- Débrouillard is a French term describing a particularly motivated or effective person
- It's also the name of a science magazine aimed at encouraging pre-teen interest in STEM. Any apparent irony is unintentional
- The cultural affectation of a French title for the blog (and email digest) title is a tongue-in-cheek nod to the history of the French intellectual, as well my time living in Brussels while focused on EMEA for SmartOps
Objectives of blog:
- Deliberate practice of thought, communication, and engagement on topics of interest
- Business development (examples/references of author's work product are generally confidential)
- Mixture of content designed to engage readers while sharing a bit about myself
- Idea generation - distillation of ideas far enough outside the norm to be uniquely interesting
- Idea filter - repository of distinctive links to/from people and things of interest
- Areas of interest include (executable) business strategy, sustainable business models, economics, technology, leadership and governance, pedagogy, psychology, education reform, SaaS, sales operations, aviation, and sailing.
- Academic training is computer science and business including a "Distinguished Teaching Assistant" award in Lester Lave's iconic "Business, Government, and Strategy" class.
- Professional background is "expert generalist" blending deep technical understanding with pragmatic focus on execution at the intersection of business, technology, finance, and operations. Has held various leadership positions in the U.S. Navy, Amazon.com, McKinsey & Company, and SmartOps.
- Independent business consultant since 2011. Mostly follows a "long, thin" model more akin to an interim executive role with specific mandate and scope rather than a traditional external consulting team. This increases long-term capabilities of client teams as slower progress in analysis and problem solving is often surpassed by higher organizational buy-in and faster execution.
- Tends to dive deeply enough into topics to reliably separate true experts from everyday conventional wisdom. E.g. a personal interest in aviation led the author to:
- Become a CFII/MEI
- Train for spins with Catherine Cavagnaro - a PhD in mathematics and the protégée of Bill Kershner, whose airplane is on display at the National Air & Space museum because of his spin research and training
- Train for aerobatics by spending a week living with Greg Koontz, then-chair of the Aerobatic Competency Evaluation (ACE) committee
- Train as an aerobatic judge
- Teaches "Strategic Analysis of Business" core strategy course at Sunstone, India's largest management program for tech professionals
- Leads corporate seminars teaching core consulting skillsets of communication, problem-solving, and strategic planning from a practitioner's perspective
- Posts are intended as long-form "show, don't tell" narration of interesting topics on which the author believes he has a distinctive, supportable perspective. They are (mostly) unedited for style, length, or tone.
- The posts are reasonable illustrations of the author's independent thought processes, not of finished work product
- For obvious reasons, the author will not comment on non-public client work (existing or former) or related issues unless it can be done in a way which maintains confidentiality and protects proprietary knowledge
- The author will disclose any personal/professional experience and/or any facts such as investments or relationships which a reasonable person might conclude would bias his thinking
- Once posted, edits for either clarity or correction will be clearly delineated with
lined out wordsand [18Aug15 dated new additions]. Links may be added without comment if the underlying text doesn't change
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