"I promised myself," he said, "to never live that nightmare again." These were the words of CEO Patrick Kron, of Alstom Inc. in France.You can just feel the blood of his feelings.He declared this sentence after convincing his board of directors to accept the effort of General Electric to buy part of Alstom.Back about ten years ago, Kron had the displeasure of being involved in the debacle of … [Read more...]

Today I presented at a working lunch. Though I didn't state it as such, the topic was leadership and diversity. A dime a dozen, I know--these talks about leadership and diversity are everywhere, reducing their value to nearly zero. But let me tell you about this. It was different.My historical topic was Theodore Roosevelt's exploration of the River of Doubt in 1913-1914. On this trip, … [Read more...]

I'm preparing for an upcoming client session featuring Lewis and Clark's expedition of 1803-1806. I'll be writing more about this in the next few weeks. Here is my first thought as I customize the presentation.Lewis and Clark had a goal, or a handful of goals, for their journey. President Thomas Jefferson wrote them out in the form of instructions. But as the journey unfolded, some … [Read more...]