Wal*Mart + Memorial

The Marriage of Wal*Mart and Memorial Hospital of South Bend

There is another marriage on the scene, and, at first, it may seem like an odd couple. What do our friends at Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Indiana, have to do with Wal*Mart. Well, it seems that health care is walking down the aisles of Wal*Mart!! Memorial is first to put a quick medical center in a Wal*Mart store.

Inspired by the menus found at McDonald's, they created a medical menu board, so that you can 'order up' just what you need and know the price before you partake. They borrowed another idea from restaurants and give you a hand-held vibrating disk, so that when it's your turn you can stop shopping and swing by the health center. The device also has a pleasant voice telling you that the nurse practitioner is ready for you.

Health care continues to evolve, and innovative health services will continue to break through the barriers. To find out more, visit http://www.medpointexpress.com/.

Now, are there any objections to this marriage? If not, forever hold your peace! AND go get your flu shot while shopping at Wal*Mart in South Bend.

Badvertising: Ameritrade

The Ameritrade TV spot opens with a 15 year old girl coming into the room to ask her dad for money for some new jeans. Dad asks about the jeans, and as he hears about them, his investment antennae go up. "What kind of jeans?" She tells him the name of the brand. "Are they designer jeans?" "Yes," answers the daughter. "Are they popular?" "Everybody's got them." "Everybody's got them?" "Yep."

Dad's brow furrows. He sits down on the couch and opens his laptop. Asks his daughter the name of the jeans again. Buys 100 shares. Sits back looking satisfied. She then, predictably, has to remind him to give her the money to buy a pair of the jeans. Cute.

Isn't this just the problem with amateur online investing, that by the time "everybody" has bought the jeans a ton of vigilant investors will have bought the stock, and the poor Ameritrade customer will have to buy high and sell low? Doesn't this look like it is advertising designed by an amateur investor?

Taiwan

Taiwan scores with Tom, leading him to produce not one, but four, PowerPoint presentations to mark his visit there. He's speaking to the Taiwan External Trade Development Council/TAITRA: The 2005 International Brand Strategy Summit, and there are two sets of slides for the occasion, TAITRA and its long Web version. Then, he took a few slides from TAITRA to become a special slides set called Brand Taiwan. Last, there's a summarization of where all the speaking he's done in the past few weeks has brought him, a series of lists, called Lists & Lust. We hope you enjoy any or all of these collections.

H5N1, the View from Asia: "When, not if ..."

Naysayers ("What, me worry?"), suggesting that much pandemic talk is "alarmism," abound in the United States.

Not so in Southeast Asia.

Arrive Hong Kong from Sydney this morning. Only English-language paper out at 5 a.m. is The Standard, the biggest HK business paper. Page 1, News Section, blaring (no exaggeration) top-of-the-paper headline: "Tough Bird Flu Action Ahead." Among other things, detailed quarantine plans were explained—they are Draconian.

Summarizing the headlines and personal discussions in Taiwan today, I believe the mood/expectation is: "When, not if ..."

Couple that with, among other things, HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt's interview in the current Time [get article for a fee—CM], now talking about tens of millions of possible deaths, and, well ...

Personally, I am moving into Full Alarmist Mode. Putting on my analytic hat, I shall assume that there is a 25% chance of a catastrophic economic (not to mention physical) occurrence as early as the coming summer. I will begin to make significant business and personal financial decisions immediately based on that likelihood.

To my mind there are, on this issue, two kinds of people: alarmists and fools. There are indeed many reasons to believe that the worst will not occur. But reverting to business-school language that I normally find anathema, there is utterly no reason to believe that there is not a non-trivial statistical likelihood that a catastrophic event of epic proportion will occur within the next 12 months. (Sorry for the triple negative.)

Undisguised "alarmism" is clearly the Asian mood. Perhaps we should pay attention to those pinioned in the eye of the storm.

(Oh, I had a lovely walk in Taipei. I love the hyper-active street life of big Asian cities.)

To Friends in the City of Wind ...

Nice.

Browser Plus

Some Firefox folks have broken off to develop their own browser called Flock. It's still in a pre-beta version and as they say, 'not for the faint of heart.' But keep an eye out for this launch. It's a browser that incorporates a lot of your everyday tasks on the computer. This is gonna' be cool.

Bionic Man, Almost

Another inspiring speaker at PopTech was Todd Kuiken (pronounced kyken), Director of the Neural Engineering Center for Artificial Limbs at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. Todd's working on making prosthetic limbs work more like real limbs by taking nerve endings and growing them into chest muscles to allow the limbs to behave in a more human fashion. Most mechanical limbs only operate in one dimension at a time. Todd's mechanical arms can operate like a real arm. Two problems: They're heavy. And slow. And so they're not quite ready for prime time.

But as Jesse Sullivan says, "The Wright brothers' first flight didn't go that far, either." Jesse is one of Todd's research patients. He was a lineman who lost both arms at the shoulders when he touched a 7200 volt power line. The guy is an inspiration. Very funny. He's from Tennessee, and when Dr. Kuiken mentioned that one of his other research subjects was from the same state, Jesse replied, "I guess we're just accident prone there." More about Jesse and his work with Dr. Kuiken is here.

In Memoriam

The most extraordinary happening of my life, after the defeat of Hitler and Tojo, was the American Civil Rights movement. Hence, I join so many others in mourning the passing and celebrating the life of Rosa Parks.

Walk. Again. Wow.

Sydney. WOW. Shangri-La hotel. 24th floor. Stunning view of Harbour Bridge and Opera House. WOW. Walk. Botanic Gardens etc. WOW. (One of my "world's best.") Spring in full bloom. Flowering Jacarandas ... see 'em to believe 'em. WOW.

Event Slides: Sydney

As Tom says above, he's in Sydney doing another one of the Leaders events. The date of his appearance is 26 October, but it is the 26th there already, so the slides are available here now. There's also a longer Web-only version.

Perks!

Taking part in Leaders in Sydney tomorrow. Another participant is Anita Roddick. Quite simply, I think she is one of the most remarkable human beings, women, entrepreneurs in the world. Among other things, who else has offered such a dramatic and sustaining example of the possibility of business as a force for goodness & virtue? I had the chance to chat with her last night—and it stripped away, in seconds, my accumulated exhaustion. (Lucky me.)

[Check out her books:
Business as Unusual: My Entrepreneurial Journey
Body and Soul: Profits with Principles]

The Days of Our Lives

As you know, I've been rushing around like a true maniac: 45 days, 22 lectures ranging from 40 minutes to 9 hours, 10 countries, 5 continents, and about 76,000 miles. (Am just, as I write, vaulting the Dateline and in the process of logging Country 10/Australia and Continent 5/Antipodes ... gorgeous & balmy & scintillating Sydney is nigh on in sight.)

Time flies, not creeps. Lecturing with delight on Lord Nelson and bravado leadership in London. Trying to hold the attention of learned Siemens engineers in Berlin—and relentlessly badgering them about the need for game-changer, high risk innovation. Enjoying the company and enthusiasm of an auditorium full of entrepreneurs in Bologna, Italy. (I was meant to be Italian, I'm sure of it.) Having the privilege to address 2,000 noble American home care industry leaders in Seattle. (Of course being unwell at home beats, if at all possible, entering the Killing Fields of a "modern" acute-care hospital.) Excitedly dragging my weary body to Trafalgar Square minutes before day's end on October 21 ... to join the tail end of the Y200 anniversary celebration of Nelson's stupendous, world-altering victory. Power walking in Buenos Aires and Belo Horizonte and Santiago, and around the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin and through Red Square in Moscow. Setting foot—for the first time—on the Peters homeland in the former East Germany/East Berlin. (And, alas, missing "FirstSnow" in Vermont on this past Saturday.)

Here's my conundrum. I'm exhausted. In the service, many of us deployed overseas kept what were called "short timers calendars." On these, which could be quite large and artistic and encompass hundreds of days, one crossed off the days to deployment's/tour's end. As officers, we weren't supposed to keep them as we were to act as if we could hardly wait for the sun to rise over Monkey Mountain outside of Danang. (Of course all of us did surreptitiously keep them, except for a few gung ho types who, like the central character in Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant," doubtless awoke chanting "Kill, kill, kill.") Well, I've got on my Windows desktop a Short-timer Calendar for this 12 country, 60-day oral and aerial marathon in which I'm engaged. And I'm not happy. With the calendar, that is.

On the one hand, I can't wait to see Susan, the animals, VT, get a good night's sleep, hop in my trusty Subaru Outback and take the dirty laundry to Manchester, and put a temporary end to the recurrent "roadtrip nightmares" about missed flights, lost baggage, crashed computers, faulty sound systems and the like—those are the themes, by the way, night after night after long night on the road. On the other hand, as a general proposition I am vehemently opposed, especially as my 63rd birthday hovers nearby, at wishing away any day of my life!

So I've been consciously working on a new (for me) approach, with at least a smidgeon of success. Either at day's end or dawn's early light, I have a little meditation and self-counseling session on making the day count, rather than devoting the day to eager anticipation of the moment I can cross it off the calendar. Professionally, that first means looking anew and in depth at the forthcoming lecture to be sure that it clearly encompasses (as best I can) an ennobling purpose, challenges participants' minds and engages their souls. (Will it at least aspire to the JFK idea that no speechifier should utter a word unless she "aims to change the world"?) Also professionally, I "work on" my attitude. This may be day 45 and mile 76,000 for me, but for the Client it is D-Day for an Important Event (often their year's #1 event, for God's sake); hence my exhaustion and accompanying short temper must be thrust aside ... and downright cheeriness and spirited engagement must become the invariant orders of the day. Besides, such cheeriness, even if feigned, cheers me up first and foremost! Next, and in a way most important, even though I have little trouble infusing my lecture with meaning, I must thoroughly convince myself that this is a day every hour of which is worth savoring! Hackneyed though it is to write, 25 October 2005 ain't gonna come around again and this 62-year-old is gonna be a day older and closer to checkout time when it's done. My increasingly long and intense power walks help immensely, even when I anesthetize myself in the process with the likes of "Queen on Fire." But it's less such "formal" punctuation marks like a preplanned walk, and more an amateur effort to maintain a zen-like awareness of the moment and my novel surroundings all day long, starting with purposeful people-gazing on the streets. Hey, it was a miracle to be alive and healthy in ancient and durable Bologna last Friday, to power walk past the university from which Copernicus graduated. Etc.

That's it. Fourteen hour flight nears conclusion. Philosophical musing on the passage of time done. Blog logged.*

Well, not quite ...

This Blogpost, too, is a professional musing as well as a personal one. H5N1 may be approaching. (Headline in Sydney Morning Herald that I read moments after arriving in Aussie-land: "Economy at Risk of Meltdown If Killer Flu Strikes.") Three billion Chinese and Indians want our (American) jobs ... and have the skills and, more important, the will to grasp them. Artificial-intelligence apps that do much of what we do, only better, improve by the nanosecond. Hence I cheekily suggest that my almost 10-year-old Brand You-Wow Projects or Bust-Become a Whirling Dervish PSF/Professional Service Firm challenge is far more important and timely than it was when born in '95 or so. To even survive professionally, I believe we each must, to steal the words of the immortal basketball coach, John Wooden, "make each day a masterpiece" .... or, usurping the phraseology of guru and pal Mike Ray, "make your life itself a creative work of art." That requires busting a gut, immersing oneself in the moment, digging deep if necessary for an attitude fix, appreciating the marvels of the world around us and our mates within it, and devoting the day to an at least modestly ennobling purpose and project ... beyond merely scoring another checkmark on life's short-timer calendar. Don't you think?

(*Don't let me mislead you or inflate my successes. Sometimes none of these tactics work worth a damn. I find myself in a shitty mood all day long, growl and scowl at one and all, can't imagine my lecture making the slightest difference to anyone, am certain that I am wrong about everything, and wonder why I'm pissing away my life collecting frequent flyer miles I have no time to use. On the other hand, there are less of those days than there used to be. Including today.)

Pop!Tech 2005

Just got back from my first Pop!Tech Conference in Camden, Maine. And still feel overwhelmed by what I encountered. The reason for the event is to explore how new ideas and new technologies can make a better future for all the citizens of Planet Earth. And while I'm not going to try to review all of the speakers, I might blog occasionally about those I thought were particularly powerful. Also, you can go here to check out what other bloggers are saying about the conference.

In a section of the conference called "Big Fixes" Cameron Sinclair, a Scottish architect spoke about Architecture for Humanity, a non-profit organization he founded that promotes architecture and design solutions to humanitarian crises around the world. Powerful speaker, and unlike a number of the speakers before him, he had really good slides. But we don't have access to them. One thing I'm going to suggest is that speakers' slides be made available to the audience. (Hey! That's what we do here at tp.com, right?) The current project he spoke about is the Siyathemba Soccer Club project.

The challenge is to create the "perfect pitch," a soccer field/outreach center for the youth of Somkhele, South Africa, who are three times more likely to become HIV positive than youth in other parts of the world. The field will be home to the area's first girls' football league.

Talk about passion. The way this guy talks about the projects they're doing around the world makes you want to drop everything you're doing to volunteer to work on one of these life-saving projects.

Honoring Lord Nelson

I loved Bologna! I especially loved the 700 execs and owners of "SMEs" (Small and Medium-size Enterprises) who attended my seminar—we all had a ball. (Well, I surely did).

Alas, I had to cut and run. Why? Because the 21st of October was winding down. AND COME HELL &/or HIGH WATER I HAD TO MAKE IT TO LONDON BEFORE MIDNIGHT! Last Friday was the 200th anniversary of the greatest naval battle in history. Lord Nelson destroyed the French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar, ended Napoleon's hopes of invading England, and effectively ushered in a multi-century Anglo-Saxon reign (including Britain's American inheritors of the mantle). I served, as an American midshipman, ever so briefly in the Royal Navy in 1965 (HMS Tiger); I am an avid if not professional student of Nelson ... and was damn well going to make it to Trafalgar Square and salute the Admiral before midnight. (In honor of Nelson, my entire London speech on Tuesday was built around Nelson's leadership skills. I got a perverse kick out of being the Yank who taught the Brits Nelson!)

Bottom line: Despite delays of various flavors ... I made it ... arriving at 11:35 p.m. to be precise. And, yup, standing in T. Square on Friday night gave me a major dose of chills ... on a warm evening.

Unbelievable!

It's happened to me probably five times. And the thrill never even begins to wears off. Left London on Saturday afternoon, winging it to Seattle. That obviously means a very Northern flight path. And on this Glorious Saturday ... the air was crystalline almost all the way. Though my work plan for the flight was intense, I nonetheless spent hours (literally) with my nose smushed against the window. The ice floes and mountains of Greenland and Northern Canada were literally breathtaking!

Wow!

An Exciting Opportunity!

Sunday brings a speech to the National Association for Home Care & Hospice/NAHC. I am a believer! I have long (& loud) railed against the pathetic safety record of acute "care" facilities (unnecessarily kill a hundred thou of us a year, etc.). Beyond that, I think the home is the best place by far to heal—and it's where I intend to check out. (Though I'm in no hurry.) Moreover, the new technologies (telemedicine, tele-monitoring, etc.) make ever so much possible in the home. Hence, my biases and the group's biases nicely coincide.

As part of the prep process I have created or edited a bevy of Special Presentations. To begin with, there are the "long" and "final" versions of the NAHC presentation itself. Next, a generic healthcare Special Presentation. And a presentation on the incredible Planetree Alliance, the Masters of Healing. Also, I've ever so lightly dipped my toes into the H5N1 torrent, and have a very short presentation on H5N1 which includes suggested strategic actions for businesses.

All yours ...

Last Week's Harvest

I've turned two of last week's seminars into Special Presentations. Sunday the 16th I spoke to eCustomerServiceWorld in Orlando—the result is a CustX (Customer Excellence) Special Presentation. As just mentioned above, I spoke to Small & Medium Enterprise Execs in Bologna on Friday—the byproduct is an SME Special Presentation.

Again: All yours!

Ode to Joy!

I really like doing what I do. (I learned so much during my Italian presentation Friday—will share later, as I'm still digesting it.) Also, I realize that I enjoy the prep as much as the product. I've read a ton of stuff (such as George Leonard's Mastery) that says successful people—in sports, the arts, biz, and life—are those who most enjoy practice. Guess I'm one of the lucky ones.

Walk! Talk!

Bologna. Northern Italy. The glory of centuries past incredibly well preserved. The walking, and I know this is not the first time I've said it, doesn't get much better than this—made my first foray upon arriving from Berlin, a bit after midnight. Streets still lively.

As I pursue an intellectual endeavor here (preparing a talk), I'm humbled by the lurking shadows from the nearby University of Bologna, perhaps the world's oldest. Begun in 1088 (a few years before Harvard, I believe), its "top alumni" list includes the likes of Petrarch, Dante, and Copernicus. Vaguely humbling, eh? Of course, I've got PowerPoint, and they didn't.

My seminar is to SMEs, small- and medium-sized enterprises. So what you'll see in the attached is aimed at them.

[You can get the attached slides here.—CM]

Blog Value

This is fun! Try it out.

(Thanks to Phoebe Espiritu for tipping us off to this little game on business-opportunities.biz.)

Walking News. Next Chapter.

No time. Running late. Walked forever this morning. Behind on prep.

Berlin. Last time I was in Berlin was, by luck, New Year's Eve/Night the year the Wall came down—most amazing celebration/experience I've ever been in the midst of.

Last night at about Midnight I landed from London. Airport in old West Zone. Hotel in old East Zone. Hence, as I took first step in the East, I was, at 62, taking my first step on the land of my Grandfather Peters' birth. (Jacob Ebert Peters, emigrated to Baltimore in, I believe, 1873.) Wow, what a feeling. (Truth be told, it came to me later, when I woke up with a start at about 2 a.m.)

Walk this morning took me immediately to Brandenburg Gate (center of that New Year's 1989 celebration), then to the Reichstag. Had another odd feeling as I crossed no man's land. Intellectually I of course know it's safe—but I couldn't help feeling, "Hope with their typical efficiency, the Germans got all the Soviet mines!"

Next I walked in Tiergarten. I'm a Cold War spy novel fanatic, and it seems to me that most of the secret meetings in Berlin that LeCarré (et al.) conjured up took place in the Tiergarten. Makes sense.

Then more wanders ... and back to hotel. Speak to Siemens clients this evening. I'll be especially courteous: Back in 1979, Siemens almost single-handedly financed (fees to McKinsey) the research for In Search of Excellence!

Gotta go.

[Looking for the slides from this event? Download them here, or you can get the longer version.—CM]

Comments Rules Revisited

There's a limit—that we will decide on—to the extent of personal insults that will be tolerated in our comments. Under Tom's recent post "Me Ape, You Tarzan," an anonymous commenter crossed the line. We removed that part of the comment. It was expected, based on the nature of the blog entry, that political commentary would result, and we left attacks on Tom's political opinions untouched.

The rules of attack, in short:
Opinions: Yes. Personalities: No.

Homepage Housekeeping

Take a look around this page and you'll see that we've done some reorganizing and redesign. Keeping things fresh and dynamic can get a little messy (not that there's anything wrong with that!), so we've tidied up a bit. Tom keeps telling us to give things away, so we've created a new page just for Free Stuff. Cool Friends are now on your left, and links to Tom's Slides, Free Stuff, and featured Wow!Store items are on your right.

You'll see some changes on the main navigation menu, too. Notice the link to Tom Peters Company Consulting Services; it takes you to a new, separate site. We also added a new section called Resources to give you one-click access to some of your favorite items. Everything you're used to is still here, and now it's easier to find.

Sunrise Over Hyde Park

A lovely Hyde Park morning walk at exactly sunrise, after a rainy night. The added treat: The Queen's Horse Guards, who are usually out at dawn, were uncharacteristically in spectacular full dress today, with carriage amidst them. Presumably, a Head of State is dropping by to chat up the Queen and go for a ride.

(Lest you think I'm a hopeless Anglophile, let me set the record straight. My colleague and pal, Harry Rhoads, co-founder of the Washington Speakers Bureau, was over here for Mrs Thatcher's 80th birthday party last week. The Queen attended, and apparently as the peons were being briefed on etiquette, they were informed that if they stuck their hand out for a (harmless) shake of the Royal Hand, it would be slapped away by a hovering attendant. After Harry's report on this in an email, I replied in a one-line email, "That's why we fought the damn war in 1776." Yes, I remain a steadfast Yankee Doodle Dandy.)

More Praise for Fara Warner (With an Asterisk)

I want to reiterate my support for recent Cool Friend Fara Warner. I wholeheartedly endorsed her book, The Power of the Purse, and I was giving it a close re-read on the flight to London. I can restate that it really is a first, a book on the women's market opportunity that is exclusively devoted to detailed case studies of companies who have made great strategic strides to embrace this enormous opportunity. The cases include: McDonald's (acknowledging that women are their majority market, and taking a very new approach to their business as a result), Home Depot, Procter & Gamble (the premier marketer learns new tricks!), DeBeers Group (the diamond folks), AXA Financial, Kodak, Nike, Avon, and MGA Entertainment (tackling Barbie with something new for girls).

My only bone to pick is a reference to me that more or less says that I need not push the cause anymore because companies have gotten the message—and now they need the details. I unequivocally support the need for details, but also can unequivocally state, Fara, that companies of all shapes and sizes have not got the message, at least strategically. That's an up-to-date report, based on seminars this week with Clients who shall not be named.

Me Ape, You Tarzan

I was reading a news story on AOL (yup, the Wal*Mart of the Web) about scientists' fascination over gorillas in the wild cracking nuts and extracting oil. It made me realize how much I hope evolutionary theory is right. I'd far rather be descended from a nut-crackin' gorilla, or better yet a gorgeous fish, than to think I'd started afresh as a human being bent from the git-go upon purposefully killing other human beings in the name of security, and systematically using my "unique powers of foresight" to destroy the environment from which I sprung whole.

Project Jalapeño

Yesterday's "Cubicle Culture" column in the Wall Street Journal discussed how frequently companies confuse employees with catchy slogans intended to motivate them. Empty names like "The Big Event" and "Dare to Be Different" sound great when execs make them up, but often don't mean anything to employees. The article describes an old IBM slogan, "A Quarter At A Time," which was designed to improve short-term results, but was interpreted by a manager in this way: "I have a $14 million quota. That's a lot of quarters."

We've all seen this kind of stuff. Why does it happen?

Here's my take: Internal marketing programs are critical. A company can't create internal or external brand harmony if its people have conflicting views about what the company is and what it intends to be.

But, most companies don't take the process very seriously. They create slogans with no underlying strategic "genealogy," and then use clumsy advertising-influenced methods for communicating with their own employees. Any wonder why employees are confused?

So, is the problem with the general idea of internal marketing, or with the way it is typically executed?

Event Slides: London

Leadership in London is the event of the day. Tom takes the stage with: Bill Clinton, Mikhail Gorbachev, Madeleine Albright, Terence Conran, Clayton Christensen, Kjell Nordström, Henry Mintzberg, and more. Get the slides here, and the long Web version here.

Cool Friend: Hogshead

Our new Cool Friend is Sally Hogshead, author of Radical Careering: 100 Truths to Jumpstart Your Job, Your Career, and Your Life.

Her definition of careerist:

Think back to those times in your career when you've performed at your absolute best, when you blew past expectations and quite simply kicked ass. That's when you were a careerist. A careerist is somebody who takes action to become the most powerful, valuable, and fulfilled version of themselves. Careerists want to kickstart momentum, attack bigger possibilities, and get excited about Monday mornings.

Read the rest of the interview.

See also: Sally's website, www.radicalcareering.com, and her manifesto on ChangeThis, Cherry Bombs: A Supplemental Kit to "Radical Careering."

Walking Paradise!

In W.O.W. (World Of Walks) it doesn't get much better than Hyde Park in London. Arrived London Gatwick from Orlando at 6:30 a.m. Took the Gatwick Express (a 30-minute train ride vs. a 2-hour rush hour drive) to London. (Enough highly armed cops in the train station to fill a troop ship.) Arrived hotel, changed to running clothes and headed to Hyde Park. Entered at Wellington Corner, went all the way to Kensington Gardens, returned and exited at Speaker's Corner. Wiggled through side street to Berkeley Square and then on to Nirvana. (Hatchards book store, on The Piccadilly next to Fortnum & Mason.) Left $200 later and lighter; much of my haul was Nelson stuff—200th anniversary of Trafalgar is this Friday (10.21.05, or 21.10.05 in the U.K., and everywhere else on earth other than the U.S.). After a circuitous route back to my hotel, I figure I logged in all about 10 clicks, or 6 miles.

Now at work on tomorrow's speech on leadership at a big shindig—M. Albright, Gorbachev, Gerstner et al.—called Leaders in London. (Run by the same folks for whom I appeared in Moscow/Leaders in Moscow last week.) I plan to play off Nelson, a complex genius. (Complex genius = Tautology. NB: Jim Collins would not approve. Nelson was about as far from Collins' ideal "quiet, humble, stoic" leader as could possibly be imagined.)

(Adjectives/nouns used on just pages 198 & 199 to describe Nelson from Nelson's Way: Leaderhip Lessons from the Great Commander: tireless self-promoter, sought hero status, sought patronage [suck-up], guts, courage, master of his craft, passion for pleasures of the flesh, driven by duty, autocratic, dictatorial, team player, practitioner of participative management 200 years before it was popularized, loved hanging out with the lads, man's man, lady's man, diligent manager, powerfully inspirational, spiritual, passionate, ... ambitious, aggressive, confident, impulsive, rarely cautious or circumspect, risk-taker, emotional, expressed feelings openly ... classless, fair, self-sacrificing, encouraging, optimistic ... unconventional, did not get along well with superiors ... xenophobic, immodest, impatient, intolerant, imprudent in public and in private ... lucky. Try to weave a "coherent master theory of leadership out of all that.)

Psyched about Berlin (on Thursday). Haven't been since the New Year's after the Wall came down. What a party! It was the night the patrolling Soviet soldiers gave up—Easties and Westies climbed atop the Brandenburg Gate and precariously partied through the night to the accompaniment of half the world's firecrackers. That afternoon I'd chipped my own pieces off the Wall. Entrepreneurs were selling chips from the Wall and renting tools to those of us who wanted the experience of doing our own chipping. Also that day I got to see Check Point Charlie, which hadn't closed down, but which was so central to those of us who gorge on spy fiction.

Genius logistics brought to you by T Peters: Boston to Dubai to Boston to Brazil to Nashville to Santiago & Buenos Aires to Moscow to Orlando to London & Berlin & Bologna to Seattle to Sydney & Taipei.

In the Top 40

The American Society of Magazine Editors has chosen the Top 40 magazine covers from the last forty years. I'm thrilled to see that John Lennon graces No.1, while, no surprise, Demi Moore adorns No.2. Move down the list a bit, however, and find tied for No.37—Fast Company magazine featuring "The Brand Called You."

What Tom's Done This Year ...

... and pledges to keep doing for years to come. In mid-September, someone at a Tom event asked him a "simple" question. The result came two weeks later in the form of a PDF we posted on the website. Now, Tom has done a major revision, added a page or two, and offers it to you here: What I've Done This Year. (PDF)

Excerpt:

[What have I been doing this year? Working on the Art of the Speech/Presentation. Working harder than ever. I'm still a rank amateur—Tom Hanks says his self-assigned best grade in a movie is "C." Amen. I want to Master the Art of Persuasive Declamation. Or at least I want a "B" or two before I put down the mike. How hard do I plan to work next year? HARDER. I want to get this stuff I do and love and care ever so much about ... RIGHT. I'll never get there—but it won't be for lack of will or effort or aspiration.]

EXECUTION!

"I saw that leaders placed too much emphasis on what some call high-level strategy, on intellectualizing and philosophizing, and not enough on implementation. People would agree on a project or initiative, and then nothing would come of it."—Larry Bossidy & Ram Charan/Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done

Spoke last night in Orlando to eCustomerServiceWorld, one of those "holy-moly"/"parade of ..." events (Giuliani, Tony Robbins, etc). After my speech, I interviewed on stage Larry Bossidy, former Chairman of Allied Signal, former GE Vice Chairman. He and consultant/strategy uber-guru Ram Charan wrote (a couple of years ago) Execution: The Discipline of Getting Things Done. The extraordinary—and accurate, as I see it—hypothesis is that we inordinately pay attention to strategy, customers, innovation, and the like, but not the true discriminator between success and failure—implementation! Moreover, execution is the leader's Job #1, and execution is a "systematic and rigorous discipline" that can be learned and applied by one and all. The truth is, I had read the book, liked it, but had not really dived in. I have done so now (as I prepared for my interview), and I conclude that it is a genuine original, of the utmost importance!

Which led me to ...

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS! Attached you will find two. The first, titled "Bossidy," consists of some quotes from Execution that I found particularly apt. The second is a broader presentation I concocted; it's called "A Bias for Action," which a few of you may remember was Principal #1 from In Search of Excellence (our way, in 1982, of underscoring the importance of implementation ... my shorthand has been/is "too much talk, too little do").

Enjoy ...

[Also find the event slides for the eCustomerServiceWorld event here, and the longer Web version here.—CM]

And More ...

Tom had two more events today, but fortunately they were in the same city as yesterday's appearance. First thing, he spoke to America's Community Bankers; slides are here. Next up was Marriott International; slides here.

New Special Presentation

This one's really exciting! Tom has taken a lot of new tidbits of wisdom from here and there (check out especially the Steve Jobs quotes) and made a presentation of his Dramatic Difference (courtesy Doug Hall) mandate. You can see/download this new special presentation here.

Charleston Redux

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Recall my morning-walk greeting story from Charleston. About 100% of folks responded to my "Good morning" with a nod, and often an extended "Good morning. Nice day" of their own. Exercising my perverse streak, I decided to replicate the experiment in Georgetown. (Hey, when I was growing up, D.C. was effectively a Southern town.) Well, you can more or less guess the result. Old guy drenched in sweat wearing a ratty old T-shirt that says "U.S. Navy Retired." My "clientele"? Mostly self-important (forgive the editorialization) Gen-Xers on their way to Capitol Hill to bask in said self-importance while running the Xerox machine. No, not fair! Actually, people of all ages and economic strata. The result: 23 attempts on my part. Two responses, which requires stretch in one case. (My, I'd think, non-threatening "approach": "Good morning!"—a little chirpy, and with a practiced smile. (Practiced from my many for-profit "Grip and grins" at trade shows.) Oh well ...

GO, CHARLESTON!

(Alas, if I'd experimented in Moscow I'd probably have been locked up for the very act of smiling.)

Anyway, good morning!

Opportunities Unlimited!

Spoke last Friday to a couple of thousand tanning salon owners. Ninety percent "Mom & Pops." I love such groups! (KFC and Hilton property owners recently. Community bankers coming soon.) That is, "my" salon owners' futures are ... entirely in their own hands! "Dramatic Difference" is theirs for the taking! (That was the title of my talk.) "Experiences" that invariably "Wow!" "Excellence" as a daily Aspiration & Practice! Staff that are Nurtured & Challenged and who thus aim to Grow & Flourish ... and serve the customer about 1,000 miles past "exceeds expectations."

Hard work? No! Insanely hard work! And Energy! And Passion! And Daring! And Will! And Imagination! (And a little bit of luck doesn't hurt.) A lack of money is rarely the issue. Sure you'd like a premier address or an uncle who owns a bank (or at least robbed one); but the dough is probably yours if you first create a gem-of-local-renown in your current "B" space.

Middle managers from "prestigious companies"? [Motto: "Nice ideas, Tom, but here are the 17 immutable reasons why we can't do any of 'em!"] Or 1,000 owner-entrepreneurs? [Motto: "I gotta start on some of this stuff today! Right now! You damn well better be right!"] Give me the self-directed "owners" ... it ain't a close race!

The Reeeeeeally Big Two?!

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For whatever reason/s, I've been in a "boil it down" mood for quite a while (see my outbreak of new Special Presentations). Somehow, somewhere, recently I was confronted with a "What have you learned in thirty-five years?" moment—maybe it was concerning Katrina. From my lips emerged but two words (after a long pause): DECENTRALIZATION. ACCOUNTABILITY. Upon (much) further reflection ... I will pretty much stick with the two (profound) (and related) words/ideas.

There's a potent analysis of Big Co performance I regularly use in my seminars; the bottom line is that over an 80-year period only one Giant Company in the U.S. has thrived to the point of staying ahead of the stock market for eight decades. It's: GE. Not "Welch's GE" of 1980-2000, but Welch et al. et al. Forever & ever, amen. I've known the company pretty damn well for three decades, and at even its worst and most bureaucratic moments the Big Two have been the rule: Go to Cincinnati to "do" aircraft engines—and you are The Big Boss, almost as much as if you were a corporate CEO. You are pretty much on your own to Succeed ... or Fail. And the Upside & Downside consequences are Clear & Severe. PepsiCo ... same deal. And J & J. (And my old employer, McKinsey & Co.—they weren't screwing around about the "Up or Out" "idea." "Idea"? Try: Stark REALITY.) Yup, damn few other Big Cos get it—or even seriously try it. New HP Mr Big, Mark Hurd, is attempting to undo Ms Fiorina's accountability-draining centralization "strategies" and a horrid (spirit-draining!) matrix org structure—and re-introducing two HP pillars ... DECENTRALIZATION & ACCOUNTABILITY!

This ain't a "boxes on the org chart" drill! Brian Joffe runs South Africa's amazing BIDvest. They perform mundane services (e.g., building maintenance) in much of the world—and make a ton of $$$ in the process; and they are growing like blazes. I attended a BIDvest corporate fest in Bangkok last year, and I listened to the irrepressible Brian J preach the Gospel of Decentralization & Accountability, which he insists must go all the way to the "bottom" of the organization. (Hey, there were South African front-line maintenance folks at the Bangkok event!) Here was the keynote line from BJ that I scribbled in my notebook: "Decentralization' is not a piece of paper. It's not me. It's either in your heart, or not." In other words: True Decentralization is Decentralization-in-Spirit ... a Heart Matter, not a Chart Matter.

Monkey Business

Ken Blanchard is a pal and Cornell fraternity brother. Speaking of accountability, he may also be the father of this little "management saying" ... which I love. To wit: "The monkey is either on your back. Or it's on my back. Monkeys don't live in mid-air." (The other possible father of this one is Up the Organization wit and guru Bob Townsend.)

Quote of the Day/Month ...

Been carrying this around for a month but forgot to post. It truly tickles my fancy. Topic "deterioration" of manners/civility. Financial Times column title (Richard Tomkins/09.13): "A Dearth of Manners Will Not Bring Western Civilization to Its Knees." The priceless quote: "People used to be frightfully polite but somehow also found time to exterminate a sizeable chunk of mankind."

Sorry, Miss Manners.

The Right Stuff

Britain's Conservative Party has been struggling in the wilderness since fiery Margaret Thatcher was busted by her mates oh so long ago. Things got so bad that one leader even had a McKinsey background (a frightening thought concerning political leadership). All the Conservative pretenders have been brilliant, but fearfully unable to connect with those ever so annoying voters. A new leadership race is underway, and young newcomer David Cameron is causing quite a stir. The principal reason is brilliantly captured in these two quotes. First, from the Sunday Times (10.09): "At last the Tories realize they need a hugger, not a thinker." And this from a powerful party supporter of Cameron's, quoted in the Financial Times (10.10): "killer combination of conviction and inspiration."

Win or lose, now or later, interesting commentaries on leadership in general.

Travel Perk

While I routinely peruse non-U.S. Web sites and read as heavy a dose of international news as the next guy, there is something about one's "foreign" reading—when you're away from home. When I'm away from the U.S. (even 5 minutes after takeoff from, say, Logan), my "head gets into" the life & times of wherever I'm visiting. In particular I begin to deep dive into every article—style or politics or economics—in any non-U.S. newspaper or magazine at hand. (In English, alas.) That psychological immersion in print is as important as the conversations I have with folks when I get to "the other end."

Moscow Musings

"Leaders in Moscow" was a sparkling event. Ran into a lot of the "same old, same old" (ex-IBM boss Lou Gerstner, Swedish "guru" Kjell Nordstrom, etc.), but fell in love with the energy and unexpected youthfulness of the fully engaged Russian audience. Alas, the streets were a different story. Yes, there is a lot of evident building activity and the like. But my hotel (a superb Radisson) was near a major train station. I happened to go out for my morning walk as rush hour arrivals were peaking. To be sure, in Chicago or London or Frankfurt or Buenos Aires or Dubai, not everyone has on their "can't wait to get to the office" face upon disgorgement from a commuter train. Nonetheless, I was struck (exactly the right word!) by the totally consistent grim demeanors of everyone I passed. I was not looking for a smile or nod ... but ye gads ... the Weight of the World seemed to be on every pair of shoulders and in every pair of eyes. Within 20 minutes, tonic of a brisk power walk notwithstanding, I found myself encased with gloom & doom. I don't know what the deal is (beyond generic/genetic Russian despair), and I thought it was rude to inquire. Some of this may, of course, be old-fashioned projection. Face it, at my age, say "Moscow" or "Kremlin," and images of 10,000 nuclear-tipped missiles all aimed at Omaha and Manhattan still comes immediately and powerfully to mind; maybe I simply can't get beyond that.

NB: I am a Jack Welch fan (it's anti-American not to be), but I remain in outright awe of what Gerstner did at IBM in less than a decade. Bluntly, there is in my opinion no more impressive corporate turnaround story in American business history. Armstrong got nowhere at AT&T. Fisher made a mess of Kodak. Fiorina was a washout at HP. (And, after all, Welch inherited a machine in good operating order and a vigorous "culture" at GE.) But Lou pulled off a "180-degree culture change," and not only saved a great company, but launched it in a new direction which can enable if not insure decades of global leadership.

Oh, That Should Help ...

Business schools are, well, so funny. Or, rather, so stupid it's funny. Read in the Financial Times that MIT's Sloan School is headin' for "with it" land ... courtesy a new advisory board ("Business chiefs to advise MIT Sloan"). The new Alfred P. Sloan Management Society includes such luminaries as former AT&T CEO-Superstar Michael Armstrong (see above a brief recitation of his demonstrated incompetence). Armstrong wants to pass on his "wisdom"! He told the FT, "We are a small group of experienced and interested people who want to become engaged for the benefit of MIT Sloan." Wow, I hear that Ken Lay also has some free time—at least for a while. Or how about Bernie Ebbers, by speakerphone?

Who Needs the FBI?

Don't worry about FBI or CIA snooping. Let's save 'em the trouble and do it ourselves! As I headed to Russia I read an article in the Sunday Times (London) titled "Electronic detective keeps tabs on roving family." It starts this way: "A wall-mounted screen that allows busy families to keep track of each other's movements is being tested by Microsoft. Researchers call it the 'Whereabouts Clock.' They say it was partly inspired by a magic clock that appears in the Harry Potter novels." Bottom line: A flashing Technicolor screen, linked to mobile phones (inert or active), will feature personalized icons displaying the up-to-the-nanosecond location of one and all. viagra price

Hey, why not an implant at birth?

H5N1

Confirmed.
Today.
Europe.
(Turkey.)

WBYB #2

Latest.
Mid-Atlantic.
Cloudy.

WBYB, or Wild Blue Yonder Blog #1, or Post37000

Am I the last to do this? I am beside myself with delight!

Consider this Post37000. I am at 37,000 feet on LH416 during Leg #2 (Frankfurt-IAD) of my Moscow-D.C. trip. And ... I am hooked up to the world courtesy Boeing's CONNEXION. ($9.95 per session, $29.95 per entire trip.) Yup, my in-flight privacy is in tatters, but (for the moment), what the hell!

To quote myself (Whoops!) at the beginning of my seminars: IT'S NOT YOUR FATHER'S WORLD. Perhaps more later, but I want to get this in the air before something untoward happens.

Happy October 12! (Isn't it about Columbus Day? If so, how very fitting.)

Over and out. uk viagra sales online

Event Slides: Moscow

Far afield once more, Tom is speaking to Leaders in Moscow. You can download the slides for this presentation here.

H5N1 Moves Another Step Closer

I'm sure you are reading the news of belated Federal actions in preparing for bird flu. Sunday's news reported the first probable European outbreak in birds, in Romania. As I am headed there in late November, my antennae are quivering. Beyond physiological concerns, this is the first, direct, tip-of-the-iceberg personal warning of the economic consequences of an approaching pandemic. While short of panicking (I have not cancelled my Romanian trip, for instance), I am dramatically accelerating my and my family and friends' preparations—e.g., working on self-sufficiency on our Farm, laying by a 6-month supply of normal prescription medications, procuring appropriate masks, dealing with possible short-term financial issues, etc. Surely Katrina has taught us all that "You're on your own," at least for a while, is "good management practice" for friends and family.

(And, obviously, businesses. For instance I talked on Friday to members of the tanning salon industry. Most are "mom & pop" entrepreneurs, hardly sporting very deep pockets. Their industry would doubtless be hit hard and fast at the slightest hint of H5N1 in or near America. Hence 100% of their revenue stream could evaporate on a week's notice; there are, literally, millions of small entrepreneurial businesses in much the same boat. I'm not by disposition an alarmist, but I am unable to conjure a scenario under which pandemic would not lead to a sudden, wholesale economic crash. Not to mention the likes of the riots the Feds modestly project at places of vaccine storage and delivery.)

Cool Friend: Fara Warner

Fara Warner has written about marketing, advertising, and consumer trends for more than 15 years for the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Brandweek, and other national publications. In 2000, she joined Fast Company as a senior writer. Her book The Power of the Purse: How Smart Businesses Are Adapting to the World's Most Important Consumers—Women will launch on October 15. Tom called it "the book about marketing to women I've been anxiously awaiting." Learn more by reading Warner's Cool Friend interview here. Or you can visit her website here.

Event Slides

Nashville, TN: Tom speaks to the folks at the Tanning World Expo. You can get the slides here, or a longer, web-only version here.

More Good Walking!

Buenos Aires. Another fantastic city! (Lucky me, even if the stays are short.) And more great walking—on the streets and in the parks. It's the way to survive the forthcoming hours in a plane.

BTW: Lucky me redux—the seminar organizers, peerless (a word not used lightly) HSM, have put me into the Alvear ... hotels don't get much/any better!

[Get the slides from the HSM event here.—CM]

So What ...

I like to begin my seminars (today's goes from 9 am to 6 pm) with a statement of purpose—"What do I aim to do with nine precious hours of your life?" To help me answer my own question I wrote a short piece titled "What have you done this year?" You'll find it here.

H5N1 Redux Redux

Mentioned H5N1 in Santiago. There was a senior public health M.D. in the audience. I aked him if my tone was "alarmist." His terse answer: "No. Keep talking."

I will.

Quote of the Day: Yes, Damn It, a "New Economy"!

Great series running in the International Herald (New York Times). Title: "THE IDEA ECONOMY: Who Owns What?"

Herewith an excerpt: "From the United States to Europe and Japan, more patents were sought in the past 20 years than the previous 100, evidence that protecting the rights to an idea is itself growing in importance. 'Patents are becoming the highest-value assets in any economy,' said Jerry Sheehan, an economist with the OECD."

Obvious, but many—still!—wonder if you can "build an economy around [mere?] ideas." I think the answer is an unequivocal "Yes."

"Base Case"

I made a presentation to Avaya customers yesterday. (In case you don't know, Avaya is a spinoff of a spinoff—ATT/Western Electric to Lucent to Avaya. I've touched it up a little bit and re-titled it "Base Case." Give it a try!

Event Slides

If you are looking for the slides from Tom's appearance with HSM/Avaya in Buenos Aires, you can download them here.

Gettin' Lucky!

First it was Charleston. Now Santiago. A lovely city! Great for walking (My Test #1.)

[The slides for the Santiago event are here.—CM]

Comment on a Comment

A September 23 post was titled "Quotes of the Day." It elicited a dialogue around this, from John Quincy Adams: "If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader." In particular the "become more" was debated. "Become more," or "allowed to be who you are." I think it's a big deal, and in particular I thank Dustin for his contribution. It triggered a mini-Special Presentation, "The Nub of Leadership: Helping/Inviting Others to 'Discover Their Greatness.'"

PayPal

Way back in 1981, I think it was, a business book literally kept me up all night reading.* It was Tracy Kidder's The Soul of a New Machine, about a rogue team building a pioneer mini-computer at Data General. Well, it's happened again, with one of the trip-reading picks I mentioned the other day. Namely, The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth. Hate to use the hackneyed term, but it's a real page turner, and among other things it gives the best description of "business strategy" unfolding in a world changing at warp speed. (*The only other biz book that caused an all-nighter was Henry Mintzberg's The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning—which I read on my first trip to Dubai ever so long ago.)

H5N1 Redux Redux (Again)

Worst scenario yet. The October National Geographic, hardly a rad rag, in its October cover story ("The Next Killer Flu: Can we stop it?") surfaces a plausible estimate of 180 million to 360 million worldwide deaths. [audio on ng.com]

My only mission: Get this to the/near the top of our agenda—these numbers outpace Al Quaeda, at its worst, by a country mile.

More Charleston

Sorry about gushing on over Charleston; I did find it to be a marvelous city. On an early Friday morning walk, I observed/participated in one of the oldest rituals of the Deep South—in a good sized city, strangers saying good morning to one another. (Nice.) On a late-morning walk I discovered, among the numerous cultural artifacts, little St Michael's church—and in the courtyard, buried without ado, two signers of the Constitution, Charles Pinckney and John Rutledge. On the street I met—a first for me—two lovely older women, wearing appropriately garish headwear, who are members of the Red Hat Club! In a Walden Books I stood in line in front of a well-to-do (can you still use that term—my PC dictionary's been misplaced) woman who in conversation explained that she was from New Orleans, staying with her daughter's family in Charleston. The reason: She and her husband lost, in its entirety, their house of 35 years. I simply said that I had no idea what to say beyond, "I'm sorry." She replied that a simple "I'm sorry" was exactly right and exactly enough.

Latin American Reading Lite

Can't believe that I'm in Beantown with two games in the regular season left, everything up for grabs, and the Bosox and Yanks playing a mile away in Fenway—as I board a plane to Santiago. (Our lucky pal Erik will be at Sunday's finale, and doubtless report—if the right side wins. His absurd excuse for "indulging myself" is that it's his wife Annette's birthday—sure, Erik.) In a lesser vein, I'm indulging myself on this week's trip (the Big Three: Santiago, Buenos Aires, Nashville) with non-fiction. Four on the platter: The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture, by John Battelle; The PayPal Wars: Battles with eBay, the Media, the Mafia, and the Rest of Planet Earth, by early PayPal employee Eric Jackson; What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, by John Markoff; and Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies—and What It Means to Be Human, by Joel Garreau. I expect all of them will read like sci-fi—except that they've come true or are coming true—and are indeed "changing everything."

Light Lite

Dateline Boston: Gawd it's getting light late. Gawd it's getting dark early. Damn!

Hey Tommy, the World Ain't Quite Flat Yet

Speaking of changing everything: As you ponder Tom Friedman's hyper-bestsellling flat-world hypothesis, claiming the end of American economic prowess by mid-afternoon tomorrow, you might think about stopping at the newsstand and grabbing a copy of this month's (October) Atlantic. There's an interesting short piece titled "The World Is Spiky: Globalization has changed the playing field, but hasn't leveled it." The keynote is fascinating graphics on such things as light emissions (apparently an unparalleled surrogate for true economic activity), patents and scientific citations. While China and India are clearly on the move, it ain't exactly a race yet. U.S. dominance (with Western Europe and Japan as effective runner-ups) can only be described as staggering. I am a firm believer in the fact/and preacher of the fact that we pretty much need to change pretty much everything to accommodate new players and new technologies (see my reading list above). But "the end of the world as we know it is nigh" is alarmist.

H5N1 Redux. New Orleans Redux?

The avian flu reportage volume is increasing exponentially, with WHO releasing on Friday some grim probable death #s, as high as 150 million worldwide. Personally (and professionally), I think it's appropriate to more or less scare the shit out of people—the expected timeframe in the U.S. is roughly a year from now. (Incidentally, the 1919 pandemic was unexpectedly as brutal to the 18-40 demographic as to the old and young.) Susan said she listened to a brief H5N1 interview with the new FDA chief, whom she described as "sounding as clueless as [former FEMA Director] Brown." That's encouraging.

Gas (How to Save Lots of)

I sent friends the results of a research report I found on the Web that offered a couple of very easy ways to save a lot of gas. One is the regular use of cruise control; modern fuzzy-logic software apparently works better than your foot, especially on hills. My neighbor Gary Gras ran a quick experiment with his gas-happy truck, and was surprised to report that he'd experienced the predicted 20 percent improvement the research suggests is possible-probable. The big enchilada: dropping the leadfoot act, especially as you come out of lights and such. The saving is up to 35 percent, but it's going to be tough for those of us like me who've cherished our Mario Andretti moments for going on 50 years!

Drucker Supplanted? Re-writing the Book on Effective Management Under Life & Death Circumstances?

I'd read it before and winced, but was doubtful it could be true. Now I've read it again based on a repeat performance, so perhaps it is. Re-organizing-reforming intelligence operations may top the list of anti-terrorist defenses. Relatively new (and controversial) CIA chief Porter Goss, responding to recent defections among the old pro crowd, passed on answering a query about the departures with this record-shattering non-answer: "I don't do personnel." Having spent a little time with the CIA in my "Nixon years" in D.C., I've no doubt at all that a few senior "retirements" would/will do the Agency a world of good. But a CEO who says "I don't do personnel"? A few blocks away from my Boston house, in which I'm ensconced as I write, is the residence of J.F. Welch, he of GE fame: I could hear the cringe from here! Jack's calling card for four decades was mastery of talent development like no other.

Score (Another) One for Women!

Another Atlantic quickie. A recent report from Merrill Lynch comes to a clear conclusion (that others came to long before, yet it's nice to get ML's endorsement) that when it comes to investment strategies and effectiveness ... women are, well, better. Atlantic: "Women come out better on almost every count [as investors]: They are less likely to hold a losing investment too long, and less likely to wait too long to sell a winner; they're also less likely to put too much money into a single investment or to buy a reputedly hot stock without doing sufficient research." Seems as if guys are the emotional ones when it comes to money, eh? (The Merrill report: "When It Comes to Investing, Gender A strong Influence on Behavior.")