Rummy in Philly ...

Mr. Rumsfeld yesterday warned the Iraqis to get their shit together on this Constitution writing bit. He later told reporters, "We [Americans!] don't want any delays. They're simply going to have to make the compromises necessary and get on with it."

Maybe it's because I recently read David McCullough's 1776 and have been pondering the revolution, but the image came to mind of Rummy prancing into Philadelphia in the muggy summer of 1787, and bearding the participants in the Constitutional Convention: "Damn it, George, for gawd's sake, Ben, oh, c'mon Madison, and you, Alex ... just quit the carping and write the damn thing and be done with it."

And ...

First Birthday Greetings (and Thanks)

Whew! One year!

Yup, it was one year ago today ... 27 July 2004 ... that I made my first Post at tompeters.com.

What a year! Blogging, as I've said before, has become the Epicenter of my professional life. Better said: You (Our Community!) have/has become the epicenter of my professional (and, sometimes, personal) life.

I have learned so much from you! And I, a "professional communicator," have learned so much about communication—ahem, make that "conversation," a different kettle of fish.

I've learned that it's fun to rant ... just to see what comments it attracts. I've learned that we can have fun ... and be deadly serious. I've learned that that overused word ... Authenticity ... is incredibly important in a Blogging Community (phonies and egocentrics are revealed as such pretty quickly). I've learned (the mellow version of being "Dan Rather-ed") that if you get your facts wrong, you'll hear about it ... quickly. I've learned that if you let your biases show, which is part of the idea, you'll nonetheless be reminded of it, for better or for worse.

I've learned that many of us are not afraid to share some pretty personal stuff. I've learned that we're ready and able to express strong opinions, but that 99% of the time we are respectful of opinions we think are all wet. I've learned/re-learned that principled, thoughtful, even if noisy, disagreements make the world go round ... and often lead to learning as we process a thread in our individual fashions. I've learned that a "community" knows far more than even the most expert of its members ("the wisdom of crowds" ... or some such).

I've learned how much there is to learn!

I've learned that when I suffer "Bloggers' Burnout," you'll tolerate my retreating into a shell for a while ... and that if I do retreat from time to time it ups the odds of doing good work over a longer span of time, rather than feeling I have an obligation to crank out crap just to get a Post up. (And in those "time outs," I've especially learned how dependent ... mostly in a good way ... I've become on our Community & Conversations.) (I've learned that our community is so potent that it can help me, by its very existence, cope with personal and professional irritants and setbacks.)

I've learned that all sorts of people from all sorts of places ... who don't Comment ... nonetheless follow our threads avidly (which is fine). I've learned/re-learned the age-old truth that the more you give away the more you get in return. I've learned that often short, controversial Posts generate more discussion than lengthy, essay-like Posts.

I've learned, that as in life, people join a community and drop out and then sometimes return (or not). I've learned that, as in "life," we are especially indebted to a few members, like Trevor, who take Our Little World seriously ... and devote a lot of time and thoughtfulness to making our little world a better/more interesting place. I've learned that "news" gets old ... fast; but that truly wise thoughts remain timeless. I've learned/re-learned, in that regard, that most of "wisdom"/learning actually emerges from everyday occurrences/exchanges, not Oceanic Struggles over Grand Issues.

I've learned how Incredibly Great and Educational & Fun it is for me (and presumably all of us) to have such a geographically diverse Membership!! I've learned that, time-zone differences notwithstanding, there are a lot of fellow insomniacs out there!

I've learned that although the "big idea" is freeform, stream-of-consciousness Conversation ... it takes a devoted team (think, in our case, Cathy & Erik & Halley & Phoebe & Shelley & Steve Y ... to mention but a few) to "manage" and maintain and facilitate and constantly improve "all this" ... and make it feel seamless. Mostly, I've learned how Cool & Enlightening & Fun & Emotionally Engaging & Mega-important "all this" can be/is!

There are surely bigger Blogs than ours, but there are none that are more serious about debating and engaging and adding wisdom to a set of issues that are in fact important to the way we deal with and contribute to the World around us. Yup, this is a joy and a hoot ... and actually damned important!

Happy Birthday #1 ... to All of Us! (And a Big Thanks from me to you!)

How Old Are You?

I asked someone a very simple question in email today, "How old are you?"

This was after they had literally wasted months of my time setting up an appointment, cancelling it, rescheduling it, recancelling it, attempting to ask all parties involved (4 of us) when we could reschedule again. We offered more times and dates. They accepted the offers, then rescinded—asking again if we could push the meeting off another week. This meeting was supposed to take place in May. It's nearly August.

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Breathe Deep

I've had a strange month of next to NO exercise after a painful fall on my coccyx in early June thanks to rollerblading. I was forced to rest and be off my feet during the first few weeks (very difficult for me) and even then, in the weeks that followed, I was going through a lot of pain every day and had to take it easy. Today for the first time in more than a month, I did my Rodney Yee AM Yoga class and started back on a routine of working out ... every day ... I hope. I've done his yoga class on my living room floor for a few years, and I'm always glad to start the day with it.

In the meantime, Rodney Yee's been a lot busier than I have, doing yoga, teaching yoga and now ... he's blogging! He's just launched a new blog over at Yahoo Health Expert Blogs. I think healthcare and blogs go hand-in-hand and that we will see many more communities of wellness using blogging as a natural way to connect.

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And One More Thing ...

Tom is mentioned again here, in an article about passion. What a surprise.

Putting People First in Business

Well, it's about time that someone is getting it right! We recently read Tom's blog about Phil Purcell getting a $106 million separation package. Now, meet Jim Sinegal, chief executive of Costco Wholesale, whose annual salary is a mere $350,000.

In a recent article in the New York Times (17 July 2005, "How Costco Became the Anti-Wal-Mart"), we see that Costco puts their customers and their people first. They pay the bulk of health care premiums, offer benefits after only 6 months of employment, and they believe that "a happy employee is a productive long-term employee."

Some analysts think that Jim Sinegal is too benevolent, that he gives his employees too much, and that his prices are too low. Yet, Costco has about half the warehouse retailer market, and their stock price has risen more than 10% in the last 12 months, according to the New York Times.

Jim continues to go to bat for his employees, has negotiated favorable terms with the union, and still manages a booming business. Hats off to you, Jim Sinegal, for not following the crowd and for re-imagining how business can really be run!

Essentials

We've been thrilled with the feedback we've been getting about the Essentials Series. Everybody who's written to us about the books appreciates their portability and getting a smaller dose of Tom's message in each one. Writing in the Miami Herald (18 July 2005. Note: Free registration is required), Richard Pachter gives them a great thumbs-up! Thank you, Richard.

Beating Wal*Mart (Starbucks, etc) Is a Lark!

I had an interview with execs from a financial services trade association I'm going to address in a couple of months. The topic: Can the small player compete in a world of Citigroups and Bank of Americas? I said it was a lark. And I more or less meant it. That is, among other things, giants— "new tech," CRM, etc notwithstanding— will always be clumsy and impersonal relative to an "intimate local" who is really out to make a dramatic difference. Here's my "WallopWalmart16" list of "musts" if you are a "little guy" (one-person accountancy, restaurant, community bank, etc) out to eat the Big Guys' lunch:

*Niche-aimed. (Never, ever "all things for all people," a "mini-Wal*Mart.)
*Never attack the monsters head on! (Instead steal niche business and lukewarm customers.)
*"Dramatically different." (La Difference ... within our community, our industry regionally, etc ... is as obvious as the end of one's nose!) (THIS IS WHERE MOST MIDGETS COME UP SHORT.)
*Compete on value/experience/intimacy, not price. (You ain't gonna beat the behemoths on cost-price in 9.99 out of 10 cases.)
*Emotional bond with Clients, Vendors. (BEAT THE BIGGIES ON EMOTION/CONNECTION!!)
*Hands-on, emotional leadership. ("We are a great & cool & intimate & joyful & dramatically different team working to transform our Clients' lives via Consistently Incredible Experiences!")
*A community star! ("Sell" local-ness per se. Sell the hell out of it!)
*An incredible experience, from the first to last moment—and then in the follow-up! ("These guys are cool! They 'get' me! They love me!")
*DESIGN! ("Design" is a premier weapon-in-pursuit-of-the sublime for small-ish enterprises, including the professional services.)
*Employer of choice. (A very cool, well-paid place to work/learning and growth experience in at least the short term ... marked by notably progressive policies.) (THIS IS EMINENTLY DO-ABLE!!)
*Sophisticated use of information technology. (Small-"ish" is no excuse for "small aims"/execution in IS/IT!)
*Web-power! (The Web can make very small very big ... if the product-service is super-cool and one purposefully masters buzz/viral marketing.)
*Innovative! (Must keep renewing and expanding and revising and re-imagining "the promise" to employees, the customer, the community.)
*Brand-Lovemark* (*Kevin Roberts) Maniacs! ("Branding" is not just for big folks with big budgets. And modest size is actually a Big Advantage in becoming a local-regional-niche "lovemark.")
*Focus on women-as-clients. (Most don't. How stupid.)
*Excellence! (A small player ... per me ... has no right or reason to exist unless they are in Relentless Pursuit of Excellence. One earns the right— one damn day and client experience at a time!— to beat the Big Guys in your chosen niche!)

FYI: Two of my favorite examples, masters of all the above (albeit not midgets), are Canada's London Drugs (up against Wal*Mart) and the East Coast's Commerce Bank.

My Kinda Guys!

My pal Erik Hansen got me started on James Lee Burke. His newest potboiler is Crusader's Cross, featuring the crusty Cajun detective Dave Robicheaux. My primary source of relaxation is a steady stream of mysteries and spy novels.

It suddenly occurred to me that the James Lee Burke, John Harvey, Ian Rankin et al. protagonists have an incredible amount in common; moreover, what they have in common is a worldview that I share. I genuinely identify with their misfit, flawed heroes. (Though I hope not 100%—see below.) At any rate, here's my take on Dave Robicheaux et al.:

"Do" vs "Be"* (The task, not the title, is important.) (*Military strategist extraordinaire Col John Boyd: 2 kinds of people. "Do" ... focus obsessively on "the work itself"—and damn the torpedoes. "Be" ... obsess on the politics, the rank, the next promotion or assignment.)
Intuitive > Purely logical (routinely make strange connections)
Incredible passion for the work/Lingering idealism (though also cynical—paradox)
Persistent/Relentless (to a fault)
Like the long shots (Don Quixote-ish)
Stay on the case long after being ordered to drop it
Cases no one else wants (hot potatoes, dead ends, political nightmares, "unimportant" victims)
Constant thorns in the side of bureaucracy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Repeatedly exiled to professional "Siberia" (so annoyingly good and so annoying per se that others try to do him terminal professional harm)
Little in the way of career prospects
Have a "Godfather" (need internal protection—though even protectors lose patience)
Work mostly solo (Secretive)
"Work" "old pals network" to get info-leads beyond their charter
Master of the End Run!
Mentor (often to an incredibly talented young woman fighting the sexist culture)
Curmudgeonly
Often their own worst enemies
Drink too much
Don't work out enough
Sneak fast food
Excessive work has estranged them from family
More or less shabbily dressed
Drive shabby cars
Carry a secret/hidden motivator in their kit (e.g., someone close he feels he let down, leading to their death)
GET THE DAMN JOB DONE! (and don't expect/get much appreciation)

So what's the point, you ask. Not sure, really. Just struck me as interesting. With all the incessant talk about "leadership," how about a nod to curmudgeonly "doer-ship"????

Lucky Me (Again)

Got an early look at IDEO thought leader Tom Kelley's brilliant new book on innovation, The Ten Faces of Innovation. (Pre-order.)Tom calls it a screed against "devil's advocates"—those relentless innovation quashers that lurk 'round every corporate corner! The books intellectual centerpiece is a typology of ten types of folks one needs to foster innovation and an innovative climate:

*The Anthropologist. Master of human behavior ... "gets" the user.
*The Experimenter. Mr/Ms Fast Prototype.
*The Cross-pollinator. Explores odd connections.
*The Hurdler. Master remover of B.S. roadblocks.
*The Collaborator. Brings intriguing combinations of people together.
*The Director. Brings out the creative best from an odd mix of talents.
*The Experience Architect. Turns "products" into "performances."
*The Set Designer. Creates fabulous office environments that foster constant innovation.
*The Caregiver. Anticipates customer needs like a magician.
*The Storyteller. Creates narratives that capture the spirit of the group and its
products/services/experiences.

Fantastic! (Hey, I wrote one helluva "blurb.")

On the Radar Screen ... at Last!

The 78-million strong Boomer market (Boomer-Geezer, per me) is belatedly catching fire. CNNMoney ran a feature yesterday on "Franchises of the Future" ... aimed at boomers/Boomers+. Here are a few:

*Comfort Keepers. Non-medical home care, such as running errands, doing the laundry, companionship. (472 franchises to date)
*Liberty Fitness. Middle-aged (35-65) overweight women who want to avoid the generic fitness clubs. (65)
*Sarah Adult Day Services. For seniors who don't need constant care. (27)
*Outdoor Lighting Perspectives. Aimed at boomers, especially in warmer climates, who are turning their homes into year-round vacation properties. (61)
*Camp Bow Wow. Doggie day care, targeting affluent seniors who travel frequently. (52)
*Verlo. Personalized mattresses ... aimed at affluent boomers. (68)

The point is not the specific examples (intriguing as they are), but the Unlimited & Hyper-fast-growing market for any-damn-service-one-could-imagine-and-then-some for Boomers & Geezers. There's (LOTSA) gold in them thar hills!

Science Fiction. Not.

Am enthralled by Joel Garreau's Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human. The Washington Post editor and author of Edge City (among others) takes on a hair-raising tour of the life sciences—focused on amazing stuff that's already well underway. This is the perfect "beach read"—which may not affect you tomorrow, but which deserves serious attention for its potential to turn the world upside down and inside out in the relatively near future (next 2 decades, per Garreau). Great news: It's extremely readable!

Forget Benchmarking! Try Futuremarking!

I've long been an avowed enemy of benchmarking, because at its heart it amounts to exaltation of imitation. (It's a long story ...) But now, triggered by a quote from science-fiction maestro William Gibson ("inventor" of the word "cyberspace"), I've got the alternative I've long sought. Gibson: "The future is already here; it's just not evenly distributed."* (*Found in Radical Evolution—see immediately above.) Translation: Some, in 2005, are already living-doing 2015. Find 'em! Learn from them, not today's "industry leaders." My new (I guess??) term for this is ... "Futuremarking." That is (rallying cry): "Don't benchmark, futuremark!"

Do You iPod?

Will it be world domination next by the iPod?

Listening the to BBC's Radio 4 last week, I heard an animated conversation led by Dylan Jones, Editor of GQ magazine, who has recently published a book called iPod, Therefore I Am.

What interested me about the conversation was not the standard debate about the disruption that Apple has created in the music industry's business logic, it was the impact that this (apparently miraculous!) product has had on the lives of some people.

I say some people, because I am in the category of human being that has yet to succumb to the lure of the iPod ...! Jones contends that the iPod has transformed his relationship with music and the role that it plays in his life. Others in the studio enthusiastically agreed, which led me to wonder just how long I can continue to live life without one!

Are you an iPod enthusiast? What makes it special for you, and how has it affected your habits?

Or are you more like me? Wondering what the heck is so special about this little gadget? Surely it's just a modern day Walkman, isn't it?

Cool Friend: Donald Sull

Donald Sull is an associate professor of management practice at London Business School. He's also a former McKinsey consultant and advisor to multinational firms and new ventures in several countries, including Sweden, Switzerland, Korea, Finland, and England.

His current book is Made In China: What Western Managers Can Learn From Trailblazing Chinese Entrepreneurs.

Quote from the interview:

Every 10 years, U.S. managers come up with a boogieman that strikes terror into the hearts of all responsible managers. So now it's China; in the '90s it was the dot.com; in the '80s it was Japan, Inc; in the '70s it was OPEC ...

Read the whole interview here.

2 + 2 = 25 = Death Penalty. (De Facto.)

Thinking about cooking the books? Simply a White-Collar crime? Whoops. Bernie Ebbers gets 25 years, John Rigas got 15. Given their ages and health, that's, effectively, the death penalty.

Wanna bet the sign-up list for "corporate ethics" at the Harvard Business School (et al.) jumps this fall?

(The good news: Most of us don't have the opportunity to screw our stakeholders out of $11B.)

(I thought the most interesting comment I read yesterday came from former AT&T CEO Mike Armstrong. He said that some of AT&T's most significant—and costly—strategic decisions were in response to the incredible margins WorldCom was racking up—now known to be phony. Wall Street expected the same from his company. AT&T had a gross of problems, but there's more than a grain or two of truth to this assessment.)

Congratulations, Phil!

Recently "retiring" Morgan Stanley CEO Phil Purcell gets a $106 million separation package for screwing up the venerable firm. And they say corporate governance is mended following Sarbanes-Oxley?

Welcome Aboard!

Point/0705 (an AdvertisingAge supplement): "Lafley's Love Affair With Design." Seems as though the CEO of P&G has just discovered the Power of Design.

Duh!

(Ditto: If there's any hope for GM, most agree it's from the belated arrival of Car Guy & Design Fanatic Bob Lutz's seriously cool new products.)

Just Desserts for Rick?

Speaking of GM, the Wall Street Journal claims that Toyota is "fast on its way to challenging General Motors as the world's biggest car maker." GM's CEO Rick Wagoner, as I recall, recently said that his market research clearly supported More & More SUVs, because consumers weren't fazed by gas prices. On the other hand, the Journal article (07.13) I just cited says the cornerstone of Toyota's "Beat GM" strategy is ... Hybrids! New president, Katsuaki Watanabe, is quoted as saying that hybrid technology "is now a core technology." The U.S. car industry went into eclipse 30 years ago when, after the first Oil Shock, it missed the small car surge. History seems inexcusably to be repeating itself. I guess Wagoner will have to pray that his "give away the cars" marketing ploy will carry the day for his junk-bond rated firm.

What a bunch of bozos! (Lutz excepted—see above.)

Read It!

There is a fabulous "must read" six-part article in this week's (07.18) U.S. News & World Report, titled "Saving Lives: Hospitals Have Signed on to a Six-part Plan to Avoid a Multitude of Unnecessary Deaths." (Many of the Rx's are quite simple, amazingly enough.)

Hospitals can respond to the 100,000 or more people they murder annually! This article describes how. It is long ... LONG LONG ... overdue.

Hats Waaaaay Off to Patron Saint & Mt Rushmore candidate Dr Donald Berwick, who gets an enormous share of the credit for hammering away at this issue. The "hear no evil, see no evil" AMA and various hospital associations join GM's Rick Wagoner in the Bozos Hall of Shame on this one.

More "hats off' to Pennsylvania for becoming the first state to, according to USA Today (07.13), "publicly report the toll hospital infections take." (Numbering 11,600 in PA last year, and killing 1,500 people—or 4 full 747s as I like to translate it.) Again, the industry's stalwarts have fought like the NRA to derail such transparency. (Of course fatal gun accidents—including murders?—pale by comparison to hospital malfeasance.)

Action item: Demand action—Radical Action—from your doctor & hospital.

Oh, for God's Sake

I must state up front that my wife vociferously disagrees with me on this one. It seems that a Vancouver grocer accidentally sold 14 copies of the new Harry Potter last week. The bookstore has gotten a court injunction (!!) to keep purchasers from revealing the plot. I know Big $$$ are at stake (JK Rowling wants to increase her lead over the Queen on the Brit's richest folks list?) ... but save me from such nonsense ... and judicial gag orders.

(Not at all sure, but I don't think such a court order would have been granted Down South in the U.S.???)

Good Management

Most of today's entries are about truly crappy management—GM, Morgan Stanley, hospitals. But let's shower credit where credit is due. Despite soaring fuel prices, Southwest Airlines (stock ticker LUV) reported a 41% rise in 2Q profit versus last year! Go SWA!

Whoops, and I almost forgot, when panning hospitals, that U.S.News showers praise on Veteran's Administration hospitals for jumping early & vigorously & successfully on the Quality of Care issue!

Bad Product Experiences

I was thinking about canned tuna today and decided the packaging really stinks. I would love to know what other women think about it—because for me, it's a very unpleasant business to open a can, end up with a razor-sharp lid in my sink, squeeze the can to remove the stinky fish water or oil, getting it invariably all over my fingers, and then finally managing to turn it into tuna salad. I always fear my son will grab for something on my kitchen counter while I'm in the midst of preparing it and get cut on one of the cans. Should making lunch be full of danger?

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The Future Is Now

Maybe others have done it, but I was fascinated to read on AOL news this morning that Vail Unified School District in Arizona is converting its high school to no textbooks, all laptops, 100% wireless.

Wow!

How to Stay Innovative?

[Darci Riesenhuber gives us the entry below. She was excited to meet this person, and she wants us all to know her story and perhaps provide some feedback.—CM]

Sara Blakely, a local Atlantan, started the company Spanx out of her apartment. After several failed attempts to find the right undergarment to hide imperfections and panty lines when wearing white pants with open-toed shoes, she decided to cut the feet off her pantyhose. This worked beautifully! So, she wondered, why doesn't this already exist? Rather than wait for someone else to get the credit, she decided to research it, patent it, manufacture it, and distribute it, all on her own, since everyone she pitched the idea to thought it was laughable. (Not surprising ... can you imagine ... she was pitching the idea to men.) After 2 years of effort, including research, cold calls, door to door sales, and a prototype, she got her first distribution contract with Neiman Marcus and a spotlight on the Oprah Winfrey Show. (You might even have seen her on The Rebel Billionaire, the reality TV show with Richard Branson.)

Currently, with over 40 different products, Sarah is well on her way to a $30M (solely owned) company. Her biggest challenge right now is how to stay innovative and ahead of her competition as her company continues to grow. So, my question to readers is this: How do you keep the entrepreneurial, innovative, risk-taking spirit alive as you expand from a small to a large company?

Our Hearts Go Out ...

Our heart goes out to our British friends. Olympics one day, terror the next. An aide to Tony Blair wrote a couple of years ago (I use it as a slide), "We may not be interested in chaos, but chaos is interested in us."

Welcome to 2005.

And to pick up on a theme of Re-imagine!: "We are not prepared!" Regardless of the might and advanced technology of Superpowers, the power of determined (fanatic!) individuals to disrupt nations and wreck havoc on individuals in vast numbers has never been higher. On the good side, that's the ability of consumers or irate citizens to band together in a flash on the Internet. On the bad side it's New York and Madrid and London.

(In The World Is Flat, Tom Friedman says that 1492-1800 was the Age of Nations; 1800-2000 was the Age of Corporations; 2000+ is the Age of Empowered Individuals. Well worth pondering.)

By the timing of attacks, the terrorists set the world agenda. (Individuals take the play from nations.) In this instance, strong and vital statements and commitments concerning aid to Africa and global warming were watered down to essential meaninglessness by a rushed G-8.

So in addition to our incredible sympathy to innocent civilians, we owe it to ourselves and our families and organizations we care about to consider every aspect of a Life of Global Uncertainty. Quickly replace gloom with actions specifically aimed at pre-empting "chaos" via thorough preparation for uncertain times. Take me. Another terrorist attack in the U.S., panic sets in and my speaking schedule, and thence my income, collapses. "Contingency planning" takes on a new and urgent meaning in such a context.

When I began to talk about "brand you" 10 years ago, my concern was economic uncertainty. Now the uncertainty is encompassing. On the one hand, we must join with others to deal with the insanity of the times. On the other hand, we must understand that even powerful nations like the U.S. and Spain and Britain cannot protect us. I don't mean "survival of the fittest," but I do mean a Large Dose of Self-responsibility. (I guess I do mean survival of the fittest ... not as in dog eat dog, but as in survival of the most resilient.)

Weep this morning, act this afternoon ...

Two Articles

This week I read two articles, one right after the other. The first, pointed out by John Unwin writing to us at tompeters.com (thanks, John), described a difficult situation faced by the new CEO of Sony, Howard Stringer. You can read it here: "At Sony, Rivalries Were Encouraged; Then Came iPod," WSJ, June 29, 2005.

Then, UNC Chapel Hill contacted me about reprinting a piece by Tom first published in 1983: "A Skunkworks Tale." As I read through it, I realized this: In his article, Tom laid out a strategy to prevent Sony's current problem, and he wrote it 22 years ago!

cheapest viagra australia Mr. Stringer, are you reading this?

Event Slides: InfoUSA

Tom is in Aspen, CO, speaking to the folks at infoUSA. I know the weather is better there than it is here on the East Coast. I hope he enjoys his day. Get the slides here.

Kiev Photos

Photos from Tom's July 1 presentation in Kiev, Ukraine, are available at flickr.com. Thanks to Stacia Nanayeva for sending these along.

Expertise vs. Leadership Ability

According to a recent Associated Press article ("FBI Chief Won't Mandate Terror Expertise," John Solomon, June 21, 2005) FBI agents who were promoted to top jobs in the bureau since Sept 11 admitted that they had no significant terrorism or Middle East experience, despite public assurances to the contrary. FBI leadership claims that this experience is still not necessary. Executive assistant director Gary Bald, who took over the job two years ago, commented, "I wish that I had [knowledge of Middle Eastern culture and history]. It would be nice. [But] you need leadership. You don't need subject matter experience."

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Cool Friend: Jason Fried

Jason Fried is founder and president of 37signals, a Web interface design and usability consultancy, whose philosophy can be summed up in this quote:

The thing is that we're really big into realizing that there are people on the other end. We're all using computers to do things, but there are still people on the other end. It's really inhumane to treat people with such disrespect when something goes wrong that they get a cryptic error message that sounds like a computer is talking to them.

37signals has designed websites/products/tools such as: Basecamp, Ta-Da List, and Backpack. Read more in the interview here.

Boyd Clarke (1952-2005)

It is with deep personal and professional sadness that I announce the passing of Boyd Clarke on Saturday, following a lengthy and valiant struggle against cancer.

Professionally, Boyd created his career around teaching (and doing!) leadership. Personally ...

Well, the "big deal," among others, was that "personal Boyd" and "professional Boyd" were one and the same. With Colleagues. With Clients. With Family. Boyd's message especially included ... Integrity, Authenticity, Decency, Engagement, Self-analysis and the Vigorous Pursuit of "Impossible" Dreams. "Walk the Talk" is as hackneyed a phrase as you'll find in the management-speak lexicon ... and it is usually honored in the breach. In Boyd's case it happened ... 100.00% of the time.

To say that Boyd strongly & positively & directly affected tens of thousands of lives is no overstatement; to say that he induced nothing short of transformation in many of those lives is no overstatement either. Boyd's work helped improve ever so many careers and organizations; and it also helped Clients (and All of Us who came in regular contact with him) become better human beings.

Boyd was a serious man ... on a mission. He was also great fun to be around. His humor was dry rather than rowdy—and usually precisely on the mark as a result.

Boyd was CEO and principal shareholder of the training and consulting company that bears my name from 1997 to 2004. He threw himself heart and soul into making our company the best it could be. Upon occasion, no surprise given my short attention span, we had disagreements. But as I said to Colleagues and Clients 100 times, "I never lay awake at night wondering if Boyd has done great work with total integrity." Seldom have truer words been spoken; and never have more important words been spoken.

While Boyd and I were perhaps not intimate friends, I did interact with his family from time to time. To say that Boyd was family-focused is gross understatement. He lived for his family; and despite a decade-in and decade-out back-breaking professional schedule, he spent an incredible amount of time with them—to the point of making me shake my head in awe (not to mention shudder with guilt).

I will miss Boyd.

What Will Blair's Legacy Be?

It seems to me that our (UK) Prime Minister Tony Blair, like many a great leader before him, is now seriously worried about his legacy. He will step down sometime during his third term (about the same time as President Bush?), and he desperately wants to be remembered for more than his involvement in the current situation in Iraq.

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Event Slides: Kiev

Tom is enjoying his visit to Kiev—and not just because of the borsch. He has made three separate slides sets for the occasion: the A.M. version, the P.M. version, and the LONG version.