To know me is to love...fantasy basketball.
I would like to introduce you to perhaps my new favorite player in the NBA.
Josh Smith.
Please notice the following two things:
1) How he destroys the rim on his one-handed lefty dunks.
2) How he destroys other players defensively. His shot-blocking ability whether he's defending on the ball or off is unmatched.
The New York Times came out swinging this morning with two Business-section articles about Chuck Prince, CEO of Citigroup, and Stephen McPherson, president of ABC Entertainment.
If you love leadership studies, these two are must read.
Chuck Prince presides over a stagnant (some would say stumbling) Citigroup, the behemoth financial services company. Prince was the top lieutenant of former Citigroup CEO Sandy Weill but with a background in law, Prince lacks the operational experience needed to run such a large company.
Unfortunately, he's surrounded himself with a group of people also regarded as weak executives. So you have a CEO who is afraid to make bold decisions leading a team that is looking out for their own interests. For example, Robert Rubin, the Director and chairman of the executive committee, who "is a constant and close adviser but has refrained from closely overseeing lines of business at Citigroup." What good is advice if the person receiving it is either a) afraid to act on it, b) may not know what to do with it, or c) doesn't have a team in place capable of acting effectively on his directives?
Contrast that with McPherson. The article begins with this description:
The brand-conscious Disney, in particular, expects its division chiefs to keep a modest profile, stay on message and play nice with corporate siblings.Mr. McPherson does few of those things. He exhibits a blunt, temperamental style that at times creates a frosty relationship with his superiors and leaves subordinates ducking for cover, say current and former Disney executives. He fires off nuclear e-mail messages, fumes over downbeat ratings and once yanked a $10 million comedy after a single broadcast because he didn’t like its creative direction.
“He’s confident in his opinions. He doesn’t sugarcoat. His position doesn’t sway in the wind,” said Rich Frank, former president of Walt Disney Studios. “That can leave people raw.
Why then is McPherson the right man for his job?
1) He came up through the ranks, gaining experience, and, most importantly, credibility among his peers as both a programming genius and a decisive decision maker. Contrast that with Prince who is widely seen as someone who plugged into his current role without the necessary managerial experience needed to run a huge company.
2) He's made ABC a place where top talent wants to work -- and he's done it not by tasking his managers with a mandate but by personally doing things to please both actors and rank-and-file.
Here are three examples:
In recent months, he has worked to dispel tension between himself and other executives, particularly his successor at ABC Studios, Mark Pedowitz. At a company team-building retreat in July, he matched up with Mr. Pedowitz on stage to kick off a night of corporate karaoke. Their song was “What the World Needs Now Is Love.”
and:
In April, Mr. McPherson doled out dollops of thanks to his staff — literally. To recognize their work on the network’s spring pilots, he flew in 12 tubs of ice cream from a New Jersey parlor and pushed a cart up and down the aisles of ABC’s corporate headquarters, scooper in hand.
and:
[Sally] Field says Mr. McPherson changed her mind about returning to ABC. “He sent me the loveliest notes about how the network has changed and about his support for me and the show,” she says. “It felt like if ABC ended up canceling us overnight, at least someone would call me this time.” Ms. Field, who won an Emmy Award last month for the role, keeps the e-mail messages on her bulletin board.
3) He is not afraid of change even if it means doing away with "this is how things have always been done":
When Mr. McPherson took over ABC three years ago, he made some important operational changes, too. He stopped marketing new shows equally, a vestige of the pre-cable era intended to keep producers happy. And he was the first Big Four network executive to aggressively court the country’s growing Hispanic audience (including dubbing shows into Spanish and pushing his staff to cast more Hispanic actors).
4) He is hyper-competitive.
He also does not dispute that he has left a long trail of hurt feelings and bruised egos in his wake, but he says disagreements are to be expected in any creative business. He also says that he is misunderstood. “I don’t see myself as a bully,” he says. “I know I’m demanding. My biggest gift and curse is that I want to win.”
It was almost as if the Times put the two stories on the front page of today's Business section on purpose. I couldn't think of a better example of how not to run a company in distress (passively, relying on others to make tough decisions, surrounding yourself with inexperienced leadership) being shown so obviously next to an example of how to take a company to the top (decisively, personally involving yourself in employee satisfaction, making difficult decisions while putting yourself on the line, using your experience to help those around you).
har har...
I tested out the Xobni plug-in(?) for Outlook. I still don't really understand what it is supposed to do besides slow down my computer. Although I did learn who I email the most out of my friends.
They also created this tongue-in-cheek recruitment video (thanks Valleywag!)...
I still think that Meetup's Google Doc was better, although I the joke about wanting to design a feature in Python but deciding to do it in Lisp while the guy telling the joke was speaking with a lisp was pretty Meta...or less stupid...or something.
SportsCenter anchor Neil Everett drops 5 or 6 references to Moe. in this clip.
Moe.rons only need apply...
Yahoo! opens registration for Fantasy Basketball. Let the good times roll...
I couldn't help but chuckle this afternoon as I read this article. It tracks the current trend of young finance professionals forgoing their MBA's because the opportunity cost, i.e. lost wages while you spend two years out of the workforce, has become too high.
Too high you say? Tell that to the 28-year-old hedge fund manager in the article who is making low 7-figures.
Why the chuckle? Well, I was on the train back from Philadelphia to New York where I had spent the weekend watching football, talking fantasy basketball, and eating a cheesesteak. Reading an article like this is definitely snaps you back into a New York mindset Finance dominates the discussion these days in New York. Much like Internet dominated the discussion in '99-'00.
The parallels between the Internet boom and bust and today's article are striking and scary. When everyone wants to work in your industry that's probably a bad sign. People stop looking forward and focus on maximizing returns for this quarter, or this week, or today. In other words, everyone is chasing the money. And when people stop planning for the future in hopes of a few short years of rapid financial gain? Hello bubble! Too much money, not enough talent, and pie-in-the-sky dreams is a sure recipe for disaster.
Paul Kedrosky, a blogger I read a ton, feels the same way.
Over on Consumerist, a reader chimes in with a tale of how Delta tried to stick him with a $70 change fee when he tried to change to an earlier flight on the same date as his original booking.
Astute readers will recall a similar tale on MrShafrir from way back in November 2006.
How do companies get away behaving like this? Or is the more obvious question how do bankrupt companies become bankrupt?
OK, not really, stealing another favorite Gawker headline seemed appropriate.
Anyhow, my sister is leaving Gawker today!
There goes my tenuous grip on New York City celebrity.
The new Rilo Kiley album Under the Blacklight is, um, tasty.
Apparently a bunch of developers here at TheLadders.com have been writing a blog for quite some time.
Here it is (creatively titled): TheLadders.com Developer Blog.
A few observations I have about software developers after almost 3 and a half years at TheLadders.com.
1) Whatever is on their computer screens looks infinitely more complicated than what is on my screen.
2) To a person, they have an unbending belief that "sure, we can do that."
3) A typical conversation begins with my asking a question, a long-winded response with a bunch crap I don't understand, followed by my saying "so yes?"
4) They all think they can sell. And we all think that fixing bugs should take about 20 minutes.
5) As soon as I got a remote-controlled helicopter, they went out and bought two (including a blimp). Woe be the guy that has cooler technology than a software developer.
6) Asking one of them to help me with my Windows software problems is like asking vegan to eat a whole hog.
What else can you add to this list?
Cat Power: The Greatest
Good stuff from a class A psycho. "Willie" is my favorite tune.
The Rolling Stones: Tattoo You
After about 10 beers, "Tops" is a great, great, song.
Natasha Bedingfield: Unwritten. When it's snowing in April, "Unwritten" sounds like summer.
Ben Harper: Both Sides of the Gun
Still working through this one -- the end of disc 2 shows some promise. Bennie H. is one of my favorites though.
Led Zeppelin: Houses of the Holy
I had this poster in my room senior year of college. Cool, I know. This album, especially "The Ocean", gets me pumped up to go out. Cool, I know.