Talent management for the twenty-first century

Most firms have no formal programs for anticipating and fulfilling talent needs, relying on an increasingly expensive pool of outside candidates that has been shrinking since it was created from the white-collar layoffs of the 1980s. But the advice these companies are getting to solve the problem--institute large-scale internal development programs--is equally ineffective. Internal development was the norm back in the 1950s, and every management-development practice that seems novel today was routine in those years--from executive coaching to 360-degree feedback to job rotation to high-potential programs. However, the stable business environment and captive talent pipelines in which such practices were born no longer exist. It's time for a fundamentally new approach to talent management. Fortunately, companies already have such a model, one that has been well honed over decades to anticipate and meet demand in uncertain environments: supply chain management. Cappelli, a professor at the Wharton School, focuses on four practices in particular. First, companies should balance make-versus-buy decisions by using internal development programs to produce most--but not all--of the needed talent, filling in with outside hiring. Second, firms can reduce the risks in forecasting the demand for talent by sending smaller batches of candidates through more modularized training systems in much the same way manufacturers now employ components in just-in-time production lines. Third, companies can improve their returns on investment in development efforts by adopting novel cost-sharing programs. Fourth, they should seek to protect their investments by generating internal opportunities to encourage newly trained managers to stick with the firm. Taken together, these principles form the foundation for a new paradigm in talent management: a talent-on-demand system.     

Cities and environment in the twenty-first century: A future-oriented synthesis after Habitat II

A gigantic urban revolution is under way today: in 40 years, the equivalent of 1000 cities, each of three million inhabitants, will have to be built. In 2005, half of the world's population will live in cities. This growth will be concentrated in major cities, most of them in the South. This article reviews some fundamental trends, challenges and possible solutions in environment-related fields such as water, transports, energy. It argues for the emergence of a new urban culture based on the adoption of sustainable urban consumption patterns, new urban partnerships and the strengthening of urban solidarities. It gives examples of practical solutions within our reach for humanizing cities in the 21st century.     

Thinking for the future: global corporate responsibility in the twenty-first century

This paper reflects on the kinds of responsibility businesses today must exercise in order to be part of the solution to the problems of a globalising world. These problems are to a large extent rooted in the dynamics of a globalization that is driven by business objectives and operations. They are brought to the fore of global consciousness by civil society protest on the one hand and investor pressure on the other in a manner that reminds us of Adam Smith's anxieties concerning the threats posed by corporate power. It is clear that in our time the systemic complexities of global interdependence magnify these threats in ways beyond the control of governments and nation states. The remedy must thus lie with the companies themselves. Businesses, whether global or local, must recognize that as agents of global change they are acting not simply as economic but also as moral agents. They must assume the responsibility for the effects of their actions, and we argue that the best way to do this is to commit to the primacy of human rights as an overarching value governing all their internal and external dealings. This has its difficulties, as we discuss in the latter part of the article: we use the example of a Brazilian study to illustrate some of the problems of acting out such a commitment. This study also illustrates the point that the futures of business and of the communities in which they exist are intertwined; shareholder value and human rights are interactive elements of ‘good’ business.     

Employee leasing. The antebellum 1800s and the twenty-first century: A historical perspective of the contingent labour force

Management strategies have evolved over the centuries in response to economic and social needs of individuals and organizations. The maintenance of a flexible labour force was a management practice employed by industrialists more than a century ago. The use of employee leasing in the United States dates back to the industrial revolution that occurred during the nineteenth century. Industrialists leased bondsmen to supplement their labour force. This practice, known as 'hiring-out', permitted employers to obtain labour without making heavy investments in human resources. The motivations for maintaining a contingent labour force today are essentially unchanged from a century ago. This paper addresses the nineteenth-century use of a contingent labour force by the large Southern firm of Andrew Brown and Company in the period prior to the US Civil War.     

Innovation in monetary policy: Challenge and response

This paper presents some relatively non-technical thoughts on the changing rôle of money under the pressure of declining transactions costs and the innovations in monetary policy-making it induces or requires. In the first part, recent British experience is interpreted as a serious warning about the special rôle of money among financial assets under present-day circumstances and the high cost of disregarding it. While this may please the ‘monetarists’, the remainder of the paper argues, as a counterpoint, that this may not remain so forever. In particular, as argued in the second part, the evolution of the Eurodollar market suggests that the rôle of bank money and the significance of the money multiplier are declining. The third part visualizes the outlines of an economy in which the decline in transactions costs has made money stocks generally obsolete.     

A comparative analysis of US policy initiatives and their implications in a credit crisis: The Depression Era of the 1920s in a twenty-first century context

In the closing days of the recent current credit crunch, policymakers have been searching for solutions to make the global banking system more robust to withstand future crises. A range of options are presently under consideration, but principal concerns relate to three core issues: the adequacy of the capital bases of banks, the realisation that some banks are ‘too big to fail’ owing to the impact of failure on the wider economy, and the need to refocus lenders’ attention on the importance of the quality of the borrower as opposed to more abstract future cashflows derived from a project or line of business such as mortgages. This article considers the causes of a previous ‘credit crunch’, this being the banking crisis that preceded the Great Depression of the 1920s in the United States. Legislative responses by the US government at that time are evaluated in terms of potential applicability to the recent credit crunch. The article provides an informed analysis for marketing strategy formulation aimed at encouraging and promoting trust among banks themselves, and banks and their principal stakeholders. It argues that if new stakeholders or providers of additional bank capital are not forthcoming, formal legislative intervention may be the only solution available to regulators. In this regard, marketing and communications strategies take on a wholly new importance in promoting the stability of the international banking industry.     

企业信誉:最大的挑战

一个不该告到法院的例子:1999年12月1日,金王保健品公司将800万元存入北京市商业银行复兴分行.十几天后金王保健品公司却发现795万元被人无故取走,经查原是银行工作人员黄明喜偷拿金王公司预留印鉴片并提供给外部工作人员景庆春内外勾结所为.西城区法院于2001年10月16日一审判决北京市商业银行归还警方无法追回储户的272万元.法院认为,存款虽为黄明喜、景庆春勾结骗取,但复兴支行在这笔存款被取走时未严格审查有关划转手续,因此负有过错责任.但是北京市商业银行不服一审判决,提起上诉,最后二审的结果是:追不回的存款由黄明喜、景庆春归还,因为这是由个人行为造成的后果.     

A vision for Nicaragua : Health services in the new century

Nicaragua is facing a crisis in health and health care, and a health futures programme has been initiated to focus concern and mobilize key actors. Two national scenario workshops have been held at which participants constructed several scenarios describing alternative health futures for the country, with particular emphasis on the organization of health services. One or these, a scenario of profound change, was selected by the participants as their vision of the preferred future. It involves more emphasis on health promotion, decentralization of health-care services, broader participation in health matters, improved training for health professionals, and a stronger role for universities and other educational and research centres. Implications of the selected scenario regarding health policies and actions have been identified, among them being the adoption and implementation of the Ottawa Charter on Health Promotion, the organization of local health service networks, and the more active involvement of health professionals in the designing of health systems.     

长期利率对货币政策的挑战:一个述评

由于长期利率对居民和企业投资消费行为、资源配置发挥重要作用,因此,央行必须确保短期基准利率能够有效影响长期利率,才能实现货币政策最终目标。目前多数研究认为,短期利率和长期利率之间并不存在稳定的关系,影响长期利率变动的因素较为复杂,危机前一段时间,曾出现长期利率之谜现象。作者从风险溢价的角度对此进行了解释,并认为这是危机前全球流动性泛滥导致货币政策失灵的一个表现。作者在分析发达国家经济实践的基础上,提出了未来我国货币政策向价格型调控转变过程中需要处理好的几个问题。     

知识经济对税收的挑战

知识经济的到来，给税收政策、税收征管及税务人员带来了新的挑战。我国应忙着手研究有关的税收政策，适时调整税收制度；加快征管技术革新；加快人才培养。     

A vision for communities in the 21st century: back to the future

Globalization, in its capitalistic and popular cultural form, is impacting communities around the world. This paper uses two models to show how globalization actually arose several millennia ago and how the process has greatly accelerated in recent times. One model describes the ‘information technology system’ and the second is James Miller’s living systems model. Using these models as a foundation, this paper argues that globalization can severely weaken communities and is antithetical to future-oriented perspectives. If current globalization trends continue unabated, globalization may result in a future world characterized by satiated consumers whose every desire is met by a totally efficient but completely impersonal economic system. In this world, people do not depend directly upon face-to-face interaction for their economic well being. Because of this, community and even culture collapses. Contrasted to this soulless world, it is argued that a new future could evolve where concern about the future replaces individualistic and market-oriented concerns as the prime motivator of public policy. This future has a good probability of occurring since current populations are being socialized to understand the broad concept of globalization. Additionally, new technologies will allow the development of small, mostly self-sufficient communities which will facilitate the re-emergence of community life and obligations.     

价值链会计:助中国企业应对入世挑战

中国加入WTO后,企业的业务模式会发生改变,对于我国的民族企业而言,信息化和风险防范是新的业务模式成功的关键。我国民族企业要想提高自身的竞争力,不能只将目光局限于本企业自身,应通过价值链分析实现物资、信息的共享,从而降低成本,提升本企业的价值。价值链会计可以帮助我国的民族企业在中国加入WTO后适应变化了的生存环境,是值得推广的一种管理方法。     

A lost century in economics: Three theories of banking and the conclusive evidence

How do banks operate and where does the money supply come from? The financial crisis has heightened awareness that these questions have been unduly neglected by many researchers. During the past century, three different theories of banking were dominant at different times: (1) The currently prevalent financial intermediation theory of banking says that banks collect deposits and then lend these out, just like other non-bank financial intermediaries. (2) The older fractional reserve theory of banking says that each individual bank is a financial intermediary without the power to create money, but the banking system collectively is able to create money through the process of ‘multiple deposit expansion’ (the ‘money multiplier’). (3) The credit creation theory of banking, predominant a century ago, does not consider banks as financial intermediaries that gather deposits to lend out, but instead argues that each individual bank creates credit and money newly when granting a bank loan. The theories differ in their accounting treatment of bank lending as well as in their policy implications. Since according to the dominant financial intermediation theory banks are virtually identical with other non-bank financial intermediaries, they are not usually included in the economic models used in economics or by central bankers. Moreover, the theory of banks as intermediaries provides the rationale for capital adequacy-based bank regulation. Should this theory not be correct, currently prevailing economics modelling and policy-making would be without empirical foundation. Despite the importance of this question, so far only one empirical test of the three theories has been reported in learned journals. This paper presents a second empirical test, using an alternative methodology, which allows control for all other factors. The financial intermediation and the fractional reserve theories of banking are rejected by the evidence. This finding throws doubt on the rationale for regulating bank capital adequacy to avoid banking crises, as the case study of Credit Suisse during the crisis illustrates. The finding indicates that advice to encourage developing countries to borrow from abroad is misguided. The question is considered why the economics profession has failed over most of the past century to make any progress concerning knowledge of the monetary system, and why it instead moved ever further away from the truth as already recognised by the credit creation theory well over a century ago. The role of conflicts of interest and interested parties in shaping the current bank-free academic consensus is discussed. A number of avenues for needed further research are indicated.     

Electronic Commerce and the State Retail Sales Tax: A Challenge to American Federalism

Electronic commerce, by magnifying problems with the existing sales tax, has precipitated reexamination of basic precepts of fiscal federalism in the United States, not just taxation of remote sellers. This paper examines: key features of electronic commerce; the Internet Tax Freedom Act and the Commission it mandates; tax assignments in the United States; problems in assigning sales taxes to subnational governments; constitutional impediments to requiring remote vendors to collect sales and use taxes; tentative findings of the National Tax Association's project on taxation of electronic commerce; and implications of the current debate over taxation of electronic commerce for intergovernmental fiscal relations in the United States.     

财务假账挑战税务执法

财务假账面面观 因部分会计师事务所协同世界重量级上市公司及中国银广厦等上市公司造假，会计师事务所遭遇的信任危机正席卷全美国并向世界各国蔓延，信用危机震撼……