John Chisholm, CEO of John Chisholm Ventures and Kaizen interviewee, gives a video lecture for the Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship.

In Hurricane Irene and Walmart’s Staff Meteorologist, from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, Eileen Norcross discusses economist Steven Horwitz’s assertion that the private sector was able to handle Hurricane Katrina more adeptly and more quickly than FEMA.

The article link’s to the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s interview of Horwitz on this very issue.

John Allison is the retired CEO and Chairman of the Branch Banking & Trust Corporation, based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Under Mr. Allison’s leadership from 1989 to 2009, BB&T grew from $4.5 billion to over $152 billion in assets to become the tenth largest financial institution headquartered in the USA. Almost more impressively, while many top banks failed outright or received large bailouts during the recent financial crisis, BB&T remained healthy and profitable. Mr. Allison is currently Distinguished Professor of Practice in the Business School at Wake Forest University.

Kaizen: Where did you grow up?

Allison: I grew up in Charlotte, North Carolina but I moved between the 10^th and 11^th grades to Chapel Hill, and graduated from high school in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Kaizen: When you were young, did you think you would become a banker?

Allison: Not at all. I was interested in economics in high school but not in banking, per se.

Kaizen: What were your early career dreams when you were a kid?

Allison: I thought I would work for a railroad and maybe be a railroad engineer.

(more…)

In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with John Allison, former CEO of BB&T Corporation. Under Allison’s guidance, BB&T has become one of the top financial services companies in the world. He was nominated by MorningStar as one of the best CEOs in 2008.

Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Jennifer Harolle, Alyssa Baggio, Derek Garcia, the Walhout Prize in Philosophy winner, Nathaniel Branch, and guest speaker Dr. David Henderson.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. John Allison.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

Jack Stack is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of SRC Holdings Corporation, an award-winning, employee-owned organization based in Springfield, Missouri. Springfield Remanufacturing Corporation and its 22 subsidiaries provide a wide range of products and services, including engine remanufacturing, packing and distribution, business consulting and banking. SRC employs 1,600 people and generates annual revenues of about $400 million.

Kaizen: Where did you grow up?

Stack: I was born in Chicago in 1948. My father bought a house in Elmhurst, Illinois, and I lived in Elmhurst from the time that I was about three years old to about 30. Then I was transferred to Springfield, Missouri, where I’ve spent the last 31 years of my life.

Kaizen: It sounds like you were a wild card as a youth—you were kicked out of college and seminary and fired from a job at General Motors?

(more…)

Jeffrey van Davis talks with Dr. Stephen Hicks about the inspirations for making his documentary Only A God Can Save Us, which explores Martin Heidegger’s involvement with the National Socialist movement. Mr. van Davis also discusses the process of making the film and its public reception. Parts I-IV are embedded below.

In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Jack Stack, Founder and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation, author of The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome, and “Father of Open-book Management” (Inc. Magazine).

Also featured in Kaizen are student essay contest winners Sarah Boykin, Shelly Wenzel, and Bethany Borgmann, and guest speakers Michael Strong and Magatte Wade.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Mr. Stack.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

Eduardo Marty is the Founder of Junior Achievement Argentina, an educational outreach program. Students in JA are taught how to prepare a business plan and raise funds. Approximately 50,000 students per year across Argentina participate. Marty has also held academic posts as professor at the University Francisco Marroquín, Guatemala, and the University of Buenos Aires. He was the host of Buenos Aires’s major television talk show Boom—Politics and Economics. We met with Mr. Marty in Buenos Aires to talk about his business education programs for young people and the state of entrepreneurship in South America.

.
Kaizen: Where did you grow up in Argentina?

Marty: In Buenos Aires. I went to elementary and high school here and the University too.

Kaizen: Before university, what was your education like?

Marty: Well, I went to school called National Buenos Aires. That’s the oldest high school in Buenos Aires, created in 1770. It’s a public school, but it’s a very prestigious one. It was the first school in Buenos Aires. To enter, you need to pass a very tough test once you finish elementary school. From five students submitting and applying—they accept just one. Our education is divided into elementary school and then secondary school. When I was in sixth grade I tried to pass the exam and I did it, so I was one year younger than the rest.

The Jewish community attends that school a lot. It is a very intellectual community here in Buenos Aires. By the way, you know that after New York Buenos Aires has the second largest Jewish community in the hemisphere.

(more…)

Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s executive director, talks with economist David R. Henderson on seven myths about free markets.

Watch Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s Executive Director, interview Spring 2011 guest speaker Dr. Al Gini on critical tasks for leadership: