Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Dec 8, 2014; 85th Anniversary Issue

choi

; 85 years/ 85 Ideas (four ideas are presented here).

Devin Leonard, William Whyte's The Organization Man.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... te-culture-revealed

Note:
(a) summary underneath title title in print: The 1956 study of corporate culture diagnosed groupthink in American society
(b) "But Whyte wasn’t a balance sheet eyeballer."

eyeball (vt; First Known Use 1901): "to look at intently especially in making an evaluation or choice <eyeball the competition>"
www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eyeball
(c) "He [Whyte] found chief executives so consumed with work that they couldn’t sleep without a few highballs."
(i) highball
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highball
(section 1 Etymology)
(ii) Go to images.google.com and see the highball glass is similar to the silhouette in the preceding Wiki page.

(d) The Organization Man
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Organization_Man

choi

Paul Ford, The Birth of Kitty Litter.  
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... ed-pet-cat-industry

Note:
(a) summary underneath title title in print: Ed Lowe built an empire on a type of clay that masks the smell of cat pee
(b) "Ed Lowe:

The English and Scottish surname Lowe is "variant spelling of Low."
(c) "fuller’s earth (a type of clay)"
(i) Fuller’s earth
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuller's_earth
(section 1 Etymology)
(ii) BusinessWeek has f in lower case, because it is not the surname (thought the surname Fuller came from this meaning).

choi

Evan Applegate and Romesh Ratnesar, Divorcing Malaysia Set Singapore Free.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... -successful-startup
("Singapore was poorer than Jordan in 1965; now it’s 10 times as rich. The World Bank ranks Singapore ninth in gross domestic product per capita, a place ahead of the US. By another measure—gross national income per capita on a purchasing-power basis—the country is second only to Qatar")

Note:
(a) summary underneath title title in print: The Asian city-state became the most successful startup of the global economy
(b) gross national income
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_national_income
(definition; compared with GDP)

(c) GNI per capita, PPP (current international $). World Bank, up-to-date
data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GNP.PCAP.PP.CD
(An international dollar has the same purchasing power over GNI as a US dollar has in the United States; Qatar (123,860), Singapore (76,850), US (53,960), Hong Kong SAR, China (51,890), Hermany (44,540), Japan (37,630), Korea, Rep (33.400), China (11,850))
(i) All 2013 figures; no separate itemization for Taiwan; no data for Luxembourg in 2013, whose 2012 value was 59,750.
(ii) list of countries by GNI (PPP) per capita
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GNI_(PPP)_per_capita
(two charts: the top one for 2012 and the bottom for 2013; both charts come from World Bank but neither chart includes Qatar--or Taiwan)

choi

Clayton Christensen, Tesla Is Not Disruptive and Other Corrections.
www.businessweek.com/articles/20 ... ly-disruptive-ideas

Note:
(a) summary underneath title title in print: The Harvard professor recalls the origin of his theory on why good companies fail, and its misuse
(b) "They [disk-drive companies] were the fruit flies of business: It’s a very fast cycle time, so it’s a great thing to study."

Biologists study fruit flies, because they are tiny (do not occupy much space), have short life cycle (humans are hard to study) and so on.
(c) "Then Toyota did it again when they came into America in the ’60s with their Corona—they made cars so affordable that the rebar of humanity, college students, could own one."

rebar = reinforcing bar
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebar
,  (鋼筋 in Taiwan, used in construction in Taiwan but I have seldom seen it in Boston--only once)