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Sunday, February 29, 2004 |
 HBR's 2004 Breakthrough Idea #9: The MFA is the New MBA. An arts degree is now perhaps the hottest credential in the world of business. Corporate recruiters have begun visiting the top arts grad schools in search of talent. And this broadened approach has often come at the expense of more traditional business graduates. For instance, in 1993, 61% of McKinsey’s hires had MBA degrees. Less than a decade later, it was down to 43%, because McKinsey says other disciplines are just as valuable in helping new hires perform well at the firm. With applications climbing and ever more arts grads occupying key corporate positions, the master of fine arts is becoming the new business degree.
The reason: creativity is now seen as a bigger determinant of success than business logic.
7:58:47 PM 
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Michael Doran writes:
The Saudi state is a fragmented entity, divided between the fiefdoms of the royal family. Among the four or five most powerful princes, two stand out: Crown Prince Abdullah and his half-brother Prince Nayef, the interior minister. Relations between these two leaders are visibly tense. In the United States, Abdullah cuts a higher profile. But at home in Saudi Arabia, Nayef, who controls the secret police, casts a longer and darker shadow. Ever since King Fahd's stroke in 1995, the question of succession has been hanging over the entire system, but neither prince has enough clout to capture the throne.
NOTE: seems to me that Abdullah, as the reformer, has a big set of cross-hairs on his forehead.
7:43:42 PM
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Max Boot asks: "Isn't it about time we got serious about dealing with failed states? If we did, we would have to devise both national and international remedies." He's right.
Haiti fell due to pressure from some ~200 rebels using basic techniques. The number of states that are vulnerable to such a small amount of pressure is quite large. If advanced techniques are used (part of my book), almost every country except the advanced democracies (those states that are complex enough to have enduring legitimacy) are at risk. The time to think this through is now.
9:41:11 AM
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Richard Betts review of Clark's book on the campaign against Serbia. It shows how confused, conflicted, and near-run the enterprise was. It makes a strong case for US unilateralism by comparison.
7:42:02 AM
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Second superpower lawfare on the roll in the UK.
The Ministry of Defence is facing a series of lawsuits relating to the deaths of Iraqi civilians killed by British troops in southern Iraq, lawyers acting for the families of some of the dead say.
Here is a good report on how the US military has "framed" the debate on casualties in modern warfare. The counter to this "frame" is lawfare waged within the hyper-legal environments in western societies.
7:20:01 AM
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© Copyright 2004 John Robb.
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