2000 Letters • 2001 Letters •
2002 Letters • 2003 Letters • 2004 Letters •
2005 Letters • 2006 Letters
• 2007 Letters
• 2008
Letters • 2009 Letters
2010 LETTERS
-new- A House Is Not a Home(February 24, 2010)
"Amidst this sea of dysfunction and conflict, our best hope for happiness is to get things straight in our own households, the arena where we can most assert our good will and our values. Helpless we may be in confronting the ills of society, but we can reconstruct ourselves behind our front door, at the dinner table, or in the rambling garden." To read more,
click here.
The Play's The Thing (February 10, 2010)
"How do we reclaim a playful society when we have thrown the playbook away? We would suppose that we must turn to men of vivid imagination who take up improbable adventures." To read more,
click here.
Global Province Letter: Miami Vice, Gauguin, Luck, Random Walk Theory, Mike Hicks, Jimmy Walker (January 20, 2010)
"Clients often pose this very question to the partners at our firm. They ask, “What do you do?” and are still often puzzled about us no matter how detailed and how direct we are with our answers. Like it or not, we are a trifle mysterious." To read more,
click here.
Global Province Letter: The Magic Olive Oil Salon and the Cultivar Economy (January 6, 2010)
"The merriment surrounding Christmas has to get started very early in December and must last well into January if one’s heart is to become properly bestirred." To read more,
click here.
2009
LETTERS
Global Province Letter: The Loving Eye: Seeing Things Passionately (December 9, 2009)
"Blodgett, as importantly, exemplifies what we are all about on the Global Province. We’re simply after quality in all its permutations." To read more,
click here.
Women of Strong Will Uprooting Their Masters (November 25, 2009)
"Plenty of women, quite often out of power, are the real article whose force of character changes the societies where they live." To read more,
click here.
Wistfulness: Johnny Mercer and the Pride of the Yankees (November 11, 2009)
"We are desperately in need of some classy behavior—all around—to get us through the troubled decade that lies in store for our economy. Classiness combines verve and pride." To read more,
click here.
Fruitful Conversations: Less of Me, More of Us (October 28, 2009)
"On the Global Province, we have claimed that the predominant catalyst for organizations that would seek to be global is not mergers and acquisitions, but alliances where companies, governments, and others cooperate freely even though they have no fiscal or legal bonds, but instead move in concert because they have the will to work together." To read more,
click here.
Nattering Nabobs and Happy Hustlers (October 14, 2009)
"There’s something called level headedness, balance, commonsense, fair-mindedness that can keep us out of the loony bin. Reasonableness does not make good theater, but it is the climate in which accomplishment flourishes, since its purveyors tend to have a grip on reality. It is a rare commodity in a society where the mind is captured by faction, or greed, or psychosis." To read more,
click here.
Maine Retreat: Looking Backward from 2009 (September 30, 2009)
"Maine’s a place where thoughtful men and artists retreat, finding comfort in its embrace." To read more,
click here.
Ancien Regime: That’s How The Cookie Crumbles(September 9, 2009)
“Short circuits are popping up everywhere, and the ancien regime is slowly dissolving even as our leaders try to bolster it. The question is whether we can get on to something new, when, all about us, most are trying to reclaim yesterday.” To read more,
click here.
Celebrations: Exaltation of Larks, Kindle of Cats, A Convocation of Eagles, Tower of Giraffes, A Rhumba of Rattlesnakes, and other Great Gatherings (August 26, 2009)
“We summon up all this nostalgia for summers past, because the nation is in such a funk, such that we need to inject the citizenry with merriment.” To read more,
click here.
Far From The Madding Crowd Where Silence Shouts (August 12, 2009)
“Life reveals its full complexity and sundry hues if one gets off the beaten path and sorts through the multi-colored lives of gnarled people who can stand their ground and comfortably inhabit America the Spacious, rather than America the urbane Sardine Factory.” To read more,
click here.
Taking 30 Pounds Off America (June 24, 2009)
“To some it has become very clear that our life is threaded with addictions, and that we are all hooked on more ‘drugs’ that we care to admit. Food and alcohol, and drugs (legal and illegal), and cell phones, and TV, and Email, and gosh knows what else permeate our lives. Unless we can get out of this jungle of addictions, it’s hard to get thin, or sober, or calm.” To read more,
click here.
Puttin’ on the Ritz: Robbing Peter to Pay Paul (June 3, 2009)
“We are so profligate in America that we have an acute need to look abroad to see how to do things frugally in health care, in business, in government, in defense.” To read more,
click here.
Creative Co-Existence: With a Little Help
from
My Friends (May 20, 2009)
“Successful partnerships, friendships,
and love matches
not only
permit contrasting styles, beliefs, and emotions to cohabit under the
same
roof, but kindle each of the participants, each of whom is stunted in
some way
and needs to grow.” To read more,
click here.
Spain 2009: Tilting at Windmills
(May 6, 2009)
“There’s a lot of Europe that’s dying, but it is the
prism of culture that is putting fire back in some of the ashes. We
discover that in Spain.” To read
more, click here.
Pro Musica
Mundo; Inefficient Markets
(April 15, 2009)
“Our brains are so full of digital trivia, stuffed
with stuff, that it is hard to be receptive to something new.Inevitably
we usually label the new as old hat, afraid to confront something
fearsome and unknowable, eager to pretend the mysteries of the Orient
are somehow akin to our small patch of earth. It’s
a chore to be a world-class thinker.”
To read more, click here.
One Tree at a Time: Green Thinking
(April 1, 2009)
“It
is truly green thinking that we need now, whether we are planting trees
or recreating our financial institutions. That’s why we need thousands
of attempts not controlled by a central authority to create quality
trees or a financial system of many small, scattered institutions that
is not self serving and that is not mucked up by the very people who
created the mess in the first place. ” To
read more, click here.
Slumdog Millionaires: India’s Miracle
(March 18, 2009)
“It
will be the contention of this letter that we Americans have and are
building deep links to India, that the symbiotic relationship is
important to both of us, and that we must work to make our ties very
much more intimate.” To read more, click here.
Investment Outlook 2009: The Second Great
Depression (March 4, 2009)
“The
way one invests has been turned upside down... The single, over-riding
consideration investment-wise is to buy honesty, because it’s a rare
commodity, and its value will hold up.” To
read more, click here.
Movin’ Up in the World
(February 18, 2009)
“As
one ascends in Western socially mobile societies and climbs the greasy
pole, there’s always some question as to whether one is really going
up, or secretly plummeting.” To read more,
click here.
Yes We Can—Yes We Can (February
4, 2009)
“It
is music, when well wrought, that is antidote to the verbal and visual
pollution that is every bit as universal as the smog that has touched
every hamlet on earth.” To read more, click
here.
US Air 1549: Looking for a Soft Landing
on the Hudson (January 21, 2009)
“We
have to find ways of managing risk, steering around obvious rocks in
the sea.” To read more, click here.
Red Swans in the Sunset (January 6, 2009)
“A
host of people are just trying to get by, not because they are out of
money, but because they are out of good ideas.”
To read more, click here.
2008
LETTERS
Gizmos
and Curiosities (December 17, 2008)
“We’re
Luddites who, nonetheless, constantly find ourselves exploring and
fiddling with the most advanced technologies.”
To read more, click here.
Can We Get Over the Barackades?
(November 19, 2008)
“Ever
since Donald Regan, we have had the bizarre habit of taking roulette
players out of Wall Street and making them Treasury Secretaries.” To read more, click here.
Familiar Journeys around the Sun (November
5, 2008)
“Such
rituals will probably become more important now in this century as we
work our way through unfamiliar territory when all the familiar sights
in our economy, our government, our religions, in just about everything
are destined to disappear.” To read more,
click here.
Experts Who Matter (October 22,
2008)
“Discovering
answers requires patience, an ability to reach around the world for
bright ideas, and a nose that discriminates between real beef and
bovine elimination.” To read more, click here.
Second City (October 8, 2008)
“It
is ripe for re-invention.” To read more,
click here.
Riding Out the Storm (September
24, 2008)
“We
are now in the last torturous act of a transition in our national life
that began in the late 1970s.” To read
more, click here.
Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? (September
10, 2008)
“Crass, we submit, is not an option for America if it
wants to survive.” To read more,
click here.
Obsessive-Compulsive
Disorder (OCD): Chasing the Scent (August 27, 2008)
“We do not find that the progress made by conventional
researchers is promising enough to stick to the narrow highways they
are traversing.” To read more, click
here.
Writers in Disguise; Knights of Civility
(August 6, 2008)
“The
task is to find thinking people who know how to shout softly.” To read more, click here.
Cookie-Cutter, Carbon Copies
(July 30, 2008)
“We
suddenly value our power to come up with good, practical ideas, well
after impotence and inertia have set in.”
To read more, click here.
Six Fine Fellows (July 23, 2008)
“The
people who can or have made a difference on energy, global warming,
terrorism, or political reform just don’t titillate the scribblers who
write the news.” To read more, click here.
America the Beautiful (July 16,
2008)
“The
lack of large unifying beliefs would appear to impose terrible costs on
us.” To read more, click here.
WhenYou’re Smilin’ (July 9, 2008)
“Summer
gives one a chance to practice a little Buddhism and not let anything
drag one down.” To read more, click here.
Charleston’s Better at Fiction Than Fact (July
2, 2008)
“Political
inertia fostered by an intransigent oligarchy keeps the South from
truly flourishing.” To read more, click here.
Impolitic Thoughts (June 25,
2008)
“[I]t
takes more than the passage of time for new theories to thrive.
The old structures have to be toppling around us.”
To read more, click here.
Free: Heard It on the Grapevine
(June 18, 2008)
“Quite
often the mouths and the scribblers are peddling ideas and information
that have no connection with reality.” To
read more, click here.
Two Steps Forward; One Step Backwards
(June 11, 2008)
“We
have experienced twenty years of inertia, always looking backwards.” To read more, click here.
Houston: The Last Picture Show
(June 4, 2008)
“The
mindset here is not exactly the firmament in which the future will
happen.” To read more, click here.
Tipping Points VI: It Takes All Kinds
(May 14, 2008)
“At
times like these we are even tempted to celebrate the rather fun,
conspicuously corrupt chaps who offer good theater but who often make
no bones about the fact that they are rogues.”
To read more, click here.
Mile 9: The Journey of the Long Distance
Runner (April 30, 2008)
“Our
leaders have not caught up to our runners.”
To read more, click here.
Tipping Points V: Toilets, Trees, and
Taste Treats
(April 23, 2008)
“A glut of pig
will add girth to your belly and fingerlickin’ stories to your
memories.” To read more, click here.
The Natural Aristocrat (April 16, 2008)
“We have been
exalting shoddy products and half-baked services ever since. This
has put us on the path to nowhere.” To read
more, click here.
Tipping Points IV: Plain Speaking (April 9, 2008)
“Because we
don’t talk to the issues in a simple way, we even lose the ability to
think straight about things.” To read more,
click here.
Homo Sapiens in a Barnum and Bailey World (April 2, 2008)
“We’re a a
time when unusual people are heroic, and our institutions knaves.” To read more, click here.
Tipping Points III: The Kitchen Sink
Chronicles
(March 19, 2008)
“As the
American economy craters and our financial system teeters, we can only
wonder whether kitchen sink politics will assert itself here, as in
Japan....” To read more, click here.
Humpty Dumpties: Chindia Rising (March 12, 2008)
“The Beltway
Bandits have emptied out the federal larder.”
To read more, click here.
Tipping Points II (March 5, 2008)
“The
turnaround of America’s economy is much more dependent on global
agility than wonkish mini-moves on the domestic front.” To read more, click here.
Well-Seasoned Food (February 27, 2008)
“It takes a
huge amount of time and ingestion to get inside another culture and
gain a genuine feel for it.” To read more,
click here.
Tipping Points I (February 20, 2008)
“To further
contribute to your uneasiness, we intend to bring you little bulletins
in today’s letter of odds and ends that might be worth knowing about
for one reason or another.” To read more,
click here.
Death Be Not Proud: The Grey Market (February 13, 2008)
“What we can
most discover in better obituaries is that people of interest have
several lives and multiple personalities.”
To read more, click here.
Losers and Winners: Pirates of America (January 30, 2008)
“It’s clear
that crises abound which only the unusual can surmount.” To read more, click here.
The Swedish Uncertainty (January 23, 2008)
“For many
visitors the soul of the Swede is elusive.”
To read more, click here.
Gimme Shelter: Companies You Love to Hate (January 16, 2008)
“The
vituperation bait-and-switch companies arouse leads to a tainted
atmosphere.” To read more, click here.
One Nation Indivisible: All Fired Up (January 9, 2008)
“Only when we
rethink our politics will business get going again.” To read more, click here.
Getting Your Hands Dirty (January 2, 2008)
“One is well
advised to pick one’s experts carefully.”
To read more, click here.
2007
LETTERS
The Art of Gifting; Tis the Season to Be
Jolly
(December 12, 2007)
“Good things
come from somewhere, not everywhere.” To
read more, click here.
Friends of Global Province (December 5, 2007)
“[O]ur charter
is to be a bit more creative than other firms, so we also wander pretty
far afield.” To read more, click here.
Getting out of the Hothouse (November 28, 2007)
“It is
apparent that our push to do more and go higher has often become a
losing game, where systems, parents, teachers, students, and
institutions implode.” To read more, click here.
All About Bird Dogs: Knowing What We’re
Here For (November
14, 2007)
“As the saying
goes, these bird dogs can find a lot of ‘new pigeons’ for us.” To read more, click here.
Precious Imports: We Need Those Personas
Non Grata (November
7, 2007)
“A rethink is
in order, because we often are not guarding the right gates.” To read more, click here.
Looking
for Small Fish in Big Pond (October 31, 2007)
“[We] must be
small, agile fish in a huge pond.” To read
more, click here.
Globalization:
Culture Carriers (October 24, 2007)
“As we are
discovering in our consulting practice, art travels and transforms.” To read more, click here.
Europe:
The Whole Is less than the Sum of Its Parts (October 17, 2007)
“It’s the
paradox of our time that only unbelievers ... celebrate the wide open
opportunities the future still offers to us.”
To read more, click here.
Natural
Energy: They Said It Couldn’t Be Done (October 10,
2007)
“It’s the
paradox of our time that only unbelievers ... celebrate the wide open
opportunities the future still offers to us.”
To read more, click here.
The Repairmen (October 3, 2007)
“This idea of
obsolescence is outmoded.” To read more,
click here.
Lies,
Estrogen, Useful Tips, Saving on Gas, Microtrends, Homespun
Wisdom, and Urawaza (September 19,
2007)
“There’s
a need to act in the face of this sea of misinformation.” To read more, click here.
A
Noble & Thrifty Tree (September 12,
2007)
“No
culture anywhere can reach for the heavens without a lofty tree.” To read more, click here.
The
Lost Art of Luxury (September 5,
2007)
“True
luxury not only depends on well honed products but on grace and good
deportment from the whole congregation—from every customer and every
server.” To read more, click here.
The
End Is in Sight (August 29, 2007)
“Busy shoring
up the past, companies generally have not uncovered a new corporate
architecture and grand strategy that take aim at the years ahead.” To read more, click here.
O Captain! My Captain! (August 22, 2007)
“We no longer
have to worry about Red Octobers and other Soviet threats: we have seen
the new enemy and it may be us.” To read more, click here.
Did
Camus Ever Giggle? (August 8, 2007)
“Serious
is a disease of the spirit that’s going around now, and it’s to be
dreaded as much AIDS or bird flu.” To read more, click here.
How to Vacation (August 1, 2007)
“The
planet’s as tired as we are. Give it a break.” To read more, click here.
Flying
into the Eye of the Hurricane (July 25, 2007)
“It’s
axiomatic that you have to get outside the very big cities to find
someone who truly knows something undiscovered.” To read more, click here.
The Bronze Horseman (July 18, 2007)
“Around
the world we have raised a whole generation that has never been touched
by greatness.” To read more, click here.
Don't Hang Up (July 11, 2007)
“TV and
cell phones had the potential to make a much better world, but instead,
seem to have gorged it with mediocrity.” To read more, click here.
Caught a Big One (July 4, 2007)
“Isn’t it
interesting what can get done with four hour lunches and no contracts?” To read more, click here.
Gone Fishin’ (June 13, 2007)
“One
can beat the unbeatable with slowness and strategic retreats.” To read more, click here.
It Pays You Not to Be a Philistine (June 6, 2007)
“Culture ...
still pays off. Herein lie dramatic lessons for urban and
national development.” To read more, click here.
Literay Martinis (May 30, 2007)
“If we
are to preserve ‘taste,’ we must fashion valuable one-of-a-kind local
products that are integral to our culture—that are not at all the same
the world over.” To read more, click here.
Fixing
Our Martinis and Our Health (May 23, 2007)
“All the stuff
and nonsense we surround ourselves with is laying us low.” To read more, click here.
The
Name Game (May 16, 2007)
“There’s a
whole industry built around this naming of things that gives very
expensive, often mistaken advice to the world’s biggest companies for
which corporate chieftains pay a wad.” To
read more, click here.
Better
Than Best—Second: Terroir (May 9, 2007)
“Everything—earth,
sun, climate—must come together to make for
perfection. An alignment of the stars.”
To read more, click here.
Better
Than Best—First
(May 2, 2007)
“In a globally
connected world, one is looking for artisans and individuals who are
disconnected enough to rise above the herd.”
To read more, click here.
The
Babes of New York and Mount Everest (April 25, 2007)
“In a town
where the men do not distinguish themselves by pursuing the common
interest and civilized interchange, they were both life giving and
lively.” To read more, click here.
North Country Fair (April 18, 2007)
“This
helpfulness and down-to-earthness just don’t happen in most places.” To read more, click here.
Resurrection (April 11, 2007)
“[W]e are
seeking some way to turn around big corporations, institutions, and
governments in decline. To restore their get up and go.” To read more, click here.
Fly
in the Ointment
(April 4, 2007)
“Beware of
fine businesses that have been shopped around too much. They lose it.” To read more, click here.
In
Praise of Siestas (March 28, 2007)
“We require
new energy and new thinking from all those small countries that go
unnoticed and where things are working a bit better.” To read more, click here.
La
Fhéile Pádraig: Corned Beef and
Cabbage
(March 21, 2007)
“We might, as
well, celebrate the Irish miracle, even if it does not have religious
origins.” To read more, click here.
Up
against the Wall (March 14, 2007)
“Turning them
around involves a top to bottom shakeup, much more comprehensive than
financial engineers, strategy gurus, or operations managers can
envision.” To read more, click here.
Dog
Gone (March 7, 2007)
“Getting
more craft back into our goods and services ... is our only answer to
manufactures from other nations oversupplied with laborers who receive
each month what our workers earn in a day.” To read more, click here.
In
Search of Searchlights (February 28,
2007)
“The
world of intelligence is the same as the world of media is the same as
the world of digital media.” To read more, click here.
A Few Good Buys (February 21,
2007)
“We have a
theory that you should take a look at companies that have been to hell
and back. It’s like going to the secondhand store and getting a
deal.” To read more, click here.
Prometheus
Unbound: Catching Fire Again (February 14,
2007)
“It’s
rather ironic that the true imperative of globalization is to
understand how to get increasingly local, particular, special,
one-of-a-kind, like-no-other.” To read more, click here.
UnZipping
Memories (February 7,
2007)
“Are the
atmospherics such that it’s just too hard to think straight?” To read more, click here.
High
on the Hog
(January 31, 2007)
“As near as we
can make out, good humor and celebrations seem to be enemies of the
state almost everywhere on earth: governments do a better job at
funerals.” To read more, click here.
The Cost of Things
(January 24, 2007)
“Now
the price of ‘too much’ is ‘too high.’ Perhaps the follies of
youth become the psychoses of old age. Then it was playful
excess; now it’s competitive materialism decked out in stress.” To read more, click here.
The Translator's
Alchemy (January 17, 2007)
“We
need interpretation, communication, intellectual vigor, instruction
infused with the honest spirit that pours in through stained glass
windows. Then we will hear the warning bells.” To read more, click here.
For the Love of
Learning (January 10, 2007)
“In some
measure, new forms of education are arising that diminish the very
importance of our current, plodding institutions that have lost the
ability to teach people to read and write.”
To read more, click here.
2006
LETTERS
-new-
A
Votre Sante
(December 27, 2006)
“Health
is when you are still in the driver’s seat.” To read more, click here.
The Quiet Man (December 20,
2006)
“In
statecraft, too, it is possible that solid accomplishment comes from
those who can hide their light under a bushel.” To read more, click here.
Wal-Mart
on the Rack (December 13,
2006)
“Wal-Mart has
remade the world, but now the world has to remake Wal-Mart.” To read more, click here.
Literary
Notions (December 6,
2006)
“At the moment, the ‘madness of crowds’ is in
its ascendancy, not ‘wisdom.’” To read more, click here.
The
Good Society (November 29,
2006)
“Again,
the question is whether we can stop some of the huge stuff, and migrate
to some of the right stuff.” To read more, click here.
Easy Shopping for Christmas and Other
Celebrations (November 22,
2006)
“We are going
to give you some recommendations on which you can rely, sight unseen.” To read more, click here.
The
Devil Really Is in the Details (November 15,
2006)
“Media
is about connectedness, but most of the media-ites are very disconnected.” To read more, click here.
The
Eighth Wonder of the World (November 1,
2006)
“[T]here are many mile-high towers
around waiting to be pulverized.” To read more, click here.
Washington’s
Marginalia
(October 25,
2006)
“Apple,
we think, had the shrewd thought: one wants to move around the various
establish-
ments, cherry picking an item here and an item there. No one
place has got it all.” To read more, click here.
Sticks and
Stones (October
18, 2006)
“[W]e need
patrons, not collectors of sticks and stones. Commissioners of
greatness.” To read more, click here.
Never Say Never (October 11,
2006)
“There
is quite a need to know what’s well over the horizon. And to
forget about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.” To read more, click here.
Le
Déjeuner sur l’herb (October 4, 2006)
“Now,
for our health, we have to break free of the mindless mechanism in
which we are caught that seems to have us running fast the wrong ways.” To read more, click here.
Dr.
Johnson's Stone (September 27,
2006)
“Put
bluntly, the paradox is that the best players on the globe may not
survive in a world of comparative advantage. The marketplace
works rather imperfectly.” To read more, click here.
The
Color of Money (September 20,
2006)
“When
you do things wrong, sooner or later you cease to exist.” To read more, click here.
Can
You Forgive Her? (September 13,
2006)
“It is
possible that culture can put a mark on a company’s product and
services that give it a leg up in the marketplace. Culture, in
fact, is part of our economic infrastructure.” To read more, click here.
The Big Sleep (September 6,
2006)
“[T]here’s no
education without leisure. And there’s no leisure without sleep.” To read more, click here.
Terroir (August
30, 2006)
“It’s
not enough to be a brand anymore. The product must come from a
time and place—Hawaii, Iwo Jima, Chambertin.” To read more, click here.
I Can't Believe I Ate
the Whole Thing (August 23, 2006)
“We
have advised our clientele that social messaging can be compared to
humorous advertising. Only certain types of products and services
can bear the freight of social messages.” To read more, click here.
The Power of Attention Deficit Magnified (August 16, 2006)
“It’s an
interesting thing about entrepreneurs: they sort of succeed because
they cannot stay focused and so they find time to go up alleys the rest
of us are content to ignore.” To read more,
click here.
Summer
Reading: Elegant Getaways (August 9, 2006)
“We want to
know about uncommonality.” To read more,
click here.
Rum
and the Fancy Food Show (August 2, 2006)
“Truly special
niches have to be uncovered where special craft and intimacy between
makers and users are the key drivers of individuality.” To read more, click here.
Good Morning, Heartache (July 26, 2006)
“With
our medical system so awry, we need physicians who consciously swim
upstream, fight the tendency to churn our procedures and pills, and
understand thoroughly the humanistic dimensions of their art.” To read more, click here.
Two
Women Expatriates (July 19, 2006)
“Across
the world the men in power are making a hash of things, having risen
too easily to comfortable levels of incompetence where they can muck it
up for the rest of us....” To read more, click here.
The
Torquay Phenomenon: Bureaucracy Unbounded (July 12, 2006)
“Bureaucrats
do what they do, not because it’s leading anywhere, but because it’s
what they know how to do and it’s what they have always done.” To read more, click here.
Fish
House Punch (July 5, 2006)
“We haul out
the usual array of delights for the Fourth—corn on the cob and hot
dogs, a dip in a cool stream, a timid patch of fireworks, and
remembered moments of the Tall Ships on the Hudson, the Statute of
Liberty, and the Empire State Building festooned with bright lights
during the Bicentennial back in 1976.” To
read more, click here.
Tennessee
Gone Missing (June 28, 2006)
“Tennessee
seems to have turned its back on beauty and its Volunteer tradition and
become something else, something elusive.”
To read more, click here.
Looking Backwards in Greensboro (June 14, 2006)
“If Greensboro
can get reignited, so can North Carolina....”
To read more, click here.
Tinker's Dam
and Other Errata (June 7,
2006)
“This is only
one of several examples of mucking about with the scientific process,
all brought about because the short-sighted have been promoting their
political agenda.” To read more, click here.
Lament
for Mexico: Destiny Thwarted (May 31,
2006)
“[T]he
best of Mexico is unknown amid a system that cannot be amended, but
must be totally redone.” To read more, click here.
The Real Right Stuff (May 24,
2006)
“Clearly
management understood that it’s people with heart who make things
right—not rulemakers.” To read more, click here.
What
Do They Know of Cricket Who Only Cricket Know? (May 17,
2006)
"To know one
thing, no matter how well, is not to know very much." To read more, click here.
More
Is Less (May 10,
2006)
"America’s
largest corporations are today much like the Spanish Armada—big and
unwieldy." To read more, click here.
Imus:
Almost Walking Wounded (May 3, 2006)
"We simply think
America—and all the developed countries—are growing old, reaching the
stage where one complains about things instead of doing something about
them. It gets easy to be cantankerous and churlish." To read more, click here.
UnCanny
Tom Canning (April 26,
2006)
"[Canning's] offspring are just out with a book of his
prose and poetry, sadly in a limited edition that most of the world
will not see. You would find it a far better missal for modern
life than those slim-pickins-self-help books that dot the bestseller
lists." To read more, click here.
Resurrections (April 19,
2006)
"Still
miraculous ... are the institutions and people who have come back onto
the stage, cats with nine lives." To read
more, click here.
The
Czeching Rangers (April 12,
2006)
"[I]t is no longer
certain the migrants should remain forever in their new land and that a
fluid model where people move more than once may be the best for all
concerned." To read more, click here.
Fire and Darkness (April 5,
2006)
"For every scenario, you have to
prepare for its opposite." To read more, click here.
Lost Treasures (March 29,
2006)
"There is a real
question as to where the public health establishment is helping, and
where it is hurting." To read more, click here.
Climb Another Mountain (March 22,
2006)
"Our own thought
is that high-order creativity in America is, above all, the result of
successful importation from abroad." To
read more, click here.
Our Favorite Dirty, Rotten
Scoundrels (March 15, 2006)
"There’s always
plenty of lust and avarice to go around. In politics we call it
corruption." To read more, click here.
Patria
Nostra and Genuine Fakes (March 8,
2006)
"When the
prophets of doom are crying the loudest, then we are well instructed to
give the patient another look. Recovery is probably right around
the corner." To read more, click here.
Vapor Brands (March
1, 2006)
"If you ever decide to become a seer
during times of great change, we recommend that you read the daily
papers, see what they insist is most happening, then take a look behind
the screen where you will discover that the flipside is actually true." To read more, click here.
Our Intrepid Cohorts (February
22, 2006)
"The auto industry in the West is
simply undergoing painful consolidation." To read more, click here.
Museums: Is There a Muse in the House (February
15, 2006)
"Museums can own the culture market,
because colleges, schools, theaters, and others that have traditionally
been media for dispensing culture have lost that capacity, as the
nature of the experiences there become more production-like and less
imbued with a love of learning." To read more, click here.
Boundary Jumpers (February 8,
2006)
"The world over,
financial markets are sending us signals that are causing us to put our
bucks in the wrong buckets." To read more,
click here.
Autos:
The Thrill Is Gone (February 1,
2006)
"We can have one-of-a-kind autos,
rather one of our neighbor’s kind." To read more,
click here.
Brush with Death (January 25,
2006)
"One swats the carrion-sniffing
flies aside and savors the moment." To read more, click here.
Getting out of Limbo (January 18,
2006)
"[O]ur top level
managers also are stumbling around in Limbo, not energized by a belief
in tomorrow and a devotion to greatness."
To read more, click here.
Up
the Down Staircase (January 11,
2006)
"It is still possible to be a growth
business or a growth institution. But intelligence has to triumph
over oafish greed." To read more, click here.
Domestic Bliss (January
4, 2006)
"The decline of mass audiences
embracing all the variety and all the age groups that make up America
and the rise of private homefare for many entertainments is an
earthshaking economic event for the
media-entertainment-cultural-institution industry." To read more, click here.
2005
LETTERS
In
Praise of Excess (December
28, 2005)
"It’s just
possible that creative, grand people occasionally do need boilermakers
coursing in their veins." To read more,
click here.
Why Experts
Are Wrong! (December
21, 2005)
"It’s not clear,
in other words, that experts should run the world, because, curiously,
they rule out the complex, in favor of one-way, my-way notions." To read more, click here.
In Search of Perfection (December
14, 2005)
"The creative insight and the hint
of perfection always lurks at the margins, somewhere hidden from view." To read more, click here.
Why
Not Turn Back the Clock? (December 7,
2005)
"Let’s save
something worth saving—that century of independent thinking that gave
birth to our country." To read more, click here.
Men at Work (November
30, 2005)
"If people are
to labor without pause, they need to know their work adds up to
something. But the system turns them into robots programmed to
ladle out bad porridge." To read more,
click here.
New York: Chacun A Son Gout (November
23, 2005)
"The chase for
the perfect and the elusive in Manhattan is a great deal of fun,
leavened by the knowledge that sooner or later you will find something
worth having." To read more, click here.
Just One Fish in the Big Pond (November
16, 2005)
"[W]ith the end of
the Cold War, there’s not one center, or two centers, but a host of
nodes that control our economy and our politics. If we face that
reality, then we will have a better future.."
To read more, click here.
Big Footprints (November 9,
2005)
"It’s hard to
have Big Ideas about small products and small markets, so nano-thinking
has taken over the stage and tried to come to grips with a declining
economy by offering niche products aimed at fractions of the market." To read more, click here.
Just a Crapshoot (November 2,
2005)
"In a world
that’s in utter turmoil and a world economy that’s equally roiled, the
high rollers are still out shooting a little craps."
To read more, click here.
The
Medicine Men; the Cancer Paradox (October 26,
2005)
"At the point when specialists
infected the health system in America, we started treating diseases
instead of curing people." To read more, click here.
In
Search of a Joke (October 19,
2005)
"We have long
known that art and propaganda don’t mix very well: eventually
propaganda, not art, becomes the goal, and the audience races for the
doors." To read more, click here.
Lorenzo's Oil
(October
12, 2005)
"We believe that
in a world of distributed intelligence and virtual networks value is
added by unlikely partnerships." To read
more, click here.
BioWillie
(October
5, 2005)
"Our sober
leaders tell us that so-called alternate energy sources will never
provide more than a drop in the bucket of our energy needs. It’s
fossil fuel and atomic fission/fusion or nothing, and don’t stop to
think about global warming. Or so they say."
To read more, click here.
Sportsmanship (September 28, 2005)
"Is the essence
of sportsmanship a graciousness of spirit that allows one to treat
one’s antagonists as comrades?" To read
more, click here.
Acadia
and Other Deviations off the Beaten Track (September 21, 2005)
"It is morbid to
quiver over what’s past, but it is simply exciting to hone in on the
future." To read more, click here.
Gales
of Creative Destruction? Islands of Self Reliance (September
14, 2005)
"The
trouble, lately, of course is that we have had a lot of
destruction—without the creative." To read more, click here.
Not to Worry (September
7, 2005)
"There are two types of seer in Wall
Street." To read more, click here.
The Uses of
Prayer (August 31,
2005)
"Prayer has
something to do with saving oneself. But, as well, we think it is
part and parcel of reconstructing society in the 21st century." To read more, click here.
Restoration
in August (August 24,
2005)
"Gardening, as it turns out, is very
much about worms and water, the terrestrial infrastructure which makes
all things possible." To read more, click here.
Investment Outlook:
Infrastructure (August 17,
2005)
"We are still a long ways off from
the kind of collaboration we require to move on the biggest problems of
the world. In many ways, conquering space and time is not a
technical problem, but more of a psychological or ethical problem." To read more, click here.
Anthony Converse (August 10,
2005)
"We are peopled with talented,
advantaged men and women. But they lack purpose." To read more, click here.
The Healthy
Society (August 3,
2005)
"As
near as we can tell, we are very much getting the wrong answers about
how to set health care to rights because we are asking the wrong
questions." To read more, click here.
The Collapse
of the Ivory Tower (July 27,
2005)
"Ideas, or the
lack of them, matter we think. The evaporation of principles and
conceptual structure in philosophy have gradually drained the popular
marketplace of big ideas." To read more,
click here.
On Writing
Well (July 20,
2005)
"Strategy in
these United States will revive when our people can put one word in
front of another in a way that goes somewhere."
To read more, click here.
Annual
Reports from 2004: Hubris: The Fat Cat Gets Fatter (July 13,
2005)
"Annual reports
2004 are very dour and hopelessly thick, the optimistic words
notwithstanding." To read more, click here.
And the
Earth Moved (July 6,
2005)
"Infrastructure
probably will be where the real money will be made for the next 25
years, and the wise investor will put many long-term dollars into this
sector." To read more, click here.
Heart
Surgery Coming Soon to Santa Fe (June 29, 2005)
"So what if
there is no heart doctor. You are there to enjoy yourself, not to
seek immortality or even another year of life."
To read more, click here.
Best of
Class Index (June 22, 2005)
"Best of Class now has some 365
entries, covering everything from wine to pepper mills."
To read more, click here.
Of Our
Company Index (June 15, 2005)
"We want to make you fully aware of
our Company Index." To read more, click here.
Day by Day (June 8, 2005)
"Cancer amongst friends makes us
think such thoughts." To read more, click here.
Secrets of
Old Age (June 1, 2005)
"[T]here’s
nothing much we can do about the body when we get old, but it’s
possible to recharge the mind and, with it, life itself." To read more, click here.
Canada's Shrinkwrap Comedians (May 25, 2005)
"Not for
Canadians are the bragging jokes and stories of Texas that manage to
make molehills into mountains and mortals into giants." To read more, click here.
Our Daly Bread (May 18, 2005)
"Too much focus on business is bad
for these businesses." To read more, click here.
Bumper Crop of Swiss Spaghetti (May 11, 2005)
"You don’t have
to be a churlish rightwinger to know our media’s a mess." To read more, click here.
The Price of
Tea in China (May 4, 2005)
"[B]oth tea and China are extremely
pertinent to everything that’s happening in our world, especially in
the economic sphere." To read more, click here.
Don't Step
in the Same River Twice (April 27, 2005)
"We now live in
an age of conspicuous conservatism in which, ironically enough, we are
unwinding institutions and ingrained patterns, all in the name of
recapturing some mythical past." To read more, click here.
Quantum Thinking (April 20, 2005)
"[O]ur knowledge
machinery is sclerotic. Big ideas don’t get circulated, and only
the trivial floats through our knowledge canals, stuffed as they are
with fatty substance." To read more, click here.
A Better
Vintage (April 13, 2005)
"If we are to get past the sins of
our media that worships hollow men, we must look for chaps with a
certain low key economy of style who seem to have a penchant for quality." To read more,
click here.
"My Spring
Break" (April 6, 2005)
"The City, then, is on remote
control at the moment—running well, but far from vibrant, perhaps
bloodless, suddenly faceless." To read more, click here.
Debranding (March 30, 2005)
"[T]he general debranding of
business is the greatest threat to American enterprise today." To read more,
click here.
All About Autism (March 23, 2005)
"It’s
not a lead-pipe cinch that we are looking in the right places for the
causes of the disease. [B]lind alleys have slowed progress on
autism." To read more, click here.
The
Digitally Distressed and Getting on with It (March 16, 2005)
"Stress is here
to stay, so what are you going to do with it?"
To read more, click here.
The Post-Consumptive Society (March 9, 2005)
"Our
minds, as much as our stomachs, are surf-fitted."
To read more, click here.
Laws
That Make Outlaws (March 2, 2005)
"Thoughtful
people of every political stripe know that the government is on a
financial binge, that lending practices are beyond the pale, and this
legislation is irrational providing a temporary band aid for shaky
lenders." To read more, click here.
La
Dolce Far Niente (February 23, 2005)
"Only in Italy, we think, would [a
soccer] ref be such a celebrated figure, and would running the match
correctly be judged to be an art." To read more,
click here.
It's Not
Carly's Fault (February 16, 2005)
"Transparency is not the problem;
horsesense about the way of the world is. What we require of
boards is not a makeshift adaptation to the present but a determined
push into the global future." To read more, click here.
Shameless
Hussy Becomes Road Warrior (February 9, 2005)
"Increasingly, we are
discovering that the motormouths who try to do marketing for authors,
for professionals, and for complex products bring very little to the
party." To read more, click here.
Mining the
Global Province (January
26, 2005)
"[W]e are under the
impression that about 10,000 people look at the site with some
regularity, so you are only patronizing a small boutique when you visit
with us." To read more, click here.
Doubletakes (January
19, 2005)
"Why
is it that we like to think that castles in the sky get constructed by
like-minded members of a team acting in ‘creative harmony,’ when it is
likely that earth-shattering achievements spring from an uneasy duel
between alien forces?" To read more, click here.
Wal-Low
Versus The Waterfall Hotel (January
12, 2005)
"Good
revenues and superior profits can arise from superior branded products
marketed in a very controlled retail environment with a true strategic
partner." To read more, click here.
Electric Power and Staying
Power (January 5, 2005)
"Bright ideas are simply no longer worth it unless we can
really, really make them happen." To read more,
click here.
2004
LETTERS
Being There (December
22, 2004)
"How,
we must ask, do we take ownership of where we are now and let it
possess us?" To read more, click here.
Ninety
Degrees of Uncertainty (December
15, 2004)
"The
links we find between the climate and human conduct are pathetic, both
because they speak to many terrifying truths, but also because they are
as often riddled with error." To read more,
click here.
Authentic
Conversations (December
8, 2004)
"Better
a little straight talk." To read more,
click here.
Living Treasures (December
1, 2004)
"Our new heroes are no longer kings, but only subjects who
perform their mighty exploits well out of the limelight."
To read more, click here.
Thanksgiving
Lassitude; The Art of Distraction (November
23, 2004)
"With
Thanksgiving upon us, we want to make sure you remove yourself from all
the compulsions that have you running in place and, rather, to help you
drift off to a planet where you are doing hardly anything at all." To read more, click here.
The
Toy Story (November 17, 2004)
"We
think the troubles in the toy economy accurately forecast blips or
worse in all of business." To read more,
click here.
Déjà
vu All Over Again
(November
11, 2004)
"It used to be that you could send your managers on the fast
track to France, the UK, and Japan in order to put some global polish
on their shoes. Now you need to dress them in hiking boots, send
them into the outback, and make sure they visit all the small countries
at the edges of the map." To read more, click here.
In Search of
Governing Ideas (November
3, 2004)
"We would look to Iceland, Finland, Dubai, Ireland, Singapore,
Australia, and other venues for societal models we should appropriate." To read more, click here.
Where Angels Fear to Tread (October
27, 2004)
"Right
now, health is still thought to come out of a bottle and not from the
vine. That will change." To read
more, click here.
The
Kingdom of Happiness (October
20, 2004)
"Happiness
has not had us in its grip." To read more,
click here.
Brain
Mapping and Brain Storming (October
13, 2004)
"As the epidemic of brain and neurological disorders
demonstrates, we have problems aplenty at the door, and we need to
wrestle them to the ground." To read more, click here.
New
Mexico: Asi Es Nuevo Mexico (October
6, 2004)
"What’s needed ... is a mental, not a physical, makeover,
whereupon the soul of the place is devoted more to invention than
preservation." To read more, click here.
Globe
Trotters 2004 and Reinheitsgebot 1516 (September
29, 2004)
"What,
we ask ourselves, are the dimensions of the truly global corporation?" To read more, click here.
China and the U.S.: Siamese Twins? (September
22, 2004)
"China and America have more in common than their tightly linked
economies. They are plagued by moribund infrastructures." To read more, click here.
SpiceLines (September
8, 2004)
"Once
again, no matter how global we are, we demand an essence that says a
vintage is special because it is different from anything produced
elsewhere...." To read more, click here.
Book Reports:
The Quest for Relevance (September 1, 2004)
"It’s
hard for arthritic institutions to be globally relevant." To read more, click here.
Why New
York's Food (Still) Tastes Better
(August 25, 2004)
"[O]ur distribution systems are still full of hiccups, and
neither the smarts nor the fresh goods that make for greatness have
really crept off the island of Manhattan." To read
more, click here.
The
Global View from Mount Olympus (August 18,
2004)
"The
global imperative demands a reconstitution of all our institutions to a
degree we have not attempted since the Civil War."
To read more, click here.
Sales:
Branding Again (July 29, 2004)
"It
simply does not make sense to add more static to the lives of horribly
busy people. Instead, we think, you have to put together a repast
that is so appetizing and so good looking that people just can’t stay
away." To read more, click here.
Bernard
Maybeck’s Redwood San Francisco (July
21, 2004)
"If
your town lacks for plentiful trees or verdure, then you can rest
assured that you have gotten the buildings all wrong." To read more, click here.
The
Great
Cork Controversy: You're the Tops (July
14, 2004)
"We
think there’s a clear argument that says we really need to cherish,
encourage, and nurture the top 20%, even if we do a lot of our shopping
at Wal-Mart." To read more, click here.
Demonizing
Yesterdays; In Praise of Corks (July
7, 2004)
"More
and more, in all sorts of competitions (not just athletics), the kings
and queens of sport have been thrust to the sidelines, and somebody
from out of left field is stealing the crown."
To read more, click here.
Black Swans
and Red Swans (June 23, 2004)
"The blinders are on. We miss all the meteors coming in
from outer space, pretending they are everyday events."
To read more, click here.
Irishmen Who Married Up (June 16, 2004)
"Every day we learn of yet more acts of thoughtfulness on
[Reagan's] part, which we take to be the moments that really defined
him." To read more, click here.
Designing
the Outside from the Inside (June
8, 2004)
"Our
products, just like our magazines, shopping malls, and new housing
developments, are cluttered." To read more,
click here.
About This
Site (June 2, 2004)
"Occasionally
we add new features to the website that you may not spot. Here
are a few." To read more, click here.
Webbing, Blogging,
Self-Publishing (May 19, 2004)
"We
are seeing a rebalancing of the relationship between publishers and
writers, and our modern day minstrels and soothsayers have a chance to
be heard as never before." To read more,
click here.
Tall Trees
& Sturdy Men (May 12, 2004)
"In baseball, in nature, in every aspect of the planet, there
are still giants if we will hunt them out." To
read more, click here.
Enemy of the People: Innovation (May 5, 2004)
"The best antidote for bad ideas is good ideas."
To read more, click here.
From
a Sow’s Ear To a Silk Purse (April
21, 2004)
"Trust
most in companies that can tell their stories simply in an entertaining
manner. Most others will disappear in history’s dustbin." To read more, click here.
Heart
Attacks and Aftershocks 1984-2004, Part II (April
14, 2004)
"Somehow the onus for managing managed care had shifted from
managed care to me, the patient." To read more,
click here.
Heart
Attacks and Aftershocks 1984-2004, Part I (April
7, 2004)
"Those were the halcyon days. ... There was no managed
care to speak of. Health care coverage covered health care." To read more, click here.
Malaysia,
MeansBusiness, Philip Greenspun, Vacillando (March
24, 2004)
"These days everything worth knowing or seeing seems to be five
miles from the mainstream." To read more, click here.
The
Branding of Christmas (March 17, 2004)
"Branding,
taken by some to be old-fashioned nonsense, has never been so
important. Like a good cowboy, however, you’ve got to pick up the
rules of the range." To read more, click here.
Paris the Invincible? (March 10, 2004)
"If we are what we eat, then America is a polyglot nation,
embracing many cultures rather than bending them to a government
imposed 'norm.'" To read more, click here.
Giving (February 25, 2004)
"Perhaps
we want our personal cosmic balance sheet to say we are creative
producers, not bankrupt consumers." To read
more, click here.
Mailbag and Just Plain Bagged (February 18, 2004)
"Cousin
Murray, Ernst, Gene, and Brian, who could all be called hardworking
small businessmen, probably could tell us what’s happening better than
the economists." To read more, click here.
One of a Kind (February 11, 2004)
"This
was supposed to be the era of mass customization, but it ain’t, yet." To read more, click here.
Getting Past the B-Team (January 28, 2004)
"We
must look far and wide for our cooks and our leaders, since the more
obvious choices are run of the mill types better fitted to be
impresarios at chain restaurants." To read
more, click here.
Blue Skies: A Few Predictions for
'04 (January 21, 2004)
"To
some degree, our entertainment mirrors the state of the nation, at
least in the corridors of power. Have we run out of ideas?" To read more, click here.
Looking for History and Better Bread
(January 14, 2004)
"What
market dominant companies want us to forget is that something much
better, smaller, and diffentiated actually can exist." To read more, click here.
2003
LETTERS
Celebrating Tomorrow (December 17, 2003)
"[T]he locus of growth and power of the Christian religions is
shifting to the southern hemisphere, and probably it is religion with
its charismatic appeal to its followers, rather than government, that
will most help those nations achieve economic development and a truly
national community." To read more, click here.
Adventures in the Wine Trade: Chez Noir
(December 10, 2003)
"Berlin
Walls on our state borders that prevent the free interchange of ideas
and bar better cost structures, higher quality products, or a more
perfect union do harm to us in the global marketplace." To read more, click here.
Turkey
Restoration; Green Renewal (December
3, 2003)
"Until Americans can better grasp the perils posed by a weakened
environment and see the upside of real alternatives, there’s not much
hope of slaking their thirst for SUVs, oversized homes, and
maintenance-free (read: no trees) landscapes." To
read more, click here.
The Sun Maybe Rises (November 19, 2003)
"Even if it wanted to stand still, Japan is driven to change
because the volcanic Chinese dragon is breathing such fire, making the
Japanese look lifeless. The nation’s competitive vigor depends on
its ability to remake itself politically." To read
more, click here.
Hollywood Parables; Distributed Intelligence (November 12, 2003)
"The
only economic and creative way to deal with a world of threats is to
cultivate organic systems where increasingly knowledgeable individuals
spread about the globe are each motivated to interact with others to
protect and strengthen the whole." To read
more, click here.
The
King of Spices, The Week Magazine, & Street Smarts (November 5, 2003)
"[T]he economy is
inflicting pain no amount of Excedrin from the Fed will relieve.
You can expect lots of rebound headaches."
To read more, click here.
Powerful
Eating (October 22, 2003)
"Again
and again, we have discovered that food excursions with interesting
people lead to good bites and tell us volumes about the companions who
are along for the adventure." To read more,
click here.
If It's Not
Simple, It's Not Creative (October
15, 2003)
"Opportunity lies in finding places where the flock of average
business people never bother to tread." To read
more, click here.
America's
Biggest Export: Jobs (October
8, 2003)
"We need a 180-degree turn in our
economy and politics, because our next jobs will come from rebuilding
America." To read more, click here.
Big Beliefs Make Big Men (September 24, 2003)
"We suspect executive education should convince its pupils to
find something they really want to change. "
To read more, click here.
Wayfarers
Along the Santa Fe Trail (September 17, 2003)
"Could this state free itself of the web of government ... and
the predations of restless visitors to help travelers encounter
metaphysical truths beyond those posed by the scientists at Los Alamos
and the complexity theory crowd at the Santa Fe Institute?"
To read more, click here.
Investment
Outlook: Infrastructure (September 10, 2003)
"Picking correct infrastructure investments is the biggest
challenge facing America and Americans today." To
read more, click here.
Happy in Oaxaca
(August 27, 2003)
"Perhaps magic and the artistic personality go hand in hand, but
we suspect that people who can marvel may have a greater shot at
happiness." To read more, click here.
Courtly
Congressman: Amory Houghton, Jr.
(August 20, 2003)
"[T]he restoration of our infrastructure is dependent on the
revival of centrist politics that would apparently be closer to the
will of the majority of our citizens in any event."
To read more, click here.
Rounding the World Then and Now (August
13, 2003)
"Global convergence ... is now occurring in market after market,
all about the globe. All this seems to have come to a head as we
moved into the 21st century, although we do not hear the thinks tanks
and futurists talking about it." To read more,
click here.
How to Beat Walmart, Home Depot, and Other Powerhouses;
Heard It on the Grapevine (July 23, 2003)
"21st century corporations have to do more than
create shareholder value. They must and will broadly create value
for the society of which they are a part." To read
more, click here.
Kicking the Tires (July 16, 2003)
"[T]he world is not what the experts say it is. Their
preconceptions and methodology (epistemology if you a philosopher)
always seem to confirm old truths and prejudices that they swear by,
rather than the new realities that none of us have thought about. " To read more, click here.
Unbranding Next? The Rise of the Unlikely (July 9, 2003)
"The bucks come out of the product, and, it can be said, the
product is being hollowed out." To read more,
click here.
Bloom—In Praise of Divorce (June 25,
2003)
"[A]nyone who wants to get beyond a small place must leave it,
at least in part. Any institution ties an Atlas-intellect down,
causing one to look inward, equipping one’s tongue with a limited
vernacular that does not ever reach a global audience."
To read more, click here.
You Can Make Me Wobble, But You Can't Knock Me Down (June 18, 2003)
"If there were ever a strategic paradox, this is it. Just
when service has become the critical value-added in our economy,
corporate technocrats have taken true service off the table." To read more, click here.
Headhunting: Searching for the Globally Homeless (June 11, 2003)
"We think that globally adept leaders clearly perceive the
difference between the architecture of the world that was and the world
that is becoming." To read more, click here.
Mob Wisdom: Managing the Moment in a World at Risk (May 28, 2003)
"Ordinary enterprises lack that deep connection to the locales
where they are situated. We must ask of any business, then, how
well its owners know the local geography." To read
more, click here.
Good News for a Change (May 21, 2003)
"If you can get away from the crowd, no matter what you do, you
may discover some nice things are happening that are obscured by the
calamities in the mainstream media" To read more,
click here.
Hockey from Canada; Winning with Wild Things (May 14, 2003)
"Sports and everything else now are on a global playing field
where knowledge and agility count for as much as money, where fast
change is the only constant, and where a spirited contender with a
sense of mission can topple the most powerful players on the turf by
locating their Achilles’ heels." To read more,
click here.
The Stories You're Not Seeing Or Hearing
(April 30, 2003)
"The networks and the national newspapers derive their strength
from breadth and depth, not faddish coverage of the Saddam of the
moment." To read mo |