BOOK REVIEW: “When Core Values Are Strategic: How the Basic Values of Procter & Gamble Transformed Leadership at Fortune 500 Companies” by Rick Tocquigny

One of the side effects of buying books on Amazon these days is that you often buy them based on titles, and don’t get the chance to look through them.  For sure, Amazon has a search device that allows you to go through the book, but this is actually quite slow and difficult to deal with, so personally I don’t bother.  The result of this is that you sometime end up buying books that you wouldn’t necessarily have bought, had you seen it in a bookstore.  This is one case in question.  This is not necessarily a bad thing, as it will sometimes give you a different perspective and challenge you to read in different ways.

Walking on the Moon.…Armstrong, Hero or Villain ?

It hasn’t been a good weekend if you are a household name with the surname Armstrong. On Friday, Lance Armstrong officially threw in the towel in his fight to maintain the seven Tour de France titles he had won by effectively pleading guilty to using drugs. He thus gained the status of villain or fallen hero. Then yesterday, Neil Armstrong, the first man on the moon died in hospital.

Our reactions to the two Armstrongs underlines how ambiguous we are in conferring hero status to people or to organizations.

London 2012: The Olympic Closing Cermony and understanding stereotypes

Every single stereotype of British culture was there; Black taxis, double decker buses, Tower Bridge and men in kilts playing bagpipes. Then came the pop culture with Madness, George Michael, David Bowie, The Spice Girls, Queen and The Beatles. You can’t get John Lennon and Freddie Mercury in person? Don’t worry, you can put them up on a giant screen.  Danny Boyle truly did provide an unashamed stereotype British life. Indeed, had the entire show been commissioned by the British Tourist Industry, no one would have been the slightest bit surprised. But this was just the point. The organisers had understood that their audience was the world, and the world wanted the cliché.

Silver medals and the benefits of being second

A disappointing silver medal

This week an American athlete twittered that getting coming second just meant that you were the best of the losers. It is easy to understand his disappointment. Most silver medalists will have begun their completion thinking that they had a realistic chance of walking away with gold. Their emotions will have no doubt been mixed as they stood listening to the national anthem of another nation.  

From Victoria Komova of Russia (Gymnastics) to India’s Vijay Kumar (Shooting) to Ryosuke Irie of Japan (Swimming), there was a certain air of sadness as they received their silver reward for all those years of work. Even Michael Phelps had a glum look after he received his silver medal in Men’s 200m Butterfly (despite being the Olympic’s most successful competitor). The Australian press is currently lamenting the poor performance of the nation despite having won 12 silver medals (but only two gold).

“They’ll always be kids…” : Procter and Gamble’s 2012 Olympic TV Advert…And a message for parents of future students.

If you are watching the Olympic games at the moment, you have probably seen the TV ad by Procter and Gamble which shows a mother looking at her child compete in the Olympics and finishes with the slogan:

“To us, they’re Olympians. But to their moms, they’ll always be kids.”

Parents who will soon be seeing their children leave the family nest for the dangerous world of higher education will fully understand this message. After all those years of worrying and caring, it is tough giving up our precious offspring to the unknown.

For professors though, those same students are NOT children but future managers. Their job is to prepare them for the business world. Time for the parents to let go.

The 2012 Olympic Games: Managing your own talent…or trying not to give it away

  

The 2012 Olympic Games begin today in London and there will be much talk over the coming weeks of the dedication and talent of the winners. Though none of us as yet know the names of the gold medalists of each event, one thing is certain, a lot of extremely gifted and hardworking individuals will return to their countries with nothing more to show than their participation in the games. Does this make them losers? Of course not.

“The opposite of ‘success’ is not ‘failure’, but ‘mediocrity'”

I am very grateful to one of my international students for sharing this wonderful quote from a New Zealand business woman. It was during a class a fortnight ago and we were discussing entrepreneurship and why only 1% of European business school graduates create their own company immediately upon graduating. One of the reasons, said some of the class members, was the obsession with competitive exams and rankings and thus the overall fear of failing. The quote makes you reassess what exactly “success” and “failure” really are.