09/19/15

Calculus and the 5-7 Touch Process of Life

Big Red Car here. Bit cloudy for a Saturday. Better check with Mother Nature.

The forces of nature at work.

Therein lies our topic for today — the natural processes that cannot hope to be concluded in less than 5-7 “touches.” The 5-7 touch process that drives real life.

There are a lot of them — sales, hiring, forming an effective board, throwing a co-founder overboard, replacing a CEO.

Continue reading

09/13/15

Blundering Into War — Syria, the United States, Russia

Big Red Car here. Here being the peaceful ATX — Austin by God Texas.

Wishing the world nothing but peace on this lovely sunny Texas day.

We have an incredibly large opportunity to blunder our way into an armed confrontation in the Middle East — well, two actually.

The first is the dog meat agreement with Iran.

The more subtle one is the situation in Syria. Continue reading

09/12/15

The MOOC Comes of Age in Texas — Freshman Year for Free!

Big Red Car here. So, you don’t know what a MOOC is, do you?

A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course and it is the promise of the Internet writ large.

In this instance, Texas State University in San Marcos — just a few miles south of Austin — has made it possible to use MOOCs to place out of a student’s entire freshman year. In effect, free tuition for your freshman year.

Hey, Big Red Car, that sounds like a revolutionary idea. Is it?

Well, yes, dear reader, it is. Let me ‘splain it to y’all. Continue reading

09/12/15

What are the characteristics and skills of the successful CEO?

Here are some blog posts which focus on the issue of the character traits and skills of the successful CEO.  Enjoy.

These are all hyperlinks. Click on them.

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Discipline

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Learning from failure

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Planning

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Organization

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Decisionmaking

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Communications

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Discipline

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Closing

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Experimentation

The Character Traits and Skills of the Successful CEO — Brainstorming

Read them all and there will be a test on Tuesday. If Notre Dame wins, the test will be on Friday.

09/10/15

Managing the C Suite

Big Red Car here. Rained like Hell last night in the ATX. It is that time of year — we get the rains in May and September and this is September. Bring it!

So today, we talk about the C Suite and how it operates or should operate.

First, let’s make sure we’re all talking about the same thing — C Suite occupants: Chief Executive Officer, Chief Operating Officer, Chief Technical Officer, Chief Marketing Officer and so on.

You don’t have to have all these folks but you might. They are the leadership of the company. Continue reading

09/8/15

Syria’s Civil War — a Monumental American Foreign Policy Cockup

Big Red Car here. It is the day after Labor Day and the Big Red Car turns serious for a few minutes.

In the hysteria of The Donald’s hair and Presidential aspirations, Hillary’s dissembling about all matters pertaining to her decision to use an unsecured email server, and the surfeit of hot dogs — you may have missed that the Middle East is aflame and that the fires are burning particularly hot in Syria which enters its fourth year of blood in the streets. Continue reading