On "shared value"

Michael Porter has become one of the greatest, most articulate advocates of business's increasing impetus to create shared value for the community as a means of competitive advantage. It's something that seems intuitive to us CSR/sustainability nerds, but has been thought anathema to good business by many for a long time. Porter also has some great publications on the subject, but I figured I'd link to the recent HBR interview, which sums up the articles nicely.

Rethinking Capitalism - Video - Harvard Business Review

World-Class Education

Back from Vegas, and officially exhausted. Vegas is interesting, though kind of overstimulating in the lights and sound department. Yesterday, I rented a car so I could drive out to the middle of the desert and get some silence (what I ended up getting was desert, plus an extra-special return drive through an impressively diabolical-looking desert storm).

...but I digress.

Here's a great shout-out to two of the major local universities, a top-50 ranking among the world's best educational institutions. TBJ links you there, but you can see the expanded list here.

News from the front lines

Ok, so it's been a while.

Look, I'm sorry.

I know sorry's not all that special, but really, it's not you, I promise.

I mean, if it makes it any better, here's what I've been up to:

: studying for midterms (I have two today, and they're high-stress)
: getting reamed in logistics and project management (the two midterms)
: working on my supply chain practicum
: taking second place in a national case competition (in Louisville, KY)
: performing my duties for my graduate assistantship (exam proctoring, research, basically taking an extra course in order to give feedback from the student perspective)
: trying to arrange site visits and guest speakers for Net Impact Jenkins
: getting glowing feedback on the case competition I authored over the summer (thank goodness it wasn't a failure or bad quality)
: trying to find a new housemate to replace the last other founding member of Maplewood
: taking care of my dog, Chandramukhi (Mukhi, for short)
: preparing for travel to Las Vegas and Ann Arbor for conferences, to DC for pleasure, and NYC for business (sort-of)
: preparing to officiate two weddings (one this month, one next year)

...and I'm sure I'm leaving stuff out.

Still, I have lots of goodies for you that I need to catch up on.

Here's one at random, a collection of photos of what $1 worth of food actually looks like.

yin and yang

Well, with good news, there is generally bad (and vice versa).

To that tune, a debacle in an Indiana hospital in which a transwoman was denied medical care mars the reputation of medical professionals. I'm glad that--for once--it's not in the Deep South.

Also, not only did California's Prop 8 get overturned yesterday in California's supreme court (in a stunning decision based on multiple findings of fact, beginning on page 54), it also inspired Lady Gaga. Rejoice, all ye!

Also, my school will be paid for this year, as I'm officially a Graduate Assistant. Huzzah!

Cooking, naturally

Some of the tweeps I follow signed up for this cooking class from Central Carolina Community College, which is how I caught wind of it. It sounds like a pretty neat concept. I wonder how much of the program will be split toward cooking technique versus nutrition versus actual menu planning (generally its own course in culinary school, but still...).

[EDIT: Clearly, I should read more. There's a basic breakdown of the course structure here, though it's not specific about the time commitments for each segment. That'll teach me to post before exploring thoroughly.]

on the top of your game

Just learned that my program of study ranked in the top 20 nationally for supply chain management. The full details are here.

This isn't a big shocker, given the quality of my SCM professors. They literally wrote (or co-wrote) two of the leading books in the field. Anyway, congrats to my fairly young program on gaining some recognition. Hopefully it will spill over in the form of employment momentum.

The Life of the Mind

This is a sort of extension of the discussion in my previous post about education. In this instance, a grad school professor of English talks about the lies surrounding the benefits of graduate school in the humanities. In a nutshell: the career prospects suck unless you're already well connected. There's no such thing as a meritocracy (or, not nearly to the degree it's suggested). Professors are self-justifying about this and care not whether their students end up with minimum-wage jobs.

This, to me, sounds a lot closer to reality than the doe-eyed essay about how majoring in something you just super-love will automatically bring happiness and rainbows to your life, job reality be damned!

Again, this is not to say that I'm against the arts and humanities. I was almost an English major myself, and I have friends who work in publishing, or are accomplished artists. I just think that given the volume of English majors in the world, there aren't enough jobs in the field to carry them. Aspiring English majors should be told this, and told of possible related majors and fields that would satisfy their lust for language while giving them more concrete job prospects. Diffuse the students to improve prospects for everyone.