Tari's Patch

Three weeks in the Gulf - mostly work with some downtime thrown in. There's been a lot going on in the region and at home. Elections took place in Jordan and Israel, the situation in Syria and Egypt ever worsens, World Economic Forum in Davos, the Australian open tennis championships, floods in Indonesia, Algerian hostage situation, David Cameron and That Slightly Delayed Euro Speech, Lance Armstrong's Oprah confession. Lots of voices to listen to, so how to get the right information with just the right amount of opinion thrown in, and learn more? Needs must, I get to discover new bloggers and tweeters and journalists who tell it the way it is - more importantly who explain the complex interactions in this region.  Al Monitor  has been a great new find. Daily lists pop into my inbox with just enough information on top news to give me a sense of what I want to read.  Sultan Al Qassemi  is my favourite new tweeter-find to supplement my staple diet of  Fareed Za...

Dan Edelman, a giant character and patriarch of the PR world, founder of Edelman Public Relations died yesterday. He and his family - especially his son Richard who took over as CEO in 1996, grew the company to the global size and scale it is today. Founded in 1952, it now operates in 66 countries employing over 4500 people with revenues of $637m. Although regularly courted by potential suitors and buyers, they remain fiercely independent. Dan stayed involved in the company right to the end of his life; the legacy he left behind is kept alive not just by the family, it is also embedded in the institutional memory of the firm. No Edelman employee, however junior, would not know the history and the journey the firm has travelled in its 60-year history. I have long been fascinated by family firms, since observing the difference between the seven years I worked for Edelman running its UK operations and the seven years before that, when I worked for a publicly owned corporation. Like i...

I'm often intrigued as to how best to ascribe 'social' and 'commercial' entrepreneurship to organisations. Mostly, a big gulf which separates 'profit driven' and 'social value driven' so the differentials are plain to see. However, sometimes the dividing line is very fine, making it harder for people working inside such organisations (and stakeholders engaging with them from the outside) to distinguish between the two. As individuals join social entrepreneurial organisations to 'do good' and to 'contribute', this can be a little disconcerting. I found Bright Simons' blog What makes Social Entrepreneurs Different  therefore, very interesting and relevant. 

The Wall Street Journal published a thought provoking piece a couple of days ago by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan  In Defence of the CEO  which rang many bells for me, after my recent blog  CEOs - Jekyll or Hyde? Two things particularly caught my eye. On my comments and distinction between celebrity and celebrated CEOs, Ulrike Melmendier of the University of California, Berkeley and UCLA's Geoff Tate 2009 study found that companies performed poorly after their leaders were voted 'CEO of the Year', because of the distractions that came with the fame, like writing a book and hobnobbing at Davos. A truly great CEO cannot be distracted, she must remain a great intelligence gatherer, a great communicator and ultimately a great decider, and meetings are one of her most important tools.  Second, the article points to Harvard's Michael Porter and Nitin Nohria's view of Style 1 and Style 2 distinctions of CEO behaviours.  In their time-use study of 354 Ind...

I met someone recently who I'd only known through Twitter. His personality was nothing like the personality I'd met online or had expected in real life. Not better, not worse, just different - but very different. This made me think about what profilers call the professional mask . We are used to public figures presenting themselves in an image of their own, or their publicists', making. We expect authenticity and integrity from our public figures - so what if they're more gregarious, talkative, smiley, excitable in public than their normal thoughtful, surly selves? So what if they're more offensive, disrespectful, demanding in public then their usual caring and gentle selves? It is a matter of record that mafiosi patriarchs are family loving men who hug and love their children while carrying out violent acts away from home. Politicians need to win over large swathes of the general public - they are after all, voted into office and not appointed by a small number...

Happy New Year! It's been a few years since I've seen in the New Year in Edinburgh. Traditionally we go to the warmth of South East Asia for Christmas so it's been a delight to discover that Edinburgh (and Fife, come to that) is the place for parties around this time. The Scots are known to get pretty excited about seeing in a New Year. They do torchlight processions, fireworks, they walk the cold but beautifully lit streets sharing swigs from their whisky with each other. The first time I came across this more than 15 years ago, I thought it rather cute if a tad unhygienic... The city council is busy bragging that 100,000 visitors will come to Edinburgh for the New Year, boosting the City coffers by £25m over the weekend. Friends around the world are also bragging that their city - Berlin, Dubai, Sydney, London - has the biggest fireworks or the biggest party in all the world. The amount of fun to be had at times like this obviously drives home the pride in one's...