Harvard Business Review. 2015. Thirty years ago, no less a business guru than Peter Drucker weighed in, skewering short-termism in a Wall Street Journal editorial.
“Everyone who has worked with American management can testify that the need to satisfy the pension fund manager’s quest for higher earnings next quarter, together with the panicky fear of the raider, constantly pushes top managements toward decisions they know to be costly, if not suicidal, mistakes,” he wrote.
The Atlantic. 2016. There was a time, half a century ago, when what was good for many American corporations tended to also be good for America. Companies invested in their workers and new technologies, and as a result, they prospered and their employees did too.
Now, a growing group of business leaders is worried that companies are too concerned with short-term profits, focused only on making money for shareholders. As a result, they’re not investing in their workers, in research, or in technology—short-term costs that would reduce profits temporarily. And this, the business leaders say, may be creating long-term problems for the nation.
June 2021. Gallup. Among all the bad news recently is this positive discovery: German companies are perhaps becoming much more agile.
In fact, Gallup’s Agility Index shows an eight-percentage-point increase — from 9% in 2019 to 17% in 2020 — in German workers who strongly agree their company has the right mindset, tools and processes to respond quickly to business needs.
September 2022. Many of the problems we face today, from recent global recessions to climate change, can be traced back to short term thinking. This week, host Elisa is joined by Ari Wallach, futurist and author of Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors our Future Needs.
Ari acutely notes that we are at a significant turning point in history, one when bold change is needed to lay the groundwork for future generations. Yet, many Americans remain distracted by division and focused on the here and now.
How do we compare to other nations that might be taking a longer term view of themselves? And how can we rethink our political, corporate, and education systems to better adapt to, and take leadership in, establishing the innovations to come?
Done is Better Than Perfect: Perfectionism is no friend in addressing geopolitical challenges that impact the German economy.
German companies’ ability to perfect processes or products is unique in the global market and lends any export with a Made in Germany stamp a certain level of cachet. But this perfection comes at a cost in global economies that are increasingly oriented toward fast-paced industries and cutting-edge technology: it takes an enormous amount of time to achieve.
In a tech-focused world where the most successful new companies do the opposite of what has made German firms successful for so long—moving fast and breaking things, as Facebook would like us to believe—several geopolitical factors add to the headwind.
The harder the science, the shorter the length. The humanities, for example History, are the longest. Because they explain with words, and in detail. No surprise there.
Average length of PhD dissertations by major from
dataisbeautiful
A typical dissertation runs between 250 and 300 pages, divided into four or five chapters, often with a short conclusion following the final full-scale chapter.
There is no set minimum or maximum length, but anything below about 225 pages will likely look insubstantial in comparison to others, while anything over 350 pages may suggest a lack of proportion and control of the topic, and would probably take too long to write.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.” – Yogi Berra
The term Yogi-isms was created to describe Berra’s malapropisms and unintentional witticism. But they’re not just for laughs. As simple as the above statement is, nothing is more true.
We aim for perfection without a correct idea of what perfection might demand from us. To strengthen our resolve, we need to improve our picture of what sacrifices any achievement will demand.
A parody with video style and presentation inspired by Bill Wurtz.