Friedman versus Senge: The Race for the Green Business Bestseller

My opinion: Tom Friedman will win the bestseller race easily, but Peter Senge‘s book is more important. The good news? They’re both serious about business and sustainability.
Here’s Senge:

And here’s his book: The Necessary Revolution: How Individuals And Organizations Are Working Together to Create a Sustainable World
Check out this interview with Senge>>
And this download>>
And here’s Friedman’s book pitch:

His book: Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution–and How It Can Renew America
His website>>
And finally, a little column from Friedman>>
Exxon, your days are numbered.

Shoe Circus: Gates and Seinfeld take on Google, Apple – er, Goople

Here’s Crispin Porter & Bogusky’s attempt to “bring back” Microsoft:

It’s the first in a series of ads designed to fight Apple’s “Mac vs. PC” comedy show. Will $300 million do the job?
C’mon Microsoft! You can’t let Apple do this to you:

The scary thing is there’s so much more.
The way I see it this isn’t about Vista at all. It’s about the next wave of competition, about how Microsoft will compete against Goople – Google apps on Apple hardware!

Leadership Assessment: What John McCain can learn from GE

Does anyone believe that a Fortune 500 company would pick Sarah Palin as their CEO?
When Jack Welch transformed GE, he introduced several new criteria for evaluating executive leadership and performance. His successor, Jeffrey Immelt went through an exhaustive succession planning (er, vetting) process to replace him.
Here’s a look at GE’s leadership assessment matrix. The key attributes are:
– Vision
– Customer / Quality Focus
– Integrity
– Accountability / Commitment
– Communication / Influence
– Shared Ownership / Boundaryless
– Team Builder / Empowerment
– Knowledge / Expertise / Intellect
– Initiative / Speed
– Global Mind-set
Not bad. Does your company look at leadership this way?
Here are the details:
Vision
– Has developed and communicated a clear, simple, customer-focused Vision / direction for the organization.
– Forward-thinking, stretches horizons, challenges imaginations.
– Inspires and energizes others to commit to Vision. Captures minds. Leads by example.
– As appropriate, updates Vision to reflect constant and accelerating change impacting the business.
Customer / Quality Focus
– Listens to customer and assigns the highest priority to customer satisfaction, including internal customers.
– Inspires and demonstrates a passion for excellence in every aspect of work.
– Strives to fulfill commitment to Quality in total product / service offering.
– Lives Customer Service and creates service mind-set throughout organization.
Integrity
– Maintains unequivocal commitment to honesty / truth in every facet of behavior.
– Follows through on commitments; assumes responsibility for own mistakes.
– Practices absolute conformance with company policies embodying GEI&PS commitment to ethical conduct.
– Actions and behaviors are consistent with words. Absolutely trusted by others.
Accountability / Commitment
– Sets and meets aggressive commitments to achieve business objectives.
– Demonstrates courage / self-confidence to stand up for the beliefs, ideas, – Fair and compassionate yet willing to make difficult decisions.
– Demonstrates uncompromising responsibility for preventing harm to the environment
Communication / Influence
– Communicates in open, candid, clear, complete, and consistent manner – invites response / dissent.
– Listens effectively and probes for new ideas.
– Uses facts and rational arguments to influence and persuade.
– Breaks down barriers and develops influential relationships across teams, functions, and layers.
Shared Ownership / Boundaryless
– Self-confidence to share information across traditional boundaries and be open to new ideas.
– Encourages / promotes shared ownership for Team Vision and goals.
– Trusts others; encourages risk taking and boundaryless behavior.
– Champions Work-Out as a vehicle for everyone to be heard. Open to ideas from anywhere.
Team Builder / Empowerment
– Selects talented people; provides coaching and feedback to develop team members to fullest potential.
– Delegates whole task; empowers team to maximize effectiveness. Is personally a Team Player.
– Recognizes and rewards achievement. Creates positive / enjoyable work environment.
– Fully utilizes diversity of team members (cultural, race, gender) to achieve business success.
Knowledge / Expertise / Intellect
– Possesses and readily shares functional / technical knowledge and expertise. Constant interest in learning.
– Demonstrates broad business knowledge / perspective with cross-functional / multicultural awareness.
– Makes good decisions with limited data. Applies intellect to the fullest.
– Quickly sorts relevant from irrelevant information, grasp essentials of complex issues and initiates action.
Initiative / Speed
– Creates real and positive change. Sees change as an Opportunity.
– Anticipates problems and initiates new and better ways of doing things.
– Hates / avoids / eliminates “bureaucracy” and strives for brevity, simplicity, clarity.
– Understands and uses speed as a competitive advantage.
Global Mind-set
– Demonstrates global awareness / sensitivity and is comfortable building diverse / global teams.
– Values and promotes full utilization of global and work force diversity.
– Considers the global consequences of every decision. Proactively seeks global knowledge.
– Treats everyone with dignity, trust, and respect.
So, how do you measure up?
To me this is another dimension on the Ram Charan / Ben Franklin leadership model I blogged about a while back.
And now, sit back and listen carefully: