Day: July 13, 2010

I live in a cool building. Residents leave books, magazines, and nicknacks of all kinds down in the lobby on two community tables. Recently, I picked up several books down there that I’ve been wanting to read, one being The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Stieg Larsson. I’ve been seeing Larsson’s trilogy all over the place – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and The Girl Who Played with Fire are the other two. I haven’t a clue what the books are about; I just love that a man is writing about women actually doing something in the world that’s perceived as risky. And I like the book cover art.

I did read Larsson’s biography on the inside cover. He was the editor of Expo Magazine and a leading expert on anti-democratic activity. He delivered the manuscripts for all three books at once shortly before his death in 2004, having never written a novel before. 6 years later, they are all the rage. I’m sure there’s a story in there somewhere.

Inspired by Larsson’s titles, I did a little hornet nest kicking of my own. Yesterday I went to hear an executive from a Fortune 500 company speak. This executive, while known outwardly as an innovator, has recently been quoted as calling product development in the digital space “chasing shiny new objects.” That phrase makes me giggle. The world isn’t going digital, it’s gone digital. I fear for the people working at this company. In 10 years, despite its current dominance, I’m predicting that it will cease to be a relevant player because of its leader’s short-sightedness on how important digital is to its customer-base.

The Q&A session arrived, and I wanted to ask about the mobile technology projects that were recently and publicly cancelled by the company. When I was younger, I never hesitated to ask questions. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve tempered that impulse a bit, packaging my many questions of my youth in one pointed, more mature question. I asked very calmly about the leader’s thoughts on digital and received the response, “Well we definitely have to win there. I will just DIE if our competition beats us to that space,”she said through a very toothy grin.

If that Q&A session was an episode of The Office, the next frame would show me staring at the camera with a deadpan, bored look on my face. Newsflash Your Executive Excellency: the competition has already beaten you to the space, placed major PR bucks against their new digital products, and you don’t even know it. Your team has my sympathy.

My question had a bit of an agenda, and my agenda, as my pal Kelly would say, was morbid curiosity. It is amazing to me how many people in leadership positions think they’re too busy to be forward thinking. Having a vision, which means knowing where they are, where their competition is, and where the subtle and not-so-subtle shifts in the market are taking place is THE job of leadership.

Though the executive’s answer was hardly fulfilling, I’m still glad I asked. Calling in the Dragons, fanning fires, and disturbing the hornets involves some risk, but I think it’s better to call a spade and spade and understand it for what it really is rather than pretending that bad decisions are justifiable when better decisions are available. I wonder if that’s what Larsson is getting at in his trilogy, too.