The new year has come. Consultants and executives are huddling together working on strategies to drive business forward and achieve the lofty goals they’ve proclaimed to everyone who will listen. And yet, as General Norman Schwarzkopf said, “Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you...
The year is ending.
The year is beginning.
This happens around this time on a regular basis. Each and every time it does we’re all inundated by people telling us how to review the year now ending and prepare for the year to come. Some talk about personal growth and renewal....
“When campaigning for vice president in 2012, Paul Ryan, now Speaker of the House of Representatives, was asked if he had run a marathon. He replied that he had completed one 26.2 mile race in less than three hours: ‘two hours and fifty something’. Unfortunately for him, the race,...
I recently met with a company with a high profit margin for their industry. They hired me to help with a growth strategy. During my meetings with the senior people I heard again and again about their high margin and discerned an underlying worry that growth would only lower...
In the last few weeks I've completed short trips to Monaco, Nice, Barcelona, and Marrakech. Along the way, I ended up spending time in London and Madrid as well, due to weather delays. Tel Aviv, Dakar, and Accra are in my immediate future. Not surprisingly, all of this travel...
It's that time of year again in the United States. The time when we are bombarded by non-ending entreaties to overspend on just about anything they can squeeze into a mall or on the webpages of internet retailers, and that’s a lot of space. The big day of the...
On a recent trip to Boston, I had a meeting with the founder of a growing global public relations and marketing firm. When I entered the office, I was struck by how quickly several people with smiling faces came over to ask me if I needed help. "Who are...
There is an article on my desk that I tore out of the Economist several months ago. The title is "The shadow of the caliphate". I've been thinking about it since I first read it. As you can guess, it's about the Islamic State’s pull on so many potential...