Kittens without a home – are foundations to blame?
An interesting article popped into my email today. It turns out a neonatal kitten orphanage in Stillwater, OK (my home away from my home away from home) is in a little financial trouble. On the …
We will pay more for made in the USA
A recent study by Boston Consulting Group found that 80% of American consumers are willing to pay more for products labeled “Made in the USA” with 20% of people willing to pay 10% more! The …
Sourcing conflict minerals
Supply chains are a difficult beast to control. There are many layers and with each step away from the consumer, the number of suppliers increases and transparency of supplier work practices decreases. By the time …
We should give people incentives to make more money
Or atleast that’s what some people in Florida think. The idea is to allow universities to charge different amounts for different majors. In general I am a fan of flexibility and when you have limited …
My favorite islands
As the first country I visited in southeast Asia, Indonesia will always hold a special place in my heart. This recent report from McKinsey suggests that the Indonesia I have in my mind is not …
Sandy gets lumber on the move
We’re discussing supply chain disruptions in class right now and Hurricane Sandy has given us a tremendous number of articles to sort through. I think everyone understands that any company operating in New Jersey or …
Incentives to adopt green suppliers
Tuesday in class we went off topic for a while as is usually the case when I get distracted. We ended up talking about ethical decision making and how incentives are not aligned in the …
Cell phones vs Malaria
Malaria has been a notoriously tough disease but researchers have finally figured out a way to track potential flows of malaria. The key to solving the problem is cell phone data. Using (anonymous) tracking data, …
Economics takes on traffic
Traffic is a constant problem in the world’s biggest cities and it is only going to get worse. That is, unless the good people at Stanford have anything to say about it. They aren’t tackling …
Driverless cars: challenges and opportunities
As a consumer eagerly awaiting autonomous vehicles, I have been excitedly watching Google test their cars and cheered the recent law introduced in California that provides a framework for operating driverless cars. The winners in …