Cultural

Predictions for 2009-Require major leadership!

Submitted by DonVandergriff on

Predictation for the New Year My predictions, (1) A hail of pink slips. The unusual number of layoff announcements during the December holidays foreshadowed the main event, as most businesses seek to reduce headcount by 5% - 10% — and seriously affected businesses do much more. Like retail, as they close their marginal stores. (2) Retail bankruptcies. The extraordinary number of retail bankruptcies during the Christmas shopping season foreshadows the tsunami hitting in the first few months of 2009.

Redividing the Ground: Palin as VP Pick

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

Part of Sun Tzu's rules for picking the right battles is knowing how to "divide" the ground. ("You can divide the ground and yet defend it." AOW 6:3:15) We get locked into seeing the ground as fixed and limited, but new ground is constantly being created by the way we divide it. ("Surprise is as infinite as the weather and land." AOW 5:2:5) For example, listening to the Sunday talk shows, the pundits don't seem to realize that Palin redivides the ground in a new way. No, she doesn't get the hard-core Hillary feminist who is pissed at Obama.

Sharpening Positions: Sloppy Positioning By McCain

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

Positions are clarified or muddied by the words we choose to describe them. You should work on positioning statements over and over until they work effortlessly. The words used to describe values and philosophy are especially critical. For example, on one of Sunday morning new shows McCain said, in describing his reform positions that, "America needs to changing." This is terrible positioning because it feeds his opponent's values. What he should be saying is, "America doesn't need changing. Washington D.C.

Key Strategic Mistakes: the Presidential Race Thus Far

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

This would be a good time to look at the presidential race thus far in terms of strategy. The race could be a landslide either way in November but remains close because both candidates keep making simple strategic errors. The top three strategic flaw for each candidate are: Obama: 1) Slow to recognized and correct judgment errors, i.e. Rev. Wright and Iraq surge, 2) Failure to see climate differences between big cities and most of America, 3) Seems more interested in winning praise than winning the election.

Save the World: Stop Eating!

Submitted by GaryGagliardi on

Sun Tzu's strategy was developed because it is so easy to lose touch with reality. How easy? In this earlier post, I compared the idea that we can stop using oil to the idea equally silly idea that to save the environment, we must stop eating. Apparently, this wasn't as much of a parody as I thought. Today, I see this report from ABC news telling us that to save the earth we must stop eating. Or make a start anyway by stop eating beef.

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