Once upon a time the business world was dominated by hierarchical organizations that derived both their structures and mechanistic management philosophies from military thinking that traces its lineage through Frederic the Great all the way back, literally, to the Roman legions. And by “once upon a time,” of course, I mean “at this very minute.” The truth is that way
Read moreYou’re honey child to a swarm of bees Gonna blow right through you like a breeze Give me one last dance Well slide down the surface of things You’re the real thing Yeah the real thing You’re the real thing Even better than the real thing – U2 Fantasy stories, myths, legends, tall tales, fairy tales, horror, all these have
Read moreA lot of people want music but don’t want to pay for it. Moses Avalon’s latest examines some of the complexity surrounding the issue and looks at what it will take for the music industry to solve the problem. It is a law of commerce: you cannot sell something if there is no perceived value in it. You simply can’t.
Read moreEarlier today I got a call from the University of Colorado, where I earned by doctorate. It was one of those periodic fund-raising calls that probably every alum gets, and the young woman on the other end of the line was incredibly polite and winning. She asked a few questions about how I was doing, what I was doing, had
Read moreIf you’re a doctor, it might be a bit unseemly to run a funeral home next door. If you’re a teacher, there might be some ethical concerns with peddling crack to your kids during recess. And if you’re a pharmacy… Once they were drug stores. Then they became pharmacies. And now? These days they’re in the business of business. The
Read moreThere’s been a lot of controversy in King James Land this week. Apparently Xavier’s Jordan Crawford dunked on LeBron in a pickup game. Nike officials confiscated the two videos of the dunk. Depending on your perspective, LeBron is being a punk-ass little bitch or Nike was fully justified in its actions. Please. Where was all the hoopla last month when
Read moreHopefully that title will make sense by the end of this article. For the change management and organizational behavior fans in the audience (as well as those who simply need some insight into improving how their teams work), Peter Bregman has some thoughts over at HarvardBusiness.org on “A Good Way to Change a Corporate Culture.” He recalls a conversation with
Read moreHate meetings? Who doesn’t? Not that it isn’t important to get the right people together in a room to talk about important issues, but let’s face it, in most organizations (and by “most” I mean “virtually all”) the average meeting probably lasts longer than it needs to. When it does drag on too long, productivity takes a hit and we
Read moreJust because….
Read moreSeveral years ago, in the wake of Enron and several similar debacles, it was rightfully agreed that we needed to assure more responsible behavior on the part of American corporations. The result was Sarbanes-Oxley, a law that has since been at the center of any number of debates over the difference between “we should do something” and “DO SOMETHING!!!” I’m
Read moreWe can probably agree that it’s good to have goals. In business, especially, it’s good to know where you’re going and to have some mechanisms that help you chart and evaluate your progress. Increasingly, though, we’re presented with more and more evidence suggesting that our goal-setting can easily go awry, and with dramatically counter-productive results. If you’ve read Steven Levitt
Read moreAs the poet Robert Burns put it, “The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men / Gang aft agley.” The common military iteration of the sentiment says that no plan, however well devised, survives contact with the enemy. And former heavyweight champion Mike Tyson explained, in the least poetic fashion possible, that everybody’s got a plan until you bust him
Read moreYou have to love the headline: GOP set to launch rebranding effort WASHINGTON (CNN) – Coming soon to a battleground state near you: a new effort to revive the image of the Republican Party and to counter President Obama’s characterization of Republicans as “the party of ‘no.’” CNN has learned that the new initiative, called the National Council for a
Read moreWhile on the campaign trail, Barack Obama made greening America’s infrastructure a huge priority for his administration. As noted in the Los Angeles Times, Obama planned to spend $150 billion over the next decade to promote energy from the sun, wind and other renewable sources as well as energy conservation. Plans include raising vehicle fuel-economy standards and subsidizing consumer purchases
Read moreI recently offered up an open letter to America’s progressive billionaires where I noted how much better conservatives have been historically at making best use of their intellectuals and at assuring that those laying the foundation for political action were taken care of. That is, the Daniel Bells of the world didn’t have to slave at two jobs to scrape
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