Morris had just been hired as the new CEO of a large high tech corporation. The CEO who was stepping down met with him privately and presented him with three envelopes number 1, 2 and 3. “Open these if you run up against a problem you don’t think you can solve,” the departing CEO said.
Things went along pretty smoothly, [...]

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By Jack Ferraro, PMP
In 1995, Pixar Animation Studios released their first blockbuster, Toy Story. As the first ever full-length computer animated film, it represented a breakthrough for the industry and signaled a bright future for the company. In the thirteen years since then, Pixar has enjoyed eight more huge successes – most recently this summer’s hit, Wall E.

Pixar’s [...]

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Mike really wanted to take over the Head of Engineering position that was open. He had managed several teams simultaneously and his staff really prospered by his leadership. He seemed content in his role, but inwardly he wanted to be asked to step up.  When discussions arose about the position in leadership meetings, he just [...]

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Last month, The Financial Times UK had a short article called: Can the new CEO end a culture clash after a merger?  To begin there was no analysis of any cultural / DNA due diligence which would lead to the proper culture strategy but that is a discussion for another time and to be fair beyond the scope of [...]

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Values in Conflict
At 5 a.m. Sunday morning Miriam would get up long before her alarm and take a long walk around the lake. By 7 a.m. she would be dressed and ready to enjoy the rest of her day. She loved her free days. There was so much she wanted to do and did do [...]

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The Altaisins believe that the Shamans (healers, holders of the Truth –the Knowledge) originated from Altai. Many shamans were killed in a meeting years ago –a meeting called to enable peace. Those who listened to their inner knowing did not attend and survived.Of the direct decendents of those original Shamans, only a few remain. [...]

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It really doesn’t matter the size of a change, it causes time delays in all aspects. When Sandy and I realized that we were going to have to update and buy new computers, we seriously considered purchasing the MacBook. There were a number of factors in our decision to finally go with Apple [...]

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The meeting was going poorly. Marcus had laid out his plans for the company. The Acquisition was only days old. Marcus was holding his first on-site meeting with the company acquired and his core team. The purpose of the meeting was to establish transition and integration plans.
Marcus was convinced his strategy was the best [...]

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If you don’t love it you’re going to give up… or you’ll fail…You have to love it with passion.

Steve Jobs, from Part 7 Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, part 2 of 7 YouTube Video, from The Wall Street Journal Executive 2008 Conference.

Anyone looking at Microsoft and Apple, will tell you that they have very different [...]

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We were amazed and pleased to read McKinsey’s recent Integrating steel giants: An interview with the ArcelorMittal postmerger managers. This article actually describes our process and philosophy almost exactly. They are talking about how they (the two people in charge of integration) enabled rapid and successful post-merger integration with significant milestones achieved the [...]

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