Poverty

Just finished Jeffrey Sach's "The End of Poverty," an aggressive plan laid out to terminate extreme poverty by 2025. Hmm... looking back at my blog, I started this book around mid September! Business school, you are evil.

I liked the book a lot. These types of book - as in the simplified economics / common sense / academic types - are quite prevalent in the market lately. For a person like myself, with some economic training, they are a delite to read. Not only do I understand most of the methodologies and approach, but I also can scrutinize the book with some confidence.

Back to the book. I believe in the solution Sachs has suggested. It is very comprehensive and it has proven to work in other previously struggling countries. The real question is, as he has clearly laid out, whether the donors will have enough faith in the effectiveness of the money given. Here, he credits U2 singer Bono for ingesting faith into politicians and different sections and making them believe in the solution.

Relating to what we learn in business school, this is the relationship side of business, the soft side, the LEAD side. Too often among the MBA ranks are people who are results-only-driven... which is great, we should all be results-driven; but we shouldn't forget about the soft skills. Results matter, which is why economists such as Jeffrey Sachs is retained to do developmental work again and again. Soft side also matters, which is why Sachs would have never succeeded without te help of Bono. Even Sachs acknowledges that. Results results results... but also relationships.

Read the book. At least know that there is a solution for all the bad things happening around the world, and all the good things that could happen.