First Monday: What's going on in business in October
— -- Calendar
Oct. 7: September's U.S. employment report.
Oct. 12: Fed minutes from Sept. 20 meeting of its policymaking committee that voted 7-3 to buy $400 billion in longer-term Treasury bonds.
Oct. 18:Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and Yahoo earnings.
Oct. 19: Fed "beige book" survey of regional economic conditions.
Oct. 21:General Electric reports earnings.
Oct. 27: Government's first estimate of third-quarter GDP.
Check It Out
By Gary H. Rawlins, USA TODAY
Foreign Policy
A fundamental realignment is changing the character of the global economy and how it functions, writes Mohamed El-Erian in Foreign Policy magazine. While too many advanced countries are struggling with massive debt and stubbornly high unemployment, several emergent economies have hit their "developmental breakout phase," says the CEO of investment firm Pimco. This is new territory for the global marketplace, one in which the less mature countries are more robust and resilient than their advanced peers.
MIT Sloan Management Review
Robert Cole, retired business professor at the University of California-Berkeley, spent more than a year researching why Toyota, a company revered for quality, saw its reputation slide. Cole, writing for the MIT Sloan Management Review, identifies three factors: management's focus on growth weakened the emphasis on quality; improving quality of competitive products; public perceptions of quality influenced by reports of recalls.
Wired
In the view of Wired magazine's Steven Levy, Apple's Steve Jobs is the perfect CEO. To Levy, Jobs overcame the bane of Silicon Valley: the Innovator's Dilemma, which says that once a company takes the lead in any given domain, it becomes less able to come up with radical innovations in that field. Jobs defied the phenomenon with hit after hit — the iMac, iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPad.
Fast Company
Fast Company introduces readers to Mary Barra, the highest-ranking female exec in General Motors history. Barra is responsible for the design and engineering of every GM vehicle around the globe. Her official title is senior vice president of global product development. Her job is to make cars sleeker, sharper, faster and more efficient, writes Jon Gertner. Despite recent good fortune, GM is under intense pressure to change, Gertner says, and the burden of orchestrating that transition falls largely on Barra.
Watch, Listen & Read
By Michelle Archer, special for USA TODAY
On TV
Boss,Starz, Oct. 21, 10 p.m. ET/PT
A screen-commanding Kelsey Grammar portrays a fictional Chicago mayor whose eloquent and elegant exterior belies the fact that he has the leadership style of Tony Soprano, a home life that's about as warm as a Popsicle and a medical problem straight out of House. A bit dark and a bit twisted, Boss will stick with you for a while and leave you wondering where it's all headed.
Also in October
Maria Bartiromo hosts a prime-time Meeting of the Minds: The Business of Science (CNBC; Oct. 17; 9 p.m. ET) to discuss innovation. The following night, Bartiromo's colleague Scott Cohn investigates the booming incarceration business in Billions Behind Bars: Inside America's Prison Industry (CNBC; premieres Oct. 18; 9 p.m. ET), ideally in front of a captive audience.
If you enjoy the high-end real estate high jinks in Selling New York, you'll want to catch the debut of Selling LA (HGTV; premieres Oct. 13; 10 p.m. ET/PT). And once you buy a million-dollar property, you'll probably need Stephen Fanuka, the Million Dollar Contractor (DIY Network; premieres Oct. 16; 10 p.m. ET).
Flip Men, Spike TV, Oct. 25, 10:30 p.m. ET/PT
In this new reality show, cameras follow Salt Lake City foreclosure buyers Mike Baird and Doug Clark in their morning race to scout dozens of properties on the auction block later that day.
"We have a couple minutes at best to decide," Clark says, before the day's foreclosure sale. Viewers will follow the pair to see the bidding, and after the partners have purchased a property — they try to buy more than 100 homes a year — we'll see them break into it. Turns out, foreclosure buyers don't get keys.
Partners since 2004, Baird and Clark started out during what they called an easy market in which to play the flipping game.
"Now there are so many more homes to choose from, but the difficulty becomes valuing these properties in a somewhat falling or stagnant market," Baird says. "Before, you could just buy and wait, then sell and make money."
"We're finding out the banks are giving far greater discounts at the foreclosure sales — that's the positive," Clark adds. "The negative is, it's far riskier."
Books
One Click: Jeff Bezos and the Rise of Amazon.com by Richard L. Brandt (Portfolio; $25.95; Oct. 27)
It's a tribute to Amazon.com's enormous impact on the retail industry that reading about the early days of the company in journalist Richard Brandt's new book feels like visiting a quaint era generations ago instead of just the mid-'90s.
Brandt's thorough research on Jeff Bezos — as bookworthy an entrepreneur as anyone — unfortunately didn't include access to the CEO himself. But Brandt paints a rather vivid picture of Bezos' early life and Amazon's genesis through interviews with employees and competitors.
That the $25.95 book can be purchased for $14.80 on the subject's own site — with one click — certainly reinforces the points Brandt makes about Amazon's philosophy.
At the Movies
Margin Call, Lionsgate/Roadside Attractions, rated R, Oct. 21
A splashy cast (Kevin Spacey, Jeremy Irons, Stanley Tucci and Zachary Quinto, among others) headlines a drama that co-producer Neal Dodson calls a smart and exciting look inside a fictional bank in the 24 hours leading up to the tipping point of the financial crash of 2008.
Although Dodson has fielded questions about whether we need another movie about the mess (e.g., Wall Street 2, Too Big Too Fail, Company Men and Inside Job), he writes in an e-mail interview that the European press at festival screenings were more inclined to ask why there haven't been more American movies exploring the subject matter.
"And I agree — it's a complex world event and human experience," Dodson says.
Going the dramatic route instead of a straightforward documentary lets the audience relate to human beings instead of an industry, Dodson says.
"(For me), a little bit of poetry and craft and art is necessary to try and ask questions of an audience, particularly when trying to explore a subject as vast and impenetrable as the monolithic financial industry."
5 questions with Tim O'Shaugnessy
By Jayne O'Donnell, USA TODAY
Tim O'Shaughnessy, 29, is CEO of LivingSocial, which posted its first deal in July 2009 and is the second-largest daily-deal site after Groupon. His responses have been edited for space and clarity.
Q: Is it a big concern when economic news turns negative?
A: Small businesses and consumers want to make effective usage of their money and their resources. People will want to keep trying out new things where they live and will want to save money. As news comes out, people get a little more nervous, so that becomes especially top-of-mind, which could benefit a company like ours.
Even if you look at 2008, 2009 and into 2010, people still wanted to go out to restaurants and still wanted to treat themselves.
Q: As a large employer, what's your reaction to the president's jobs plan?
A: It does feel great to be a large-scale hirer. In the U.S., we've grown from around 600 employees to around 1,800. Worldwide, we're approaching 4,000. So it has been good growth. I really felt great about it when I realized we could impact the unemployment rate in Washington, D.C., where we are based.
As for the president's plan, it's really important for any jobs plan to focus on entrepreneurship and innovation. That's where a lot of the long-term sustainable companies have been built out of.
Q: You expect to be a player this holiday season?
A: The types of merchants and partners we work with are inherently thoughtful and giftable. We're going to focus on making gift-giving very easy for people this holiday season.
We want to be cognizant of how people want to be externally viewed, and we'll try to build products in a way that facilitates that. The value we provide can be more around experiences and exclusivity, like with our LivingSocial adventures program.
Q: What's your response to those who say there's deal overload and that sites such as yours are a passing fad?
A: Our core foundations are that people value money and like to spend efficiently and like to try out new things to do around where they live. Any model that has those two principles has a good chance at success.
A recent study found people expected to stay at the current level or even increase the amount of purchases they made through a company like LivingSocial.
Q: What kind of services are most popular now and will be most popular in the future?
A: The things that are and will continue to be most popular are those aspirational elements. It's going out to that dinner that you otherwise wouldn't have done. It's that half-day spa package.
People view it as a way that they can get happiness. Any time you are introducing happiness to someone's life, the popularity soars.