Category Archives: Culture

10/9/24

The Steamboat Institute And Virginia Military Institute, An Exemplar For Intelligent Debate

The Steamboat Institute, a think tank in lovely Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and my alma mater, The Virginia Military Institute (a jewel of a school in the spectacular Shenandoah Valley of Virginia) teamed up to debate:

Should the US Use its Diplomatic and Military Power

Around the Globe to Ensure America’s Security?

If you highlight and click on the first sentence of the question, you can see a video of the debate between John Bolton and Vivek Ramaswamy.

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05/15/23

Emotional Blackmail and Coffee Shops

You are walking the streets of your hometown or visiting Charleston — both locations work — and you see a coffee shop. You dart in — you bloody well dart don’t you, because you need that caffeine fix and you are a quick footed darter — and order a simple coffee with room for cream or a triple latte with a spritz of mint.

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11/7/19

Values >> Culture >> Reputation >> History

In the life-cycle of a company — be it a high tech startup or a paint manufacturer — the initial culture of the company is grown from the seed corn of the founders’ values.

The first challenge for any founder is to codify his/her values while recognizing that she/he owns the culture when the ink is still wet on the founding documents.

The culture is a living organism in much the same way that yeast provides life to dough and water to somehow magically become bread when presented to fire.

It is important to think about culture, but it will happen whether you think about it or not.

If you fail to think about and nurture your culture, then it will become whatever organism is blowing through the air. [The air is different in Silicon Valley than it is in, say, Austin By God Texas. Know this.]

In thinking about culture, go here: The Company Culture Series — a collection of 14 blog posts on the subject of culture.

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