A comment about an article from the Harvard Business Review titled “How you can benefit from all your stress”.

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Stress is NOT the experience — or anticipation — of difficulty or adversity. It can be defined as anything that disrupts our homeostatic (inner chemical as well as emotional) balance. Activation of the body’s stress response is highly adaptative in the sense that it “diverts energy from storage sites throughout the body to exercising muscle. Blood pressure, heart rate, and breathing rate increase, accelerating delivery of nutrients to where they’re needed. (…) Long-term, costly building projects throughout the body— such as growth, tissue repair, reproduction, and digestion—are inhibited.” (Sapolsky, why zebras don’t get ulcers, 2004).
On a chronic basis, stress delays tissue repair, growth and other maintenance chemical processes. It promotes chronic heart disease, depression, stomach ulcers and autoimmune disease. It kills people, slowly but steadily.
You say stress is all in our head.Change the mindset, change the response to stress. Such a convenient way to transform overwork into “opportunities”.
Research has repeatedly shown that peek performance diminishes when people work more than 40 hours per week. Yet, managers routinely clock 60-80 hours a week, suffer from chronic sleep deprivation, lack exercise and a balanced diet. Do tell me: what is the opportunity here ?
What is the ‘opportunity’ in being laid off on a monday morning, with no explanation. Or the wonderful opportunity in being ‘asked’ to perform unethical behavior, with your job on the line, or the opportunity to work on meaningless tasks in front of a computer screen for years. Or the opportunity to live in hotels and spend half your life in planes, while watching your kids grow on pictures. Do tell, I am all ears. But please, don’t try to cure stress with wishful thinking!

A comment to a Harvard Working Knowledge article by Jim Heskett about a renewed interest in time management.

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I have followed with great personal interest this renewed interest in time management by reading Tony Schwartz’s, Robert Pozen’s and Peter Bregman’s work.

How do we account for the renewed interest in these ideas? My answer would be ‘technical overreach’. 

On the one hand, the technical communication systems (mobile phone, email, text, video conference, social media, blogs, etc.) available today, enable us to communicate instantly with anyone, anywhere, anytime. On the other hand, the internet provides us with an immediate and unusually deep source of information on any subject we choose to study, be it in the form of written text, audio recordings, video, and increasingly: raw data. 

So there is a constant temptation to overreach, to subscribe to another news feed, to download another report we won’t have the time to read, to add a 550th contact on LinkedIn we will probably never meet in person, to add a new project to the 15 we already try to get moving every day, and replace half of our office’s staff with fancy ERP, CRM and voicemail systems. 

Some final thoughts: effective time management should be about pruning unproductive tasks, projects and activities as quickly as we add new ones to our schedule. Answering email and other forms of personal communication to a large audience should be outsourced to interns, secretaries and assistants. And finally, technology can scale human efficiency, but only up to a point. 

My perspective on the current income inequality debate at the Harvard Business School.

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Good question, James. For some insight on the potential answer to pay inequality, I would suggest a closer look at Germany’s successful Mittelstand, as explained by John Studzinski in a recent Guardian article (http://tinyurl.com/ap2qq5d). He points to four key ideas: a Mittelstand ethos of social usefulness (job creation, customer satisfaction and product excellence are at least as important as profitability), a collaborative spirit between employers and employees (flexibility on wages AND job security), a long-term view (keeping core functions in-house, innovation) and a close relationship with suppliers.

See below for details. 

« Let me highlight some of the features unique to the Mittelstand model that I believe everyone should learn from – and imitate if they can. The first is what we might call the Mittelstand ethos – that business is a constructive enterprise that aims to be socially useful. Making a profit is not an end in itself: job creation, client satisfaction and product excellence are just as fundamental. Taking on debt is treated with suspicion. The objective of every business leader is to earn trust – from employees, customers, suppliers and society as a whole. This ethos chimes with the values of prudence and responsibility with which every schoolteacher hopes to imbue their pupils. About half of all German high-school students move on to train in a trade. Business and education are natural bedfellows.

The second essential feature of the Mittelstand model is the collaborative spirit between employer and employees. A system of works councils ensures that employees’ interests are safeguarded. German workers expect their employers to keep training them, enhancing their skills. In the post-reunification recession, it seemed only natural to German workers to offer flexibility on wages and hours in return for greater job security. More recently the government protected jobs by subsidising companies that cut hours rather than staff.

A third feature of the Mittelstand model is the determination of German companies to build for the long term. To this end, they tend to keep core functions such as engineering and project management in-house. Mittelstand companies are overwhelmingly privately owned, and thus free of pressure to provide shareholder returns. This makes them readier to innovate, and invest a larger proportion of their revenues in R&D. There are Mittelstand companies that file more patents in a year than some European countries.

Finally, German companies work closely with their suppliers. This has proved especially valuable in developing Sino-German trade. Unlike most of their international competitors, they are happy to take suppliers’ representatives on trade missions. The result is that they can guarantee swift and sure supplies of components and other products.

Of course, there are other factors that lie behind the success of the Mittelstand and of the German economy as a whole. Both the economy and political system are highly decentralised, with the result that local banks, businesses, entrepreneurs and politicians know and understand each other – while, at the national level, Germany’s leaders actively promote their country’s industry abroad. »

Everybody knows.

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded 

Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed 

Everybody knows that the war is over 

Everybody knows the good guys lost 

Everybody knows the fight was fixed 

The poor stay poor, the rich get rich 

That’s how it goes 

Everybody knows 

Everybody knows that the boat is leaking 

Everybody knows that the captain lied 

Everybody got this broken feeling 

Like their father or their dog just died 

Everybody talking to their pockets 

Everybody wants a box of chocolates 

And a long stem rose 

Everybody knows 

Everybody knows that you love me baby 

Everybody knows that you really do 

Everybody knows that you’ve been faithful 

Ah give or take a night or two 

Everybody knows you’ve been discreet 

But there were so many people you just had to meet 

Without your clothes 

And everybody knows 

Everybody knows, everybody knows 

That’s how it goes 

Everybody knows  

Everybody knows, everybody knows 

That’s how it goes 

Everybody knows 

And everybody knows that it’s now or never 

Everybody knows that it’s me or you 

And everybody knows that you live forever 

Ah when you’ve done a line or two 

Everybody knows the deal is rotten 

Old Black Joe’s still pickin’ cotton 

For your ribbons and bows 

And everybody knows 

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming 

Everybody knows that it’s moving fast 

Everybody knows that the naked man and woman 

Are just a shining artifact of the past 

Everybody knows the scene is dead 

But there’s gonna be a meter on your bed 

That will disclose 

What everybody knows 

And everybody knows that you’re in trouble 

Everybody knows what you’ve been through 

From the bloody cross on top of Calvary 

To the beach of Malibu 

Everybody knows it’s coming apart 

Take one last look at this Sacred Heart 

Before it blows 

And everybody knows 

Everybody knows, everybody knows 

That’s how it goes 

Everybody knows 

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows 

That’s how it goes 

Everybody knows 

Everybody knows - Leonard Cohen.

It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong. - John Maynard Keynes.

No plan survives first contact with the enemy. 

We don’t see things as they are. We see things as we are. - Anaïs Nin.

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. - A. Huxley

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. - Will Durant.

We can do no great things, only small things with great love. - Mother Teresa

“Spaceflight will never tolerate carelessness, incapacity, and neglect. Somewhere, somehow, we screwed up. It could have been in design, build, or test. Whatever it was, we should have caught it. We were too gung ho about the schedule and we locked out all of the problems we saw each day in our work. Every element of the program was in trouble and so were we. The simulators were not working, Mission Control was behind in virtually every area, and the flight and test procedures changed daily. Nothing we did had any shelf life. Not one of us stood up and said, ‘Dammit, stop!’ I don’t know what Thompson’s committee will find as the cause, but I know what I find. We are the cause! We were not ready! We did not do our job. We were rolling the dice, hoping that things would come together by launch day, when in our hearts we knew it would take a miracle. We were pushing the schedule and betting that the Cape would slip before we did. From this day forward, Flight Control will be known by two words: ‘Tough’ and ‘Competent.’ Tough means we are forever accountable for what we do or what we fail to do. We will never again compromise our responsibilities. Every time we walk into Mission Control we will know what we stand for. Competent means we will never take anything for granted. We will never be found short in our knowledge and in our skills. Mission Control will be perfect. When you leave this meeting today you will go to your office and the first thing you will do there is to write ‘Tough and Competent’ on your blackboards. It will never be erased. Each day when you enter the room these words will remind you of the price paid by Grissom, White, and Chaffee. These words are the price of admission to the ranks of Mission Control.” - The Kranz dictum

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him. An investment in knowledge always pays the highest return. Ben Franklin. 

Forgive others, not because they deserve forgiveness, but because you deserve peace.

Be the change you want to see in the world. - Gandhi.

Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without strategy. - N. Schwarzkopf

Here are some inspirational quotes form my readings:

“Tis not in mortals to command success; but we’ll do more…we’ll deserve it.” - Cato.

Who controls the past, controls the future. Who controls the present, controls the past. - George Orwell.

Keep your head down, your mouth shut & crack on. - Anonymous.

Errando discitur - we learn by making mistakes.

“Shared value is creating economic value by tackling a social issue.” Michael Porter on shared value creation.

Non-judgment is the pathway to a quiet mind. - Thomas Sterner

With deliberate and repeated effort, progress is inevitable. - Thomas Sterner

“Aequanimitas”, Equanimity is a state of stability or composure arising from a deep awareness and acceptance of the present moment.

I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. - Picasso.

Scientia animoque praesse (Exceller par le savoir et le caractère). - Devise de la FSA, université Laval.

The myth of Sisyphus as a representation of a life made meaningless because it consists of bare repetition.

If you can’t solve a problem, it’s because you’re playing by the rules. - Paul Arden

Consilio et animis - By wisdom and courage.

That which we are, we are;

One equal temper of heroic hearts,

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield. - Alfred, Lord Tennyson - Ulysses - 1833

You expect to move tons of dirt to find an ounce of gold, but you don’t go into the mine look­ing for the dirt—you go in look­ing for the gold.  - Andrew Carnegie

Uncertainty is an uncomfortable position. But certainty is an absurd one. - Voltaire.

A comment I posted on the New-York Times website about the recent relsease of a report summarizing USDA’s investigation of Lance Armstrong.

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Commenters keep saying that LA submitted to thousands of drug tests and was never tested positive. So he must be clean.

“But drug tests are designed to detect known substances and biochemical manipulations. There is an ongoing and never-ending arms race between those who are developing new, undetectable doping technology and those attempting to develop tests to detect them.”

See this interesting Quora forum for details: http://b.qr.ae/W3Qfip

I have no strong feeling for or against  LA. I just find the testimonies from 26 witnesses compelling. And what I don’t understand is LA’s refusal to defend himself. If he is clean, as he says he is, he should fight for his reputation and achievements and not hide behind negative tests that mean very little.

A comment I posted on the Financial Times website, about an article on education by Gillian Tett. 

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“Getting kids access to technology may be much more important than giving them schools.”

As a former teacher who writes this comment on an iPad, I find the notion of dropping tablets on uneducated kids to solve education challenges quite ridiculous.

What have those kids really learned, toying with these iPads on their own, you say? Ah, yes, to disable the front-facing camera! Is that education?

The idea that technology alone can replace teaching is laughable. Technology is a tool, a great and powerful tool. But it hasn’t taught these kids how to read, do arithmetics or perform logical reasoning.

What technology CAN do is to provide great quality teaching anywhere, anytime at a fraction of the cost. As an enthusiastic student, I can now take courses from Stanford on my iPad for free from the comfort of my home in Quebec. I can also have access to a textbook in E-reader format in seconds and hold an entire library in the palm of my hand on a Kindle.

Technology makes good teaching scalable. It doesn’t replace it.

Another comment (and ensuing conversation) on Harvard Business Review about Apple’s decision to ditch Google maps.

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Apple had no choice.

Google wouldn’t license voice-activated turn-by-turn navigation to Apple under mutually agreeable terms. Something iPhone owners have asked for years.

This is not about good business theory. This is about Apple trying to build a seamless environment with iOS6, tightly integrating geolocation (Maps) with its own and client apps. Google stood in the way of this integration and prevented Apple from giving superior experience to its map-user customers.

Apple had to find another way and let go of Google maps. Saying they could have done a better job with Maps is an understatement. but the rationale behind the decision was sound.

Before pontificating about disrupting industries, or advising Tim Cook on how he may keep his job, start by getting the facts right.

See AllThingsD report for details: http://dthin.gs/SAZiSn

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Etienne,

Thanks for dropping buy. That’s a great point - The real question is why didn’t Apple take some of their 100B of cash on hand and either buy or contract from a company that had already developed functional technology. Apple Maps is beautifully designed - but Waze, Garmin, and a slew of other businesses area much more functional than maps as of today.

Fortunately for companies fighting a sustaining battle, building it in house is not the only option!
Max

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Max,

Apple did not actually build its Maps app in house from scratch. 

As you suggested above, Apple used some of its cash reserve to acquire mapping companies: Placebase (2009), Poly9 (2010) and C3 (2011) that all had promising technologies. It also used TomTom data (licensing agreement in June 2012) as the foundation for its mapping software. 

That’s why I don’t question the decision. I question the execution.

And as you point out, Apple could probably have negotiated a better licensing deal with Waze or Garmin and used their maps software until its own technology was up to par.

This is a comment I wrote about an article recently published in the Harvard Business Review, by Eric Sinoway.

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Interesting article that rethinks plain common sense about people’s limited resources in time, energy and money, the necessity of clear objectives and informed personal choices into a business perspective on life, its expected value and cost/benefit analysis. 

Juggling too many balls at the same time means that a lot of them are bound to fall on the floor when major crisis happen. And they often do. 

So isn’t it also necessary to manage our expectations about what our lives can and should be?

Is it realistic to expect being a great Dad, a great friend, a great leader, in great shape, relaxing with 5 hobbies in a great house, as well as a spiritual person, active in one’s community? Sequentially or not?

Aren’t we asking for too much? Are we meant to do that much? Is the constant juggling depriving us of essential down-time to appreciate what we have already achieved?

“All good is hard. All evil is easy. Dying, losing, cheating, and mediocrity is easy. Stay away from easy.” - Scott Alexander.

A comment I made on an article by Roger Cohen in the New-York Times.

‘Almost 11 years into an unwinnable war.’

That’s something we, the coddled allies, knew from the start. We saw the British lose this war. We saw the Russians lose this war. We were in no hurry to add our names to the list.

But we came anyway. And lost one thousand lives in the process. How many more should we have lost to earn your respect?

A comment I made in the Economist, about a student’s reflexions on his MBA program.

Having just completed my own MBA program, and contrary to earthcitizen, I can relate to your post. Especially:

“Business school is not just about finding a job; it’s also a process of self-discovery and character building.”

Enjoy!

Probably my most popular comment, word for word, about an article from the Economist on high frequency trading. 

“This newspaper seldom finds itself on the side of restraining either technology or markets. But in this case there is a doubt whether the returns justify the risk.”

- Finally…

A comment I made about an article on leadership in the Globe & Mail. 

After going through his CV, it seems Mr. Murninghan, a distinguished academic, has never held a position of significant leadership in his life. And it shows!

If doing nothing was the recipe for effective leadership, I think it would have been adopted a long time ago. 

Facilitating and orchestrating a group of employees’ work to reach agreed-upon objectives, caring for your staff and raising expectations does not sound like doing nothing to me. 

One increasingly important management role Mr. Murninghan seems to ignore is the ability to manage change. And change is certainly not managed successfully by « doing nothing ».

A comment I made about an interview of Michel Gendron, the new Laval B-school Dean in the Globe & Mail. 

To me, the MBA program from Laval has three definitive strengths:

1. Its price: it is one of the cheapest in Canada at $7000 for a 24 month program.

2. Its course variety. Laval is the largest MBA program in Canada and will offer 141 different MBA courses this autumn.

3. Its flexibility. Most courses are offered in a variety of formats: in class (during the day and on evenings), online and hybrid (in class on consecutive weekends and online). The program can be completed full-time or part-time.