A detailed, well-illustrated overview of Mongolian small businesses that are growing with the help of local microcredit.
An inside look at some of the small businesses driving Mongolia’s economic growth and future.
After several decades of working in development finance, the author has written his first book, focusing on the role of microcredit in Mongolia, where he spent several years running the World Bank’s operations. The book profiles 10 entrepreneurs from different regions of the country; they all had built their businesses with small loans from XacBank, a local bank that was established during the country’s transition from communism to a more free-market economy. The businesses profiled include both rural and urban operations that provide services ranging from medical care in remote communities to beekeeping to freshly baked bread to insulation that allows traditional Mongolian houses to reduce their dependence on fossil fuels for heating. In addition to an overview of the business and the importance of XacBank funding, each profile includes the entrepreneur’s personal story, plans for the future and views on topics such as corporate social responsibility to Mongolia’s blend of traditional and modern ways of life. The book begins with an overview of Mongolia from its earliest days to the present, covering the basics for readers unfamiliar with the country’s history of empire, occupation and independence, or with its ties to and conflicts with both Russia and China, its largest neighbors. Full color illustrations on every page give the reader a vibrant picture of modern Mongolia, from its skyscrapers to its nomadic herders, and photographs of the featured entrepreneurs and their businesses show the concrete results of microlending. The author’s enthusiasm for XacBank is evident throughout, and the book concludes with a profile of the bank since its founding, along with commentary from current and former executives. While the uncritical admiration of XacBank’s role in developing Mongolia’s economy may give readers pause, they should note that the book is less an analysis of microfinance in Central Asia than a compelling series of case studies that celebrates some of Mongolia’s recent success stories.
A detailed, well-illustrated overview of Mongolian small businesses that are growing with the help of local microcredit.Pub Date: July 28, 2013
ISBN: 978-1468067880
Page Count: 200
Publisher: CreateSpace
Review Posted Online: Feb. 27, 2014
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our...
A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 3, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
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A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.
A well-constructed critique of an economic system that, by the author’s account, is a driver of the world’s destruction.
Harvard Business School professor Henderson vigorously questions the bromide that “management’s only duty is to maximize shareholder value,” a notion advanced by Milton Friedman and accepted uncritically in business schools ever since. By that logic, writes the author, there is no reason why corporations should not fish out the oceans, raise drug prices, militate against public education (since it costs tax money), and otherwise behave ruinously and anti-socially. Many do, even though an alternative theory of business organization argues that corporations and society should enjoy a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit, which includes corporate investment in what economists call public goods. Given that the history of humankind is “the story of our increasing ability to cooperate at larger and larger scales,” one would hope that in the face of environmental degradation and other threats, we might adopt the symbiotic model rather than the winner-take-all one. Problems abound, of course, including that of the “free rider,” the corporation that takes the benefits from collaborative agreements but does none of the work. Henderson examines case studies such as a large food company that emphasized environmentally responsible production and in turn built “purpose-led, sustainable living brands” and otherwise led the way in increasing shareholder value by reducing risk while building demand. The author argues that the “short-termism” that dominates corporate thinking needs to be adjusted to a longer view even though the larger problem might be better characterized as “failure of information.” Henderson closes with a set of prescriptions for bringing a more equitable economics to the personal level, one that, among other things, asks us to step outside routine—eat less meat, drive less—and become active in forcing corporations (and politicians) to be better citizens.
A readable, persuasive argument that our ways of doing business will have to change if we are to prosper—or even survive.Pub Date: May 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5417-3015-1
Page Count: 336
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Review Posted Online: Feb. 16, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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