New Movies for June: Part 2

June 17th, 2013

Here are the first new DVDs for the month of June:

Bachelorette
Chronicle
Cloud Atlas
Escape from Planet Earth
A Good Day to Die Hard
If I Were You
It’s a Disaster
6 Month Rule
Struck by Lightning
True Blood, season 5
2 Days in the Valley
Zookeeper

 
You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

IT Advisory: Internet Explorer 10 & Windows 8

June 14th, 2013

msie 10 logoAccording to reports we’ve received from Library users, some of Ford Library’s business databases may not perform as expected, or may be unusable when accessed with Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser (Version 10).

Most performance issues have been reported by researchers using IE 10 on Windows 8 tablets.  It is unlikely that many of our specialized business database providers (e.g. Thomson Reuters) will re-design their sites and web applications to function in the Windows 8 environment.

Library IT staff are currently testing Internet Explorer 10 in Windows 7, and will report any issues to the affected database providers.

We recommend that database users who prefer MS Internet Explorer for their research roll back to Version 9 in Windows 7 if they experience significant problems with a database site. If you discover that a particular product is not performing correctly in MSIE 10, please let us know!

New Movies for June: Part 1

June 13th, 2013

Here are the first new DVDs for the month of June:

Identity Thief
Mental
The Num8ers Station
Side Effects
This Is 40
Warm Bodies
Rolling
Switch : Discover the Future of Energy

 
You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Book Review – Exposure: inside the Olympus scandal

June 3rd, 2013

Exposure cover imageWoodford, Michael. Exposure : inside the Olympus scandal : how I went from CEO to whistleblower. Portfolio/Penguin, 2012.

In 1991, W. Edwards Deming was a distinguished speaker at Fuqua.  Students packed into Geneen Auditorium to see the tall and frail 90-year-old man, who was credited for engineering the “Japanese economic miracle” with his theories on statistical process control.  Japanese products were highly valued for their design, quality and reliability, and companies like Sony, Canon and Panasonic had already overpowered the U.S. electronics industry.  Honda and Toyota were taking market share from GM and Ford, once considered impossible.  At universities, MBA courses covered Japanese management techniques, such as lean production and continuous improvement (kaizen), as well as Japanese business culture, including a long-term strategic orientation, agreement by consensus and lifelong employment for employees. But soon after Deming’s visit, the Japanese economy entered a deep recession that lasted 20 years.  In 2011, China replaced Japan as the world’s second largest economy.

This is the environment that Michael Woodford faces in 2011 when he is named CEO of Olympus Corporation, a Tokyo based company that manufactures imaging and medical devices that use cameras, such as endoscopes.  In Exposure, Woodford tells the story about what happened to him and to this once revered Japanese company after he is named president, one of the first Westerners in history to lead one of Japan’s iconic corporations.   For Woodford, a 30 year employee and head of Olympus’s European operations, this assignment is the pinnacle of his career.

Months after his appointment, Woodford receives a tip about questionable mergers and acquisitions that cost millions of dollars.  As he tries to investigate the losses, he discovers a cover-up involving the firm’s chairman, other key executives and members of the board.  Eventually he uncovers evidence of an accounting fraud totaling $1.7 billion, but instead of supporting their president, the board of directors forces him out. At a special board meeting, the directors uniformly vote for his dismissal  to avoid exposing their losses.  After Woodford hears rumors of Japanese mob ties to the fraud, he flees the country, fearful for his life.  He contacts the Financial Times and blows the whistle on his own company.

The well-told story is highly recommended to anyone interested in international business, corporate governance, Japanese culture or business ethics. As a memoir, Woodford writes with candor about the scandal and about confronting Olympus’s chairman and board of directors.  His escape from Tokyo is filled with tension. As a book on business culture, Woodford illustrates key differences between Japanese and Western businesses.  The close relationships among the leaders of Japanese companies, as well as the relationships between Japanese companies, the banks that finance them and the media, create an insular environment that is resistant to change.  And regarding business ethics, by the end of the book, the author’s commitment to integrity, while admirable, is also personally costly.

© Reviewer: Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

Frost.com Site Maintenance

May 24th, 2013

Frost & Sullivan will be moving to a new web site host; and will experience significant down time over the Memorial Day weekend (May 25 – May 27).

Here is the text of their email to local Frost.com client administrators.

To provide better service to our customers and users of frost.com, we have decided to relocate our website hosting, planned for this weekend, May 25th – 27th. No action is required on your part.

Please note that Frost.com will be unavailable for the entire weekend, starting early Saturday morning through Monday morning, May 27th.

We apologize in advance for any inconvenience caused during this move but hope this will provide better service for all of our frost.com users.

New Movies for May: Part 2

May 23rd, 2013

Here are the last of the new May DVDs:

Broken City
Dragon
Luv
Hemingway & Gellhorn
Ice Age: the Meltdown
Mama
The Oranges
Pawn

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

New Movies for May: Part 1

May 20th, 2013

Here are the first of the new May DVDs:

A Monster in Paris
Scandal
Not Fade Away
Silver Linings Playbook
The Details
Django Unchained
Gangster Squad
The Guilt Trip
The Impossible
Jack Reacher
Promised Land
Safe Haven

You may browse the entire DVD collection via the library catalog.

Book Review: Trust me, I’m lying

May 20th, 2013

Holiday, Ryan. Trust me, I’m lying : the tactics and confessions of a media manipulator. Portfolio, 2012.

In late March, a red billboard appeared on Battleground Avenue in Greensboro, NC. Claiming to be from a scorned woman who caught her husband with another woman, the billboard slowed down traffic on one of Greensboro’s major thoroughfares. The story was picked up and replayed by local and national TV news. Some people immediately suspected that the billboard was actually a marketing trick, perhaps to get the name Nikon (or the unnamed American Express) in front of the public — on TV, radio and newspapers, as well as on blogs, Twitter and Facebook – all for the cost of a small town billboard.

cheating spouse billboard

(Click to view a larger image of the billboard)

Author Ryan Holiday would agree with those who find the billboard suspect. He often uses marketing tricks to sell products. His day job is marketing director for American Apparel, but he also orchestrates deceptions to sell products for other clients. He creates and shapes news for them. In his new book Trust Me, I’m Lying, Holiday explains how marketers use deceptive tactics like fake billboards to manufacture news that draws attention to the products and services that he represents. News is then filtered up, from small blogs to larger sites to national media.

Holiday’s book describes what goes on behind the scenes in the worlds of blogging, PR, and online news and he reveals the methods used to manipulate bloggers and reporters. Bloggers in turn sensationalize stories because the headlines that get the most clicks generate the most money. He reveals bloggers who create artificial content, fabricating outrageous stories out of nowhere or distorting a video until it is completely a lie. He gives several examples, including Andrew Breitbart’s news clip about Shirley Sherrod.

In the end, Holiday offers no easy solutions. When the incentive is pageviews, bloggers will lie, distort and attack. Holiday hopes that his book will encourage the public to pay for news that is trustworthy. He calls on traditional news agencies to work harder to report the truth and to verify their stories. He also calls for stronger libel and defamation laws. Recommended.

© Reviewer: Meg Trauner & Ford Library – Fuqua School of Business.
All rights reserved.

Using Library Resources During Summer Break

May 2nd, 2013

mba on the beachNow that exams have ended, a rising 2nd Year MBA student’s thoughts turn to vacations and their upcoming internships. This post will fill you in on what Library resources, both print and online, will be available to you during summer break.

Using Library Databases During An Internship

The key point to consider when using library databases is to avoid the transfer of entire reports, articles, or data content from academically licensed databases to your summer employer. Transferring database content to a summer employer breaches our license with the vendor; and could cost the breaching user, and all of Fuqua, their access to the database.

Using databases to prepare for your internship without the transfer of content may be permissible. Please review the examples of appropriate and inappropriate use described on our web site; and email us if you have any questions.

Carlton Brown, Associate Director & IT Services Manager

Print, Audiobook, and E-Reader Use During the Summer

Leaving North Carolina for all or most of the summer? Don’t forget to return library items before you leave town.

Why? If the book you borrowed is recalled for use by another patron, you’ll need to ship it back to Ford Library. If you aren’t able to ship it back, you should know that recall fines are $3/day.

If you are borrowing a Kindle, you do get a guaranteed 4 week loan, but they can’t be renewed after that. Audiobooks are just 2 week loans.

Thank you for returning library materials before you leave!

Amy Brennan – Collection Services Librarian

Classic Business Titles Now on Kindles

April 25th, 2013

Through the years there are titles, ranging from Getting to Yes to Predictably Irrational to 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which our readers return to time and again.  Now with our new Kindle Project, we’ve made these titles available as a takeaway library.  These classics, available April 25th, are sure to be popular with our traveling patrons.  Make sure to check yours out now and enjoy the classics with the Ford Library.

  • 48 Laws of Power
  • 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
  • Blink:  The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
  • Drive:  The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
  • Five Dysfunctions of a Team:  A Leadership Fable
  • Freakonomics:  A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything
  • Getting Things Done:  The Art of Stress-Free Productivity
  • Getting to Yes:  Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
  • Goal, 20th anniversary edition
  • Good to Great:  Why Some Companies Make the Leap–And Others Don’t
  • Great by Choice:  Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck:  Why Some Thrive Despite Them All
  • How to Win Friends and Influence People
  • Influence:  The Psychology of Persuasion
  • Intelligent Investor:  The Definitive Book on Value Investing
  • Lean Startup:  How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses
  • Liar’s Poker
  • Mindset:  The New Psychology of Success
  • Outliers:  The Story of Success
  • Predictably Irrational
  • Steve Jobs
  • Strengths Based Leadership:  Great Leaders, Teams, and Why People Follow
  • Think and Grow Rich
  • Thinking Fast and Slow
  • Tipping Point:  How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference
  • Total Money Makeover:  A Proven Plan