The Soul of Enterprise: Business in the Transformation Economy by THRESHOLD

We are excited to announce that Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman, Ogilvy Group UK, in London, will be our guest on August 29, for the entire show. Rory has delivered several TED talks, along with many others, including our favorite, a Zeitgeist talk at Google. They are all incredibly thought-provoking, and rooted in behavioral, and Austrian, economics. In his spare time, Rory collect self aggrandizi...

On this show, Ron and Ed will explore how we humans are comprised of both Mr. Spock—our rational side—and Homer Simpson—our irrational side, and how to optimize decisions from both sides. Learn why economists assume people are "rational" even though, at times, this assumption seems to be false––e.g., why do we leaves tips in restaurants we will never visit again? Anyone who wants to gain a better...

All businesses have a vested interest in virtue. Business is dependent on the moral and cultural institutions of a free society. The economic and ethical point of a business entity is to serve others. Business is a morally serious enterprise, in which it is possible to act either immorally or morally. It requires moral conduct to thrive in the long run. Yet business ethics means a great deal more...

Why did the Industrial Revolution happen where and when it did? Our guest will be the Distinguished Professor of Economics Deirdre McCloskey, who teaches economics, history, English, and communication at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ron and Ed will focus on her latest book, Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World (2010), which argues that it was an ideological cha...

Do you know anyone who was motivated going into, or coming out of, their annual performance appraisal? Most organizations and employees are dissatisfied with the performance appraisal process, so it remains a curiosity why this methodology continues to exist. Performance appraisals don't improve performance and they don't drive careers; they are an incidental effect of other dynamic systems. In es...

Ed and Ron will explore the following insight from Thomas Sowell: After all, the caveman had the same natural resources at their disposal as we have today, and the difference between their standard of living and ours is a difference between the knowledge they could bring to bear on those resources and the knowledge used today. We will also discuss the five stages in human economic history, from hu...

On our July 11th show we discussed The First Law of Marketing: The Value of Value. The Second Law of Marketing—that all prices are contextual—is just as critical to help your organization communicate value, and help convince your customers to pay for that value. Most customers are not price sensitive; they are value conscious. So how can you communicate value, rather than simply competing on low p...

Adam Smith was confounded. One of the greatest economic and social thinkers in the history of ideas struggled with the so-called diamond-water paradox. None of us would be able to live beyond a couple of weeks without water, yet its price is relatively cheap compared to the frivolous diamond. Most people resolve this paradox by replying the supply of diamonds is scarce compared to water. But this...

Ron and Ed discuss the Cult of Efficiency beginning with an explanation of Frederick Winslow Taylor the father of so called Scientific Management. Business aren't paid to be efficient. There's nothing more useless than being efficient at doing the wrong things. Industries at peak efficiency are destined for obsolescence, think buggy whip manufacturers. Effectiveness trumps efficiency and creates t...