EconAir

Middle East Oil Wells OVERVIEW Outside of the United States and Canada, most of the world’s oil and natural gas is owned and produced by governments or government-dominated companies with minority shareholders. Two examples of the latter, public companies with stockholders, are Petrobras in Brazil and Gazprom in Russia.   But government officials, especially the president, control management and make the important decisions. Production and investment decisions are not made based on financial criteria alone.   Often, internal political or foreign geopolitical factors are more important. Many countries' economies and government budgets depend critically on oil and natual gas revenue from exports. Maintaining internal peace and welfare programs are more important than rational economic considerations. What this means is that production and distribution decisions in these countries are made using different criteria than by private companies in the United State...

Russian T-72 Tank Seen in Ukraine   HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Most of what is now Ukraine came under Russian control in the 1700s, due to the expansionist policies of Catherine the Great.   Part of western Ukraine (Galicia) was a province of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.   With the collapse of the Romanov regime in 1917 and Austria-Hungary in 1918, Ukrainians attempted to establish an independent republic.   During the Russian Civil War, Ukrainian nationalist groups fought on the side of the Communist Red Army because they knew that if the monarchy were reestablished, Ukraine would be forced back into the Russian Empire.   Their hopes for independence were crushed as the triumphant Communist regime absorbed Ukraine into the Soviet Union. Ukrainians suffered under the Stalinist regime.   Because the Ukraine was the “bread basket” of the Soviet Union, grain and other crops were systematically confiscated by the Communist government to feed in...

William Gibson: Neuromancer (I wrote this in 2008 as a memo in response to an adult student’s question about what I thought of the book Fifth Discipline.  While still somewhat unrealistic - organizations are still run by managers who lack the self-confidence to ask others for advice and ideas - I think the current trends of quicker reaction to change, recognition of "high value-added employees," and more sophisticated IT software are moving organizations in this direction. At least the good ones.) I'm glad you read Fifth Discipline , even though it's rather dense.   Many of the ideas in the book are now the starting points for a lot of writing on management.   I believe that the best way for organizations to achieve superior performance and survive in the long run is to be adaptive, to be a "learning organization."   This means that everyone in the organization is encouraged (and rewarded) to come up with new ideas and methods. ...