The Key to Business Success – By Phin Upham

By Phin Upham

How does an organization achieve a “sustainable competitive advantage?” When it comes to organizational theory, there are many views which attempt to explain why some organizations are superior to others or have a source of advantage over other firms. One of these views is the dynamic capabilities theory. The capabilities view tries to describe the various accomplishments, disasters, and sources of trouble that the business world endures. This view has an added value: it is especially applicable during times of change. But this additional complexity is occasionally exaggerated by the writers of papers on this subject. Although it is crucial, an organization with good capabilities and a relatively firm foundation is able to produce a great deal of relevant competitive advantage. The theory, which includes the “learning to learn” portion of the picture, as long as it surpasses normal company learning, is a marginal development.

Authors Nelson and Winter write about the capabilities point of view in their essay (1982) “Organizational Capabilities Behavior.” Starting with a focus on the individual, the authors suggest that skilled behavior in individuals is produced through routine, past behavior/learning, and tactic knowledge. The paper doesn’t emphasis some of the conventions of classical micro-economics such as firms optimize, entrepreneurs are identical, and inputs are homogenous. Instead, the authors state that choices in companies might not be ideal – they might be the outcome of personal experience or organizational memory. Organizational memory is found in the situation itself, an individual’s organizational and personal experience, and external memory. Generalizing from this individual standpoint, the authors apply evolutionary economics to the level of the organization. The concept is constructed from the micro level to the macro, producing a conceptual parallel between the two, and a causal link between the nature and behavior of the capabilities of an organization and the behavior of individuals.

Creating an image of organizational routines, the authors end up revealing truces between individual and organizational motivations. Organizational routines give way to organizational capabilities. This theory sets the foundation of the capabilities theory and also produces some fascinating consequences. The first consequence is that organizational capabilities don’t like changes, including changes designed for improvement. The second consequence produced by this theory is that organizational capabilities are nearly impossible to replicate by other firms.

The Space of Love and Garbage by Phin Upham

By Phin Upham

“The Space of Love and Garbage,” is a book that I worked on which collects for the first time in one place twenty of the most outstanding works from the Harvard Review of Philosophy. Some of the contributing authors include Arthur M. Meltzer, Stephen A. Erickson, Peter Berkowitz, and Jonathan Baron.

Focusing on personal, emotional and political issues, these pieces illuminate just those areas of philosophy and life that are most important to living ‘the good life’ to its fullest as an individual and as a citizen.

What are our responsibilities to each other, to the ones we love, to our society, to our country? In this book we bring philosophy back to its roots— asking questions that are both important and instructive to the general public, lovers, philosophers, and scholars.

We at the Harvard Review of Philosophy believe philosophy to be a vibrant and exciting way to address some of the most pressing and deepest concerns in life. The pieces pull from analytic, continental and ancient philosophical roots, and they address a variety of topics ranging from immigration to moral intuition, but they never stray from what we feel are philosophy’s central questions. Each chapter focuses on questions central to practical and normative questions of the human experience—primarily those involving life, love and politics.

This book is a companion volume to “All We Need Is a Paradigm: Essays on Science, Economics, and Logic,” — another collection of essays from The Harvard Review of Philosophy, that I edited while an undergraduate philosophy student at Harvard.
This book is available on Amazon.com and on eBay

Explaining CEO Longevity

By Phin Upham

What happens when a CEO stays in power for more than ten years? Are they respected and honored or scrutinized and cast down? In the paper “Political Dynamics and the Circulation of Power: CEO succession in U.S. Industrial Corporations,” 1960-1990, William Ocasio explores important structural factors that impact CEO longevity. He views the topic through the models institutionalization of power and the circulation of power, both of which have a different way of analyzing CEO tenure as well as power accumulation, strategic maneuvering, and effects of time.

The first model, the institutionalization of power, states that a CEO has a better chance of remaining in the same position the longer he or she has had the title. On the other hand, the model of the circulation of power suggests that as time goes by, the longer that a CEO remains in office the more likely that people will grow against the CEO and that his or her ideas will be rejected for being old and stale.

However, viewing CEOs through these models holds a few assumptions. First, there are no personality characteristics in the metrics, so it’s not completely accurate to assume that these models can affect everyone in the same way. This structuralist view also doesn’t include anything about how the CEO left the company or where they went next. For example, a CEO could have left the company voluntarily. However, it’s apparent that the author of this essay is not concerned with the dropout rate, but with the ability of a CEO to remain in power when they want to stay in office. CEOs that leave the company voluntarily should be taken out of the research, yet it can be difficult to distinguish between voluntary and involuntary drop out.

Ocasio’s research demonstrates especially clear logic, and he shows the data in several different formats with short descriptions of the important effects. The results of his research reveal the conclusion that the circulation of power model applies during the first ten years of tenure. However, after the first decade, the scenario shifts and the CEO’s circumstances seem to mirror the situations described by the consolidation of power model.

You can also visit youtube for a presentation of this article.

Editing “Philosophers in Conversation”

By Phin Upham
Harvard University publishes an annual journal called the Harvard Review of Philosophy. While an undergraduate student and philosophy major at Harvard, I had the opportunity to serve as Editor-in-Chief of the journal from 1998 to 2000. During my tenure, I edited a book that brought together some of the brightest minds in contemporary philosophy: “Philosophers in Conversation: Interviews from the Harvard Review of Philosophy.” It is a must-read volume of thirteen conversational-style interviews with some of the most valuable and studied thinkers of the twentieth century, including Henry Alison, Stanley Cavell, Alan Dershowitz, Harvey C. Mansfield, Jr., Alexander Nehemas, Hilary Putnam, W.V. Quine, and John Rawls. What are the philosophers of today talking about?

Who is Theodore Zoli?

In the article “Theodore Zoli, Genius Bridge Engineer,” Tom Chiarella writes a magazine-style biography on the award-winning bridge builder and engineer Theodore Zoli, P.E. The article opens with a description of a job site and introduces us to a man who appears more like a poet than an engineer. Even still, Zoli is considered the engineer of the moment and the article explains why.

The article goes into Zoli’s specialty as an engineer. It also gives us an inside look into how Zoli analyses the world around him, including his thoughts on various bridges, such as the George Washington, Queensboro, and Manhattan bridges. Why does the engineer of the moment believe one bridge is better than another? What are his thoughts on leaving a signature on the bridge? The article also goes into why he appreciates poet Hart Crane, writer of the long poem “The Bridge.”

To find out more, read the entire article: http://www.esquire.com/features/brightest-2010/theodore-zoli-bio-1210

Phin Upham Bio

Phin Upham

Phin Upham is the author of numerous papers, essays, and articles, many of which have been published in scholarly journals. He has also edited several books.

After completing his dissertation at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Phin Upham wrote three papers and published several essays related to his research on innovation and understanding the ways in which groups interact to produce environments for success. His three papers include: “Positioning knowledge: schools of thought and new knowledge creation,’ “Emerging scientific research fronts,” and “Communities of Innovation: Schools of Thought and New Knowledge Creation.”  A few of his published essays include “Citation structure of an emerging research area on the verge of application,” “Finding cohesive clusters for analyzing knowledge communities,” and “Analyzing knowledge communities using foreground and background clusters.”

Phin Upham has edited three books: “Philosophers in Conversation,” “The Space for Love and Garbage, and “All We Need is a Paradigm.” Published in 2002, “Philosophers in Conversation,” was an academic best seller, translated into Mandarin, and distributed in three continents.

Phin Upham’s first job was a journalism position at Toronto’s National Post. After leaving National Post, Phin Upham was hired to write a nationally syndicated column at United Press International in Washington. After business school Phin Upham worked at Morgan Stanley.  Today he works as an investor for a US hedge fund and family office.

Phin Upham earned an undergraduate degree at Harvard and his graduate work at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He serves on the board of the University of the Pennsylvania Museum of Archeology and Anthropology’s Young Friends, and is a Term Member at the Council on Foreign Relations.

To learn more about Phin Upham visit him on:

Phin Upham Website
Phin Upham Twitter Page
Phin Upham Facebook Page
Phin Upham on Youtube
Phin Upham on Linkedin
Phin Upham Photography

Financing and Investing Advice

Investing is considered to be the most important financial activity for anyone in the United States for decades. A good way to prepare for retirement is to invest, as it ensure that you will have enough money to survive and live comfortably off of after you stop working. Since it is very difficult to keep up with market trends, investing by yourself is even harder, that’s why you should hire an investment advisor.

In order for people and companies to make sure that their money is being invested correctly, they normally hire an investment advisor or firm. If your investments are poorly placed, your returns will be low, and possibly you will have no returns at all, which translates into a loss of money. This is clearly not what you want to happen when you’re investing your hard earned money.

Getting started can be very difficult, but it’s a good step towards getting your financial security in place. You’ll be much better off the second you start investing. Your savings are a great place to get started.

If you want to get your finances moving in the right direction, a good starting point is to save up at least three to six months’ of emergency savings. When it comes to investing, learn every benefit that your employer potentially offers. This money that you will set aside can be a life saver when you have medical expenses that come up that have to be paid for immediately. Having an IRA, or Individual Retirement Account, is a must for planning for retirement. It’s also very important to set up monthly deposits to your IRA account, from your bank account. When you properly invest your money, you’re not tempted to just leave the money “laying around” and possibly use it for another reason.

There are a lot of different things that can be considered when it comes to investing, and that is why you should consult with a professional for all of your investing needs.