Category: Change Management

Change Management, Culture Optimization

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My Thoughts on Susan L Wagner of BlackRock Joining Apple’s Board

ds14-0411wagners82-300pxApple appointed Susan L Wagner to their board of directors yesterday and people have been contacting me to ask if that is the same BlackRock I once worked at in the 1990’s. The answer is yes! Here is the announcement:

CUPERTINO, California—July 17, 2014—Apple® today announced that Susan L. Wagner, founding partner and director of BlackRock, has been elected to Apple’s board of directors. Bill Campbell, the board’s longest-serving member, is retiring after 17 years of service.
Wagner co-founded BlackRock in 1988 and helped it become one of the world’s most successful asset-management companies, holding a range of leadership positions including vice chairman until mid-2012. She continues to serve on the boards of BlackRock and DSP BlackRock (India), as well as Swiss Re, Wellesley College and Hackley School.
“Sue is a pioneer in the financial industry and we are excited to welcome her to Apple’s board of directors,” said Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO. “We believe her strong experience, especially in M&A and building a global business across both developed and emerging markets, will be extremely valuable as Apple continues to grow around the world.”
“We conducted an exhaustive search for someone who would further strengthen our board’s breadth of talent and background, and we are delighted to have identified such an outstanding individual,” said Art Levinson, Apple’s chairman. “I’m confident that Sue is going to make an important and positive impact on our company.”

I’m thrilled about this because one of the biggest frustrations of my adult life has been that most people do not fully appreciate the unique transformational leadership abilities that myself and others possess due to our experiences at early BlackRock. I hope that her joining this board forces people to look at and understand the history of BlackRock and that it unleashes a torrent of demand for the early employees who know how to make this rare type of business operations, risk management and business model transformation a reality. The story of what made BlackRock BlackRock during those early days is not well understood. Worse, it is not being transferred to other industries places where it could do good in the world.  This needs to change for the world of business to prosper and migrate in the 21st century.

This insane ignorance of our society about BlackRock was well demonstrated in this article comment about her appointment to the board:

SoAnyway

14 hours ago at 02:20 pm

She’s from an investment company but how well does she know tech?

Rating: 3 Votes

UGH!!!! That drives me insane as BlackRock redefined an industry business model leveraging technology 20 years ago in a way that some companies still can’t even dream of today – because they don’t have a culture that empowered people to do things focusing on operational outcomes first. While the technology played a large role, it was about vision, leadership and a culture of trust, fun and empowering people to do the right thing. BlackRock, like Bloomberg, until the past few years was primarily a B2B story – consumer companies with no business model and no revenue get hundreds of times more media coverage in this environment and that is a shame because society is frequently focused on the wrong role models for mentors in business.

Though I didn’t interact with Sue nearly as frequently as Rob Kapito and Larry Fink, I did enough to understand that Sue possesses highly unique abilities and attributes:
– Sue is a a deal maker and unlike the majority of the M&A community, her analysis was much more than purely financial. When BlackRock bought a company it was not kept a silo, it was assimilated  into other BlackRock processes immediately. While most people that didn’t experience it will likely not appreciate the comment fully, this is what made BlackRock, BlackRock in its hypergrowth phase. Apple needs this ability as it acquires various assets.

– In a company where  everyone used a Sun workstation at the time, I vividly recall her insistence on using a Mac..back in 1995.  Rest assured Apple nation, you have acquired one of your greatest evangelists that you didn’t even know you had.

– If someone asked me what  I admired most about her, it would be that she led through quiet, deliberate actions that led to big events occurring.

Other things Apple left off the list are Susan’s operational insights. Apple has had some software missteps in the recent past…I was recently talking to some of my engineering friends that are heavy Apple users and I was saying wouldn’t it be amazing if we could talk to CEO Tim Cook and advise him on how to alter certain processes to increase the integrity of software releases, risk processes and integration using the techniques I used at BlackRock. Maybe someday now due to this event that might become a reality. 🙂

One article also suggested that this might just be a female diversity appointment, I take offense to that as Sue is qualified for this role regardless of her gender based on my knowledge of her. Good luck Sue! Make all of us ex-BlackRocker’s proud with your service on Apple’s board.

P.S. To BlackRock – Why don’t we have a designated alumni community yet? There are so many amazing people  that shared an amazing experience and we should all be collaborating to create future BlackRock’s.

photo credit: http://www.wellesley.edu/news/2014/4/node/43266

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Interview of Daniel Isenberg on the Potential To Launch Contrarian Business Ideas Successfully and His Top Entrepreneurship Book

Isenberg11143_300dpi (1)

Daniel Isenberg has likely written one of the most important books on entrepreneurship I’ve ever seen. It is not about pitch decks or pitching venture capitalists for funding. The book entitled, Worthless, Impossible and Stupid: How Contrarian Entrepreneurs Create and Capture Extraordinary Value, actually discusses something far more important, the stories of people who had contrarian ideas that most people thought would never work.

I really loved reading this book! Anyone would actually as it has rich, fresh, and obscure stories. The kind and wonderful folks at Harvard Business Review Press were kind enough to arrange an interview with Daniel Isenberg about the book. The capital letters are how he returned it and I present that as the interviewee answered exactly.

Do entrepreneurs have to be young or have an engineering degree?

Daniel Isenberg : OF COURSE NOT. NOT ONLY IS THIS EMPIRICALLY THE CASE, IT SHOWS THAT WE HAVE DEVELOPED VERY NARROW, AND I THINK UNHELPFUL STEREOTYPES OF ENTREPRENEURS. I HAVE ENGAGED WITH HUNDREDS OF ENTREPRENEURS IN MY 30 YEARS AS ENTREPRENEUR, VC, ANGEL, AND EDUCATOR AT HARVARD AND ELSEWHERE, AND IN DOZENS OF COUNTRIES. LET’S TAKE ISRAEL JUST AS ONE EXAMPLE: IT IS RIGHTLY FAMOUS FOR ITS HIGH TECH ENTREPRENEURSHIP. BUT SOME OF THE MOST SUCCESSFUL AND VALUABLE ENTREPRENEURIAL VENTURES THERE INCLUDE SODA STREAM (HOME CARBONATION SYSTEMS), TEVA (WORLD LEADER IN GENERIC DRUGS), AND ISCAR (WORL LEADING CUTTING TOOLS MAKER, ACQUIRED BY BUFFETT). THESE ARE FAR FROM OUR STEREOTYPICAL AMAZONS APPLES AND GOOGLES, EVEN THOUGH ISRAEL HAS THOSE AS WELL. SODA STREAM WAS SAVED FROM THE VERGE OF BANKRUPTCY AFTER THIRTY YEARS IN THE MARKET, AND WAS RAPIDLY EXPANDED INTO A $1 BILLION NASDAQ COMPANY. REPURPOSING OF EXISTING UNDERVALUED (“WORTHLESS”) ASSETS BY EXPERIENCED EXEUCTIVES IS AS LEGITMATE A PATH TO entrepreneurial EXTRAORDINARY VALUE CREATION AS STARTING A HIGH TECH COMPANY FROM SCRATCH.

Dan Isenberg for dating sit

Entrepreneurs don’t have to have an amazing new idea in an area of deep expertise?

Daniel Isenberg : THAT SURPRISED ME – WHEN I STEPPED BACK AND LOOKED AT THE DOZENS OF CASES I HAD WRITTEN, I SAW THAT NOT JUST ONE OR TWO STARTED WITHOUT EXPERTISE, BUT A LARGE NUMBER. WE SHOULD NOT MISINTERPRET THAT AS ADVOCATING IGNORANCE, BUT THAT EXPERTISE IS NOT A PREREQUISITE. OF COURSE, PRETTY SOON THE ENTREPRENEUR BETTER LEARN ALL THERE IS TO KNOW.

Almost all of the entrepreneurs in your book were not technical founders. I found that to be amazingly refreshing and more representative of reality. Why do you think our society choses to hyper-focus on a small subset of technology entrepreneurs and how can we change that dynamic?

Daniel Isenberg I WROTE WORTHLESS IMPOSSIBLE AND STUPID IN ORDER TO INFLUENCE THE ENTREPRENEURSHIP DIALOG, BROADEN IT, MAKE IT MORE REAL-LIFE. THE MEDIA ARE NATURALLY MORE ATTRACTED TO THE MORE SNAZZY AND VISIBLE EXAMPLES. (LET ME REMIND EVERYONE, THOUGH, THAT THE IPHONE IS NOT ENTREPRENEURSHIP BUT VERY SUCCESSFUL INCREMENTAL INNOVATION BY A LARGE ESTABLISHED CORPORATION.) I INVITE THE LEADING ENTREPRENEURIAL SUPPORT FOUNDATIONS TO HELP BROADEN THE DIALOG AS WELL BEYONE SOCIAL MEDIA, IT, YOUTH AND STARTUPS. IT WILL HELP US ALL TO DO SO.

So if everyone says an entrepreneurial idea is great, you state that you should likely run? Please explain.

Daniel Isenberg: IF YOU HEAR THAT A BUSINESS IDEA IS GREAT, YOU CAN ASSUME THAT (IN MOST CASES) DOZENS IF NOT HUNDREDS OF PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD HAVE THE SAME OR A BETTER IDEA. EXTRAORDINARY VALUE IS CREATED BY IGNORNING MARKET DEMAND IN MANY CASES, ANTICIPATING IT, OR EVEN CREATING IT. THAT IS ONE OF THE FALLACIES OF EQUITY CROWDFUNDING: IF EVERYONE RUSHES TO INVEST IN SOMETHING, THEN IT IS LIKELY NOT A GOOD INVESTMENT. NOT DEFINITELY, BUT AS LIKELY AS NOT.

In one of the best sentences of the book you stated, “It is the job of the entrepreneur to sniff out and realize opportunity that is overlooked, undervalued, or even berated by others.” That is powerful stuff. How did you develop that definition over the years?

Daniel Isenberg : FROM DEEP IMMERSION IN THE FIELD. ANYONE WHO IS INVESTING IN OR EVEN STUDYING ENTREPRENEURS WITH HIS OR HER EYES WIDE OPEN, CANNOT HELP BUT LEARN OVER TIME THAT THE GREAT STUFF, THE GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS, ARE IN THE SURPRISES. ENTREPRENEURSHIP ALMOST ALWAYS SURPRISES THE MARKET. THAT MEANS THAT THE MARKET EXPECTS SOMETHING ELSE. I HAVE BEEN IN THE FIELD FOR OVER 30 YEARS NOW, AND I HAVE BEEN WRONG SO MANY TIMES IN BOTH DIRECTIONS. IT IS SOBERING. AS MARC ANDREESEN SAID A FEW MONTHS AGO,” It’s in the nature of venture capital and start-up investing that there are always stupid investments. The problem is that you never know which ones are which. I get these things as wrong as anybody else.”

IT HAS GIVEN ME A LOT OF FOOD FOR THOUGHT TO REALIZE THAT THE BEST OF THE BEST GET IT WRONG A LOT OF THE TIME. THAT SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT ENTREPRENEURSHIP ITSELF. AS SCHUMPETER WROTE, THERE IS SOMETHING INTRINSICALLY UNPREDICTABLE ABOUT ECONOMC GROWTH – HE WAS ALSO REFERRING TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP.

How should an entrepreneur that has an idea that they know to be valid and they are berated by society overcome that negativity? Who and in what order do they need to convince people beyond themselves?

Daniel Isenberg : THERE IS NO RECIPE FOR THIS. IF THERE WERE, IT WOULD BE PRICELESS. I THINK CONTINUALLY BLENDING FORWARD MOTION WITH BACKWARD REFLECTION. YOU HAVE TO MIX THE WATER OF INCREDIBLE OPTIMISM AND THE ABILITY TO ENVISION THE INVISIBLE, WITH THE OIL OF HARD HEADED, PASSIONLESS OBJECTIVITY. AND COMBINE THAT WITH AMAZING SELLING SKILLS – I HAVE SEEN EXCELLENT SALES PEOPLE IN ACTION, AND THEY CAN MAKE MARKETS HAPPEN THROUGH SKILL. IN MANY CASES, THERE IS A THIN LINE BETWEEN GREAT SUCCESS AT SELLING A PRODUCT, AND ABJECT FAILURE, AND IT OFTEN HAS LITTLE TO DO WITH THE PRODUCT OR SERVICE ITSELF.

In your view, what are the differences between an entrepreneurship launching a product versus a service?

Daniel Isenberg : I DON’T THINK THERE ARE GENERIC DIFFERENCES. THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PRODUCT AND SERVICE COMPANIES ARE BLURRED IN ANY EVENT: DOES LEXUS SELL AN AMAZING CAR, OR AMAZING SERVICE? I BOUGHT MY LEXUS BECAUSE OF THE AMAZING SERVICE.

How should David go up against Goliath with tens of thousands of employees in a service situation have a chance of succeeding?

Daniel Isenberg: IT IS NOT ALWAYS JUST GOING AGAINST GOLIATH, ALTHOUGH THAT IS CERTAINLY POSSILE AND HAPPENS A LOT. STUDIO MODERNA BUILT A SERVICE COMPANY IN EASTERN EUROPE IN THE FACE OF THE INABILITY HUGE COMPETITORS WITH EXPERIENCE AND MONEY TO DO THE SAME, AND THEY DERIDED HIM ALONG THE WAY. WHO’S SMILING NOW?

BUT THERE ARE ALSO SMART PARTNERING STRATEGIES. IT WOULD HAVE BEEN INTERESTING FOR DAVID TO HAVE CONSIDERED A STRATEGIC ALLIANCE.

One of my favorite stories in the book is Sea To Table. In the 1800’s, the refrigerated boxcar eventually changed the meat slaughter and delivery process. Why do you think it took almost 150 years for someone else to do something similar with fish?

Daniel Isenberg : I DON’T KNOW THE ANSWER TO THAT. IN RETROSPECT, MOST SUCCESSFUL THINGS APPEAR MUCH MORE DOABLE AND OBVIOUS THAN IN PROSPECT. BUT CERTAINLY MODERN INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS GREATLY FACILITATED SEA2TABLE INVENTING A COMPLETELY NEW MARKET.

I regularly attend the Joe Levy Group entrepreneurial meetings, I’m amazed by the patterns one sees in founders that are not successful and the ones that make it. What patterns have you seen and how can those patterns be reverse engineered into practical advice?

Daniel Isenberg : IF I KNEW THE ANSWER TO THAT, I WOULD INVEST IN ALL THE FUTURE SUCCESSES AND AVOID THE FUTURE FAILURES! WE HAVE TO BE A LITTLE CAREFUL OF HINDSIGHT BIAS AND RESPECT MARC ANDRESSESEN AND OTHERS’ WORDS THAT EVEN THE BEST DO ‘STUPID’ THINGS. OF COURSE, WITH EXPERIENCE, INVESTORS AND ENTREPRENEURS MAKE “BETTER AND BETTER” MISTAKES, SO THAT YOU MAKE MISTAKES WHILE YOU ARE SUCCEEDING, NOT WHILE YOU ARE FAILING.

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Most Interesting Things I Saw at Internet Retailer Conference & Expo 2013 (IRCE2013)

IRCE 2013 again had a jammed packed expo hall full of the best vendors in ecommerce.

One of the first companies I encountered was Riskified. Riskified was one of the most unique new offerings that improves customer experience and business performance while reducing merchant risk that I saw at IRCE2013. Eido Gal is passionate about his organization – “Riskified reviews, approves & guarantees transactions you would otherwise decline”

Jai Rawat was one of the most visible people at #IRCE2013 this year – he reached out to me prior to the show, he was at every evening event I attended and I had the pleasure of watching him address several prospect question sessions. Jai has amazing energy and is an outstanding founder who puts the business issues up front. A rare breed. Look forward to learning more about their offerings – “ShopSocially embeds rich social experiences on websites to improve discovery, conversion, engagement and brand amplification.”

There were a few other early phase organizations that I liked that did not want to do an interview because their value propositions were still under development.

The Singapore Post is delivering significant ecommerce services of all types and is a profitable organization. The conversations I had with these folks were fascinating as they told me about innovations unimaginable in the USA. I hope to visit their facility someday in the future to fully document their unique story.

In terms of companies that are household names doing cool new stuff:
FedEx – Fed Ed has a new service called Fedex Delivery Manager that allows you to control your packages destiny and special delivery instructions. I really like this concept as I’ve always felt the consumer was the true customer of delivery services.

I also loved the the vibe I saw at Digital River and Netsuite booths, both companies have knowledgeable people seeking to do the right thing for their customers. Many other great conversations were had, but these stand out.

What did you see and like at IRCE2013?

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Ted Matthews Interview : The Real Meaning of ‘Brand’ is Outstanding Culture

Ted Matthews - Culture

At the back of John Warrillow’s Built to Sell, I saw a book mentioned as a must read. That book is Brand : It ain’t the logo*. The asterisk stands for “It’s what people think of you.”

This perspective matches and aligns with my own views quite closely. After a short chat with Ted Matthews via email, a copy of the book arrived and I was reading away.

Why is branding not a creative logo? What is it really?

Branding is the managed care and nurturing of the culture of an organization- building a brand must start, take hold, connect first on the inside, with internal stakeholders- employees and partners and then through osmosis it connects to external stakeholders- customers and critically important future employees.

The logo leads in the visual identity of an organization- important because humans are very visual beings, as Malcolm Gladwell popularized, we recognize images in a ‘blink’ vs recognizing spoken or typeset names. And in this hyper-messaging world nanosecond recognition is the Brander’s key objective.

What are the three primary tools of branding? Why are these overlooked?

Everybody who comes out of business school, knows there are strictly followed tools and rules for the financial discipline- the value protector – managed by the ‘important’ financial department. While there have never been tools or rules, or never a department, for managing the culture/brand discipline- the greatest value creator! There are now…
Tool #1 Be remark-able; have a product or service so good, so unique that people talk about it, publicizing and recommending for you. Jeff Bezos has said “Advertising is the penalty you pay for having an unremarkable product.” Honda has a new feature in their van for the young families who still buy vans- a vacuum for all the crumbs and crushed Cheerios! There, I’ve ‘remarked’ for Honda, no advertising required.
Tool #2 Own a position; a Brand must have a unique and ownable point of difference. If you are not different then you are the same, and same dies away. Volvo owns ‘safety’. Staples owns ‘easy’.
Tool #3 Build you Brand with experiences; Surround your offering with positive experiences, people never forget how you make them feel! AltlasCare, a home heating and air conditioning provider, trains their service people on every detail of experience- like where to stand and how to address people at their front door.

So if it is true that culture is the brand, why do so many companies give this so little attention while giving so much attention to creative services?

Hey, the creative part is fun, involves new ideas, working with crazy fun people, maybe a bit of Hollywood- shooting commercials, seeing your ‘creativity’ on TV. But as for culture, it’s the behind-the-scenes stuff, relationship-stuff, stuff never taught in business schools.
Founding entrepreneurs create culture instinctively- usually around their own personalities, character and their vision for something better. But as organizations grow, they outgrow their founder’s skill set or interest. BlackBerry is an example, two guys change the way the whole world communicates and then loose interest, ‘cause it’s (vision) done- they had moved onto other things that now challenge them.
This is when firms get turned over to professional managers who know how to run businesses at scale BUT, this gets back to our systemic problem, these biz grads never learned about culture nurturing or anything about brand beyond- it’s marketing’s function. Full stop!

You state that if the culture is right, everything falls into place. How should corporations deal with the fact that most of them do not have the culture right and likely not even be able to know it?

Every organization needs a surrogate for the entrepreneur. First, in this broader definition of brand- what people think of you – the CEO needs to assume the role of CBO- chief brand officer. They need to capture their guiding principles in a brand foundation- the carved-in-stone, 7-commandments that guide the organization in everything they say and do. Their core purpose- why they exist, their vision- where they are going and how they will know when they arrive. The mission- what they have to do consistently EVERY day to get there. Their values- who they are as people, their principles. Their position- as I said, how they are different. And their character- their image, their voice. Then the CBO needs to relentlessly remind people of these guiding principles and that everyone has a role in building their brand- consistency is the #1 rule of branding.

You mention an interesting quote at the start of the chapter on “Evolution, not Revolution” by Charles Kettering: “We have a lot of people revolutionizing the world because they’ve never had to present a working model.” Please discuss what that quote means to you.

Kettering was an interesting guy- inventor, businessman, a serial entrepreneur with over 180 patents. In the mid 1800’s he invented the electric starter for gas engines- started Delco- part of GM today.
For me, his quote is about all the people who think innovation and change are easy. While discounting the contribution of our ‘wacky’ entrepreneurs, impatient investors push and merge organizations destroying what made them successful in the first place- my own 30-year, 80-person firm, was deconstructed in 28 months after a merger- another unmanaged clash of cultures. Change must happen, but it must evolve, retaining the brand equity- what an organization is known for. Look, in the news recently- J C Penny is now apologizing for the rush to change by their last board appointed CEO. GAP stirred up a hornet’s nest among their stakeholders with a wholesale identity change that was also reversed. A company does not ‘own’ its brand, it’s owned by the stakeholders who love it.

What events typically precede an organization being ready for change in their culture and why is this so hard to recognize?

It becomes increasingly difficult to retain the best people and impossible to attract new stars.
This flesh-eating disease is hard to recognize, because it sneaks up slowly and is only diagnosed and reported by an under-respected department in North American organizations – HR.
And this is the root of the most critical issue of our day.
Fouled by our leaders’ misunderstanding of brand, their default positioning is ‘cheap’. Then, to ‘sell-for-cheap’ we have given away our former well-paying production jobs to Asia and now, to employ our neighbors so they CAN buy from us, we need to invent all new jobs and do it with a dwindling workforce. 70 million boomers readying to retire, only 30 million young people (not all of them stars) available to replace them.
This startling truth has been disguised by the years of recession- firms watching costs so not hiring, boomers hanging on to jobs in fear their investments won’t support them, young folks (therefore), not seeing the openings and at the same time being a generation that wants a job with meaning, a job with a organization with a core purpose.

It is time for America (and the world) to understand brand, to understand it’s a compelling culture they need.

Again that book is Brand : It ain’t the logo*. The asterisk stands for “It’s what people think of you.”

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When the Best Infographics Are No Infographic at All?

I’m continually amazed by the number of people who skip text and bypass words and text altogether. I came across an amazing inadvertent and automated example on the National Weather Service Chicago website regarding this Sunday’s weather forecast.

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As you can see the graphical representation says Sunday will have freezing rain and it will be 43 degrees. Say what? Then it says on Sunday night it there will be rain and the low will be 33 degrees. Huh? This make no sense. For my metric friends, zero Centigrade equals 32 degrees Fahrenheit so it appears that freezing rain will occur while it is above freezing, a highly unlikely occurrence.

The actual text of the forecast is as follows:

  • Saturday Night   Partly cloudy, with a low around 28. South southeast wind around 10 mph.
  • Sunday  A chance of rain or freezing rain before noon, then rain showers. High near 44. Chance of precipitation is 80%.
  • Sunday Night    A 50 percent chance of rain. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 35.

With complete text information we can now see that the temperature will be below freezing on Saturday night and that there is a possibility of freezing rain Sunday morning.

But remember this simple example the next time you are watching a mind-numbing Powerpoint presentation on some esoteric subject.  Ask yourself, does this make complete sense? Is proper acumen and judgment being applied?

Frequently it is not. But if human judgment is not actively present and questioning the presentation of certain graphics, they can lead to misapplication of resources and priorities.

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Bestselling Author John Mackey – Conscious Capitalism 2013 Book Tour Chicago Stop

conscious capitalism jacketJohn Mackey came to Chicago Wednesday and gave a powerful , paradign-shifting soul-awakening speech about his new book Conscious Capitalism to the Economic Club of Chicago. The event was led by John A Canning Jr., Chairman of Madison Dearborn Partners. Question and answers were moderated by Mary Ann Childers. Later, I attended a second event with him at Chicago’s Lincoln Park Whole Foods Market location.

John Mackey is a wickedly smart and passionate businessman who has created a flexible organizational structure at Whole Foods Market designed to create great connection with the customer. It is very much like the business philosophy I was raised on at BlackRock. It needs to be more common place in our society.

As I’ve stated previously, proper business acumen needs to become a mainstream, highly discussed issue in our society. Sadly, the people that need to read this book the most are the ones most likely to never see it. It is time for a global renaissance in business practices around the world. For that to ever have a chance of occurring, these issues need to migrate from business to mainstream.

I did manage to get a few minutes with John Mackey as you can see in the Youtube video below. He was in a rush so I turned a six minute interview into three minutes and my one of my on the fly question mashups got a little overwhelming regarding the nature of business and media change. I would have liked to have also asked about the Board of Directors stakeholder issues at Whole Foods. Looking forward to getting that the next time I get to interact with him or Raj Sisodia someday.

The book, co-authored by Raj Sisodia whom I need to learn more about, tells the story of the founding of Whole Foods, the amazing and unlikely comeback from a devastating flood in 1981, the unique relationship it creates with stakeholders and the ability to educate business leaders and others about these principles.

By reading the book and seeing two speeches by John Mackey yesterday, I also learned surprising facts:

– Reading books played a large role in creating John Mackey’s education. He never took a business class while he attended college but has read voraciously over his lifetime.

– John gets that marketing is not a logo like I do. On page 80 he says, “At Whole Foods, we think of marketing as enhancing the quality of our relationship with our customers.” Every company should view it this way.

– Paying vendors on time is critical to success of the ecosystem. He discusses how big companies tend to be the worst offenders here. You’d think that with today’s cash excesses on balance sheets that they’d change this.

– After witnessing John Mackey make two speeches, I can state that Whole Foods appears to be a unique learning organization. There is decentralized and delegated authority at the regional and individual store level to make investments, acquire local products and interact with the local communities as the stores deem appropriate.

– Later in the book, he discusses measurement and the need for change there. I’ll leave you to discover that in detail on your own as you read Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business.

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My Jim Bohannon Radio Show Appearance & Discovering the Hurricane Severity Index

On Friday evening I was a guest on The Jim Bohannon Show to discuss my blog post Will Hurricane Sandy (1-175-485) Again Demonstrate Need to Enhance Saffir-Simpson Scale? It was such a pleasure to be on his show, he’s a true professional. You can find a link to the archived recording here.

During the interview he mentioned Hurricane Carla and the news coverage of the event. My friends at Mediabistro have a video which captures the historic nature of the news coverage of the event:

Interestingly, part of that story was the size of storm. On the Hurricane Carla Wikipedia page, I saw reference to something called the Hurricane Severity Index. I had never seen or heard of it before. Chris Herbert and Bill Weinzapfel, meteorologists at Impactweather developed this scale, explained in this link, which explains their scale.

It is fascinating to me that while different in implementation, the core ideas of our belief are almost identical – hurricane size is equally important as Saffir-Simpson scale intensity. It appears that ImpactWeather provides this privately to corporations who pay for their advice. It appears to be a situation where the private sector provided a solution that is superior to the government solution and the question that remains now is when will the National Hurricane Center adopt either my idea or license ImpactWeather’s solution.

I’m going to contact ImpactWeather as there are many correlations between my current work on improving business operations and their clients, perhaps there are some synergies to explore.

It’s amazing the breakthroughs that occur when different generations communicate with each other!