Design Thinking Digest

How do companies operate when governments get scared?

...simply put, smart ones do this.

Years ago I had an economics professor when I was getting a graduate degree in marketing. Now this guy was a curmudgeon, but he was a smart curmudgeon and one of the best instructors I've ever had and in all of his infinite wisdom the key bit of advice he gave that always stuck with me was this. (paraphrased from memory)

"If you're fortunate enough to travel overseas in your business career it's likely you'll often visit countries that will, in many ways, remind you of home. People may sometimes use the same words, eat the same food, etc. This is to be expected as American culture, for better or worse, permeates the world. But never, every, for a single second forget that you're not at home. The one, key, advantage that the US has over versus nearly every other country and every other culture is our tolerance for change, uncertainly and openness. It's our singular advantage and it's the real reason why people come here from all over the world because they are the perfect ingredients to enable success."

Now I haven't talked to this professor for some time but I suspect he'd be dismayed at the current state of our current visa rules and would flat out declare that they are going to cause us great harm. Great ideas and great thinking come from sharp minds that are shaped by a myriad of cultures or influences, if we shut the door on that influence we'll be sorry.

"I might as well say this in every article I write from overseas: The easier America makes it for talented foreigners to work and study there. the richer, more powerful and more respected America will be. America's ability to absorb the world's talent is the crucial advantage no other culture can match--as long as America doesn't forfeit this advantage with visa rules written mainly out of fear."

James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly

The state of airline travel in the US

Sometimes pictures just speak for themselves. I recently booked some air-travel for upcoming events and was just amazed at the abysmal on-time ratings of airlines these days. What other business could get away with missing its goals up to 50% of the time.

Thoughts on 'The Crisis'

So it's been a month since I've posted here and I'll claim my reason for not posting is that I simply haven't had much to say over the past month. I took some time to slow down (but not too much), to play and to learn. I can think of no better way to spin things up again than to look to the past however.

In yesterday's Chicago Tribune the editorial page quoted portions of Thomas Paine's writings from the The Crisis, a series of pamphlets created around the American Revolution. One one discovers from these readings is that good oration can be seen in words and not just speech and that we'll live in a sad world indeed when voices that protest and challenge are silenced. I suspect just about anyone that reads these words, regardless of the ideology that one subscribes to will not be moved.

THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly.

Read more here.