08/21/19

Tumblr Tumbled

It is obligatory to write something about Tumblr in the blogosphere or “they” will hack your site, and crash it. The Big Red Car doesn’t want that to happen, so here goes.

Related image

It is a curious case, this Tumblr story. With apologies to Charlie Dickens.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of greed, it was the age of Yahoo Marissa, it was the epoch of liquidity, it was the epoch of overpriced deals, it was the season of Porn, it was the season of VC virtue, it was the spring of the micro blogosphere, it was the winter of Tumblr, the Internet had everything before it, the Internet was its own worst enemy, every startup was going to be come a Unicorn, every startup was going bust — in short, it was like today when we suffer delusion and cannot believe that things like Tumblr ever happened.”

Tumblr is a microblogging and social networking company founded by David Karp, a natural coder, in 2007.

NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 10: Founder and CEO of Tumblr David Karp attends Tumblr’s 2014 Year In Review Party at Brooklyn Night Bazaar on December 10, 2014 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City. (Photo by Steve Mack/FilmMagic)

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08/20/19

Failing v Quitting

Yesterday, somebody sent me a link to the formal ritual whereby the freshmen/women (called “Rats”) of the Virginia Military Institute are pried loose from their parents’ loving arms and deposited with a third class corporal to be whipped into hard men and women during four demanding years at the nation’s oldest state military school.

At a school founded in 1839 which has provided warriors to fight our wars since then, ritual is an important element in the process — the unique process that turns an unshapen lump of clay into a hardened vessel in four years.

Sixty-one percent of the Rats will study math, science, or engineering and they are from 34 states and 4 foreign countries. They have an average GPA of 3.7.

It is a touching ritual. If you are bored today, watch it. Do you know of any other school that takes its students in in such a fashion?

The man speaking, the Superintendent of VMI, General JH Binford Peay III, VMI ’62, was the commander of the 101st Abn Div in the First Gulf War which conducted the longest airmobile movement in combat of any division in the history of warfare, setting up shop behind the Iraqi invaders of Kuwait. He was also the Centcom Commander as a 4-star General. [He has whipped VMI into the best shape it has ever been in since 1839. Personal view. He is also an inspiring leader and a good guy.]

One of the speakers, the Commandant, a warrior with almost three decades of military service made the distinction between failing and quitting. It is an important distinction.

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08/20/19

Woke American Capitalism

Yesterday marks the day when American capitalism took a crack at being “woke” when the Business Roundtable redefined the role of the American corporation in the “new” America we live in today.

In the past (1997), the Business Roundtable thought “…the paramount duty of management and boards is to the corporation’s shareholders…”

Makes sense, no? The shareholders own the company, right? Not so fast, amigo. Not so damn fast.

If you are a student of such things, you will enjoy reading the view of the world from 1997. It is here:

Business Roundtable Statement on Corporate Governance

It is worth noting that the “shareholders” are not a social club; they own the companies of which these CEOs are the leaders and managers.

The food chain looks like this:

 1. Shareholders — the owners — of companies elect the Board of Directors.

 2. The Board of Directors engages the management of the company — the Chief Executive Officer being the primary hire of the Board.

 3. The Chief Executive Officer assembles the balance of the management of the company subject to the concurrence of the Board.

 4. The CEO and the management run the company subject to Board oversight.

This is a legal construct as well as a practical structure.

In this instance, the Business Roundtable is populated by CEOs. The CEOs of the Business Roundtable did not ask permission of their boards or their owners to rediscover the purpose of corporations. They acted on their own.

The initiative was introduced by Jamie Dimon, Chairman of the Business Roundtable and Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase & Co.

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08/19/19

White Privilege = Original Sin

Going philosophical on you. Original Sin and White Privilege.

If you are a Christian, you likely know about the concept of Original Sin.

When Adam and Eve ate from the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden — hey, have you ever imagined a world in which Adam and Eve had chocolate chip cookies with ice cold milk and didn’t bite into that apple (honeycrisp, likely)? — mankind was tagged with an ancestral sin that was fairly shared amongst all of us as collective guilt.

Here’s Michelangelo catching Adan & Eve in the act in the Garden of Eden.

[Note: The Snake, the perpetrator, seems to have womanly characteristics. No? Is that terribly unwoke to mention? If so, I apologize. Also, please take notice of the fact that everyone in the painting is white. This will turn out to be important.]

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08/19/19

Walmart Cryptocurrency, The Walmart Coin

A couple of weeks ago, Walmart announced that it had applied for a cryptocurrency patent thereby spawning speculation that Walmart Coin was being plotted.

It wasn’t Facebook with a crowd of the crypto Illuminati floating the idea of its Libra coin to be overseen by gnomes in Geneva. It didn’t attract a lot of fanfare, and it didn’t trigger Congressional hearings.

No, it was plain vanilla, retail behemoth Walmart, who without much pomp or even a twinge of circumstance said, “Hey, we might be interested in an actual application of that blockchain and cryptocurrency stuff.”

Who would have ever thunk it, Walmart?

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08/18/19

Exclusive Interview — Kim Kielsen, Premier Of Greenland

Greenland was granted home rule independence by Denmark in 1979. The majority party in the Parliament of Greenland supplies the Premier — the Leader of the Government. The King of Denmark appoints the Premier subject to majority support from the controlling party in the Inatsisartut (Parliament).

Since 30 September 2014, the Premier has been Kim Kielsen, a member of the Siumut party.

Today, he joins us to talk about Greenland and the recent interest by the Trump administration to buy Greenland.

121031 Nordiska rådets session i Helsingfors 2012. Foto: Magnus Fröderberg/Norden.org

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08/18/19

CEO Shoptalk — The Founder’s Tale

In the life of the successful startup is a slightly disorganized story of its founding. It is a powerful story. It provides a keen insight into the who, what, when, why, where, how of the company. It is a story of creation. Only one person can tell it with an authentic voice.

It is a tale told best by the founder, hence the name: The Founder’s Tale.

It is a story that is the glue that binds people to the company and makes them want to follow the leadership. If you want to lead a pride of lions, then you have to tell the story of how you formed a pride.

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08/17/19

CEO Shoptalk — Counting Coups

As a leader, it is imperative that the company you build and lead is energized from within by taking a moment to celebrate victories. In history, this is called “counting coups.”

The other day I was advising a client and we got to the issue of rewarding accomplishments and behavior.

“Why is this important?” the brilliant CEO asked.

“Because you will get more of whatever behavior your recognize and reward. Reward good performance — more good performance,” said your Big Red Car.

We wandered into a discussion as to how the military did it with a formal awards program wherein an individual was formally recognized by having their exploit written up, memorialized in a citation, and symbolized by a bit of colored ribbon they would wear on their uniform forever. These awards in the military are given in front of one’s unit often at a parade. It is very public moment.

One of my platoon sergeants when I was a young lieutenant had been awarded a DSC. Every payday we wore our green uniforms with ribbons. Every payday I would have him tell the story of how he won the Distinguished Service Cross to my platoon. We were counting coups.

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