SoCal Minds

How firms gain value investing in marketing, innovation

From Claremont Graduate University

It would seem to make axiomatic common sense and now it has some documentation: Companies that both spend money to stay ahead of their competitors and budget sums to let the world know what they're doing see real rewards for these investments, a researcher in Claremont says after compiling a 2009 list of the top 100 firms putting cash into innovation and marketing. The featured companies were extracted from a larger pool of U.S. or Canadian concerns with sales exceeding $100 million, and, ultimately, a threshhold was set that to get on the list, the firms had to spend 2.14% of sales on both marketing and innovation -- allocations that the researcher says added marked value, confirming a maxim of business guru Peter Drucker: 'Because its purpose is to create a customer, the business has two -- and only two -- functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation create value, all the rest are costs.'

100 firms found to confirm maxim of business guru Peter Drucker

Click here to access full study listing top 100 firms investing in innovation, marketing

A focus on Asian food, music, poetry, emigres

From UCLA, Claremont Graduate University & UCSB

With their proximity to the Pacific Rim and the huge populations of people with blood-ties to the region, hallelujah for all the scholarship that area schools devote to matters Asian. In Westwood, for example, the Bruins recently brought to campus on completion of his massive masterwork Ko Un, (shown at left) a Korean peace activist and onetime dissident who also happens to be a most prolific bard and Buddhist monk; his literary place in his native land, scholars say, has been secured with, among other things, his 25-year, 30-volume, 4,000 poem epic, dubbed in English, '10,000 Lives.' And for those who love eats from the Far East, better secure a spot in line now for the Sunday program on 'Asian Cuisine, LA style.' Reservations are required for the day-long session, which will include a $10 Banchan bento lunch and a chat with Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Jonathan Gold. For those who might wish to mind their p's and q's, not just while dining with them, but to better understand their U.S. lives, Xiaojian Zhao (shown at right in photo by Rod Rolle), a scholar in Santa Barbara has a new book out examining considerations of class, economics and hierarchies among the Chinese in America. And for those more musically inclined, there's interesting news out of Claremont, where the Drucker folks, led by executive director Rick Wartzman,  have teamed up with the Vietnam National Academy of Music, Southwest Chamber Music, the Riordan leadership crew and the Colburn School for a novel venture. It will feature not only premieres across the U.S. of Vietnamese concert works (including one such performance Friday at the downtown conservatory across from the Disney Hall) but also a push for arts management training for Vietnamese cultural administrators and leaders.

A big day of Bruin eating focused on Asian cuisines

For Korean literary figure, it's 25 years, 30 volumes and 4,000 poems

Class, hierarchies and economics in 'Chinese America'

A major exchange of music, management know-how between Claremont, Vietnam

Yawn, a certain magazine scores grad programs

From Caltech et al

Couple of guys, a pitcher of beer and pizza before them, pass through the better part of an evening, shooting the breeze in the pre-season, jawing and joshing about the rankings of their favorite sports teams. What do the prognostications about where franchises eventually will finish, too many long months in the future, really mater? Guess it's suitable fodder for guy talk, humanizing chatter, whatever to call the list and ratings fascination. So small cheers to the various schools around the area for mostly just taking note of the latest, all-important to some lists by U.S. News & World Report of graduate programs across the country with ostensible scores attached. And, just to keep repeating, here's a link, too, to a recent Bruin magazine piece that offers some perspective on the various 'rankings' of academic programs.

In Pasadena, a modest taking note of top rankings in three areas

For Trojans, emphasis on med school and its rise on the list

In Santa Barbara, spotlight goes to attention-grabbing physics program

In Irvine, a brief nod to a jump by the business school 

Drucker positions itself as a top California business school

In Malibu, the law school takes the spotlight

In Orange, pleasure over a second-tier listing for 15-year-old law school

In downtown, a law school celebrates its new highs on the list

Bruin magazine offers perspective on publications' institutional rankings

Play, imagine, recycle? Yes, a green parade, too

From Claremont Graduate University

Stomp with Greens? Yah, maybe. At any rate, the folks out in Claremont have brought to campus this week a fun and enlightening South Korean environmental and performance group called 'noridan.'  These self-described social entrepreneurs 'play, imagine and recycle,' taking what could be discards and converting them into musical instruments, then engaging in parades and performances to increase green awareness about their social goals. The university-based noridan troupe not only recycles items into instruments and performs and parades with them, members also seek to solve other societal challenges, such as converting wasted industrial spaces into parks and playgrounds. They'll conduct a reservation-only workshop today and parade in the area on Wednesday. Here's just one vid of from one of their 200 performances and 1,000 worldwide workshops.

In Claremont, rollicking think tankers take to streets with noteworthy ideas 

Click here for more info on noridan

The power, influence of sound, moving images

From Claremont Graduate University, CSUN & CSULA

Participating in a lively, intriguing discussion Tuesday night  -- thanks to the terrific folks at the Loyola Law School -- over prosecutors' disputed use of a documentary filmmaker's work and labor of love in the death-penalty phase of a Los Angeles homicide case offered yet another poignant reminder about the power of sound, music and moving images and the amount of musical and movie-making talent that abounds in LA. Apropos of that not particularly profound revelation, here's pointing one and all to the commission of a Southland composer by the Boston Pops to commemorate the Bay State's legendary Kennedy brothers, a fun look at a toe-tapping musical mashup that emanated from East LA and a PSA that not only spotlights the talents of some aspiring film folks but is winning them considerable attention.

Boston Pops tap composer in Claremont for Kennedy tribute

In East LA, snappy tunes in Espanol with Japanese singer-accordion player

PSA on cyber crime offers showcase for young movie-makers

 

$100,000, $10,000 poetry prizes awarded

From Claremont Graduate University

Tea? Lunch? Cocktails? Chronic? To those who know poetry, appreciate edgy and what some critics term fearless writing, those, of course, are the titles of works by D.A. 'Doug' Powell, who, the university has announced, has just won the $100,000 Kingsley Tufts Poetry Award, named in honor of the late Los Angeles shipyards executive who penned poems in his spare time. Powell, whose work riffs on movies, music and serious topics like the AIDS epidemic, will read his poetry and receive the prize in a program in Pasadena in April. Beth Bachman, a Vanderbilt professor whose first book, 'Temper,' won critical acclaim for what one critic called its ferocious recounting of a murder, also was announced as the winner of the $10,000 Kate Tufts Discovery Award. Both awards, one given to a mid-career author and the other to an early-career writer, aim to assist poets with finances so they can concentrate on their art.

Poet D.A. Powell wins honors, Beth Bachman lauded for 1st poetry book

Click here for Poetry Foundation page on Powell with postings of some of his poems

Dean quits at Drucker-Ito management school

From Claremont Graduate School

There's a sudden opening at the top of the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School of Management. After 3.5 years at the helm, Ira Jackson has resigned as dean, effective at the year's end. He cited a desire to be with his family, who live on the East Coast. He will be on academic sabbatical until his term finishes and will continue to shepherd the Peter F. Drucker centennial birthday celebrations, as well as contacts with alumni and school supporters. The interim president had only praise for the dean's accomplishments during his tenure.

Citing desire to be with family, dean who led Drucker centenntial events departs

Generous dudes? Check what's in their pants

From Claremont Graduate University

Well, here's a royal shocker with a twist, sort of: Guys are really affected by what's in their pants. The hormones generated by what's under their zippers, researchers say, also has a big effect on how they pull out their wallets from their back pockets. Based on studies with hormones and video games, researchers determined that male subjects with higher levels of testosterone were stingier; those with lower levels were more generous. This may be due to testosterone's capacity to suppress another hormone, oxytocin, which has been linked to generosity. Extrapolating from their studies, researchers say that young men -- fueled by lifetime highs in their levels of testosterone -- are more likely to be aggressive, selfish, stingy with both cash and time and driven to amass money, power and goods. They're also likely to gravitate -- unlike women with lesser amounts of the male hormone -- toward alpha societal roles, such as military service. But as they age, get mellowed by marriage and offspring and their testosterone levels drop, they're more likely to become generous and philanthropic, offering clues and hope as to why Americans in 2005 donated almost $200 billion to charity. 

Testosterone, high in young men, tied to stinginess, selfishness

Paul Zak Discusses his lab's research on how testosterone affects financial motivation from Claremont Graduate University on Vimeo.

Psychologist offers tips to fix kids' poor prose

From Claremont Graduate University

For every parent, teacher or boss who has looked at a piece of writing and winced or even screamed aloud, here's an interesting expert take on effective ways to help students improve their prose. A psychologist, who says she's seen her share of hair-pulling written work after grading papers for more than three decades, says that, as with all human endeavors, it's crucial for teachers to give clear, concise and comprehensible writing lessons to young people -- in a way that they can actually use and learn them. Among her sensible suggestions: No more handwritten comments that students mostly seem to ignore; shorter assignments; getting students to write early, in part by requiring them to proofread and sign each others' assignments that they did this task; make quality writing and its sound practices a department-wide or wider policy and practice. She provides, among other things, a handy chart of the 10 most common writing problems that she has found in student writing over the year; she recommends that rather than scribbling long comments, teachers could simply annotate errors using letter-references from her list (e.g. they could just jot down a 'T' to indicate a student needed to fix a transition or that they needed to remedy a  'W' for wordy).

Tips on how to cut profs' work while really improving students' writing

Curbing teen pot use? Parents hold the key

From Claremont Graduate University

It's the parents, stupid. Maybe that's the commercial tagline for telling new research on what's most effective for keeping teenagers from turning into problematic little stoners. After reviewing a vast amount of existing studies in the area, with data on more than 35,000 participants, doh, it's as clear as it could be to one expert that the biggest thing parents can do is be active and engaged with their teens and to monitor what they're up to if they wish to curb their pot use. High parental monitoring, in fact, cuts marijuana use by 21%. Put this information toward anti-drug, public service ad campaigns, researchers say, and it's also clear the advantages of certain approaches: Though it was popular, the "This is your brain on drugs" campaign, as previously noted, fails to discourage and even encourages use; the tactics underlying a different appeal -- "Parents: the Anti-Drug" -- has greater prospects, especially if it gets kids and their folks talking. 

Did Jeff Spiccoli's parents know about all this anti-pot data?