Topic: Business

Behind every successful boss there is a trusted advisor. The TV series "West Wing" illustrated just how important and exciting this role can be. At last, someone has written a book about it. Spectrum Radio's Susan Hassler interviews management guru Jim Lukaszewski about his new book "Why Should the Boss Listen to You: The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Strategic Advisor".

Clayton Christensen tells all about his work at a semiconductor fabrication plant which was in a need of a rethink. On this edition of IEEE Spectrum Radio, the Harvard Business School Professor of Business Administration, and author of "The Innovator's Dilemma," outlines his principles for making the world more efficient.

On this edition of IEEE Spectrum Radio, explore the fascinating energy technologies of the present and future. Listen to specials on "Wind Energy," "Vertical Wind Turbines," and "The Solar Challenge" where the ups and downs of Europe's wind energy are discussed and futuristic vertical-axis turbines that you could fit on your property become a possibility.

Coffee price fluctuations over past decades have created extreme financial crises and long-term poverty for thousands of small-scale Latin American farmers. In this Stanford Center for Social Innovation sponsored audio lecture, David Funkhouser of TransFair USA, details how the Fair Trade movement arose as a market-based approach to poverty alleviation and international development. He discusses Fair Trade's function to offer suppliers fair, above-market prices, and TransFair's role in supporting that movement.

Attempting to predict how technology will impact business in the future, is a daunting task. However, with the Internet, many consider the rate of change too rapid to even accept the challenge. Still, there are precedents to understand hyper-change and guide our expectations. Controversial analysts Nicholas Carr and Christopher Meyer offer their theories on the implications for business after everything is connected.

As we anticipate the possibility of a coming singularity, we ask "What shall our investments bet on and how will the financial climate differ?" Peter Thiel, investor and cofounder of PayPal, however, has a different view. He argues that singularity-like behavior is already here - as seen in the recent and seemingly accelerating cycles of boom and bust. In this talk from the 2007 Singularity Summit, Thiel discusses this and some unique strategies to manage risk.

The Connected Innovators program showcases emerging technologies and new business ideas likely to make an impact on the networked future. After a competitive application process, Supernova's Kevin Werbach and TechCrunch's Michael Arrington invite a dozen top company leaders on stage to present their best, quick pitch. Then, a panel of start-up experts analyzes the offerings, judging their potential in the marketplace, and their meaning for the tech industry.

As the Geospatial Web evolves from two dimensions to 3-D we are seeing a host of rich new applications and uses appear. Six leaders in the field talk about the Geospatial web and 3-D applications, and how their individual organizations fit into the 3-D puzzle. Ranging from Tele-Atlas' creation of mapping data for GPS units through Microsoft's Virtual Earth on to Second-Life-like applications, this panel reports on developments at companies harnessing the explosive growth in available 3-D information.

Dr. Moira Gunn speaks with Tom Hayes, author of "Jump Point," about how network culture is revolutionizing business in Silicon Valley.

MapQuest is one of the four leading map publishers on the Web. As part of its market research, the company conducted a customer survey on the Geo community with the aim of finding out what users truly want, as opposed to what they get. James Greiner, the company's Vice President and General Manager, summarizes the results of his survey into five simple principles whose usefulness cannot be exaggerated.