Reader, I’ve been writing about wicked worlds and wicked problems for a year or so, but I don’t want you to think that these are new. Here’s a story that’s over 30 years old. IBM was in deep trouble in 1993. Its mainframe-centered business model was weakening. Personal computing was reshaping the industry. The company was losing billions of dollars. Its major divisions operated with competing priorities, and many experts believed IBM should be broken into smaller businesses. At first glance,...
2 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, Here are a few reflections about some past business failures. What happens when ....... Weak signals are dismissed? You get Nokia. Smartphone interfaces, software ecosystems, developer platforms and changing customer expectations were visible before Nokia’s handset collapse. An old mental model is retained? You get Kodak. They understood digital photography but continued to interpret the market through the economics of film, processing, and printing. Problems are defined too narrowly?...
9 days ago • 1 min read
Reader, I’m in the midst of reading The Future of Truth: How AI Reshapes Reality by Steven Rosenbaum. It’s interesting, well written, and a bit scary. I’ll send my notes in a future MindPrep Reflection. Anyway, it got me thinking about thinking and some observations I’ve made over the years. Here are ten thoughts. The list is incomplete and I’m sure you have more. Send them along and I may include them in a future article. You’re a sucker if you need to always be right. You will ignore or...
16 days ago • 1 min read
Reader My first “career move” was time in the Marine Corps. And so, sixty years later, I’m still interested in military history. One of my favorite books is Miliary Misfortunes: The Anatomy of Failure in War (Cohen and Gooch, 1990). The book was centered on failure modes and how they can interact. The point of the book is that there are three failure modes and when they interact they can result in catastrophe. They are: Failure to learn Failure to anticipate Failure to adapt The authors...
23 days ago • 2 min read
Reader, I was released from active duty in the Marines in 1970 and went back to college. I got my first job “in business” in 1973. I was recently pondering my entry level job to the job my great-nephews and nieces may enter. I wonder If my recollections might apply to them. Here are some common memories from my “early years.” Do any of these items seem strange to you? If not, you just may be “that old.” carbon paper correction fluid rotary phones phone message pads Rolodexes dictation...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Reader, My usual routine is to grab a cup of coffee on a Saturday morning and then write a brilliant (?) reflection to be sent on Sunday morning. But this Saturday my brain was a blank slate that resisted any attempt to think. So, I decided to take a break and catch up on some reading. And that brought me to an interesting article in The Economist, one of the few real-news news outlets left. The article, Vladimir is Losing His Grip on Russia, ended with “All four factors create a situation...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Reader, What do shells, fossils, bones, horns, scientific instruments, maps, ancient coins, manuscripts, and strange or “marvelous” objects have in common? You might have found them in a scholar’s or doctor’s or noble’s “cabinet of curiosities,” also called a wunderkammer, or “wonder room.” It was a collection of unusual, rare, beautiful, or puzzling objects popular in Europe from roughly the 1500s through the 1700s. These cabinets of curiosities were important because they helped lead to the...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Reader, Ebola is back in the news and that, in turn, reminded me of one of my favorite books, The American Plague: The Untold Story of Yellow Fever, The Epidemic That Shaped Our History (2007) by Molly Caldwell Crosby. We don’t have Ebola but we had yellow fever. One of the memorable parts of the book focused on the 1878 yellow fever epidemic that hit along the Mississippi River. A bit of history In 1878, yellow fever spread from New Orleans through the lower Mississippi Valley, affecting...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, Kim Kardashian is a very poplar “influencer” and makes tons of money by being “who she is.” You may adore her or you may despise her but, in either case, she is slowly becoming irrelevant. She’s 45 years old and will soon be too old to be cool. Aitana Lopez is a 27-year-old, “up and coming” influencer and currently has a social media following of 400,000. She may become more popular, but she has no worry about “aging out.” Why? Because she’s a “virtual soul” and, therefore, never has...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Reader, I’ve been wondering about some thinking disciplines and whether or not they need to be emphasized and improved in leadership education. I received my MBA late in the 1970s and I know I improved my knowledge and skills in accounting, finance, marketing, operations, management theory, and more. An unstated intention of the program was to improve my thinking skills, but such skills were not addressed directly. Functional knowledge is certainly important. However, after many years in the...
2 months ago • 2 min read