Writing, thinking, teaching...

Last night completed my MBA class in entrepreneurship...another adventure with 19 young (well, relatively young) students...a very good class and semester...and I was generally pleased with the class and how it went..it reminded me again how important it is to continue to read and write and talk with people in the field...because things are happening so fast for entrepreneurs...

...I have come to realize that this is not always true for academics...and we continue to teach things that we are comfortable with...our own interpretations...desires...biases...opinions...and I guess that is OK on one level...but where it really bugs me is in fields that change quickly...which I suppose is mainly in the professional schools...but certainly the sciences as well...and while it is a great deal of work to continue to update my teaching material the gain outweighs the toil...as evidenced by the student reactions this semester...

...and some have been asking me why don't I blog more?...well I guess it comes and goes...and for the past months...well about 8 or 9 months actually... I have been doing a great deal of research and writing...and that has gone well and I do enjoy it...but it does take a lot of work and time....as I toil over the ancient wooden desk...by candlelight...well, not really, but it is a nice image...

...I have just posted in the research column on this blog a couple of those articles that will be published this summer...in several journals...and each provides a critique...in very different spaces...that some new thinking is required for those of us in the Schools of Businesses...and in other programs...so you can find them to the right listed in my research...and I try to explain to theologians and pastors that they pretty much don't have a &#?!+(*ing clue when it comes to understanding business...entrepreneurship...and the field and careers that so many of us are involved in...and have committed our lives to..many times to help people...with our own time, money and effort...and they seem to have only expertise in our field when it comes to how much a business person should give or tithe...

...so as the semester comes to an end I have several boat trips scheduled with my students...and look forward to that a great deal...and the wonderful meals that my bonita espousa prepares for the classes as we celebrate the completion of the semester...

...above are a couple of my homies from the MBA program...Pablo and Freddie...nice guys and great colleagues...as we enjoyed a boat ride late last summer on a spectacular day in San Diego...so for now I better go clean the boat and get ready for my MBA students!

Obi-Wan redux

In 1977 me and about five Navy buddies went to see Star Wars...somewhere near where Fashion Valley in San Diego now sits...and it was quite an event...I remember that there was almost a party-like atmosphere as we waited outside...and when we left the theatre there was another huge line outside waiting to get in...with excitement and energy in the air...the only other film that had done something similar was The Exorcist in 1974...which I saw in Carmel Village with some high school firends and my cousin...with people fainting and screaming...seriously...

...but unlike the Exorcist Star Wars turns out a bit better in the end...and there was no hurling vomit either...always an advantage when jumbo popcorns are involved...

...anyway I had a similar experience yesterday...with the movie Avatar...and while I am not one to swooooonn over movies...this one was really unusual...and in the same way as long ago at Star Wars...this was an experience...and one that isn't content with running a 5 yard play but throws the ball way down the field...and everyone else is running around and trying to catch up...

...from an entrepreneur point of view it is remarkable...huge risks and new technology all at once...and the risk/reward analysis is unclear due to the bad history of 3D in movies...ask anyone older than 40 and they will tell you...

...so my recommendation is to go see it...and even though I could have done without the rip-offs from Dances with Wolves...I mean the voice of Wes Studi for the Na'vi leader...c'mon...and the walk through the waterfall was straight out of Last of the Mohicans...another Wes Studi film...I kind of expected someone to say "tatanka" at some point..

...so get a discount coupon and make sure to do the 3D thing...and see what the future of movies is all about!

Choices, Choices, Choices...

.....hmmmm.....what to do...on a rainy day in San Diego...can't go to the beach...so I guess I should do some writing...but about what?...the Dems and GOP lovefest in front of the cameras?...Nancy Pelosi's comment of the Health Care Bill creating 4 million new jobs?...some sobering trends for the global economy?...Carly Simon finally revealing who is "so vain" in her 1973 megahit?.... the Chargers sending LT packing....the athleticism of Olympic curling?....
...well this is a slippery slope but I am going to attempt to offer some advice for my friends at UC San Diego in the midst of all of the tension due to some racial incidents...and in case you haven't heard of these events go to http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/26/noose-protest-ucsd/ or any one of hundreds of other sites to read more...

...now I guess as an educator what disturbs me the most is that there could be future leaders of society at such a fine research University where some frat boys could sit around a room...or perhaps use Twitter or texting...and not one of them could have the critical thinking skills to say...hmmmmm....maybe we shouldn't have a "Compton Cookout" dressed in blackface...maybe this could cause some trouble for us?...but no luck...and the results were very predictable...

...so now we have a full blown crisis...made worse by a young woman admitting to placing a rope noose in the library on Friday...sheesh?...can it get worse?...wonder what field of study she was engaged in...and now she has been expelled from UCSD...screwing her life up...the Vice-Chancellor of UCSD said that the young woman and two others "didn't think leaving a noose was a big deal"...front page of Saturday's SD U-T...what?...&$?!X**^!!...arghh!....not a big deal?...so much for hope in the future....

...so here we are in the midst of more crises than we can count...real crises like Haiti...an 8.8 earthquake in Chile overnight...California is melting down from its budget woes...the resignation of Obama's social secretary...global warming...and the sale of Carl's Jr...I mean...the insanity of it all...and we are spending enormous time and energy and effort on the stupidy of these students?...I just don't think that it is quite the 'dastardly crime" that UCSD Chancellor Fox referred to it as...stupid, insensitive, demeaning and more...absolutely...but a "dastardly crime?"...for a misdeameanor?...c'mon...we have bigger issues (and "crimes") to focus on...

...so what should UCSD do before this thing really spirals out of control?...well...I guess it already has done that...but you know what I mean...

...I think that we need to start with the assumption that we can find idiots in pretty much any group...including students...adults...professors....7-11 clerks...Congress...I mean look at the late Captain Phil of Deadliest Catch!...the dummy couldn't give up the smokes and Red Bull and we all knew what was going to happen...when we see him pass a blood clot the size of a quarter through his heart and he keeps on inhaling!....

...so we must start with the proposition that there are foolish people everywhere...and even smart people can be foolish...it is in our DNA...and lapses of judgment in a few shouldn't lead us to assume that the entire organization, group, firm, society or association is at fault or unresponsive...including UCSD or any other school...but let's get on with it!...and not take over offices like it is the Vietnam War or something similar...deal with the young fools...root it out...

...but move on with the processes and formidable task of education...because we have crises everywhere to tend to...like making higher education accessible and affordable to more people...and at the end of the day we need all of these incredible young people to take their leadership place in the workplace and society as a whole...and not just on this one issue...

...and while Dr. King and others did indeed protest...they also wrote, preached and spoke forcefully and passionately...and persuaded other individuals and institutions to change...so I would propose that instead of taking over offices and ordering pizzas and sandwiches... why cannot this energy be focused into reasoned discourse?...or a student led proposal for change and not just criticizing the administration...perhaps you could start with a code of conduct for fraternities?...or shutting them down if they cannot abide by an existing code of conduct?...

...so rather than shutting down the campus which already has enough problems...let's figure out some solutions rather than screaming at each other...I would love to see students show to the faculty and administration their capacity to point the way out of this...

..There are lots and lots of questions being raised right now through this sordid mess...too many...and raising the questions or concerns or criticisms is the easy part...finding solutions is the art of wisdom...

The first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: Decide what you want." -Ben Stein

Just another day...

...So wow! It has been really cold across the nation...even snowing in Florida and Alabama and 49 of the 50 states...amazing...we were thinking that maybe it was even going to snow here in San Diego...

...so I woke up on Monday and pulled on my parka and was going to fire up the snow blower...I mean after all, it was snowing just about everywhere according to the news...but there was no snow to be found!....Darn!...so I had to find something else to do...

......what? Al Gore is wrong? Nahhhhhh...that can't be!...What? Forget about global warming?...heart be still...oh how cool...get your theory wrong and then claim that it really isn't global warming...it is climate change...I like this kind of reasoning!...be wrong...really wrong...and then figure out a way to make that validate your argument in the first place...cool!...

...but anyway what to do on a holiday since I can't clean up the snow in the front yard...and it would annoy the South American parrots that just returned...so...

...let's take the boat out and look for some wildlife!...no, not that kind of wildlife!...but you know...seals...dolphins...and whales, oh my!...so we saddled up the Iron Horse with the girls and some other friends and headed out on a spectacular Monday morning...and went out about 5 miles off of Point Loma...and ran smack dab into the middle of a gray whale superhighway!...how fun!

...the first thing you see is the "blow" with the gray whales...and then they breach the surface and take a couple of breaths...but the really fun part is seeing their tails...and we saw quite a few of them...along with several other boats...and the picture below with the water running off the tail...was just really beautiful...

...so as this short week begins I have fond memories of a wonderful day with family and friends and God's incredible creation...so toss another log on the fire...if you aren't in Southern California...and have a great week!

...

Captain America or Maury the Nerd?

...So I was privileged to attend a luncheon at the San Diego Convention Center featuring the best and the brightest in military communication, command and control....with Vice Admiral Jack Dorsett, Deputy Chief of Naval Operations...and I heard the vision of the US Navy for the coming years....and the Admiral outlined something that they are calling "Information Dominance"...and let me tell you I was pretty impressed...

...it is real clear to me that the military is way ahead of the rest of us by decades...and ahead of Universities by probably a couple of centuries...but that is another story...and what they are going to do is merge the best and brightest skills, tools and techniques from the Geeks into the command and control mechanisms of the Navy...and it is going to rock the world...

...what are they up to and why should we care? ...because historically out of the military and space programs have we as regular 'Schmoes' later been the recipients of what they create...and for us in business let me just prophesy that what we are seeing is the end of the strategic plan as we know it...

...they are engaged in a new way of thinking and planning that the rest of us need to catch up to...and quick...and the demand for accurate and widely dispersed information is what is driving this...they see that the path ahead is dangerous and unknown and how they will navigate cannot be achieved by vast centralized top down strategic planning....

...what the Navy wants is that all platforms in the organization are "sensors" and each sensor has its own "roadmap" which are flexible and nimble and dynamic...these maps are then linked to all other stakeholders...and each sensor continually manages and maintains the information link throughout the organization...and that the sensors are allowed to be different from other sensors depending on context and opportunity and need...

...I have seen elements of this in the past in the business world known as "Strategy Maps" and "Balanced Scorecards" but this really is the best working model I have seen of a forward thinking planning structure that gets rids of much of what we have known as strategic planning for the past 25 years...

...I will be writing about this more in the future but let me just say that I was very impressed with the sense of purpose, clarity of thought and forward thinking that I see in the Navy...and we need to study and learn from them...

...this isn't your grandparent's Navy!

YEE-HAH!

...SO ARE WE ALL ENJOYING THE RIDE? WHAT? YOU WANNA GO FASTER? SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!!!!!!!!!...I have been watching things for a while and reading in some different areas....and while I want to poke fun at politicians and leaders...I have to say that there is some really serious $#^*?!@X+)! going on here!.....and it is really really really really really starting to concern me!....Really!!!!....

...Try wrapping your mind around this one...according to today's New York Times...that darn conservative rag and domain of the vast right wing conspiracy...said this (and I quote)..."But the long term budget outlook, according to the (Congressional Budget) office, is persistent high deficits that will accumulate to drive the debt ever upward, to the point that it could nearly equal the value of the nation's entire economic output by 2020"....

...If someone had tried to tell me that in 10 years our entire output would be matched by our debt I would have told them they were insane...really...that is how bizarre that statement would seem to me...but bizarre has become reality...and the Dems are poised to be thrown out of office faster than any party in history...the only way that they could have topped the GOP's incompetence was to spend us into oblivion....and to do it so fast that everyone would pay attention...I mean for heaven's sake they could have at least pretended to be prudent...but nope, just about every lobbying group, union, association and politically deft Senator or Congressman has been greased so Obama can hand Nancy her health care plan...

...a figure I read the other day said that with the typical Money Market rates right now....that our savings in those funds will take over 1,000 years to double...does that concern you?....and so how does our economic leadership respond?...by chiding the Bank CEO's...and threatening them with huge taxes....so what happens?...the markets tank and everyone loses another five percent in 72 hours...yeah, real smooth move...a fifth grader could have seen that one coming...

...what is happening is that our political leadership...OK the Dems leading the way but only because it is their turn to drive the convertible...and the GOP's have been just as bad so don't light up on me that I am some parrot for the right...is working overtime to turn us into a yellow or red part of the map...that is the brutal reality...would you like another image to consider?...try this one...

...yepper...that be good old Nero and Rome...if you think I am kidding I would just say you don't read history...

....So what to do?...just read blogs about it?...well I would observe that our forefathers had a revolution for a lot less...and that maybe you are just fine with destroying 200 + years of a grand history...but for me I am going to start pushing harder for clearer thinking minds from any possible political persuasion...and not get hung up on single items or issues...who can lead and not be bribed and not be gladhandlers...and I think that there is going to be a major political upheavel in 2010...across the country...unprecedented...

So here is my crystal ball advice I will offer to anyone who cares...



...I would counsel....NO I WOULD URGE!...

1) that if you have a job don't even think about leaving it now...

2) don't have over 35% exposure to US equities in your investments....

3) don't trust mutual funds and their advisors...

4) don't think that inflation is right around the corner...deflation is...

5) assume home prices are not going up anytime soon...

6)pay off any debt now that has interest over 7%....

7)have at least 1 year and preferably 2 years of liquidity...

8)any new expenditures you may want only do if you can pay cash...

9) develop a financial plan from a risk analyst and not just a broker...

10) consider additional quality education...formal, executive or program...

and finally...

I got a Kindle! I got a Kindle!

You know as a young pup I always wanted a special gift...watching it on the RCA on Saturday morning during Jonny Quest...was almost too much to bear as I dreamed of this plastic spring loaded very loud manifestation of American industrial might...
...There was a lot to like about Jonny Quest...heck Jonny had a cool dog...I mean, who wouldn't want to have a dog named "Bandit"...and a buddy named "Hadji"...shaping our little Ovaltine laced brains to look ahead to multi-culturalism...and his dad was a silver haired scientist Dr. Benton Quest with a personal bodyguard...WOW!...named Race Bannon...seriously...I still knew all of their names nearly 45 years later...although I can't remember what I had for dinner last night...

...anyway...so I asked Santa for a Kindle this year....since I didn't get it for my birthday...sniffle...but hidden in a big box with a couple of bricks and a ton of newspaper...sneaky ole Santa!....was a small brown cardboard box with this key to the knowledge of the world...or at least Amazon's version of the world...holding a Kindle!....how cool...

...for the sixteen of you in the world who have not heard of the Kindle...it is Amazon's E-Book...what's Amazon?...if I need to explain that you should probably stop reading now and return to your Guideposts and Readers Digest...anyway...the Kindle is an electronic book that downloads automatically books, mazagines, newspapers and other reading material to a very slender and lightweight device about the size of a small journal...

...now speaking as an aspiring bibliophile I initially was pretty skeptical of products such as the Kindle...as there really is nothing like the feel of a well worn leather bound volume in your hands...and I have frequently said that only two things tend to look better with age...leather and wood...and a vintage text is just beautiful and historic and exciting all at one moment...so you have to understand I tread towards the Kindle somewhat lightly...

...but a few months ago at my cousin Linda's house I picked up her Kindle sitting on the living room table...thinking it was some sort of a small logbook or journal...and was pleasantly surprised by its feel and possibilities...

...so I promptly downloaded several items and got cracking on this newfangled form of reading...the early verdict?...here are some observations...

*The wireless connection is amazing...easier to use than any cellphone or laptop...

*Trying out products for 2 weeks free or getting extended samples of book is brilliant...and a great marketing technique...

*Not being distracted by ads when reading a newspaper is wonderful...I had never thought about this until experiencing it...

*It is very simple to use and easy to read...even with old man eyes...and an old man brain...

*Navigating through the newspaper section is easier than I would have supposed...with a section guide that lays it out with the number of articles in a section...

*Reading in bed is as easy as reading a book...I would have thought there was a built in light but when I tried it a soft reading lamp worked just find...and when I fall asleep and it hits me in the face it doesn't hurt nearly as much as a book...

...so at this point I have to give it 4 stars...well done Amazon!...

....and what was the special gift of my youth?...that I never got?...

...maybe next year!