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Here are five choice articles from the business press to start off your work week. I'm pointing you to articles about Yum Brands, Netflix, entrepreneurship, alignment, and greed.

From the Economist: Taking the hill less climbed
"THE fast-food industry is not usually known for lavish investment in its employees, even if dismissive talk of “McJobs” is often undeserved. Yet at Yum! Brands, the owner of chains such as KFC, Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, Dave Novak, the chief executive, is presiding over a training programme that he says is the “biggest culture-change initiative in the world today”, affecting all of the firm’s 1.4m workers spread across 112 countries. "

Wally's Comment: This is about a corporate make-over. It's about creating a healthy dissatisfaction with the status quo. And it's about a "guru" who seems to be helping.

From Knowledge at Wharton: Netflix: One Eye on the Present and Another on the Future
"In a year when DVD sales are falling and studios are facing major shakeups in their executive ranks, Hollywood is beginning to look a lot like one of its own slasher films, the Los Angeles Times noted recently. Amid all the turmoil, however, there is at least one success story in the movie industry: Netflix."

Wally's Comment: Another transformation story. In this one, Netflix works hard to keep one foot on the rock of physical DVD distribution while it stretches the other to online distribution.

From Babson News Blog: Entrepreneurship - Nature or nurture?
"More than 30 years of research shows that it is behavioral and cognitive psychology that predicts success, not traits."

Wally's Comment: These studies are always fascinating. But ultimately they're of interest to academics and not the people who start businesses. Few people who want to start a business check to see if they're suited to the task. They just dive right in.

Some of them do read studies like this. They keep reading studies until they find one that they think predicts their success. Then they come up with reasons to believe it.

From Industry Week: Is Your Team Aligned?
"Alignment is an agreement on the goals of the organization and on the process of allocating resources to achieve these goals."

Wally's Comment: "Alignment" has become another multi-definitional buzzword, joining "engagement" and "sustainable" at the top of the list. What makes this article different from most of the rubbish published about alignment is that the authors define it, explain why it's important, and offer suggestions on how to do it better. Because they're clear, you'll understand why and how you decide to agree or disagree.

From Forbes: Stop Trying To Get Rich!
"What we're going through is not just a recession, it's a reset. Sure, the impact of the crisis is being felt economically, but the root cause isn't economics, nor is it the failure of free enterprise and capitalism. The problem is the abuse of free enterprise and capitalism--greed."

Wally's Comment: John Hope Bryant suggests that a culture of greed is the root cause of many of our present difficulties. He thinks we need to change it.

Wally's Working Supervisor's Support Kit is a collection of information and tools to help working supervisors do a better job. It's based on what Wally's learned in over twenty years of supervisory skills training. Click here to check it out.