Archives: June 2007

Tips on Giving a Speech

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 30

Public speaking seems like one of those skills you either have, or you don't. But it can be learned. Vance Van Petten, executive director of the Producers Guild of America has some bon mots I really like.

Big Pharma Makes Nice

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 28

Here's an interesting development in the battles raging between shareholders and boards of directors: Pfizer announced today that it will begin holding "a regular meeting" face-to-face between its largest shareholders...

Terry Semel: Cheapskate?

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 27

It's fascinating how often leaders bungle the small but crucial details. Think of it as the tiny-mythic paradox. Case in point is Terry Semel's recent managerial disaster at Yahoo,...

Secrets of Super Bowl winner!

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 27

How many business books can keep tapping the sports world for pithy truths about how to succeed? Now comes "Hiring Secrets of the NFL". I'm sure there's something to this, as long as we don't have to pay NFL-style salaries, but it made me laugh. Is professional football really such a rich resource for management expertise?

The Danger of Lingo and Jargon

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 26

This week's Newsweek issue, which ambitiously tries to chronicle "What You Need to Know Now," has a piece on "the most relevant lingo in business today." While the four words...

Ed Koch on Clinton, Bloomberg and why he's shy

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 26

Ed Koch attributes the negative reaction to Hillary on women who "resent the fact that she stayed with him (Bill) after he diminished her in so many ways." ... And Mayor Michael Bloomberg? "I have no doubt he will be running."

Cult of the Amateur

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 24

Andrew Keen thinks the days of Web 2.0 are numbered. And he's no fan of Google. "The problem with Google is they want to be too intimate with us. Google is not our friend. It’s the next generation advertising superpower."

Another move for Pamela Thomas-Graham?

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 21

Liz Claiborne says it's "discussing the possibility of other opportunities within the organization for Pamela Thomas-Graham" ... I'll be very curious to see where she ends up, having written a piece about her time at CNBC before she took the job.

Chats with Innovation Profs

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 19

Last week I interviewed Clayton Christensen on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of his classic book, The Innovator's Dilemma. Christensen, one of the nicest business school professors you'll ever...

Laura Bush Speaks Out

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 19

Laura Bush has an Op-Ed in today's Wall Street Journal, about human rights abuses in Burma ... CEOs, politicians and others seeking a public presence love to have their names attached to a smart opinion piece that makes them look like a thought leader. I wonder if it works. Will we now pay more attention to Burma because Laura Bush and her staff say we should? What if a nobody had written something eloquent about Burma--someone without a PhD or an important title or group to back them up?

What kind of leader is the gamer in the next cube?

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 18

My colleague Aili McConnon broke news last week on an interesting bit of research done by the folks over at Big Blue. Yes, it supports IBM's push into creating virtual...

Will Conrad Black Go Free?

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 18

Finally, the trial of former media mogul Conrad Black is winding down ... The trials of other high-living executives like former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy show that leaders can be acquitted of wrongdoing, even when people on their team declare themselves--and their boss--to be guilty. Stay tuned.

Spam calls from John Demartini

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 14

John Demartini claims to have sold out shows everywhere from South Africa to the U.S. He was featured in The Secret. So why does he have to employ spam-like techniques to get media coverage?

We keep sharing passwords

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 14

Most of us, I think, aren't dumb enough to advertise our passwords on post-it notes around the computer (though it's tempting). But how many of you have actually shared passwords with a colleague? Quite a few, it turns out.

Do You Give Good Google?

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 13

More than a year ago, BusinessWeek wrote a story about the ever-important art of giving good Google. The search engine has become the new Q ratings of the creative...

Do you communicate like a leader?

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 12

Why do so many people choose to skimp on details? Often, it stems from a leave-the-thinking-to-us mentality that makes managers dispense nuggets to staff on a need-to-know basis.

Signs of a Miserable Job

Posted by: Diane Brady on June 12

Management guru Pat Lencioni literally hopped into BusinessWeek's New York office the other day to talk about the three signs of a miserable job.

The Six Sigma-Innovation Debate

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 12

There's an interesting conversation going on over at management guru Tom Peters' blog (can anyone believe his book "In Search of Excellence" is 25 years old?) about my colleague Brian...

Women's Networks that Work

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 08

My fellow blogette Diane Brady and I wrote an article this week about corporate women's networks. For a while, Diane had been mulling a story about the fact that so...

The Post Geographic Workforce = Less Cost, Less Global Warming

Posted by: Michelle Conlin on June 06

One of the most important corporate innovations is the structure of the workplace itself. More and more, work is becoming location agnostic, place independent. Note the swarms of espresso-addled laptop...

No Pass for WellPoint's Colby

Posted by: Jena McGregor on June 04

Last week brought an odd chapter in the annals of executives behaving badly. Healthcare giant WellPoint Inc. announced last Thursday that CFO David Colby had been pushed out for unspecified...