March 29, 2021
Good morning! Happy Holi! Our quasi-domesticated backyard Mallard Duck friends have returned for another spring; we welcome all birds and don’t discriminate — except maybe for the starlings. I’m ten cars back, the light is green and just now it turns yellow — or orange — or amber, you choose the hue. Car #1 sails through the dangerous intersection, right behind it car #2, then car #3, and #4, and also #5, swiftly, no brake lights in sight. And now the light turns red; it’s illegal to enter. Cars #6 and #7 are halfway through, they increase speed, no regrets. Car #8 is determined and won’t be deterred — in its mind, the light though bright red is still green. Car #9 feels entitled… after all…The light is red, I’m car #10….It’s St. Cloud, Minnesota (U.S.) … always be on high alert.
- Go figure this. The NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, identical to the men’s, is forbidden to use the apparently copyrighted term, March Madnesses.
- “Perfection is not attainable. But if we chase perfection we can sometimes catch excellence.” (Lombardi)
- On average, women in the United States are paid 18% less than men for comparable work. (Forbes/ National Women’s Law Center)
- For African American women it’s 37% less.
- For Native American women it’s 40% less.
- For Latina women it’s 45% less.
- The long awaited Ken Burns/ Lynn Novick documentary on Ernest Hemingway is scheduled to air April 5th.
- Tedious and years in the making, the only question is why schedule it directly opposite the Madnesses?!
- Tom Edison famously and publicly demonstrated the phonograph in 1878 by playing Mary Had a Little Lamb.
- He had actually engineered a prototype long before he finally decided to feature it during one of his famous show ‘n tell news conferences.
- Why do you suppose that was?
- “Scrambling costs money.” (Crystal Lahr – ATS) [Ya got that right!]
12 Ways to Innovate
- The Sloan School at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests 12 ways to innovate.
- Innovation is anchored by the offerings a company creates, the customers it serves, the processes it employs, and the logistics it uses to take its offerings to market.
- The other eight are:
- Platform
- Solutions
- Customer Experience
- Value Capture
- Organization
- Supply Chain
- Networking
- Brand (Sawheny et al.)
- The other eight are:
- Innovation is anchored by the offerings a company creates, the customers it serves, the processes it employs, and the logistics it uses to take its offerings to market.
- “We need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.” (Tutu)
- “If you can’t do anything about it then let it go. Don’t be a prisoner to things you can’t change.” (Gaskins)
My Best Friend Ted
By Michael A. Mullin
Rhubarb isn’t reticent;
its courage in late winter is greater than nearly everything
except maybe a crocus.
Rhubarb isn’t pretentious;
it’ll hang with almost anything and doesn’t have to be in charge.
Rhubarb is patient;
great grandpa expectantly planted it,
but now it mostly sits and waits.
Elephant ear leaves stalwart sentinels in the springtime sun.
When I was a boy my best friend was Ted.
He lived down the road in the ditch, protected
by a little grove of bushes in the shade of which he
lived a solitary canine existence, little loved, or so it seemed.
I was the only one to visit him.
Ted was a lot like rhubarb: Stalwart, unpretentious,
patient, unassuming, trusting, forgotten, available, ready,
never needing to be in charge.
One day Ted died.
I don’t remember which day; I was just a boy.
Rhubarb is my new best friend.
It won’t die.
Unless someone dares to end great grandpa’s vision.
©2017 Michael A. Mullin
