I ran across a number of things this week that I thought were worthy of comment. Instead of choosing one, I thought I would try to get them all in.
In the “It’s About Time” category, the board of BP negotiated the departure of Tony Hayward as CEO of the oil company and replaced him with Robert Dudley. As I wrote last month, I was amazed and appalled by Hayward’s inability to handle the crisis with savvy. Bravo to the BP board for taking action, I just wish they had done it months ago. Good luck, Mr. Dudley!
In the “What the Heck” category, I read about Goldman Sachs’ recent ban on profanity in electronic messages. The company was embarrassed in April at a Senate hearing when an employee’s e-mail referred to a deal they had done as “shitty.” So now they have a new communications policy that is being enforced by screening software. I understand that certain language can be offensive, but where do you draw the line? Everyone has a different gauge when it comes to what they find offensive. And like I told my mother when I was in the third grade, you can find the word “ass” in the Bible.
In the “Holy Crap” category (and no, I’m not sure that would make it through the Goldman Sachs filter), a colleague sent me this link. If you’re brave enough to click on it you’ll find a graph that was published in a New York Times blog that shows the percentage of jobs lost in this recession compared to recent recessions. It’s frightening to see that nearly twice as many jobs have been lost in this recession than in any of the previous five recessions! And while we’ve seen a slight recovery in the jobs numbers, we have a long way to go to get back to the pre-recession employment levels.
In the “Good for Her” category, Agriculture Department employee Shirley Sherrod said she will “definitely” sue conservative blogger, Andrew Breitbart, who posted a video edited to make her appear racist. Whether or not she can win is yet to be seen, but maybe her suit will be a much needed wake-up call for bloggers and commentators to be more careful about what they write and post.
In the “Who Cares” category, President Obama took a lot of heat for appearing on the daytime talk show The View. People from both sides of the political spectrum criticized the President, saying that appearing on such a show was beneath him. Really? Politicians are going to do what is necessary to appeal to the voters. They’ve been kissing babies for generations. My guess is that the President helped himself immensely with a certain portion of the electorate, and who can blame him for that?
In the “How Ironic” category, while appearing on The View, President Obama said the Shirley Sherrod incident shows that racial tensions still exist in America. I thought the timing of this was interesting because the same day the President’s comments were taped, a piece appeared in the Opinion section of The Wall Street Journal titled, “Our Divisive President.” The article, written by two Democratic pollsters, one who served under President Carter and the other under President Clinton, said, “Rather than being a unifier, Mr. Obama has divided America on the basis of race, class and partisanship.” They went on to compare Mr. Obama’s approach to governance to that of Republicans Richard Nixon and George W. Bush. The President couldn’t have liked being lumped in with that duo!
In the “Think About It” category, I came across this the other day. The author is unknown.
An American investment banker was at the pier of a small coastal Mexican village when a small boat with just one fisherman docked. Inside the small boat were several large yellowfin tuna. The American complimented the Mexican on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took to catch them.
The Mexican replied, “only a little while.”
The American then asked why didn’t he stay out longer and catch more fish?
The Mexican said he had enough to support his family’s immediate needs.
The American then asked, “but what do you do with the rest of your time?”
The Mexican fisherman said, “I sleep late, fish a little, play with my children, take siestas with my wife, Maria, stroll into the village each evening where I sip wine, and play guitar with my amigos. I have a full and busy life.”
The American scoffed, “I am a Harvard MBA and could help you. You should spend more time fishing and with the proceeds, buy a bigger boat. With the proceeds from the bigger boat, you could buy several boats, eventually you would have a fleet of fishing boats. Instead of selling your catch to a middleman, you would sell directly to the processor, eventually opening your own cannery. You would control the product, processing, and distribution. You would need to leave this small coastal fishing village and move to Mexico City, then LA and eventually New York City, where you will run your expanding enterprise.”
The Mexican fisherman asked, “But, how long will this all take?”
To which the American replied, “15-20 years.”
“But what then?” asked the Mexican.
The American laughed and said, “That’s the best part. When the time is right you would announce an IPO and sell your company stock to the public and become very rich, you would make millions!”
“Millions — then what?”
The American said, “Then you would retire. Move to a small coastal fishing village where you would sleep late, fish a little, play with your kids, take siestas with your wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos.”
Great “Think About It” story! As the father of two college students, I often wonder what type of “success” I should wish for them. I was recently asked to write a few remarks for my upcoming 30-year High School reunion, and was struck by the chasm between the success I have and the success I want, and by my psychological or emotional inability to leave one and pursue the other. My MBA may be correlation, not causation, but I’m not so sure… The timing looks awfully suspicious!