Leftist Terrorism Zooms in Europe
Dismantling the social net:
Spain, Greece and Italy reported a total of 40 attacks by left-wing and anarchist groups for 2009.
This constitutes an increase of 43 % compared to 2008; the number of attacks more than doubled
since 2007.As in previous years, most attacks were carried out successfully and mainly targeted government and
business interests.The majority of these attacks were arsons, reported by Spain, and caused only property damage.The percentage of IED attacks decreased from 43 % in 2008 to 20 % in 2009; the majority of these bomb-ings occurred in Greece. In Greece, six left-wing terrorist organisations car-
ried out a total of 15 attacks in 2009.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/left-wing-terrorism-surges-in-europe-2010-9#ixzz0zQ4MKQGG
Netflix’s Excellent Vacation Policy
As the company explains in its “Reference Guide on our Freedom & Responsibility Culture”, a 128-slide PowerPoint presentation that has spread like samizdat literature on the internet: “We should focus on what people get done, not how many hours or days worked. Just as we don’t have a nine to five day policy, we don’t need a vacation policy.”
So the company scrapped its formal plan. Today, Netflix’s roughly 600 salaried employees can vacation any time they desire for as long as they want – provided that their managers know where they are and that their work is covered.
This ultra flexible, freedom-intensive approach to holiday time hasn’t exactly hurt the company. Launched in 1999, Netflix now has market cap of nearly $7bn (£4.5bn). Meanwhile, its chief rival, the video rental chain Blockbuster, last month was delisted from the New York Stock Exchange.
Review: Jack: Straight From The Gut
Made the mistake of reading Jack Welch’s book. It’s a terribly written, name dropping tome that reads like a list – there’s not much insight or meat here.
That said, I’m not sure how interesting the story of a guy who inherited a very strong balance sheet and a huge management team can be. Classic bureaucratic ninja rode the corporate ladder. Hiring didn’t matter as much as firing did (there’s always someone to take up the role.) Globalization happened.
Welch is the penultimate classic CEO. It’s a story about the business of business. That’s why this book is incredibly boring.