New CEO Earns It

Mike Neiss gave us a heads up last week that Herman Miller will be getting a new CEO July 26. Our congrats to a good friend and client. As Mike says, “Brian Walker got this job the old fashioned way—he earned it.” A local paper in Michigan described him as having a “gift for leadership.”

Geoff Thatcher posted this on June 28, 2004, in News.
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Event Slides

Tom speaks at the Better Life National Leadership Summit 2004. You can download the slides here.

Today’s New Slides

Tom says this quote is fantastic:

When I was growing up, my parents used to say to me: “Finish your dinner—people in China are starving.” I, by contrast, find myself wanting to say to my daughters: “Finish your homework—people in China and India are starving for your job.”
—Thomas Friedman/NYT/06.24.2004

See this and one other new slide here.

Hitting the Nick

squash racketAfter spending a week with Bryn Meredith and his team in Canada, Mike Neiss said he was blown away by their passion. For Bryn, it’s a passion that was developed while playing professional squash in the United Kingdom. Bryn was a three-time provincial (or state) champion and, as an entrepreneur, helped organize tournaments and market the launch of the twin view four-sided glass squash court (yeah, it’s cool). Three knee operations later, Bryn is now in leadership development with us, and he compares the work to “Hitting the Nick.” In squash, the “nick” is where the floor joins the wall. As Bryn says, “If you hit the squash ball perfectly into the nick, the ball rolls back on the court and you win the point.” The only way to get good at “Hitting the Nick” is with passion, practice, and experience. “No one is perfect,” Bryn says. “But if you can hit the nick just one extra time in a game, the match can be yours!”

For anyone looking to be a better leader, does that sound familiar?

Leadership in Peoria

A reporter at WHOI asks and answers these important questions in a story about Kay Royster, a school superintendent in Peoria, Illinois:

Does Royster’s role as a strong leader eclipse her need to be an open communicator? Is communication a key part of strong leadership?

The Experience Economy

Our friends at Carat Brand Experience sent us these statistics confirming that The Experience Economy is with us to stay:

The event and experience economy is currently projected at $150 billion globally.
More than 22 percent of the total marketing budget is now devoted to events.
More than 75 percent of all final purchasing decisions are made at events.
Event Marketing in North America has outpaced both advertising and promotion in growth.

Sources for this research include CEIR, TSW Research, IEG, M&C Magazine, and ANA.

Where Were the Boomers?

Tom writes in Chapter 14 of Re-imagine! that boomers have $2 trillion in annual income and marketers are “stupid” for focusing on the 18-44 demographic. So, with all respect, my question is this: How could the juvenile Dodgeball beat the adult Terminal at the box office? One article put it this way:

Dodgeball drew a young male audience, while The Terminal played mostly to older crowds less likely to rush out on opening weekend. DreamWorks, which distributed The Terminal, hopes the film has staying power.

Event Slides: Quest

Get the slides for today’s event in Denver, Quest.

Shadow and Spotlight

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s famous quote “Well-behaved women rarely make history,” is reflected in Anna Fels’ newest book, Necessary Dreams: Ambition in Women’s Changing Lives.

Ellie Mae Excels

The Business Wire plugs Tom’s Re-imagine documentary with a profile of Ellie Mae

… a dot-com survivor that is thriving today, also exemplifies part of a growing breed of companies Peters calls the “fixers” or “enablers” that solve the problems standing in the way of business creativity and success.