Re: The M.B.A. - why bother?
You'll have to do field research. I'll be glad to talk to you privately once your project matures. There are also a lot of rules of thumb in different industries in hiring and promotion you might look at. Best Regards, MG From: Pat McCann [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 10:23 AM Subject: Re: The M.B.A. - why bother? As an undergraduate economics major investigating the
Re: The M.B.A. - why bother?
In my experience, outside of specialized consultants, many consulting firms hire preferentially philosophy/history majors with knowledge of languages and supervisory experience. Sales and community experience is helpful. MBAs are for scutwork, as they say, and you're supposed to pick up engineering background unless you are a specialist. Persons with knowledge of opera who enjoy country music are considered way ahead of the pack as business and economic analysts, whatever the background. Most other requirements are there to satisfy government mandates, dazzle customers or mislead those who do not have the background and are trying to get hired. There are even standards based on hobbies an interests that are used for hiring, as these tend to be quite revealing when all other factors are constant. Alexander Proudfoot, for many years the top implementation consulting firm, hired top persons exclusively based on their ability to apply the philosophy of Gracian, Sun-Tzu, various Samurai thinkers and Lao-tse to business situations in interesting ways, Aristotle's Physics was required reading for top persons. Top marks to anyone on the list who figures out why all this must be so. The NYT is 70 years behind the curve and why are academics assuming they understand that it has any understanding of how consultants act? For many years a major firm used a device called a consensor on those with academic training or government backgrounds. This device was like the electronic voting devices on TV that averaged responses. They were asked a set of questions on how to solve a problem. Those that did not follow the pack were hired, especially if they knew opera. Many consulting firms, however, exist that do not follow such standards as they are in the business of justifying decisions already taken. For them MBA's and other degrees are a signaling device and are so called quite openly, also "union cards." Best Regards, MG Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2000 10:15 PM Subject: The M.B.A. - why bother? Business schools have been criticized for being pure credentialing agencies. The New York Time ran an article today about how consulting firms are hiring non-MBA's. usually people with graduate degrees in any field. In house studies show that MBA do just as well as non-MBAs. The article is: http://www.nytimes.com/2000/10/01/business/01MBAS.html Question 1: What took firms so long to realize this? Did they just depend on the MBA as an easy signal (smart, business oriented) until the stream of MBA's started to get diverted to the internet start ups? Question 2: In a competitive market for labor, what value does the MBA degree have? The NYT article reports that non-MBA pick up what they need in a few weeks. Is there any value added? -fabio
Re: The Economics of Chess conventions
a)My understanding is that touching the piece often causes the opponent to reveal "tells" or body signals indicative of his strategy. It also prevents claims a piece was moved by mistake. b)Poker? Monopoly?Tower building games (judging a marginal effect)? Best Regards, MG Question: Chess players often use the "touch rule" - you touch a piece, you move it. Is there any economic motivation for this rule? Question: Any other games use economic insights to make playing and spectating more fun? -fabio
Re: The Economics of Chess conventions
I would add that in poker, money management is also very critical. One can lose most of the games, and often must, to end up with the largest pot I notice the responses so far seem to divide this list among the games that attempt to model a portion of reality, such as Diplomacy, Risk and so forth, and then those that seem to model specific economic behaviors such as risk avoidance and resource management and are more traditional and abstract, such as poker. There is a whole class of jigsaw puzzle games used by corporate trainers to specifically model economic behavior in industrial decision making as a teaching device. One may argue the famed Monopoly is such a game for the wider public, as are city-building games such as began with "Gilgamesh" and continue with Sim-City and Empire. Do they model "Crusoe economics" by using entire sets of economic behavior? And--what about co-operative games where the point is to help everyone win, such as Korean circle ball ( after which hackey-sack is modeled) or the focus is on personal action, such as certain "girls games," acculturation games used by therapists and in many communes or social settings, or games played by toddlers? Best Regards, MG From: Fred Foldvary [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2000 9:04 AM Subject: Re: The Economics of Chess conventions Question: Any other games use economic insights to make playing and spectating more fun? -fabio Poker uses two insights: 1. Rent. There are higher and lower valued cards, so a hand (set of cards) acquires a rent, paid by betting. 2. Entrepreneurship. One can win not just by having a highest-valued hand but also by bluffing, making others believe that one has it. The card-player as enterpreneur is successful if he knows the market, i.e. the playing styles of the others and the likely supplies (hands) and demands (likely bets). Fred Foldvary
Re: Xerox machines and book prices
This has been going on for years. Xlibris, Ingram, American University Press (starting up), Libertarian Sci-Fi author's Schulman's Pulpless.com, LIO is looking into using it for translations, etc. The nice thing is also many books out of print are now available like Dover used to do, only more titles. Best Regards, MG From: Bernard Girard [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Tuesday, September 12, 2000 1:51 AM Subject: Re: Xerox machines and book prices That's an idea almost as old as xerography. Does anyone knows of a company (or library) that markets this type of service? michael gilson de lemos a *crit : Hmmm. What about on-demand publishing, which is JIT, controlled set-up costs and dependent on photocopying technology? Best Regards, MG
Re:more refills.
Is it more appropriate to say free refill, or doling out in small quantities that not all may use--and one depends on people not using all they are entitled to? If the latter, can the multiplier effect in some sense be viewed as what happens when people do not use all they are entitled to, allowing banks to loan deposits? Best Regards, MG
Re: Summer reruns
Also, a lot of folks don't like to work in the summer.Especially in CA. Best Regards, MG been averse to breaking the tradition and producing more original content in the summer to capture market share from their rivals? R.J. Lehmann Retail Editor Travel Weekly (201) 902-1931 (v) (201) 319-1947 (f)
Re: Free Re-fills
Restaurants of what type and what were their corresponding policies? Best Regards, MG Is there any logic to whether restaraunts offer free refills for soda drinks? I've observed one street alone among three restaraunts
