Business schools are globalising at a furious pace—which is largely a good thing BUSINESSPEOPLE are fond of accusing business academics of being all mouth and no trousers (if the accusers are British) or all hat and no cattle (if they are Texan). But when it comes to globalisation the professors have trousers and cattle aplenty. In the past decade business education has globalised more thoroughly than business itself.

Mother Teresa and Lady Gaga are the latest icons of the leadership industry. Don’t laugh THERE are obvious differences, of course. Lady Gaga’s raw-meat dress would probably not have appealed to Mother Teresa of Calcutta

The data revolution is changing the landscape of business IN A short story called “On Exactitude in Science”, Jorge Luis Borges described an empire in which cartographers became so obsessive that they produced a map as big as the empire itself.

The management secrets of Barcelona Football Club A POPULAR debate among football obsessives concerns whether Barcelona—Barca to its fans—is the best club soccer team the world has ever seen. Is it better than the Santos of the 1960s (which was home to Pele)?

Beware of judging China’s innovation engine by the standards of Silicon Valley CHINA’S continued economic progress depends on mastering the art of mould-breaking innovation. President Hu Jintao intones that the “capacity for independent innovation” is the “core of our national development strategy”. Sceptics agree with his premise, but scoff that innovation and autocracy do not mix.

Applying the world’s business brains to housing the poor FRIEDRICH ENGELS said in “The Condition of the Working Class in England”, in 1844, that the onward march of Manchester’s slums meant that the city’s Angel Meadow district might better be described as “Hell upon Earth”. Today, similar earthly infernos can be found all over the emerging world: from Brazil’s favelas to Africa’s shanties.

At last, some sense on globalisation GEOFFREY CROWTHER, editor of The Economist from 1938 to 1956, used to advise young journalists to “simplify, then exaggerate”. He might have changed his advice if he had lived to witness the current debate on globalisation. There is a lively discussion about whether it is good or bad

Companies have a great deal to learn from failure—provided they manage it successfully BUSINESS writers have always worshipped at the altar of success.

Companies should start seeing older workers as assets rather than liabilities THE National Rural Electric Co-operative Association (NRECA) does not have the same ring to it as Google or Facebook. But in its own humble way the NRECA, based in Virginia, is helping to shape the future. It is a pioneer in coping with one of the biggest challenges facing business: managing older workers