Does anyone remember the 1980’s ad: “Is it real, or is it Memorex?” The ad challenged TV viewers to distinguish between the announcer and a videotape of the announcer using 3M’s Memorex brand of videotape. (Perhaps I should have first asked if you remember “videotape”!) The ad has bee

There’s been a lot of talk about “authenticity;” we want authentic products, authentic experiences, and authentic leaders.  We seek originality; we desire products and services, as well as leaders and organizations that are what they claim to be.  Most of the attention has been focuse

Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO, made news recently by publicly acknowledging his sexual preference; hats off to Mr. Cook and others like him who exercise that kind of courage.  I’ve been thinking that there are other ways of “coming out” as well, and am hopeful that Mr. Cook’s actions serve to

On October 22, 1707, four ships and at least 1,400 seamen of Her Majesty’s fleet were lost off the Isles of Scilly near England; the primary cause was miscalculation of longitude. On the night of April 14, 1912, the “unsinkable” luxury liner Titanic sank with a loss of more than 1,500

Most of you have witnessed (and perhaps been victims of) disappointing or even disastrous organizational change efforts. A 2010 IBM comprehensive global study of organizational change initiatives revealed that 60% of them fail; JCP (the retailer formerly known as J.C. Penney) is the l

Yes, I really do mean values proposition, not value proposition. We’re accustomed to thinking of an organization’s or business value proposition – the degree that it meets the needs, wants and requirements of target markets and customers. We pay less attention to how the values of an

Is anyone getting tired hearing about “innovation?” A recent WSJ article (“You Call That Innovation?” – May 23, WSJ Marketplace) suggested that might be the case.  Among other signs, it referenced how a search of Securities and Exchange filings yielded 33,528 mentions of “innovation”

My wife and I recently had the pleasure of visiting our daughter Alison in China, where she has been living and working for eight months.  There is enough about that adventure to fill a few volumes – most of it very positive.  One interesting experience involved our visit to an “authe