I was reminded recently of Jamie Dimon’s comment regarding a filter he places on leaders. He looks at how willing the person is to take the blame, how they act when something goes wrong, and, most striking to me, is whether you would want one of your kids to work for that person? I…
The first part of this year will remain uncertain but as vaccinations take hold, organizations will be faced with the decision of whether, when, how, and how much to bring staff together again. It will be time for a mindset change from thinking about working remotely to when working in distributed fashion makes sense. Language…
As the balance shifts, from managing, to leading change in 2021, the gaps between companies that are nimble vs. those that succumb to inertia will become even more pronounced. In trading, the best traders and algorithms rejoice at volatility. Similarly, the design of business and organizations will remain unfrozen this year creating immense opportunities for…
Seven or eight years ago, I paid a small fee for a downloadable PDF of breathing exercises from Wim Hof, who was in process of sharing what he had learned in his journey that involved various breathing and other exercises. Off I went, hyperventilating away, and marveling at how long I could hold my breath,…
I was listening to a podcast this week where Jim Collins raised an issue that comes up time and again. “Can a founder really transition to being a company builder?” While we tend to associate Collins with iconic companies, many of the companies he works with remain led by their founders. A rough estimation of…
I want to wish all of you the best this holiday season. I’ve been considering how we, as businesses and individuals, mark the holidays this year. I think it is one where the variety of experiences needs to be recognized and considered especially by those of us that have had the good fortune to see…
During much of 2020, there have been calls to “onshore,” or “reshore” API (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient) manufacturing to the United States. Supply chain gaps in capacity, both local and global, became more apparent, something that most industry experts and the FDA knew existed on some level. It was a normal fear and security response to…
I went for my annual physical today and asked the staff at the clinic what sorts of conditions they are seeing during the pandemic and the latest surge. They responded that there is a uniform increase in fatigue, depression, metabolic disease and weight gain. It reminded me of the New York Times telling us to…
Several years ago, I was working with a company that had a global network that was driving us crazy. Similar to some of the excuses we’ve seen for companies that have had technical issues during the pandemic, we blamed external culprits for our delays and our outages: volumes were spiking, oil was especially volatile, our…
I finished this book before the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic hit, so I went back to see what Bill had to say about viruses. He starts with a quote. A virus “is a piece of bad news wrapped up in a protein.” They are the unliving; when combined with the living, viruses come…