How to Listen Better

Friday evening, on JetBlue flight #1696 from Orlando to Boston, we had a bit of a problem. About an hour outside of Boston, the pilot got on the intercom and told us that the main braking system was not working.  Although the back-up system would probably work just fine, they were preparing us for the […]

Getting A Good Seat on a Plane

Being a frequent traveler, I am always looking for creative ways to get the best seat on a plane. Because of the extra leg room, the obvious selections are the exit rows.  That is, IF your seat reclines.  If there are two exit rows next to each other (e.g., rows 10 and 11), the first […]

Déjà vu All Over Again

Here’s an excerpt from a magazine I have.  The title is: A Gloomy Feeling Wall Street was baffled. The market’s 18-month slide had brutally bent the Dow-Jones graph, ending with one of the worst one-day drops. The dollar loss on paper was actually three times greater than that of the ’29 crash. The market’s prolonged drop […]

Remembering Paul Newman

Although I did not know Paul Newman personally, I always admired him.  He was an Academy Award winning actor (I remember being enthralled by “The Sting” as a kid), a championship race car driver, a successful food business man (I love Newman’s Own dressings and salsas) and a philanthropist. He achieved so much and impacted so many lives. […]

Remembering Dr. Michael Hammer

I just learned a few minutes ago that Dr. Michael Hammer, the father of business reengineering and author of the best-seller, “Reengineering the Corporation,” passed away last week at the age of 60. I worked closely with Dr. Hammer in the mid-1990 when I worked at Andersen Consulting (now Accenture).  Dr. Hammer and his (then) side-kick, […]

Commemorating September 11th

My friend, Shari Harley, wrote a beautiful article commemorating September 11th.  For her it is very personal since she worked in the Twin Towers at that time, but was not in the office that day. She asks some very thought provoking questions: How is the world different because I lived on September 11th when others […]

Innovation Cafe

In today’s Wall Street Journal, there is a good article about South Bend, Indiana-based Memorial Hospital’s Innovation Cafe.  The article starts off… Hungry visitors to Memorial Hospital here sometimes cross the street to its Innovation Café, lured by the outdoor patio with white metal tables and chairs. Inside, however, all they find is fake food […]

Freedom in Bangkok

I am here in Bangkok and loving it. The people are so nice. The food is great. And the massages (legit ones!) are cheap. I check email once, maybe twice a day. And I only respond to the urgent ones (like requests from TV stations and magazines here in Bangkok who want to interview me). […]

The 30 Day Challenge

How are you doing with the 30 day challenge?  For me, the first few days were tough.  What made it even more difficult was that my hotel does not have internet access in the rooms.  So whenever I want to access email, I need to go to the hotel lobby.  I’m on day 4, and […]

CrackBerry Addiction

It has been nearly 24 hours without my BlackBerry.  It’s funny.  When dieting, all you can think about is food.  When your BlackBerry is stolen, all you can think about is your Blackberry.  How much time do we waste as individuals – and organizations – thinking about, and playing with our toys? I just read […]