Building a leadership brand

How do some firms produce a pipeline of consistently excellent managers? Instead of concentrating merely on strengthening the skills of individuals, these companies focus on building a broad organizational leadership capability. It's what Ulrich and Smallwood--cofounders of the RBL Group, a leadership development consultancy--call a leadership brand. Organizations with leadership brands take an "outside-in" approach to executive development. They begin with a clear statement of what they want to be known for by customers and then link it with a required set of management skills. The Lexus division of Toyota, for instance, translates its tagline--"The pursuit of perfection"--into an expectation that its leaders excel at managing quality processes. The slogan of Bon Secours Health System is "Good help to those in need." It demands that its managers balance business skills with compassion and caring. The outside-in approach helps firms build a reputation for high-quality leaders whom customers trust to deliver on the company's promises. In examining 150 companies with strong leadership capabilities, the authors found that the organizations follow five strategies. First, make sure managers master the basics of leadership--for example, setting strategy and grooming talent. Second, ensure that leaders internalize customers' high expectations. Third, incorporate customer feedback into evaluations of executives. Fourth, invest in programs that help managers hone the right skills, by tapping customers to participate in such programs. Finally, track the success of efforts to build leadership bench strength over the long-term. The result is outstanding management that persists even when individual executives leave. In fact, companies with the strongest leadership brands often become "leader feeders"--firms that regularly graduate leaders who go on to head other companies.     

Mortality and the fate of communist states

The author suggests that the general tendency to overestimate the economic success of communist countries by Western scholars before the breakup of the Soviet Union was due primarily to a failure to take proper account of demographic factors, and particularly declines occurring in life expectancy. "The first section reviews the anomalous history of mortality trends in Central and Eastern Europe and the USSR between the end of the Second World War and the 'end of the Cold War'. The second draws inferences about economic performance in those countries from their mortality trends. The third examines some characteristic differences in mortality trends between those areas in which communist rule has recently collapsed and those in which it continues, and speculates about the significance of the distinction. The final section discusses the significance of current mortality trends for post-communist societies, especially as they pertain to the prospective transition to a stable economic and political order."     

里斯本进程:要求与现实

欧盟于2000年3月在里斯本制定了一项发展战略,力争到2010年使欧盟成为“世界上最富竞争力和以知识经济为基础的最具有活力的经济体”。现在时间已经过去了一半,但是这一战略的实施情况并不乐观。实现以科学和技术为基础的、知识经济型的增长对欧盟来说是很苛刻的,但是增长的空间却十分广阔。制约里斯本战略实现的因素很多,其中重要的一项就是欧盟国家特别是一些欧盟大国对科研和创新工作投入不足。为了实现里斯本战略,必须抓住当前的主要问题,调整政策,进行必要的改革。     

Why a well-paid nurse is a better nurse

In an article subtitled "Why is a Badly Paid Nurse a Good Nurse?" economist Anthony Heyes argues that nursing wages should be kept low. Counter arguments are provided based on what the authors consider more adequate economic analysis.     

Evaluating the impacts of human capital stocks and accumulation on economic growth: some new evidence

"Various hypotheses have been put forward in recent years concerning the contribution of human capital to economic growth. This paper argues that school enrolment rates--by far the most commonly used human capital measure in growth regressions attempting to test these hypotheses--conflate human capital stock and accumulation effects and lead to misinterpretations of the role of labour force growth. An alternative education-related human capital measure is constructed which is capable of distinguishing between stocks and flows. Applying this measure to samples of developed and less developed countries during the 1960-85 period suggests not only that there are important growth effects associated both with 'initial' stocks of, and subsequent growth in, human capital, but also that this new measure out-performs the simple school enrolment rates used in previous analyses."     

草原经营的生态经济评价

草原生态经济系统发展的状态是通过生态经济评价来鉴别的。对草原生态经济的主体过程——草原畜牧业的评价,过去往往只从经济效益方面进行,甚至只用牲畜存栏头数一个指标来衡量,以致带来了草原过牧等一系列不良后果.实际上,要实现真正的效益畜牧业,“效益”就应该是包括生态效益和经济效益在内的完全效益,即生态经济效益。进行生态经济效益评价,就要运用许多生态经济指标,为此生态经济科学往往设计一个庞大的指标体系。但是考虑到草原畜牧业,比起其它的产业,是经营更为粗放的经济部门,评价的科学性要和普及性相结合,因而更适合应用一组简便易行的指标。以下将提出对草原经营进行生态经济评