Mirror, Mirror

by | Feb 3, 2015

In the late ’90s, I was invited to pitch the annual report business of the now-defunct Outpost.com. While there, I asked the Communications Director about the results of their recent television spot. She said, “Oh! The spot won all kinds of awards! The...
Science Friction

Science Friction

by | Feb 2, 2015

I recently read a blog post, “Lead Behaviors not Lead Scores”, by Josh Hill, and a book, Great Sky River, by Gregory Benford. The latter opened my eyes to the former. In Great Sky River, the last of humanity fights to survive on Snowglade, pursued by...
A Matter of a Letter

A Matter of a Letter

by | Jan 29, 2015

At any time, in any medium, we can find any number of articles, reports, opinion pieces, and more decrying a lack of leadership in everything from politics to industry. Au contraire. We don’t suffer from a lack of leadership: We suffer from an inability or an...
No Illusions

No Illusions

by | Jan 27, 2015

When our clients tell us about their products or services, we invariably ask two questions: (1) Is there a market for it? (2) If we hand you a check right now, can we buy it? The latter is to prevent putting carts before horses. The former is to prevent the...
Knowing Write from Wrong: Part 2

Knowing Write from Wrong: Part 2

by | Jan 23, 2015

At a large corporation for which I once worked, my boss’s boss told one of my internal clients (I love that phrase) — a gentleman who disagreed with my counsel on a matter of communication and went over my head to report his pique — to ignore me because,...
Knowing Write from Wrong: Part 1

Knowing Write from Wrong: Part 1

by | Jan 22, 2015

In the summer of 1964, my parents rented a small, red cottage on Cherry Street at Chapman Beach in Westbrook, Connecticut. Headed east along the shoreline, the next beach is Chalker Beach. The one after that is Indian Town. That matters because that same summer, my...