July 2012
4 posts
The loyalty trap
I have few regrets in my life. But years ago, I did something that made me a much smaller person. There are good reasons for it: I had a young family and I really needed the job. But I’ve wished for almost fifteen years that I could have made a better decision.
I was working in a part of a company where the unit founder (I was his second in command) had been great in the early days of the...
Can business schools find a breadth of fresh air?
David Teece’s latest FT article (http://on.ft.com/LZ8zFw) makes the important point that B-schools cannot continue to get more and more and more specialized and narrow. But, there is one small problem with implementing his recommendation: everyone involved in academia likes to be narrow. Most faculty members want to teach and research in a well-practiced rut. Academic publishing requires deep...
The American dilemma of profitability vs....
In a recent survey of 1100 working age, employed Americans, 50.5% basically agree with the statement: “I would lay off an employee — even one with no prospect of finding another job — to keep my company profitable.”
But the other half disagree.
America: All for one and all for one
In honor of the Fourth of July, here is my chapter about America from the forthcoming Good vs Good book. Of the Eight Great Goods (Life, Relationships, Equality, Growth, Stability, Belief, Joy, and Individuality), America is the country in the world that most clearly places Individuality as the top Good. In my speeches and conversations about this topic, someone in the audience almost always...
