LONDON — I am still a bit disturbed by an interview I read while on holiday. I have no idea why, while off the grid for a fortnight, I managed to read Lucy Kellaway’s interview with Roland Rudd. But I did.
Have a quick read of it and then come back.
Let me start by saying that I have no agenda [...]
PICCADILLY — I sat, tired, with 300 other parents at a school information session about our 13-year-old daughters’ futures. It was exhausting. Not only because school administrators — as a species — don’t seem to be able to speak in public. But because it was really just a parents de-programming session.
The main messages were:
Don’t force your child to take subjects [...]
FULHAM ROAD — I was fairly roundly abused over dinner last night for having this point of view. Apparently many in my generation feel that ‘social convention’ don’t and/or shouldn’t apply to them.
And for anyone doing business I think that’s wrong. Whether big or small, there is no need to be rude if it could limit your business.
1. [...]
MUNICH — I really love meeting people with a similar career path but totally different background. Today I have had a good chat with a top businessman who used to work in German politics, and I loved what he had to say.
Politics, as you know, is bad.
Is that right?
Earlier today someone had said to me, about someone else: “Oh, [...]
OVER THE OLD OTTOMAN EMPIRE — I said years ago that the airport lounge has become the Walden Pond of my generation. It is for me anyway. It’s a place for respite, relaxation and forced reflection. (The two big British fellows putting away a bottle of white a 7h30 this morning might not agree.)
I recognise that [...]
TCR — Here’s a brave soul. Through a network of former Towers Perrin employees on LinkedIn I have just been forwarded a note from Robert Cornet on his blog. I don’t know him. But I admire his willingness to go into dangerous waters.
In his blog on 10 March [...]
"Your bill is ready…"
SIENA — I know that we don’t always get it right. And writing this might mean that I am more likely to get it wrong. But there are a few things that seem to me to be straight-forward in professional services.
If we are charging for time — which we are — then we should [...]
AL DUOMO, FIRENZE — I know how I feel about graffiti on historic monuments. I don’t like it. There is no value in defacing ancient monuments, like Lord Byron famously did at The Temple of Poseidon in Greece.
But as I stumbled, puffin down the 463 steps from the top of the cathedral in Florence this [...]