by Mark O'Brien | Jun 4, 2015
I saw an update on LinkedIn the other day from a woman who described herself as a serial entrepreneur. I don’t know the woman. I have no earthly reason to doubt her. But her self-description caused me pangs of skepticism nevertheless. A professor of English with...
by Mark O'Brien | Jun 3, 2015
Take heart, people (or persons). We may be on the way out, but we’re not quite dead yet. How do I know? A little birdie told me. But it didn’t need to. The idea of eschewing personal relationships in favor of compiling more data, the mechanized...
by Mark O'Brien | Jun 1, 2015
The publishing of our first installment of the Mailbag generated even more cards and letters, many of which seemed preoccupied with personal brands. So, with our work cut out for us, we dive once more unto the breach. Dear Mailbag, I have a recurring dream. In it, I...
by Mark O'Brien | May 29, 2015
In a recent post, I posited the notion that disruption is the new change. As if on cue, two articles appeared in my sundry feeds almost immediately thereafter: “Big Food’s Big Problem: Consumers Don’t Trust Brands” and “The...
by Mark O'Brien | May 27, 2015
Okay. We live in a world of specialization. I got that. But who’d have imagined we’d require specialized means of cleaning microfibers? If you even have to ask that question, it’s the rough equivalent of wanting to know how much it costs to maintain...
by Mark O'Brien | May 22, 2015
One of my favorite recreational activities is to surf the web for mission statements. (I lead a very sheltered existence.) I find mission statements to be some of the most stunning examples of inexplicable gibberish imaginable. And I love to try to put myself in the...
