2008 March | Attention Grab

Featured Articles

Flood Waters in the Midwest

March 21, 2008 by Jim Parker in friends, humanity

This is a bit off topic for this blog, but significant nevertheless for me. I’m from St. Louis Missouri, where area rivers are overflowing their banks. I have extensive pictures posted at my flickr account which can be found here: Jim Parker ’s Flickr

Comments (2)

Who Reinvents the Firm?

March 17, 2008 by Jim Parker in corporate, dna, leadership

One of my favorites, Umair Haque, (who is now writing at hbs too) wrote the following last week in a blog entry:

“That feeling - like a dull toothache - is a massively powerful heuristic that something is deeply wrong; wrong with McJobs; wrong with $100m bonuses for value destruction; wrong with the evisceration of variety, choice, and happiness; wrong with the long slow death of culture and community; wrong with the sinking intuition that like you’ve signed away your life when you walk into that cube, all for a few bucks and free lattes.

So who reinvents the firm? We do.”

This is something I talk about regularly with select friends and co-workers. A great many of us wish things were better. We see the problems, we see the waste, we see the selfishness, we see the value being sucked away. And we see our customers suffer.

Well, I have started to reinvent our organization. I’ll write about it here once I gain traction.

And if I don’t reinvent the organization or the firm, then I need to go. My path is clear: One way or the other I will reinvent!

Comments (0)

Other Posts By Jim

The humanity of machines

All machines are human.
Some would question whether there is anything human about a robotic welder on the factory floor, or a stamping machine that stamps out quarter panels for a new car, or a 1000 node grid computer, or even a bolt.
Let’s consider the humanity of the bolt. This is a wonderful piece of technology […]

US Senators, a Vice President, a Camera Man, and a Cop

Former US Senator from Missouri Tom Eagleton passed away March 4th.
I was raised a Democrat so when I was a kid, in 1980, when my mother was working for his campaign, I met him. I vaguely remember the fund raising event.
Over the years, through my mother’s connections (and some of my own) I’ve gotten […]

When VR is AR: Family Style

(or when virtual reality becomes actual reality)
I had a conversation with a close body a couple of weeks ago about how Virtual Reality (VR) will enhance the family experience. His argument was “Why would anybody want to spend any time in an area that just wasn’t real? I’d rather have real life than a made […]

Avatars as Our Agents

Avatars will become our agents, handling all contacts with the world when we don’t want to or when we can’t.
We can’t be everywhere all of the time. But we want to be. Back in the day, we purchased answering machines, and then voice mail. These were (are) a very simple way of communicating to anyone […]