Weekend Digest: The Unpopular Politicians Edition

For our weekend business and political readers:

TIME LOST SQUANDERING
Harvard Business Review asks, “How much time does your organization squander?”

My colleagues and I gathered data about time use at one large company and found that people there spent 300,000 hours a year just supporting the weekly executive committee meeting. Some of that time was productive, no doubt. But organizations in general are remarkably cavalier about how they invest their scarcest resource, the time of their people.

In this month’s HBR, we analyze why companies waste so much time and what they can do to conserve it.

Invest your precious time for answers at this link.

WHITE HOUSE BIG-DATA REVIEW COMPLETED, SPARKS MORE PRIVACY DEBATE
POLITICO posts, “A three-month White House review of how business and government mine massive data sets sees big public and economic benefits from the practice — along with new dangers — but sketches out a murky path towards enforcing privacy protections in the booming tech sector.”

The White House closed its so-called “big data” review Thursday, including in its findings a set of recommendations for policies to protect individuals. Those suggestions include passing national legislation on responding to data breaches, and a fresh call for baseline consumer privacy legislation the White House first recommended in 2012.

President Barack Obama launched the review, led by White House counselor John Podesta, during a January speech calling for reforms to National Security Agency surveillance. The review stokes an already simmering debate about the ways businesses collect, sell, and utilize data on millions of Americans.

So what are the pros-and-cons of big data mining and why is this so important to the technology industry?  Go to this link for complete analysis.

BIGGEST INDUSTRY YOU NEVER HEARD ABOUT?
It’s the U.S. logistics industry that CNN Money describes as “vast.”

How can a $1.3 trillion industry, getting bigger every year, be hidden in plain sight? Easy. The vast U.S. logistics business, which delivers 48 million tons of freight (worth about $48 billion) daily and already employs roughly 6 million people, operates mostly behind the scenes.

“When you order something from, say, Amazon, you know it arrives on your doorstep in two days, but most people don’t think about how,” observes George Prest, CEO of logistics trade group Material Handling Industry (MHI). He adds that the field gets overlooked by new grads in particular, who think of supply-chain work — if they think of it at all — as “a guy driving a forklift in a dusty old factory.”

“That outdated image is a huge hurdle for an industry that badly needs new talent in high tech, analytics, robotics, and engineering,” says CNN Money.

It appears the sky is the limit for employment opportunities in the logistics industry. Go to this link to find out the astounding amount of workers that will be needed to fill roles by 2018 and what the industry is doing to become more creative in achieving its hiring goals.

HARDEST PART OF A STARTUP IS SURVIVING LEAN EARLY YEARS
So how do you keep your startup alive? Especially through the first three years?

The early years of a startup’s life are grueling, but there are ways to ensure your company makes it through its growing pains.

Inc. has compiled a list of tips that could just fuel your startup down the road to success. For expert advice click on this link.

THE ‘QUIET’ CAMPAIGN OF SENATOR MARK PRYOR
The Washington Post reports, “Arkansas Sen. Mark Pryor is in the race for his political life against Republican Rep. Tom Cotton. Only you probably wouldn’t realize that if you saw him campaigning.”

In private moments, Mark Pryor likes to ask his fellow senators a personal question: What was the thing that got you started in politics?

Some have told him it was the Vietnam War. Others say it was the conservative vision of Ronald Reagan. In most cases, these scarred old pols started out as idealists, with a determination to change something very big in American life.

Pryor himself can’t come up with an answer like that.

“I don’t really have that one issue, or one cause that has gotten me involved in this,” Pryor said. “I just believe in good government, and working hard.”

And so The Washington Post asks, “Will Arkansas keep a Democratic senator with no big crusades?”

Go to this link for The Post’s take on why Pryor can’t afford to be “neutral.”

THE DEMOGRAPHIC SHIFT IN THE SOUTH
The Washington Post reports, “Earlier this week, we wrote about how demographic shifts in the South could help Democrats become more competitive in a region that has swung significantly toward Republicans in recent decades.”

Some folks took issue with that analysis. Below is a counterpoint from Rob Richie and Devin McCarthy of FairVote, a group that advocates for changes to the U.S. electoral system.

The great hope of many Democrats is that Republican strongholds in the South will soon become purple or even blue as a result of inexorable demographic trends. Tuesday in “The Fix,” Chris Cillizza reinforced that hope, arguing that the South will become a “genuinely competitive region over the next two decades.”

While the demographic trend of a growing Hispanic population in the South is real, its effects are overstated. Yes, a few Southern states are getting more Democratic – but at a glacial pace.

For the entire counterpoint, click on this link.

WHERE HAVE ALL THE POPULAR POLITICIANS GONE?
That’s the question NBC News poses in an intriguing post.

The American public, circa 2014, is not a big fan of many politicians these days and certainly isn’t ready to give even potential new national leaders the benefit of the doubt.

While this may not surprise you, if you spend your days on social media, it’s actually a quite striking development when observed over the last eight years. What’s especially striking are the numbers for the potential presidential candidates.

So what are those numbers and who is considered the most favorable right now? Or is anybody?

Yes, it’s still very early in the 2016 cycle. Yes, our NBC/WSJ hasn’t polled all the potential presidentials this year. And, yes, it’s possible that more popular candidates come out of nowhere to make serious runs. But it’s hard to ignore that we’re living in a much more cynical age right now, when the country is disgusted with American politics and its institutions.

Take a look at the numbers, not just of politicians, but also of some companies and the political parties as well at this link.

WRITER ENCOURAGES CHILDREN AND FAMILIES TO PLAY MORE MINECRAFT
Minecraft, the hugely popular video game, is “changing a generation” says Forbes contributing writer Emily Willingham.

As a parent who sits in her family room every single day and listens to her children play this game, I say, emphatically, “Yes. More Minecraft, please.”

Why?

You’ll have to go to this link to find out.

THE BEST STAR WARS ART AND DESIGN ON THE INTERNET
“And it’s all in one place,” Fast Company happily reports.

This week, newly released concept art for the Star Wars trilogy by Ralph McQuarrie reminded us of why we love the movies so. Star Wars: The Art of Ralph McQuarrie, a limited edition book byDreams and Visions Press, features the original designs for the films’ sets and its now-legendary characters, including Darth Vader, Chewbacca, R2-D2. and C3PO.

McQuarrie’s wildly imaginative tableaux — which George Lucas commissioned in 1975 — was the basis for what would turn into a $4.38 billion franchise with a cult following.

For a slide show of McQuarrie’s concept art plus other Stars Wars inspired artist’s works “warp” to this link.