AP: Eager for turnaround, Japan looks to former GE chief Jack Welch
The Japanese translation of Welch’s new autobiography, “Jack: Straight From the Gut,” which made The New York Times bestseller list, is a big seller here as well. More than 165,000 copies are out in print since October.
“I learned so much from his book,” said Yasuo Nishiguchi, president of Kyocera Corp., which like other Japanese electronics companies has seen its profits battered by the global slump and competition from Asian rivals.
Emulating Welch, Nishiguchi said he recently started discussion sessions at Kyocera to encourage the exchange of ideas among employee ranks. He also praised Welch’s policy of focusing on No. 1 and No. 2 businesses and discarding less promising undertakings.
Take business lessons from this man, but don’t take any lessons from how he lives his life. 2 failed marriages. The second one recently in that scandal involving the divorcee Harvard Business Review editor who he slept with.
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NYT: Fumes and Visions Were Not a Myth for Oracle at Delphi
Now, however, a geologist, an archaeologist, a chemist and a toxicologist have teamed up to produce a wealth of evidence suggesting the ancients had it exactly right. The region’s underlying rocks turn out to be composed of oily limestone fractured by two hidden faults that cross exactly under the ruined temple, creating a path by which petrochemical fumes could rise to the surface to help induce visions.
In particular, the team found that the oracle probably came under the influence of ethylene Û a sweet-smelling gas once used as an anesthetic. In light doses, it produces feelings of aloof euphoria.
This is very cool! I love it when past history is verified by current science.
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NYT: For a Second Day, Egan Keeps Silent on an Issue Roiling the Church
“I would say the only thing that could justify his not speaking is if he is preparing his letter of resignation,” said Daniel C. Maguire, who teaches moral theology at Marquette University in Milwaukee. “I think he has to explain or resign.”
Wow, this is out of control.