NEW YORK -- When IBM client executive Rachel Calhoun negotiates multimillion-dollar contracts with clients, she needs to compute figures swiftly in her head because face-to-face meetings rarely allow time to whip out a calculator.
"I have never been fearful of math, and am able to do fairly complex problems in my head," she said. The 32-year-old manager attributes this ability to her years attending Kumon, a Japan-born school for supplementary education that has grown to dominate the U.S. market.
