“Though Kaizen is a tool used by corporations to achieve greater innovation, productivity, and general excellence, it’s also an approach, an approach that we can learn from and apply to our own lives as we strive for continuous improvement on a more personal level. We can call this ‘Personal Kaizen.’”
Read more at Presentation Zen.

In the new CEE-sponsored course, Entrepreneurship and Ethics, students were asked to develop in-depth case studies of a major entrepreneur’s life, character, style, challenges, and innovations. Student presentations included Stacy L. Moore on Andrew Mellon, Khetsiwe Dlamini on Richard Branson, Goran Mamic on Mayer Rothschild, and Bridget Markin on Coco Chanel. Below are brief video clips from their presentations.

Stacy L. Moore on Andrew Mellon

Khetsiwe Dlamini on Richard Branson

Goran Mamic on Mayer Rothschild

Bridget Markin on Coco Chanel

The Foreign Policy Research Institute’s program Teaching Innovation features some great resources for teaching the history of innovation, such as papers, lessons, and event audio and video. It includes a fascinating survey of the Top 25 Innovations in History, by Lawrence Husick who is a senior fellow at FPRI.

Are family businesses more or less successful in the long term? Robert Frank comments on the trials and tribulations of family businesses pointing to a U.S. Trust study of “ultra-high-net-worth” family businesses. That study finds that “[w]hile these families are highly successful in building and managing their businesses, they are often less successful when it comes to transitioning their companies from one generation to the next, with only 15 percent of family-owned companies lasting past the second generation.” The study identifies lack of succession and estate planning, and failure to implement asset protection strategies as core problems affecting family businesses’ inter-generational survival.

On the flip side, in his book Dynasties: Fortunes and Misfortunes of the World’s Great Family Businesses, David Landes tells the story of eleven successful family businesses and argues that “dynastic businesses offer a proven route to developing emerging markets, while companies managed by unrelated professionals and funded by public investors offer mostly bad jobs and slim profit shares to local employees” (Amazon.com).

Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos provides a fascinating historical overview about the similarities between the Dot Com bust, the 1849 Gold Rush, and the early days of the electric industry.