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An experienced entrepreneur or small business owner understands having to make quick decisions based on incomplete information.  In fact, it's a way of business in small operations where there is rarely time, staff, or resources to research decisions before they must be made. "It turns out there are conditions where using intuition is a good way to make the right decision," said Michael Pratt, of Boston College's Carroll School of Management. "What we found demystifies a lot of the information out there that says intuition isn't as effective as using an analytical approach." Testing intuition against analysis, Pratt and co-authors Erik Dane, of Rice University and Kevin W. Rockmann, of George Mason, found that people can trust their gut and rely on intuition when making a broad evaluation in an area where they have in-depth knowledge of the subject. Intuition has long been viewed as a less effective approach to critical reasoning when compared to the mer...

Why do you want to start a business? There is no right answer to this, but there is one motivation you might express that could be setting yourelf up for a fall if your business doesn't go as planned. For anyone starting a business because of the material wealth it might bring, you should know that being materialistic has a strong potential of making a bad event in your life even worse, according to a paper co-written by a University of Illinois expert in consumption values. Materialism: defining who you are by what you own Business professor Aric Rindfleisch says not only is materialism or defining who you are by what you own a risk your welfare, it also has the effect of making traumatic events worse.  Being materialistic can make events from terrorism to car accidents to a life-threatening illness to the failure of a business venture seem that much worse. "If you're a materialistic individu...

Are entrepreneurs a self-serving species with their own moral ideas and ethical principles? Media reports about alleged anti-social and delinquent behavior of entrepreneurs are no rarity. Such reports direct the attention towards possibly ’hidden’ anti-social tendencies in entrepreneurial types. Is it true then, that entrepreneurs are all interested in his own benefit and profit and so abandons ethical and social principles? And if so: what makes him so? Researchers from the University of Stockholm  and the Friedrich Schiller University Jena (FSU) tried to answer these questions, and came to some surprising conclusions. Data from 1000 Children over 40 Years The psychologists used a Swedish study, ‘Individual Development and Adaptation‘ which followed 1,000 students living in a medium sized Swedish town over a 40-year time period comparing their later entrepreneurial activity with their social behavior earlier in life. The scientists anal...

You're the owner of a business, and you have the unpleasant task of firing an employee or terminating the contract of a supplier.  How do you do this? Tell them the bad news first?  Tell them the good news first?  Or do you construct what is known as a bad news sandwich by telling the recipient good news then the bad news then more good news? It's complicated According to researchers at the University of California, Riverside, it's complicated.  The process of giving or getting bad news is difficult for most people, particularly when news-givers feel unsure about how to proceed with the conversation, psychologists Angela M. Legg and Kate Sweeny write in "Do You Want the Good News or the Bad News First? The Nature and Consequences of News Order Preferences." "The difficulty of delivering bad news has inspired extensive popular media articles that prescribe 'best' practices for giving bad news, but these prescriptions remain largely anecdotal rather...

" AN APOCRYPHAL tale is told about Henry Ford II showing Walter Reuther, the veteran leader of the United Automobile Workers, around a newly automated car plant. ' Walter, how are you going to get those robots to pay your union dues,' gibed the boss of Ford Motor Company. Without skipping a beat, Reuther replied , 'Henry, how are you going to get them to buy your cars?'" Source: Difference Engine: Luddite legacy , The Economist Newspaper Limited, Nov 4, 2011, © The Economist Newspaper Limited, London 2011 *  *  *  *  * Who really creates new jobs? This is an especially important question given the nature of the changes current in the national and world economy brought about by globalization, he replacement of workers with intelligent machines, and the job-destroying effects of the economy over the past few years.   Government? Government affects job creation by direct hiring and or layoffs.   Since 2008, government units from largest to smallest have ...

When new technology appears, there's always someone who sees the potential and runs with it.  Here is news out of Germany about a new, potentially much more efficient way to manufacture automotive and aircraft parts, just waiting for someone to recognize the potential. Following years of research, the technology involving thixoforming, or the shaping of metals in a semi-solid state, is yielding results.  Shown here, two of the same parts for the auto industry, one created through a traditional four-step process, the other by the one-step thixoforming process .  (Credit: Image courtesy of Basque Research) Following years of research, the technology involving thixoforming, or the shaping of metals in a semi-solid state, is beginning to yield results. CIC marGUNE, the Co-operative Research Centre for High-performance Manufacturing, is exploring the possibility of modifying the current process to manufacture parts for the automotive industry, thanks to thixoforming ...

One of the more popular posts over our first year is The Seven Characteristics of a Creative Employee  along with a post on the "Messy Desk Clean Desk" Phenomena that reveals people with messy desks tend to be more creative.  Imagine that. Now, a team of researchers led by Michigan State University neuroscientist Jeremy Gray has created a quick but reliable test that can measure a person's creativity from single spoken words. The "noun-verb" test is so simple it can be done by virtually anyone anywhere -- even in an MRI machine, setting the stage for scientists to pinpoint how the brain comes up with unusually creative ideas. *  *  *  *  * Sample Noun - Verb Responses from the study To the noun, "leaf", 43.7% of participants replied, "fall."  Other common noun-verb responses include, taxi => drive 38%; coal => burn 45% and so on.  These results should lead to the development of a standardize...