countries drives wage and employment down for the natives.” In fact, it opens up opportunities for those natives by freeing them to look for better work. The problem becomes thornier when it comes to the matter of free trade; as the authors observe, “left-behind people live in left-behind places,” which explains why regional poverty descended on Appalachia when so many manufacturing jobs left for China in the age of globalism, leaving behind not just left-behind people but also people ripe for exploitation by nationalist politicians. The authors add, interestingly, that the same thing occurred in parts of Germany, Spain, and Norway that fell victim to the “China shock.” In what they call a “slightly technical aside,” they build a case for addressing trade issues not with trade wars but with consumption taxes: “It makes no sense to ask agricultural workers to lose their jobs just so steelworkers can keep theirs, which is what tariffs accomplish.” Policymakers might want to consider such counsel, especially when it is coupled with the observation that free trade benefits workers in poor countries but punishes workers in rich ones.
Occasionally wonky but overall a good case for how the dismal science can make the world less—well, dismal.Pub Date: Nov. 12, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-61039-950-0
Page Count: 432
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Aug. 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2019
Share your opinion of this book
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.