The best thought out, highly strategic and fully communicated battle plan will undoubtedly be re-drawn once the first shot is fired. It’s just the way things work. Rarely (if ever) do we complete a business plan without making significant adjustments from the original.

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I have, from time-to-time, been dragged into a conversation around a corporation’s responsibility toward employees with respect to reductions in force. The implication is that corporations fire people too easily. I don’t think so.

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I remember several company leaders making the statement that “In the long run, there is no long run.” This was said in the context of getting everyone to feel a sense of urgency around making the numbers for the month or quarter.

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In a recent NY Times article, it was announced that Intel Corp. is looking at what to do next since they believe that the PC market is maturing. They are “eying the embedded market” among other things. Seems a bit late to me.

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A newly married couple was beginning their first Sunday meal preparation. The young woman began preparing a wonderful roast of beef while the man was preparing the vegetables. As they worked, the man noticed that the wife sliced off both ends of the roast and then rolled it in spiced flower. Curious, he asked, “Why did you do that?” “Do what?” “Slice the ends off the roast,” he responded, “Does that make it juicier or something?”

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I’ve been listening to the talking heads on the news (I don’t watch TV much any more, I download Pod-Casts of selected news broadcasts and listen on my schedule). One of my favorite political commentators is George Will. He’s been complaining lately that our President is way too visible. He’s tired of seeing him – everywhere.

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In a previous post I mentioned incivility and a growing concern for violence in the workplace. An now there is the horrid news of the plight of Anne Lee who was allegedly murdered by a co-worker at a Yale University Laboratory.

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“The road to hell,” as they say, “is paved with good intentions.” How true is that? In my life, it rings true.

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I’m sure I’ve quoted Justice Oliver Wendel Holmes elsewhere on this blog, and it seems appropriate for my thoughts today as well. Among many things, this most quotable gentleman of the Supreme Court claimed that, “I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side.” Business is, of course, complex in its details and seemingly it gets more so every day.

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I don’t know about you, but I’ve been thinking a great deal lately about our society’s trend towards lack of civility. I started thinking about it years ago when there was a spate of violence in the workplace. Employees, angry at being let go or reprimanded return and shoot co-workers.

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