Maelstrom: Martin's Musings

Sun and Amazon

Jonathan Schwartz (Sun) has pre-announced that Amazon and Sun are going to make some big announcements at JavaOne.

Leadership in the Napa Wineries

You would think that wineries that are as progressive in their treatment of grapes might also be progressive in other areas. The more stories that I hear and experiences that I have seems quite the contrary. Wineries, even the larger ones often do not have as many working for them as one might think.  You add in laws about how vineyards and wineries of certain sizes need to keep wine making and grape growing separated, and silos get created.  Silos such as vineyard, marketing admin and tasting rooms seem to keep everything separate.

It seems that management is the key. It is not about creating an environment for good management to occur (leadership), it is about managing situations. This makes for a very reactionary situation. I have not seen a ton of wineries' leadership approach, but enough to know that it rare that they are proactive rather than reactive.

Tags: leadership, management, wineries

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Meaning and Leadership

I was thinking the other day about how there are so many approaches to leadership. I think the key is for the leader to get some type of meaning from their personal leadership environment. The next is how others get meaning from their interaction. A good leader helps others get more meaning from their experiences. If there is no direct personal connection, I think is done by creating an environment where people are most likely to be successful in the organization while at the same time finding the experience most meaningful. Just some thoughts ... I need to ponder on this a little more. The notion here does not seem to be quite coming together.

Tags: meaning, leadership, values, personal, environment

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Bill Clinton's Second Act

AOL seems to be having a couple of blogs / journals on Bill Clinton for their Citizen Journalism Daily Pulse Blog. The piece entitled, "Bill Clinton's Second Act" is trying in part to figure out his post-presidential impact and if it is changing peoples' minds. On the whole (so far) it seems that if you liked him before, you will like him now. And if you did not, you probably do not like him now. I think it might be a little while before we can know for sure.

On the whole, I think that Clinton was a good president. I think the positives out weigh the negatives overwhelmingly. Let's not throw out the baby with the bath water. Post-presidency he seems to have had better positive exposure than any president since Carter.  With some exceptions he seems to have been somewhat apolitical. Time will tell but after a relatively low profile he seems to be having some very positive impact. I think that he might be staying out of the political spotlight as to not overshadow any political ambitions that Hillary might have.

While he was a solid, progressive democrat he was also a consummate politician (and one hell of a campaigner). He would reach across the isle when needed. He wanted to build consensus and get things done. Now that he does not have a "personal" political agenda, it is much easier for him to partner with whomever makes the most sense. He still knows how to command the world stage. Recently, taking the stage with Laura Bush for "play pumps" in Africa (an initiative she is spearheading) at the kick-off for his Clinton Global Initiative roundtable. This is cause for which he is donating millions. He also partnered with President Bush, Sr. on post-Katrina clean up efforts. Let's not kid ourselves, he likes the spotlight. But he also seems to take that light and point towards areas of need.

Tags: president, play pumps, bill clinton, clinton, global clinton initiative, laura bush, bush, water, africa, katrina

Some Leadership Tips...

FREE Leadership Development Tips from The Leaders Institute

The Flu is not just Achoo!

A pandemic's second front - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune

The possibility of an avian flu pandemic is real. In America, President George W. Bush has sensibly proposed a substantial investment to detect, identify and contain the virus, when and where it begins human-to-human spread.

The way of Board Governance?!?

This article in Businessweek by Peter Burrows, talk about how HP is now going to require that Board members to win a majority of shareholder votes. It is interesting almost 'HP way' approach to looking after shareholder interests. However, the board can refuse the resignation. In this post-Enron, Sarbanes-Oxley world it is nice to see this gesture.

It is not quite an earth-shattering move, but it does suggest that there are some leadership moves that are occurring and maybe this will catch to other organizations.

I do not think that this absolves HP of the Compaq merger, but it is at least a start.

Technorati Tags: leadership, governance, HP, Compaq, Sarbanes-Oxley, shareholder, board

October CCL Newsletter

Here is the current version of the CCL (Center for Creative Leadership) newsletter. While I disagree with some of their views on leadership. CCL is a good source of information on leadership. Worth being on their mailing list.

 

Technorati Tags : leadership

 

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Interesting Rumor

Interesting little article from NewsMax.  Rumor: Cheney to Resign; Rice as V.P.

I could definitely see something like this happening. We will know soon enough. I do not necessarily like her poltics but for some reason, I have always been emamored with her. Maybe part of it is that she is from this area (SF Bay Area -- Stanford), or that she is smart as a whip. For that matter, both she and Hillary seem to be more intelligent than the average politico. She seems to have some leadership ability, however, if this plays out we will now for sure ;-) .

 

Technorati Tags : politics, commentary, leadership

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Iran

Reading the beginning of an interesting article in the SF Chronicle about Sean Penn and some colleagues spending a few days in Iraq.