February 2010 TED presentation by designer Tom Wujec. How do groups collaborate differently to solve “The Marshmallow Challenge?” And why do recent business school graduates tend to under perform kindergartners?

Learn more about The Marshmallow Challenge.

Great presentation by Devdutt Pattanaik at this month’s TEDIndia conference. Interested in learning how India’s business perspective may differ from that of the West? Gain a better understanding from Indian mythologies.

East vs. West

Photo: Oberazzi

As the business world becomes more global, the likelihood of interacting with someone whose primary language is not English becomes much greater. At the same time, it seems English is quickly becoming the universal language of not only business, but also diplomacy, education and the sciences. As a future MBA and a native English-speaker, is there any real business benefit for me to learn a second language?

I’d like to think yes.

Even if many people around the world have a basic understanding of English, they may feel very uncomfortable when talking to a native English speaker. In my limited travels to Europe, I’ve tried to at least make an effort to communicate in the local language first, no matter how poorly. It seems that not expecting everyone to speak English helps make people feel more comfortable, and more willing to offer to speak English.

Secondly, studying a language is more than learning vocabulary and pronunciation. Equally important, particularly in business, is learning about cultural traits, as well similarities and differences with your own culture. Is it considered rude to shake hands at a business meeting? Or to smile at a member of the opposite sex? Such cultural knowledge could be invaluable in an international business setting.

Finally, the process of learning a new language can help strengthen your English communication skills. I’ve recently had the opportunity to do some volunteer work tutoring native Spanish-speakers in adult English as a Second Language classes. First, I’m surprised at how much Spanish I’ve remembered, even though I haven’t studied it for a number of years. Second, thinking about things like sentence construction and subject-verb agreement in Spanish naturally leads to a better understanding of such things in English. As a result, I feel my English communication skills have actually improved.

So, what are the best second-languages for a native English-speaker to learn for business?

Given global trends and my own personal experiences, I’m leaning toward the following:

• Spanish – previous experience studying; spoken in many countries around the world; growing population within the United States, as well.
• French – some similarities to Spanish; prevalent throughout Europe, Africa and parts of Asia; likely that individuals involved in international business would speak either English or French, if not both.
• Chinese – Growing importance in global economy; huge population; difficult for English-speakers to learn; Mandarin dialect spoken by more people, Cantonese dialect spoken over greater geographic area.

Any experiences in learning these, or other, languages for business or personal use? Are products such as Rosetta Stone effective? Has knowing a language other than English been an asset for your career?

For non-native English speakers, what are your experiences in dealing with native English speakers in the business world?

Photo: (rae)sin

Starbucks rolled out its VIA Ready Brew instant coffee nationwide this week after limited testing in select markets. When I initially heard that Starbucks was moving into the instant category, I had serious concerns about the damage it might do to its reputation for offering affordable luxury to consumers. With a retail price of less than $1.00 per serving, VIA seems to simultaneously risk appearing both expensive, when compared to other instant coffees, and cheap, when compared to Starbucks’ own in-store java. A tough place to be, from a branding perspective.

Additionally, when most people think of instant coffee, high quality is not the first thing that comes to mind. But Starbucks has put considerable effort into developing VIA and claims that it tastes as good as its freshly brewed blends. Early evidence seems encouraging, as this youtube clip shows:

This weekend (October 2 – 5) you can see for yourself when you take the VIA Taste Challenge at participating Starbucks stores near you. They’ll even throw in a free tall coffee at your next visit.

I’m very interested to see what the quality is like. I’m also impressed with the job Starbucks has done to position VIA as an extension of its current brand. The convenience of the take-anywhere packaging opens up a number of new sales possibilities, from office workers to outdoors-types, in addition to allowing you to quickly make your own Starbucks at home. Starbucks is even asking customers to share recipe ideas using VIA. While instant coffee is very popular in Europe, it’s never really caught on in American. With VIA, Starbucks hopes to change that.

Have you taken the Starbucks VIA Taste Challenge? Can VIA win a place in the hearts of latte-loving Americans?

Great presentation by Dan Pink in July 2009 on what really motivates employees:

Photo: Sarah Sturtevant

Now that August is here, I should really start working on the stack of books that I wanted to read this summer:

• Peter Drucker, Innovation and Entrepreneurship
• Stewart Friedman, Total Leadership: Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life
• Thomas Friedman, Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America
• Laurence Gonzales, Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why
• Jacqueline Novogratz, The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
• Jerry Weissman, Presenting to Win: The Art of Telling Your Story, Updated and Expanded Edition
• Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World

A few of these were recommendations from Josh Kaufman’s excellent Personal MBA reading list. If you’ve read any and can recommend one that I should start with, please let me know.

What are you reading this summer?

One of the most exciting aspects to me of social media is how businesses can use them to connect directly to their customer base. I recently posted a video of small business owners discussing how they use twitter for this very purpose. Traditional means of advertising have always been very one-directional: companies sent out the messages they thought customers wanted to hear. In fact, countless hours and millions of dollars have been spent on research and focus groups to try to discover just what it is that customers want.

Today, businesses can use social media to ask customers what they want.

Social media allow for much more effective two-directional communication between business and customer. Neil over at Quick Sprout recently touched on this when he wrote about using twitter to create interesting conversations with followers and to share knowledge. From a business perspective, companies can use social media to listen to their customers and then begin the process of interacting with, and engaging, them.

A great example of this is Starbucks‘ recent introduction of the Mini Starbucks Card, a version of the popular gift card small enough to fit on your key chain. Starbucks has said that the idea of the mini card was one of many inspired by its My Starbucks Idea site, where customers are invited to share and discuss suggestions. Starbucks is also great at using twitter to reach out to its customers: earlier today it offered $25 mini card reloads to the first five of its over-250,000 followers to post pictures of their mini cards to @starbucks with the hashtag #MiniStarbucksCard. A rather inexpensive way to create instant buzz.

What other companies “get” social media?

Ask any college student, and they will likely agree that one of their biggest expenses each semester is the cost of buying textbooks.  Professors notoriously like to teach the most cutting-edge theories, and publishers are more than happy to produce new editions of the same books almost annually.  The result?  Rising textbook costs, breaking budgets all over the country.  The internet has helped offset some of these costs, with sites like amazon.com and half.com giving students access to cheaper new and used books.  Still, buying books means a huge outlay of cash every semester for something you’ll need for a few months and then, likely, never use again.

“Annual per student expenditures on textbooks can easily approach $700 to $1,000 today.”

- Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance, 2007

Much like netflix changed the dvd industry, a slew of online textbook rental companies are changing the way students can get books.  Most offer a large selection of competitively-priced textbooks, for terms ranging from one month to a full semester.  Many also let you extend the rental period or purchase the book outright, if necessary.  Once the semester is over, most offer a prepaid shipping label to send your books back to the company.

I researched the rental prices for a sample of five textbooks that a typical MBA student might need to read, using some of the more popular web sites.  For comparison, I also found the purchase prices to own both new and used copies of the same books.  The table below shows the average price per book for a semester rental, not including any shipping costs (prices accurate as of 7/18/09):

I’ve used some of these sites and have never had any issues receiving or returning books.  Keep in mind that each is slightly different, so make sure to read through all of the details for every site.  For example, some sites will charge you extra for returning books with writing or highlighting in them.  If you doodle or need to highlight to study, those sites might not be for you.  Also, the sites with the lowest average price did not necessarily have the least expensive copies of all books, so it pays to check multiple sites before you order.

Before you head back to campus this fall, you may want to spend some time checking textbook rental prices online.  The savings can be substantial.

Are there any other sites that you’ve used to rent textbooks?

An unavoidable fact of life for any MBA student is the group project. While valuable for learning important concepts in teamwork and group dynamics, group work can also be very difficult from a logistical point of view. Teams can’t always find convenient times for members to get together in person to work. Juggling multiple versions of a word document can be a disaster waiting to happen. Luckily, Google has introduced Google Docs, which makes collaborating with classmates easy. All documents that you create are kept online, using Google’s secure servers, instead of on your hard drive. When you share a document with someone, Google sends them the link to access it. Multiple users can access and edit the document simultaneously, or add comments for other collaborators. Docs tracks all changes and stores older versions that can be recovered, if necessary. No more worrying about who’s the “keeper” of the most current version of the project.

I’ve used Google Docs for a number of individual and group projects with great success. Accessibility and collaboration are areas where Google shines. Word processing features, however, are pretty basic. Simple tasks such as changing line spacing or margins within a document are not yet possible. Because of this, when it comes time to print and turn in the final paper, I tend to download into Microsoft Office to format. If Google would improve the functionality of Docs (including the spreadsheet and presentation features) just a little bit, I could realistically see myself giving up on Office for good.

Another online office suite with collaboration capabilities is Zoho, but I have not used it enough to make a fair comparison. Has anyone had good or bad experiences with such online collaboration tools?