Competitiveness - Category Archive

Profit Over Principles
Chris Banescu  |  March 3, 2010

Townhall.com | by Cal Thomas | 3/2/2010
When Toyota President Akio Toyoda testified last week before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, an attitude was exposed that Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) correctly characterized as fostering a “cutthroat corporate” environment that placed costs ahead of quality and safety. Such a priority would have been anathema [...]

Americans Suffer, While Government Workers Prosper
Chris Banescu  |  February 16, 2010

Yet another travesty is unfolding before our eyes in these United States of America. While tens of millions of Americans continue to struggle through difficult economic conditions, with hundreds of thousands more losing their jobs every month, tens of thousands more losing their homes and their businesses, and millions more facing salary cuts and [...]

America’s ‘Free’ Falling Economy
Chris Banescu  |  February 3, 2010

Investor’s Business Daily | Feb. 1, 2010
The latest index of economic freedom shows America falling fast, being ranked for the first time as “mostly free.” We’ve fallen behind Canada, and it’s look out below.
Our accelerating descent into a command-and-control economy with government pulling the strings is taking its toll.
The Heritage Foundation’s 2010 index of leading [...]

Crash Course
Chris Banescu  |  January 22, 2010

FT | Review by John Gapper | Jan. 22, 2010
Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry’s Road from Glory to Disaster – by Paul Ingrassia

Japanese car companies, which overtook US ones in the early 21st century, leading to the bankruptcy of General Motors and Chrysler last year, used a method of industrial innovation called kaizen, [...]

Streamlining Innovation
Chris Banescu  |  December 11, 2009

Forbes | by Sramana Mitra | Dec. 11, 2009
America is in dire need of some breakthrough innovation that can crack open significant new horizons. Yet, every year, numerous corporate and academic labs spend millions working on projects that have no commercial future, no application, no real justification for their existence. At best, they represent the [...]

How to Liberate an Economy
Chris Banescu  |  October 30, 2009

Entrepreneurs understand the importance of freedom in the workplace.
City Journal | by Guy Sorman | October 21, 2009

Brian Carney and Isaac Getz’s Freedom, Inc. is a timely book. It’s also countercyclical and somewhat counterintuitive. After all, most of today’s writing about economics and business is haunted by the current crisis: nearly every author and commentator [...]

How Aaron Patzer of Mint.com Made $170 Million in Two Years
Chris Banescu  |  October 13, 2009

Inc.com | by Aaron Patzer | October 2009
Aaron Patzer launched Mint.com as a user-friendly alternative to Quicken and other personal-finance software out there. Little did he know that just two years later, Intuit, which makes Quicken, would fork over $170 million for his website. So how’d he do it?

Fix It – Even If It Ain’t Broke
Chris Banescu  |  October 12, 2009

FastCompany | by Kaihan Krippendorff | October 12, 2009
When something works, people grow fixated on it. They stop looking for alternative options. And this fixation creates an opportunity for those willing to reconsider the accepted approach. The company I introduced last week, Rosetta Stone (RST), hasn’t been satisfied with the fact that its products [...]

The French Model
Chris Banescu  |  August 27, 2009

The Washington Times | by Richard W. Rahn | Aug. 26, 2009
Why does it appear France is bouncing back more quickly from the recession than the United States? France has long been known for having an economy that suffered from too much government interference, too-high taxes and destructive union activity. Yet it grew 1.4 percent [...]

The Whole Foods Alternative to ObamaCare
Chris Banescu  |  August 12, 2009

The Wall Street Journal | by John Mackey | Aug. 11, 2009
With a projected $1.8 trillion deficit for 2009, several trillions more in deficits projected over the next decade, and with both Medicare and Social Security entitlement spending about to ratchet up several notches over the next 15 years as Baby Boomers become eligible for [...]