The futility of trying to time the market

The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies- 32: Gogo

Every time someone on Twitter brags, “I’m on a plane!” a Gogo engineer’s ears pop. The Illinois startup commands the market for in-flight Wi-Fi: It now serves more than 1,300 commercial flights and controls 85% of Wi-Fi-equipped planes. In the first nine months of 2011, Gogo reported $113.8 million in revenue, and the company is now taxiing to a 2012 IPO. It will use the funds to upgrade its network and in-flight platforms.

10 Reasons You Didn’t Get the Job

If only bosses could talk!

We’d be able to find out why it was that we didn’t get the call back, didn’t get the interview, didn’t get that sweet job we thought we were just perfect for. There must be a reason, right?

Should China’s capital be renamed ‘Bling-jing’?

If you look at China’s annual National People’s Congress, now in session, you might think this country is one of the richest in the world.

The NPC’s 75 richest legislators - from a total of 3,000 - had a net worth of more than $90 billion in 2011. To put that in perspective, that’s more than half of Greece’s latest bailout of some $170 billion.

Five Leadership Lessons From Captain Picard

“He’d ensure the safety of his ship and his crew
And then complete the mission
And make himself a better person
Bring peace to the galaxy
And do it for free
Oh yeah, that’s what Captain Picard would do.”

– from “What Would Captain Picard Do?” by Hank Green

Why The PC Won’t Matter In Two Years

The PC will soon be dead. Long live the “personal cloud.“This personal cloud will become “the center of users’ digital lives,” by 2014, according to Gartner.

By “personal cloud” Gartner means that we’ll all have a bunch of applications we can access from any device we want — a PC, a tablet, a smartphone. We may not even own a PC — not even for work.

The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies- 33: Bug Agentes Biológicos

Killer wasps! Fear not-this isn’t the movies. These predatory insects are the good guys, programmed to target only their natural enemy (which is not your scrawny behind). Bug Agentes Biológicos mass-produces wasps to combat larvae and stinkbugs that threaten sugarcane and soybean plants, two of Brazil’s largest cash crops.

The World’s 50 Most Innovative Companies- 34: Chipotle

Mark Crumpacker stared at the job description with disbelief. “A headhunter looking to fill a CMO position for another major fast-food brand got in touch with me,” says Chipotle’s chief marketing officer. “The description was really bizarre. The head marketing person runs the culinary team and is responsible for the whole menu!” It’s the food-marketing chain gone haywire, Crumpacker explains.

ReThinking Trust

Even in the wake of all the recent financial debacles, are we still too trusting? “Yes” writes Roderick M. Kramer in the HBR article “Rethinking Trust.”