AIER on the person who made Hong Kong the most economically free nation: “Hong Kong kept taxes low, imposed few regulations on businesses, intervened only moderately in labor markets, and placed little-to-no tariffs and duties on the import of foreign goods. Among all the countries within the same income range, Hong Kong had by far the smallest government of them all (generally less than 5 percent of the economy, when north of 20 percent was the norm). Milton Friedman, who labelled Hong Kong “an almost laboratory experiment in what happens when government is limited to its proper functions and leaves people free to pursue their own objectives,” considered that [John] Cowperthwaite never got the credit for making Hong Kong one of the richest places on Earth.”
FT: “Before Steve Jobs there was Bill Gates. Before Gates there was Henry Ford and before Ford there were Thomas Edison, John D Rockefeller, Cornelius Vanderbilt and a host of other groundbreaking entrepreneurs all the way back to the Founding Fathers. Most of them became very rich, and together they built America. This is the theme of Launchpad Republic by entrepreneur-investor Howard Wolk and business historian John Landry. The book argues that the US has developed a uniquely effective form of capitalism thanks to a dynamic balance between economic freedom and selective regulation, which encourages competition and the emergence of new companies and technologies without losing sight of the consumer interest. The rules provide enough space for upstarts to set up and for big corporations to conquer global markets. Regulations safeguard legitimate business interests — such as intellectual property — without over-protecting incumbents, say the authors. And all this is only possible because of America’s vibrant — if sometimes “messy and difficult” — democracy.”
Eimear Nolan: “The positioning of a penchant for perfection as a flaw to prospective employers has become a joke, the classic “humblebrag”, a smug boast concealed as a concession. When I speak to Thomas Curran, a social psychologist at the London School of Economics and author of the forthcoming book The Perfection Trap, he describes perfectionism as society’s “favourite flaw”. While we don’t consider it an outright strength, he believes we nonetheless have a “begrudging admiration” for it. Curran argues that we tend to treat perfectionism as an “insignia of worth, the emblem of the successful.” He is one of a growing number of experts who considers this a serious problem, a “hidden epidemic” even, especially among young people in developed countries, where research has focused.”
McKinsey: “The findings of a new McKinsey Global Survey of middle managers suggest that many companies may be unintentionally thwarting middle managers’ ability to perform in their roles. Companies treat middle management as a catchall, requiring managers to spend much of their time handling nonmanagerial work and navigating organizational bureaucracy rather than allowing them to focus on the most important role at an organization: fostering talent. Good managers with strong team relationships can lead their teams to higher organizational performance, drive more effective organizational operations, and provide the link between organizational vision and execution…Despite the importance of these manager–employee relationships, surveyed managers report spending almost three-quarters of their time on tasks not directly related to talent management.”
