Sound long-term strategy is key, particularly in a crisis
With the current global economic downturn and dire predictions of a re-run of the Great Depression of the 1930s, the forecast is all doom and gloom.
But Professor Michael Porter of Harvard University, a leading authority on competitive strategy, begs to differ. He believes this time of great economic upheaval to be the tipping point for companies – if only they know how to harness the right strategies.
In search of blue oceans: The Starwood experience
Are companies using Blue Ocean Strategy to search for ‘uncontested market space’ and, if so, how? One group which has been exploring blue ocean thinking for the past three years is Starwood Hotels and Resorts.
However, as INSEAD Knowledge has been finding out, the company has so far been taking a step-by-step approach to implementing the concept, rather than try to realise any sort of ‘grand vision’. As Starwood Vice President Robyn Pratt puts it, it’s more a ques
"The Cholera Pandemic and 19th Century Japanese Culture"
Lecture by Susan Burns, Professor in the History Department, University of Chicago. From the "Epidemics Then & Now: Infectious Diseases Around the World," the 2006 University of Chicago Summer Institute for Educators. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies, the Graham School of General Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for East European and R
“Enough: Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty”
A talk by journalist and author Roger Thurow. For more than thirty years, humankind has known how to grow enough food to end chronic hunger worldwide. Yet while the "Green Revolution" succeeded in South America and Asia, it never got to Africa. Now, an impending global food crisis threatens to make things worse. In the west we think of famine as
"The Cholera Pandemic and 19th Century Japanese Culture" (video)
Lecture by Susan Burns, Professor in the History Department, University of Chicago. From the "Epidemics Then & Now: Infectious Diseases Around the World," the 2006 University of Chicago Summer Institute for Educators. Co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies, the Graham School of General Studies, the Center for East Asian Studies, the Center for East European and R
Eyes on China: The Costs of Progress
On August 1, Mattel recalled approximately 1.5 million toys made by a manufacturer in China because of dangerous levels of lead in their paint. Four days earlier, the Chinese government ordered the country's banks to increase their reserves as part of an effort to cool down its red-hot economy. But quality concerns and rapid growth aren't China's only worries. There is also the government's need to keep forging ahead on preparations for the Olympics next August in Beijing, despite criticism abou
Jeremy Siegel on the Fed's Latest Cut, $4 Gasoline and the Best Strategy for Investors
The economy seems to be sinking toward recession, with new home sales at their lowest since the early 1990s. At the same time, inflation is picking up. Some Americans are paying $4 for a gallon of gas and coming home from the supermarket with sticker shock. Today, the Fed deemed recession the bigger worry and cut short-term interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point, from 2.25% to 2%. Was this the right choice? How will it affect the financial markets? Should investors bet on a stock mark
Wireless Technology: The Birds and the Bees ... and 4G
Just when consumers thought they had their 3G wireless gadgets all figured out, it's now time to start getting a grip on the fourth generation of wireless technology -- which will be much faster and far more disruptive than anything we have experienced before, according to Scott Snyder in his recent Wharton School Publishing book titled, The New World of Wireless: How to Compete in the 4G Revolution. In an interview with Knowledge@Wharton, Snyder, who is president and COO of consulting firm Deci
Postcards from the Vineyard: Exploring the World of Wine Tourism
In the book, In Search of Bacchus: Wanderings in the Wonderful World of Wine Tourism, author George M. Taber took on the task (someone had to do it) of visiting a dozen of the most breathtakingly beautiful wine regions around the globe. What he came back with is a travel guide for oenophiles that also serves as a primer on how and why winemakers are increasingly turning themselves into destination sites. In addition, Taber's tour opens a window on the growing segmentation of the travel industry
The Pursuit of Happyness Part 2 of 2 Part 2 of the amazing rags-to-riches story of the formerly homeless, now millionaire entrepreneur, Christopher Gardner, on which the movie 'The Pursuit of Happyness' is based.
Learning History by Playing a Mobile City Game
Digital games seem to be excellent tools for facilitating and supporting situated learning. This unbinding of knowledge from a specific context fosters its transfer to new problems and new domains. Additionally, childrens attitude towards computer games is the very attitude we would like all our learners to have. Therefore, it makes sense to try to merge the content of learning and the motivation of games. The objectives of this paper are to generate insights into the practicalities and the ef
Principles for designing Web searching instruction
Web searching is a timely topic which importance is recognized by researchers, educators and instructional designers. This paper aims to guide these practitioners in developing instructional materials for learning to search the Web. It does so by articulating ten design principles that attend to the content and presentation of Web searching instruction. These principles convey a mixture of insights gleaned from instructional theory, empirical research, and many hours of classroom experience. Tog
Exploring novice users' training needs in searching information on the World Wide Web.
Searching for information on the WWW involves locating a website and locating information on that site. A recent study implied that novice users' training needs exclusively relate to locating websites. The present case study tried to reveal the knowledge and skills that constitute these training needs. Fourteen pre-university students, classified as novice (n = 7) or experienced WWW-user (n = 7) performed three web search tasks. Their actions and verbalisations were recorded. Between-group compa
Supporting Conceptual Awareness with Pedagogical Agents
This paper describes a series of efforts in building and conceptualizing software agents
for distributed collaborative learning. The agents are referred to as pedagogical agents.
We have integrated pedagogical agents within two collaborative environments,
TeamWave Workplace and Future Learning Environment. The role of agents in these
environments differs from past work on software agents in their function as extended
awareness mechanisms, focusing on task and concept awareness (conceptual a
Selection and use of domain ontologies in Learning Networks for Lifelong Competence Development
A general problem in life-long learning is how to develop flexible and adaptive learning content, and how to choose and deliver the most appropriate learning activities for the learner. In order to solve this problem, we need to have the proper knowledge model, and clear interpretation how to use it. One possible solution is to use IMS Learning Design for modelling the learning process and ontologies for representing the domain knowledge and competencies. In this paper we present one specific ap
Technical Paper 4 - The Effective Provision of Pre-School Education (EPPE) Project: Parent, Family a
Information on the characteristics of the parents, families, and children was collected by parental interview at the start of the study. This information was used to describe the sample in terms of the parents (labour market participation, socio-economic characteristics, qualifications, marital status and age), the family (composition, ethnicity and language), the child’s health, development and behaviour, the child’s activities in the home, the use of pre-school provision and childcare hist
ASSIST project: processing humanities documents with text mining tools
This was a presentation given as part of the text mining workshop as part of the 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, held in Manchester between 18th and 20th July 2008....
UK Educational Evidence Portal Requirements for a new search engine using text mining
This was a presentation given as part of the text mining workshop as part of the 4th International Conference on e-Social Science, held in Manchester between 18th and 20th July 2008....
The Anatomy of the Liver
This RLO outlines the anatomy of the liver
La relégation des récidivistes en Guyane française : les relégués au bagne colonial de Saint-Je
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