169 companies offer custom-written doctoral dissertations for sale in Russia at prices ranging from the equivalent of $900 to     $25,000, according to research by Ararat L. Osipian of Vanderbilt University. By one estimate, some 10,000 dissertations are written for pay each year in Russia, nearly one-third of the disssertations defended there.

Advanced degrees are popular among Russian politicians. More than half of the members of the State Duma, Russia´s main legislative body, hold doctoral degrees, Osipian reports.

Source: Economics of corruption in doctoral education: The dissertations market

Just 52% of executives surveyed worldwide by McKinsey say the way they spend their time fits well with their organizations`strategic priorities. This suggests that time challenges aren´t just a major hassle for executives but are hurting business performance too.

Companies should help solve this problem by establishing „time budgets“ for priority initiatives, McKinsey says.

Source: Making time management the organizations`priority

Havard Business Review Article – March 18th,2013

For every 1-standard-deviation increase in a female    opponent´s attractiveness, male participants in large international chess competitions have an 8% greater propensity to play risky openings, but these moves aren´t beneficial for their game performance, says a team led by Anna Dreber of Stockholm School of Economics in Sweden. Female players, by contrast, don´t appear to be affected by the attractiveness of their male partners.

Although there´s no payoff on the chess board, „it could turn out that playing a risky strategy against an attractive female player is beneficial for a male player outside of the chess game,“ the researchers note.

Source: Harvard Business Review, Sept. 4th, 2013

Knowing how much to spend on IT is difficult. You need a system that works, of course, but often big investments fail to generate hefty returns. And yet many executives, IT and non-IT alike, push for state-of-the-art when it’s simply not necessary.

Don’t let executives demand top-level services when the average will do. Determine what you absolutely need in terms of reliability, responsiveness, and accessibility and match your budget to those needs. Don’t waste money beyond that. For example, if brief downtimes won’t hinder your business, only build back-ups for when your system crashes for over an hour.

The word „team“ is so commonly used in today’s organizations, most managers are oblivious to its true meaning. Here are three characteristics a group must have to be considered a real team, and to maximize its potential:

• A meaningful and common purpose – This is more than an outside mandate from the top of the organization. To be successful, the team must develop and own
  its purpose.
• Adaptable skills – Diverse capabilities are important. Effective teams rarely have all the skills they need at the outset. They develop them as they learn what their challenge requires.
• Mutual accountability. You can’t force trust and commitment. Agreeing on the team’s goals is the first moment at which team members forge their accountability to one another.