Life in the fast lane.
The other day, having some time on my hands, I spend the morning in the periodical room of the newly refurbished Wellesley Library. I was reading an article in the current HBR about what management practice really work. The authors had dilligently studied a raft of companies and tracked the successes and failures over a ten year period. They looked at various approaches TQM, Six Sigma, kaizan, ERP,CRM and a host of other trendy practices and methodologies. To put it in a nutshell, it seemed that the successful companies all had a few things in common: a clear focus about the business; a simple strategy that was understood by management, employees, customers and stockholders; strong trusted leadership; and a simple organizational structure. They could find no causal relationship between any of the tools and techniques and superior business performance. Kind of makes you wonder whether all this technology is worth a fiddler's fart.

Well, my summer has been pretty quiet. The garden looks great, I have shed 10 or 12 lbs, and some things in and around the house have gotten painted. My plan to write a mystery novel has bumped into a huge obstacle, namely the lack of a good plot, characters and dialogue. Fortunately my wife is still working, therefore I have the house to myself most of the day. Well, there are the three cats, but they are low maintenance. They sleep 23.5 hours a day, then they chase each other around for 20 minutes, eat, visit the litter box and, exhausted, return to their slumbers.

Next week will mark the end of my third month of unemployment. I am not eager to return to the working life, but my financial situation dictates that I must get a job. I have been through several boom-bust business cycles in the past, and I remain calm about the prospects of eventual employment at a sustainable wage. Well meaning people keep reminding me that I'm not a young fellow anymore. But, I have always believed that talent trumps bias. I'm thinking that even in a bad economy, 94% of the people who want to work have jobs. I think those are pretty good odds.