Matthew Budman

Matthew Budman

I'm a freelance writer and editor, mostly on business and social issues, and author of Book Collecting Now: The Value of Print in a Digital Age. I've spent my life immersed in words, and it's great to have a place to put many of them. Here are most of my post-college bylined articles, organized loosely by category, including a section with entire issues of The Conference Board Review, which I edited for six years.

I've had an opinion column three times: At my college newspaper, for two months at the Chico News & Review (the managing editor was on vacation), and as editor-in-chief of The Conference Board Review.
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: Corporate Unsustainability

To many people outside the business world, sustainability is just corporatespeak for environmental concerns. Inside, its meaning keeps expanding to encompass every point at which an organization interacts with the rest of the world—supply chains, product life cycles, risk. Indeed, for many companies, after years of work reducing emissions and waste, it’s easy being green—it’s everything else that’s a problem.
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: Forced Leisure

What’s the point of machines? More than anything, of course, it’s to replace work, and people have long envisioned a world in which labor-saving devices save more than just a little bit of labor. Novelists have often waxed utopian—consider Edward Bellamy’s 1888 socialist bestseller "Looking Backward: 2000-1887," which imagined an age of post-scarcity leisure, with short working hours and universal retirement at age 45.
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: Metrics and Mismanagement

One common, and completely legitimate, complaint about corporate regulation is the giant sucking sound of man-hours spent in compliance. Tax laws in particular practically constitute a full-employment act for accountants. Sure, every single government demand for evidence and metrics—to prove compliance with some rule or movement toward some goal—is there for a reason, perhaps even a good reason. But at what point does assessment turn counterproductive and signal a general disrespect for people’s effort and expertise? When does the desire for accountability morph into a memo generating waste of time?
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: Private Sector vs. Public Service

As the Western financial crisis morphed into an economic crisis and, at least in the United States, a political crisis, almost inevitably, voices began calling for more input from business. Why aren’t corporate leaders getting involved? Why is business on the sidelines? This isn’t about money. No one—well, hardly anyone—is arguing in favor of more corporate money in the political process; there’s a reason why Howard Schultz’s recent public “pledge to withhold any further campaign contributions” resonated far and wide. Rather, it’s about leadership.
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: A New Normal?

Whatever we're trying isn't working. After so many quarters of treading water, everyone is impatient for growth. Management teams can’t count indefinitely on the indulgence of boards and shareholders. And marketing campaigns, product adjustments, and social-media initiatives aren’t doing the job. Sure, there are success stories, but all too many companies managing to beat the curve seem to be doing so in ways that seem almost accidental or as side effects of government programs. Little of it feels stable and solid.
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: Overload

Not too many months ago, all our complaining about e-mail overload came down to gripes and jokes about spam: ads for magical diet programs and work-from-home riches; earnest pleas from sons of Nigerian cabinet ministers who needed our help to release millions from government treasuries; plugs for discounted Viagra—sorry, Vi@gra—and other products whose use implied sexual inadequacy. Our inboxes runneth over with messages no one wanted to receive; every morning began with a massive delete, followed by panic that we’d inadvertently erased that one crucial e-mail for which we’d been waiting.
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: Fat Cats

Nearly a century ago, President William Howard Taft tipped—flattened, more likely—the scales at 335 pounds. Don’t feel bad if you remember nothing about Taft other than his mustachioed corpulence—it’s his most lasting contribution to American culture. His rounded silhouette, with a waistcoat but no waistline, has survived as the instantly recognizable stereotype of the plutocrat, an ironic fate for a trust-busting politician.
The Conference Board Review •

Openers: Occupiers vs. Occupied

It’s too soon to conclude whether the Occupy gatherings constitute an actual movement or just a series of demonstrations, but corporate leaders in every sector need to take them seriously. Obviously, Wall Street is the prime target, and when the protests didn’t dissipate as quickly as brokers and bond traders hoped, Chase and B of A and every other big bank quickly pulled together TV image ads for prime-time viewing.
Chico News & Review •

Teenage Mutant Nintendo, or, How I Got My First Taste of Game Power

Next to a wall of Nintendo games—more than 180—sits a real innovation: Homework First, a $17.99 "video game lock for Nintendo." Homework First controls "when and how much time your family plays Nintendo," according to the package. "Great motivator for homework, chores, grounding, etc." The games that make Homework First necessary inhabit the most popular section of Toys R Us, where parents hope to find gifts to appease demanding children of the video age. More and more are choosing home video entertainment systems, starting at about $70.