Trial-by-fire transformation: an interview with Globe Metallurgical's Arden C. Sims. Interview by Bruce Rayner

Globe Metallurgical Inc., a $115 million supplier of specialty metals, is best known as the first small company to win the Baldrige Award in 1988. But there is much more to this gutsy little company than total quality. During the 1980s, Globe transformed itself from a rust-belt has-been on the verge of bankruptcy into a high-technology, high-quality industry leader. Along the way, the company went private in a management-led leveraged buyout, embraced flexible work teams, adopted a high-value-added, niche marketing strategy, and took its business global. Leading the way in Globe's reinvention was Chief Executive Arden C. Sims, the slow-talking son of a West Virginian coal miner. When he joined the company in 1984, Sims had no experience in the new managerial techniques. He was a product of the old school of management: cut costs and trim operations to regain competitiveness. But he soon discovered that old-style management was not enough to battle offshore competitors, an unproductive work force, rising costs, and outdated production technology. He was forced to go looking for new ideas and practices. In a succession of learning experiences, Sims attended a seminar on total quality in 1985, paving the way for the company's quality program; he discovered the power of flexible work teams when management was forced to run the furnaces during a year-long strike; he organized an LBO, allowing him to change the work order even more dramatically; and he took the company global and into highly profitable niche markets by severing a long-standing relationship with Globe's sales and marketing representative. As a result of these and other changes, Globe leads the specialty metals industry in virtually all performance measures.     

Life insurance for endowment--great concept or a booby trap?

Life insurance as a charitable gift is an attractive alternative. But first the fund raiser must check out the companies and the different types of policies available.     

Consumer-centered vs. job-centered health insurance

Most employees and their dependents in the United States have health insurance provided by the employer or labor-management health and welfare fund. In this system, employees and their families lose their health insurance when the breadwinner loses his or her job while, at the same time, a Medicaid beneficiary can lose Medicaid eligibility by getting a job, even a poorly paid one. Most health insurance pays the doctor on the basis of fee-for-service and the hospital on the basis of cost-reimbursement, rewarding both with more revenue for providing more and more costly services. The insured employee has little or no incentive to seek out a less costly provider. There are no rewards for economy in this system. It should be little wonder, then, that health care costs are out of control. There are alternative financing and delivery systems with built-in incentives to use resources economically, but, the author of this article asserts, their ability to compete and attract patients with their superior economic efficiency is blocked by many laws and government programs. The author believes that the most effective and acceptable way to get costs under control, and at the same time achieve universal coverage, would be through a system of fair economic competition. He discusses his Consumer Choice Health Plan proposal and describes how one of the main barriers to competition is today's system of job-linked health insurance.     

Public sector health insurance trusts

Public sector associations have successfully developed and run employee health insurance pools for almost 30 years, providing members with savings and flexibility not available from commercial health insurance carriers. This article looks at the models, technical tools and governance philosophy that have contributed to their success in a very challenging business environment.     

中国奥运网络广告主研究报告（2008年01-02月）

2008年1月:总体广告价值估算超过8700万元奥运三个级别32个广告主(强生既是奥运TOP全球合作伙伴又是北京奥运会合作伙伴)中有20个广告主2008年1月份进行了网络广告的投放。其中,8个奥运TOP全球合作伙伴,8个北京奥运会合作伙伴和5个北京奥运会赞助商。投放广告的价值估算合计超过8700万元。     

Population and development: controversy and reconciliation

This paper evaluates the 2 most important antinatalist arguments the have dominated the population debate over the last 25 years, drawing heavily on 3 1984 studies -- land and resource scarcity and saving and investment. The extent to which these arguments have successfully included the indirect effects of population growth on an economy in order to determine the net impact of population is assessed an emerging revisionist interpretation of the role of population in development is discussed. It is believed that on scientific grounds, and focusing primarily on economic impact, neither the arguments nor the various models used to support the antinatalist position sufficiently support the strength of the general conclusion that population growth exerts a strong adverse impact on the economy. Population growth reveals sooner the symptoms of underlying problems, but many of the solutions are to be found in areas other than altering the rate of population growth. Population growth is viewed less as a cause of development problems and more as an agent that pushes more fundamental problems to the forefront. Empirical evidence concerning nonrenewable resource constraints is not sufficient to make any strong conclusion about the impact of rapid population growth. With regard to food, the problem is more one of unrealized potential for increasing agricultural output and of the distribution of income than of diminishing returns to land. The results of economic research have failed to provide substantial and convincing empirical evidence to support the strong antinatalist concern about the adverse effect rapid population growth has on savings and investment. Authors of recent literature reviews deemphasized this impact. A revisionist interpretation deemphasizes some of the traditional" hypothesized direct influence of population and assigns population the role of an accomplice in contrast to the leading role of villain in the development story. To this list is added the importance of the pace of population growth and the political response to it. 2 problems commonly attributed to population are noted to illustrate some of the relevant considerations: food imbalance and high unemployment rates. For many countries, a main cause of food shortage is government policy that penalizes agriculture through the imposition of taxes and subsidies that twist the terms of trade against farmers, thereby reducing incentives to produce and innovate. 1 impact of rapid population growth is to bring this problem to a head sooner. It also forces a more rapid response. The critical question is whether such "time pressure" is more or less likely to bring about changes that will address the causes of the problem or the manifestations of problems. For high rates of unemployment or underemployed labor in 3rd world cities, the question is whether the pressure of time results in a resolution of the fundamental causes or just a treatment of the symptoms.     

Population growth,human capital expenditures and economic growth: a macroeconometric analysis

"The paper presents an econometrically estimated model where economic and demographic variables are determined simultaneously. It is used to quantify the importance of human capital expenditures in socioeconomic and demographic development as well as analyze the effects of rapid population growth on human capital expenditures. The simulation results indicate that human capital expenditures are important determinants of economic development, have appreciable negative effects on both fertility and infant mortality, hence, have negligible net effects on population in human capital expenditures per capita which implies a deteriorating quality of human capital."     

Projected long-term demographic trends and aggregate personal saving in the United States

The potential effect of the changing age distribution of the U.S. population on the level of aggregate saving is examined. "The Modigliani-Brumberg life-cycle model predicts a relationship between age distribution and the aggregate saving ratio via the population growth rate, which affects the ratio of earner/savers to retiree-dissavers. Aging resulting from slower population growth will result in a decline in the aggregate saving rate. This paper utilizes empirical age-saving relations, together with projected long-run population age distributions, to estimate the age distribution effect on aggregate personal saving. Results predict a much smaller decline in the saving ratio than is generated by the basic life-cycle model."