Photo Credit: Henri Pitkänen (via Flickr) A new bookcase spurred me to go through all of my old grad school books, including those from a class on international corruption. I immediately noticed a trend among these books: all of them focused on the role of the government, rather than the private sector, in creating, sustaining,… Read More
Photo Credit: Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanjin) What are the primary economic concerns for the next South Korean administration? According to a poll conducted by Han-kook Research on April 17, “Job Creation” (34.1%) ranked as one of the top priorities for the next administration. “Resolving polarization” (20.6%), “small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) empowerment” (20.4%) and “chaebol reform” (12%)… Read More
Photo Credit: VC Voices (http://vcvoices.org/2016/04/millennials/) A recent Wall Street Journal blog article highlighted concerns about the “me-first” millennial generation pouring into the workplace in the near future. According to the article, millennials seem to care less about institutes and authority and as a result there is a fear that they would be more likely to… Read More
Photo Credit: DFID (via Flickr) Although the international development community aspires to noble ends, the firms and organizations therein are not free from the same compliance challenges that face corporations with more naked profit motives. Adam Smith International (ASI), the largest international development contractor for the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DfID), can attest… Read More
Photo Credit: NBBJ (via http://www.nbbj.com/work/samsung-r5-research-building-and-landscape/#) On February 28, 2017, Samsung unveiled the “Business Renovation Proposal” (The Proposal, hereinafter) on its official website. The Proposal contains several measures aimed at strengthening Samsung’s transparency and compliance mechanisms, as a result of the conglomerate’s involvement in the recent political scandal in South Korea. Samsung is suspected to have illegally given approximately… Read More
Photo Credit: Jack Kurzenknabe via Flickr As a longtime fan of the National Football League (NFL) team the Buffalo Bills, I know how hard it can be to change the culture of an organization. The Bills have not made the NFL playoffs since 1999 and as a result have developed a “culture of losing” that… Read More