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The challenge for capitalism is that the things that breed trust also breed the environment for fraud.

Nike used to be known as Blue Ribbon Sports. What's now Sara Lee used to be Consolidated Foods. And Exxon was once Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. These were name changes that worked. But for all the ones that do, there are 10 or 20 that don't.

From James Surowiecki

Most corporate name changes are the result of mergers and acquisitions. But these tend to be unimaginative.

From James Surowiecki

The desire for reinvention seems to arise most often when companies hear the siren call of synergy and start to expand beyond their core businesses.

From James Surowiecki

As technology improves, on-screen avatars look more and more like real people. When they start looking too real, though, we pull away. These almost-humans aren't quite right; they look creepy, like zombies.

From James Surowiecki

Punk rock has never really had much patience with musical virtuosity. Actually, it'd be more accurate to say that for most of its history, punk has been actively hostile to virtuosity.

From James Surowiecki

By the time of the '90s boom, CEOs had become superheroes, accorded celebrity treatment and followed with a kind of slavish scrutiny that Alfred P. Sloan could never have imagined.

From James Surowiecki

Self-dealing, essentially, occurs when managers run companies to line their own pockets instead of those of the companies' owners. It's been a perennial problem in American capitalism and became a real dilemma when America moved toward a model in which corporations would be run by professional managers who had only small ownership stakes.

From James Surowiecki

If being the biggest company was a guarantee of success, we'd all be using IBM computers and driving GM cars.

From James Surowiecki

The reason advertising is governed by fear, after all, is that most agencies rely on just a few clients to bring in the lion's share of their revenues.

From James Surowiecki

James Surowiecki

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