At the World Business Forum:  October 5, 2010

I did not know what to expect from Jim Collins, author of “From Good to Great.” Was this another business strategy that could only be read in a book or would this translate to real life and the everyday reality of business? His words were transformational. Business, says Collins is “simply a subset of human life…great human stories and great human enterprise. Great adventure, great leaders.” It is a “human quest in one way or another.”

Collins spoke about his mentor Peter Drucker, management professor...

You’ve come a long way baby. That was the message of Gail Collins, New York Times columnist and author of “When Everything Changed” at last weekend’s Omega Institute “Women & Power: Our Time To Lead” conference. Ms. Collins explained to the hundreds of women in attendance that back in 1960 women could not wear “slacks” in public. She reminds us that it was a man’s world in the most primitive sense a mere 50 years ago.

Yet the unmistakable message of the power packed...

Well, it’s that time of year again. What time you ask? The time to think of the living and the dead? No, not exactly. Rather the time to think of death as an end to an era and the rebirth of something wholly new. We reflect on how we have evolved these last nine years. As always September 11 is commemorated this week all over the city, the nation, and perhaps the world. The words “Never Forget” pop up on T-Shirts, buttons, and car bumpers. At Ground Zero, the thousands of names of those who perished in the tragedy are read. Trinity Church offers prayers for healing. At St. Francis of...

It has been a heck of a week up here in Paradise. For my usual August respite, Barack, Michelle, the kids and me all vacationed together on Martha’s Vineyard. Okay not exactly together, but only a few miles away on this small beautiful island, their hearts beat with mine. It was a sublime dream of unity.

I did see the camera crews at Sweet E’s Cupcake Shop waiting breathlessly for a glimpse of the Big O. But it was not to be, the First Fam was ordering gulf shrimp one town away. Still this week it was comforting to know that half the secret service, some of the nation’s...

How can people be convinced to significantly green their lives? To make the big changes needed to conserve natural resources and decrease energy use?

Robert B. Cialdini may have something to suggest. Cialdini' is the author of Influence and I’ve been reading his follow-up book Yes! 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive. Each of the 50 ways is given its own chapter in the easy to read...

Today's New York Times article, "Target's First Store in Manhattan Took a Decade of Wooing" describes how Target laid the groundwork to open a major new retail outlet in Harlem. According to the article, Target invested a decade in getting to know the community, its leaders and its residents, and its needs and interests. Not only has Target been financially generous in strengthening schools, cultural institutions, and local parks, but the company is also selling locally produced and designed merchandise...

I’m not the first to make the case that crowdsourced social good contests should retreat quickly into the night.

• They’re inefficient at creating change;
• Their current popularity has diminished the value they bring to companies and brands;
• Consumers are fed up with them (how many vote-for-me solicitations do you get a week that make you feel more like a brand pusher than a change agent?); and
• For the money and hoopla they involve, they should accomplish more than marketing the company and channeling money to (often unvetted and under-qualified)
...

The issue of restitution is front and center in the Gulf. How does a publicly traded corporation like BP compensate business owners and workers who suffered severe economic loss due to its negligence?

In our survival-of-the-fittest world of capitalism, the traditional response is “tough luck sucker” if you are on the losing end of the deal. In the late 20^th century model, compensation for BP’s mistakes would not even be on the table.

No one compensated Katrina victims for lost homes and businesses despite the fact that the City of New Orleans and the State of...

The handling of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe is a textbook study of how not to manage a crisis. The government seems to have ceded responsibility to BP, which seems to have acted to protect the Macondo oil field rather than the Gulf of Mexico and the Gulf Coast.
 
It seems clear that neither BP nor the government were prepared for an event like this. At a minimum, both BP and the government should have had an understanding of the potentially catastrophic ramifications of an accident and, more importantly, an ability to shut off the flow of oil – to minimize the damage - as is the case with rigs operating in the waters of the North Sea.

BP's initial public statements were clearly inaccurate. On May 14, 2010, while BP was emphasizing 5,000 barrels per day reaching the surface, NPR reported scientific analysis suggesting 70,000 barrels per day was gushing from the well. On June 15, 2010, the U. S. Government revised its estimate to 35,000 to 60,000 barrels per day. We now know that crude oil gushing from a broken well on the sea floor is like an iceberg - most is below the surface. BP and the government should have been accurate, open, and forthcoming in their statements.

BP answers to stockholders and to the governments of the jurisdictions in which it operates. The U. S. government's regulatory regime should have been stricter and more comprehensive. While BP might not be expected to go beyond what is mandated by law, it can neither be expected to regulate itself nor act in the interest of anyone but shareholders.

Where do we go from here?

The act of raising a family alone is not easy, but being a women entrepreneur with only a small coffee plot to provide for your children is downright heroic. For Peruvian female farmers in this situation, Green Awakening created Café Mujer. The company works directly with cooperatives to source organically grown coffee, which results in an increase in farmer income by at least 30% when compared with farmer sales to importers.

For three weeks this summer starting today,...

At the Global Leaders Summit last week, an octogenarian economics professor from a Southern German university asked, “But will it be enough?” He was referring to the financial reform agreement reached in Congress and passed by the House this week that President Obama calls “historic.”

There have been quite a few references to history lately by self-congratulating politicians. Is the exemption stuffed financial reform bill of 2010 really a history-making event comparable to Great Depression reforms? As the seasoned professor asked, will it be enough to rein in an out-of-...

Who knew until just a few weeks ago that Big Oil had a contract with God? BP, the self-proclaimed poster child for corporate social responsibility, got their right to dig one mile below the surface of the sea direct from above.

Yup, that is just the way it is. Nothing any of us can do about it. Because if God gave them the right to drill baby drill, who are we mere mortals to question their authority? 

How else would the American government, the international maritime agencies, and oil industry regulators have allowed this one profit-driven company...