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A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Coaching Tip

Canadian Malcolm Gladwell in his book, " Outliers ," tells us that the way Canadians select hockey players is a beautiful example of what the sociologist Robert Merton famously called a "self-fulling prophecy" a situation where a "false definition, in the beginning.evokes a new behavior which makes the original false conception come true.".

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Todd Henry: An interview by Bob Morris

First Friday Book Synopsis

He regularly speaks and consults with companies, both large and small, about how to develop practices and systems that lead to everyday brilliance. Todd Henry is the founder and CEO of Accidental Creative, a company that helps creative people and teams generate brilliant ideas.

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Sacrifice Is Overrated

Harvard Business Review

Thomas Merton, the famous Trappist monk and Catholic scribe wrote, "A monk is a man who has given up everything in order to possess everything. Thomas Merton's abbey at Gethsemane sells cheese, and in the 160 years since it was founded it has grown from 44 monks to precisely 65. We have an inadequate supply of saints.

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CEOs Don’t Care Enough About Capital Allocation

Harvard Business Review

It’s been more than 50 years since Nobel prizewinners Franco Modigliani and Merton Miller identified return on investments as a major component of value creation (and value destruction). This failure to even mention return on capital seems perverse. It is, in fact, the salt in the value recipe.

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Make Serendipity Work for You

Harvard Business Review

Merton and Elinor Barber.). If serendipity is a capability, then how is it developed, protected and sustained? Adrian Moorhouse is an Olympic Gold Medalist and Managing Director of Lane4, a global performance development consultancy. The princes did far more than make chance observations. Watson and Crick did.

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What an Economist Brings to a Business Strategy

Harvard Business Review

Consider first the increasing use of auctions, which have a distinguished history in the development of economics. They might be surprised at how certain economic notions have been directly applied in business, with largely positive results. Here a few notable examples. Admittedly, better pricing of options has been a mixed blessing.