Monday, January 29, 2007

The era of no expectations - American business today?

I remember a time when great American businesses were populated by risk takers, big thinkers, brilliant folks, goofy folks, dumb folks, yes men, no men, and leaders - all more or less focusing on kicking their competitors' butts and helping their companies grow and succeed. Victories, small and large, were celebrated. Mistakes were fixed, mostly by, "Okay, let's try something new."

Then came the lawyers, the consultants, the accountants, the "trained" MBA corp, the focus groups, the quantitative analysis, the team approach to problem solving. And what has all this produced? Unfortunately, in many places, a mundane, vanilla, low risk/low reward type of marketplace presence characterized mostly by reactive tactics, because strategic thinkers and thinking (aka creativity) has essentially been "bred" out of many modern businesses.

My question? Can anything turn this tide or are we doomed to second class status as rising cultures do what we used to do better than we now do?

Monday, January 22, 2007

Barack Obama, Democrats' New Hope: So what did I miss?

Barack Obama - the new poster boy for the Democrats. A "shining media star" and the hope of the party. Okay, what have I missed here? Obama was raised a Muslim, by radical Muslims. He "seemingly" converted from that "religion" in proximity to his political ascension. Can someone please explain to me how today's Democrats explain their zeal for this guy?