The White Rhino Report - “A Marketplace Where Many Diverse Ideas Meet for Coffee!”

A Very Practical Guide for Bridging the Gap between Generations in the Workplace - Review of "Fuse" by Jim Finkelstein with Mary Gavin

2012-01-30T12:50:00.003-05:00

Jim Finkelstein and Mary Gavin have at their disposal a vast database of wisdom culled from decades of consulting, advising and operating a variety of companies. In "Fuse - Making Sense of the New Cogenerational Workplace," they offer a series of practical and easily-applied insights into how to bridge the considerable gap that makes it a challenge for Baby Boomers and Millenials to communicate and co-exist with each other. The major take-away from this useful handbook is that it is well worth the effort that it takes for us Boomers to be able to see the world through the same lens that the Millenial Generation uses. Conversely, the rising generation in the workplace can learn not to dismiss my generation as nothing more than obstructionist dinosaurs who are Luddites and technophobes. In other words, the insights offered in this book allow Boomers to walk a mile in the Crocs of the Millenials; it also enables Millenials to walk a mile in our wingtips!

The vision that the authors share in this book is that we are capable of moving beyond pejorative dismissal of the other generation and move to a place of synergy - where the divergent views and practices of the two generations become complementary and supplemental to one another. In other words, by fusing our separate sensibilities, everyone wins. They share specific examples of individuals and companies that have moved into that "fusion" mindset.

The book is useful to older managers and executives who seek to hire and fully utilize the rising generation of well-educated and creative Millenials. It is also helpful in guiding young workers in how to understand and appreciate older bosses to whom they report.

Enjoy reading and applying the wisdom contained within this useful tool.

A Story That Gets Under Your Skin - Mini-Review of "A Good and Useful Hurt" by Aric Davis

2012-01-30T12:26:00.004-05:00

Aric Davis has drawn deeply from the well of his own experience as a body piercer in Grand Rapids, Michigan to craft a tale that draws the reader into the intersection of the worlds of the denizens of a tattoo/piercing parlor and a serial killer and his victims. When Mike, the owner of the shop, is asked to include a small pinch of the ashes of a deceased loved one into a tattoo that would serve both as a memorial and a psychic connection to the departed loved one, his whole world changes as indelibly as the ink that he uses to decorate his clients. Davis writes with passion and artistry - wielding his pen as skillfully as his protagonist wields his tattooist's needles. The layer of mystical and dream-state connections that emerges after the ashes have been injected take the narrative to a fascinating and metaphysical level.

Enjoy.

Al

Review of "The Seventh Angel" by Jeff Edwards - A Book I Literally Could Not Put Down

2012-01-27T15:25:00.004-05:00

It is not often that I will stay awake until 3:00 in the morning to finish a book, but I could not sleep without learning how the many threads of Jeff Edwards' thriller, "The Seventh Angel," would weave themselves together into a coherent fabric of denouement. Edwards offers a spine-chilling action thriller in the style of Tom Clancy. He demonstrates enough technical proficiency to give himself "street cred," but not so much to get in the way of the galloping narrative and character development.

As a former Navy Chief, Edwards clearly has some strongly help political beliefs, but these passions help to drive the story rather than become off-putting or didactic. The writing is crisp - sometimes even "literary" - and such that I was held in its thrall until the final paragraph.

This book is near perfect. My only quibble is with the author's falling into the all-too-common trap of misusing the word "disinterested" as if it meant "not interested." Technically, the word should only be used to denote "Not influenced by considerations of personal advantage." Otherwise, he handles the language and the drama with the same technical proficiency that the crew of the USS Towers (DDG-103) handles their state-of-the-art weaponry.

The novel's premise is that a rogue Russian Governor of Kamchatka steals nuclear warhead-equipped ICBMs and holds the world's superpowers hostage to nuclear blackmail. Given the state of decay of the former Soviet military arsenal, the premise is frighteningly plausible.

I look forward to reading more of Edwards' offerings.

Enjoy!

Al

The White Rhino Returns to the Stage - Information about "12 Angry Men" at the Players' Ring in Portsmouth, NH - Feb. 17 - March 4

2012-01-26T11:47:00.003-05:00

A number of my friends have asked me for details about my long-awaited return to the stage in an exciting production of "12 Angry Men" at Portsmouth's Players' Ring.

Here are the details. I encourage you to call ahead or go online to reserve your spot. If you are coming from Boston, make a special outing of it and have a meal at one of Portsmouth's fabulous restaurants. Ask me for recommendations.

See you in Portsmouth!

Reserve your tickets by calling the The Players' Ring (603-436-8123) or buying online at www.playersring.org

— with Jamie One-Man Band Bradley, Al Chase, Matthew Schofield, Dave Ostrowski, Eric Doucet, Ed Hinton, Steve Porkpie Hat Johnson, Scott Caple, Brian Kelly and Todd Hunter.

Heinz Spices Up Support for Wounded Warriors

2012-01-24T15:22:00.004-05:00

The other day as I was adding a dollop of ketchup to my hamburger at a local diner (McKenna's at Savin Hill, Dorchester!), my attention was drawn to the "Wounder Warrior Project" logo above. I was thrilled to learn that ketchup aficionados who also want to support our veterans can do so easily by texting "THANKS" to 57000 or by scanning the code, and Heinz will donate $.57 for each customer who responds.

Clicking onto the website also gives you an opportunity to send a quick electronic thank you postcard to a veteran.

Hats off the Heinz for their innovative support of our men and women who have fought all over the globe - including Vietnam's "Hamburger Hill."

Take a minute to respond right now.

Al

Harvard Business Review article by Anne Kreamer: "The Business Case for Reading Novels"

2012-01-24T15:13:00.002-05:00

In a recent Harvard Business Review article, Anne Kreamer writes convincingly about the business case for reading fiction:

"I've been a devoted, even fanatical reader of fiction my whole life, but sometimes I feel like I'm wasting time if I spend an evening immersed in Lee Child's newest thriller, or re-reading The Great Gatsby. Shouldn't I be plowing through my in-box? Or getting the hang of some new productivity app? Or catching up on my back issues of The Economist? That slight feeling of self-indulgence that haunts me when I'm reading fake stories about fake people is what made me so grateful to stumble on a piece in Scientific American Mind by cognitive psychologist Keith Oatley extolling the practical benefits to be derived particularly from consuming fiction."

I encourage you to read the entire article. If you already read fiction with gusto, it may remove some of the guilt that occasional creeps in about "wasting time." If you are not a fiction reader, it may give you a bit of a push to try it out. It could add to your bottom line!

(Click on the title above to engage the link)

I concur with her comments about Dickens' "Bleak House":

"Charles Dickens, Bleak House — Dickens' tenth novel explores the human cost of prolonged litigation through the eyes of Esther Summerson, who is caught up in a multi-generational dispute over the disposition over an inheritance. Anyone who has ever been entangled in a lawsuit will revel in the characterization of the process. At the time of publication, 1852–1853, public outrage over injustice in the English legal system helped the novel to spark legal reform that culminated in the 1870s."

Enjoy!

Al

How Black is Black Enough? Review of "Erasure" by Percival Everett

2012-01-24T14:42:00.002-05:00

The writing of Percival Everett is new to me, but if "Erasure" is a fair sampling of his work, I will be back for second helpings soon. In this sardonic novel, he points a critical and satirical eye at what it means to be Black in America, what it means to be a "Black Writer," and how an educated artist who happens to be Black can find his way in this world. Using the ironic pseudonym of Stagg R. Leigh - a tip of the cap to the iconic Stagger Lee mythology in the Black community - the protagonist, Thelonius "Monk" Ellison dashes off an outrageous short novel voiced in pseudo-Ebonics. The book is a surprise hit, and Ellison-Leigh must decide ow to respond to the success while hanging onto a modicum of pride.

Along the way, Everett takes a swing at the worlds of academia, publishing, literary awards, popular culture and what it means to be "Black enough."

The writing is razor-sharp, challenging, acerbic and profoundly entertaining. Is it a comedy,a tragedy, or a political and sociological commentary? You decide.

Enjoy!

Al

Review of a Remarkable Novel by Neal Stephenson: "Reamde"

2012-01-16T18:48:00.003-05:00

Neal Stephenson reeled me in with his remarkable novel "Cryptonomicon." Since then I have also discovered the Baroque Cycle. I love the way in which he uses his broad erudition as a polymath to inform both the content and the style of his novels. This behemoth book of over 1,000 pages is worth its weight in the "gold" that is traded in the novel's multi-player game entitled "T'Rain."

The plot pinballs back and forth among several settings and rapidly shifting clots of characters - from Seattle to China to Manila to British Columbia to the wilds of Idaho. Along the way, we are exposed to a band of young Chinese hackers who launch a computer virus that steals money and encryption keys, the Russian mafia, an Al Qaeda affiliate terrorist cell, the off-the-grid apocalyptic crowd in the mountains of Idaho, a fascinating extended family with roots in the heartland of Iowa, and finally a couple of intelligence officers who have gone rogue. The pace of the narrative is breathless and the writing is engaging and exhilarating.

My only quibble with this delightful tome is that the denouement - an OK Corral-style shoot-out in the mountains and mines of the Idaho-British Columbia border area - seems too protracted. But that is a minor point. Overall, I loved this novel and its colorful and memorable cast of characters.

Enjoy!

Al

I Am in an Umberto Eco Mood - Review of "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana"

2011-12-17T14:54:00.003-05:00

Ever the didactic professor - even when wielding the novelist's pen - Umberto Eco explores how memory serves to lead us out the the metaphysical fog that often enshrouds us. "A sixty-ish Milanese antiquarian bookseller nicknamed Yambo suffers a stroke and loses his memory of everything but the words he has read: poems, scenes from novels, miscellaneous quotations." Eco manages to take this plot device and weave a tale that is a very personal recollection of what it must have been like for him to grow up in the Italy of World War II. Political intrigue often emerges from Yambo's fog-bound memory as images from his childhood trigger nostalgic excursions through the past.

Hovering over the entire enterprise is Yambo's unrequited love for the unattainable object of a high school crush - Lili, the memory of whose face he struggles to recalls as he lies dying in a comatose state. An initial cerebral incident had left him bereft of personal memories. Back home in his ancestral home of Solara, he slowly regains a sense of perspective and history through the books, records, movie posters and comic books he discovered sequestered throughout the villa. His final discovery of a priceless original Shakespeare folio triggers his ultimate cerebral vascular accident. The final chapters take the reader inside the mind of the dying Yambo as he speeds through a dizzying kaleidoscope of real and imagined images - all the while groping for the elusive image of Lili's face. These final chapters - and Yambo's final apocalyptic thoughts and memories - are presented (in typical Eco style) as a parody of the Book of Revelation.

The novel is a moving and irreverent conceit in which Eco opens the kimona and shows us not only his special mind but also his complex heart.

Enjoy "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana."

Al

Another Masterpiece by Umberto Eco: Review of "The Prague Cemetery"

2011-12-17T13:16:00.002-05:00

Umberto Eco is a professor of Semiotics at the University of Bologne, and a brilliant novelist and essayist. I consider myself to be reasonably well-educated, but I must confess that I needed to look up "semiotics" to fully understand what this academic discipline is all about. In brief, it is a branch of philosophy/logic that examines how we use symbols and signs to create order and meaning - in our own minds and in our communication with others. Learning that truth helped me to see Eco's novels in a new light; he explores the manifold uses of symbolism in a unique way in each of his works of fiction

In the "The Prague Cemetery," he offers up a broadly drawn satire that pokes fun at all kinds of racism and prejudices. He also demonstrates our propensity to make order of the world by making lists; he seasons almost each page with some sort of list - often a list of ingredients that his gastronomic characters have ingested at a sumptuous Paris eatery.

In this latest novel, he limns a strange tale that weaves together historical characters, like Sigmund Freud, Garibaldi, Napoleon III, operating in fictitious relationships and dialogues. He illuminates in harsh spotlights historical conspiracy theories that have the Freemasons, the Jesuits, the Jews conspiring - sometimes separately and at other times in combination - to rule the world. The historical contexts include a once-in-a-century secret meeting of rabbis in a Prague cemetery, and the long struggle to unite the various segments of Italy into a united nation.

The story is told through the dual voices of a multiple personality protagonist. Eco's way of thinking and writing may be an acquired taste, but I have acquired the taste with great gusto.

Enjoy!

Al

A Deeply Moving Tale of Fatherhood - "The Good Father" by Noah Hawley

2011-12-15T16:34:00.002-05:00

Sometimes you can tell something about a book by its cover. I must share the experience I had when I opened the package from Amazon that contained the volume "The Good Father." I was struck by the Scotch tape that appeared to be holding together a torn front cover. I was shocked, because I have come to expect Amazon book to arrive in pristine condition. Then, upon closer reflection, I saw that the cover had been printed to look as if it had been torn, and a piece of real Scotch tape had been added to complete the illusion. As I began to read this remarkably moving book, I was looking for an explanation of the meaning of the torn cover. I discovered the link on page 222. The narrator, a father who is agonizing over the mystery of why his teenage son would choose to assassinate the leading Democratic candidate for President, is remembering a camping trip they had taken together years earlier:

"Later, I lay in the tent listening to the sound of his breathing. It was a sound I hadn't really listened to in years, the rhythmic sighs of my eldest son as he slept. He had been a baby once, needy and small, but that time had passed. Where had it gone? How can life move so quickly? Now he was a fifteen-year-old boy with a teenager's mustache. Now he was a book with a torn cover. I had known him once, his tiny body, the energy of his smile, the smell of his breath, but he slipped away from me." (Pages 222-3)

In looking for clues to his son's behavior, Dr. Paul Allen becomes obsessed with getting inside the minds of other notorious assassins. In the course of the novel's development, this troubled father comes face to face with his fatherly failures, and comes to grips with the many layers of questions regarding to what degree we as parents are able to shape - or misshape - our progeny. This is an unblinking examination of what it means to live with the results of the choices that a flawed, all-too-human parent makes - choices that have profound influence on a malleable son.

Author Noah Hawley has crafted a masterful tale that I found deeply moving and thought-provoking.

Enjoy!

Al

Review of "The Power in a Link: Open Doors, Close Deals, and Change the Way You Do Business Using LinkedIn" by Dave Gowel

2011-12-13T15:33:00.004-05:00

After serving his nation as an Army officer, West Point grad Dave Gowel, CEO of RockTech, made the decision to turn his multiple talents to the business world. Along the way, he discovered the under-utilized utilities of LinkedIn, and made himself an expert in the use of this amazing social networking tool. Dave has probably forgotten more about the use of LinkedIn than many of us will ever learn. He has discovered applications of the tool that even LinkedIn's founders were unaware of.

Prior to co-founding his software company, RockTech, Mr. Gowel devoted part of his previous consulting practice to teaching business men and women how to maximize their ability to leverage LinkedIn to grow their businesses and professional networks. I have been privileged to participate in some of the workshops that Gowel performed for business leaders since 2008.

In this book,"The Power in a Link: Open Doors, Close Deals, and Change the Way You Do Business Using LinkedIn," he has distilled the most important lessons and offers them to business users of LinkedIn. Whether you are a LinkedIn neophyte or an experienced user of the tool, I guarantee that in reading this book, you will discover new tricks and methodologies for maximizing the ways in which you are able to use LinkedIn to grow your business and to enlarge and improve your professional network. This book makes an excellent gift - first as a gift to yourself and then to colleagues and clients.

I know you will enjoy this book written by my good friend, Dave Gowel.

Al

Brewing Up A Job Opportunity - Andrew Russo's Business Is Growing

2011-12-07T15:30:00.004-05:00

My friend, Andrew Russo, is an Army veteran who has made a successful transition to the private sector and has launched his own company, Captain's Coffee Brewers. He is now ready to create a sales force, and he prefers to hire other veterans. See his description below.

"Since leaving the Army in 2009, I have sought to build a unique and new coffee experience for the Boston area. My company has seen many changes and grown to require a sales associate to aid us as we expand a new product line to cafes, stores, and grocers. We are seeking veterans who are just exiting military service and desire a strong foundation to help them transition to civilian life. We want to offer more than just a job, but an experience where you will have the opportunity to learn about the coffee industry and connect with other small business owners.

Our goals is to bring our cold brewed coffee and coffee blends to customers in the Greater Boston area. These include our Cold Brewed Iced Coffees and Specialty Coffee Blends. The primary responsibility of this position is to seek out new business within the parameters set forth by the company. This position requires representing our company in the appropriate areas surrounding Boston, MA and candidates must live in that vicinity.

Talents We Require

· Ability to maintain accurate records of all sales and prospecting activities including sales calls, presentations, closed sales, and follow-up activities within their assigned territory, including the use of Microsoft Outlook to maintain accurate records to maximize territory potential

· Participates and contributes to the development of educational programs offered to clients, prospects and company employees

· Identify opportunities consistent with the objectives, priorities and
strategies of assigned customers

· Maintain an awareness of new and existing businesses in their region, effectively establishing which ones are possible customers."

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Compensation is purely commission based at the moment, with a 90 day and 180 review, with salary and compensation beyond commission once sales are being generated.

This is an opportunity I want to present to veterans, especially JMOs and non-coms.

If you or another veteran is interested in talking to Andrew, contact me and I will put you in touch with him.

achase47@gmail.com

Click on the link contained in the title to visit the Captain's Coffee Brewers website.

Al

Halogen TV - A Force for Positive Influence Using Reality TV

2011-12-07T14:09:00.004-05:00

"Does Reality TV Do More Harm than Good?" This was the topic of a televised debate recently recorded in NYC by Halogen TV. The competing teams represented two Ivy League stalwarts - Harvard University vs. Columbia University.

The reason that I was present at this special occasion is that I had played a small role in putting the producers at Halogen TV in contact with the Ivy League debate teams. My friend, Marcus Cheong, suspected that somewhere within my arcane networks there might exist some connections with the world of Ivy League debate; his suspicions were correct.

Prior to the event, I had known very little about Halogen TV, but what I learned that evening in Soho inspired me. As part of the event, Halogen TV Founder, Becky Henderson shared her vision, which is captured concisely in this vision statement from their website:

"Halogen TV is an empowering television network that entertains and motivates individuals looking to be the change they want to see in the world.

Halogen TV is a network that’s about much more than entertainment. Our aim is to be a platform for social good where people can connect with their purpose and with each other. This is our story …

Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian political and spiritual leader who lived at the turn of the 20th century and is attributed to a lot of inspiring quotes, including “You must be the change you want to see in the world.”

We couldn’t agree more.

The truth is that change is everywhere. People are waking up to the many and myriad needs around them and taking positive steps to help make the world a better place.

The difficulty is that everywhere you turn there’s a new need, cause or request for donations. Needs are global. They’re local. They’re everywhere and they’re overwhelming. All the noise on the Web and in the media leaves you unsure about what to support or if it will even make a difference.

You want to use your talents, skills and money to give back in meaningful ways. But where should you start? Consider Halogen your filter.

Our network and website tell the stories that matter to people looking for information, inspiration and ideas on how to make a difference where they are, with what they already have. We’re a multi-author collaborative community where our viewers have a voice alongside the newsmakers and trendsetters. We provide the latest and best news of positive social change around the globe and give you the inside track of how to get involved."

To watch the debate, click on the link contained in the title of this article. And check out some of Halogen TV's other offerings. They area growing force for good in this world.

Enjoy!

Al

Review of "Connection, Community & Conversation: Making Social Media Work for Your Business" by Glenn Gaudet with Jeff Kimball

2011-12-06T13:17:00.004-05:00

I enjoy it when a respected author becomes a friend of mine. I love it even more when a friend of mine becomes a successful author. So, I am pleased to offer this review of an excellent new book on effective business uses of social media - written by my friend Glenn Gaudet, Founder and CEO of GaggleAMP. Along with his collaborator, Jeff Kimball, Glenn has published "Connection, Community & Conversation: Making Social Media Work for Your Business."

There are many things that make this book a worthwhile purchase and read. Gaudet and Kimball bring a literary style to the writing of this book that one does not often find in a "business book." This quality made the reading of the book even more enjoyable than I had anticipated. In less than 100 pages, the authors offer a concise history of the history of social media in a business setting. They also describe a number of best practices by highlighting and championing several executives - many of whom are current GaggleAMP clients - who are using the amplification capabilities of social media to plump up their top and bottom lines.

With the holidays coming up, I suggest you buy a copy for yourself and several more to share as gifts for colleagues, clients and family members who are in the business world.

Here is a brief description of what you will encounter when you read this helpful volume:

"A quick, informative and even entertaining look at what it really takes to make social media work for your business. The book, written by a pioneer in the use of social media for business and the founder of GaggleAMP, provides clear direction on how you can leverage social media to meet specific business objectives. You'll learn the dos and don'ts of a successful social media campaign, and learn from fellow businesspeople who have built successful social media efforts in their companies starting in most cases from scratch. You'll see why social media is the single most important and cost-effective marketing tool to use during rough economic times. You'll see how others have used social media to generate growth. If you know you need to "do" social media, but you're just not sure how, this is the one book you need buy."

Enjoy!

Al

Our Tax Dollars at Work - In a Positive Way: The Center for Company-Level Leaders

2011-11-17T10:58:00.006-05:00

As Congress continues to wrangle over budgetary concerns, I have some good news to share about some positive ways that our tax dollars are being invested. I recently spent time on the West Point campus, visiting with friends, including Major Jason Wayne, Operations Officer for the unique Center for Company-Level Leaders. CCL started out as a grass roots initiative by young Army captains to share best practices, known as ww.companycommand.com. After initially trying to squash this effort, the Army thought better of their opposition and brought the fledgling operation into the Army tent as part of its training regimen. During my visit to the CCL, Maj. Wayne introduced me to Colonel Peter Kilner, one of the visionaries who conceived of the concept of using recent battlefield experience to help train young company commanders and platoon leaders. The center is engaged in a fascinating form of knowledge management that uses a variety of interactive learning modalities to bring the realities of the battlefield to Wet Point cadets and other young officers in the making. Small groups of cadets are show videos of real world situation that have developed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The group is led by a battle-tested facilitator through a series of "what would you do?" discussions, and then they are shown how the situation was handled in real time on the battle field.

In addition to the training videos, CCL publishes books like "A Platoon Leader Tour," a compilation of reflections by platoons leaders during a year-long deployment in Iraq. The candor of these young officers is striking, and very helpful in giving cadets a sense of what they will face once they graduate. A similar book is offered to Company Commanders, "Taking the Guidon."

Our nation already boasts the best trained Army in the world. The efforts of CCL will ensure that we continue to build on this success and to improve upon it using the lessons being learned across the globe. I feel as if my tax dollars are being well spent.

(Click on the title to access the CCL website.)

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Center for Company-level Leaders (CCL) CCL" src="http://companycommand.army.mil/aboutccl/images/newGuidon.gif" align="middle" width="100">

We are a growing network of leaders who are sold out to the cause of serving platoon leaders and company commanders across the Army.

Our vision is to connect leaders in conversation about leading Soldiers and building combat-effective teams, with the direct purpose of improving leader effectiveness and, from a larger perspective, advancing our profession.

Welcome to your professional forum! CC IS company commanders. We are a grass-roots, voluntary forum that is by and for the profession with a specific, laser-beam focus on company-level command. By joining, you are gaining access to an amazing community of professionals who love Soldiers and are committed to building combat-ready teams.

A Case Study in Transition from USMC to Harvard to The Business World

2011-11-17T10:21:00.005-05:00

My friend, Michael Buonocore has recently had the experience of transitioning from the Marine Corps to graduate school at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, and recently to the daunting task of finding a job.

His reflections in the article below tell the good, the bad and the ugly of his road to transition.

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The prospect and process of finding a job is daunting. Trying to understand where to even begin, sorting through Internet advice columns, and putting yourself on the market like a mere commodity is difficult at best and emotionally damaging at worst. I would like to warn you, though, that if you are just beginning your job search, it will likely get worse before it gets better.

Interviews without callbacks, rejection letters, and simply not getting any response to applications you spent hours crafting will inevitably dent your pride and have you questioning your own self-worth.

Transitioning military personnel are particularly susceptible to feelings of self-doubt. After all, you commanded troops in combat, were responsible for millions of dollars worth of equipment, entrusted with national security secrets, and you did all of that really damn well. So you can’t help but wonder why a hiring manager who hasn’t had a fraction of the responsibility you’ve had won’t even respond to your application. It kills you or, if you haven’t started the job hunt, know that it will kill you. I know this pain intimately from experience and know it well.

I spent just about four years in the Marine Corps as an infantry officer. During my time I did two combat deployments (one on a MEU and one to southern Afghanistan) and managed to earn the respect of my Marines, peers, and senior officers. I had a great run and loved every minute of it but I always knew that I wanted to return to civilian life when my time was up.

I returned home from Afghanistan in June 2009 and started a Master of Public Policy program at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government in August of 2009. At the time, it was my dream to become a State Department diplomat so that I could help Washington sort out all of its Afghanistan problems, because I had all the answers.

I was very fortunate to land a summer stint working for Ambassador Holbrooke on the Afghanistan desk in between my two years at the Kennedy School. Unfortunately, I learned that working at the State Department, and for the federal government in general, was not what I wanted to do after I graduated.

I returned to Cambridge a little dissatisfied with the way the State Department approached problems and became very interested in how we can use the private sector and market mechanisms to solve those problems more efficiently. That is how I got involved with the Boston/Cambridge startup scene and ultimately what led me to found my own company.

I would be disingenuous, though, if I did not admit that one of the driving factors behind my decision to start my own company was that I simply could not find an interesting job. Even though I was working on my company during my second year of graduate school, I was still applying to jobs in the hopes that I could find something.

In fact, I applied for 26 open positions. Of those 26, I interviewed for two positions, received rejection letters from a handful of others, and simply heard nothing back from most. Totally dejected by the process, I set out to chart my own course.

I ran with my company as hard as I could for just over a year, but when I returned home from a month-long business stint in LA this past October I decided to seek out new opportunities. This was a hard decision for me and it was made even more difficult because my previous foray in the job market was still fresh in my mind. I didn’t know if I was ready for the doubt and humiliation that so many of us have endured before.

I had no choice, though, and so I started to send out my applications. This time I applied for a total of 13 positions over the course of two weeks, had interviews with three different companies (and even more requests), and received a job offer. Not only did I get offered a job, but I am starting at a company that I find incredibly interesting and whose mission I fully support. My job there is a significant one and the compensation is very fair. I haven’t even started yet and my colleagues have already started reaching out to me, making sure that I know that I am a part of a fantastic team. I am humbled by the opportunity and simply cannot be more excited about it.

While Serendipity was certainly on my side this time around, I also became a much better job applicant – and I hope that sharing the lessons I learned will make you a better applicant as well.

Below are some of the more important lessons I learned after applying to a total of 39 positions, listed to roughly correspond to the actual job hunting process. None of them are particularly groundbreaking but I am very confident that when I followed them, and executed them well, I became a much more compelling candidate.

The Resume: It is time-consuming and annoying, but you should have a different resume for every position. You should analyze every bullet point you have on your resume and make sure that it shows, in one way or another, how you are fit for the job and how your past experience is directly relevant.

This was certainly challenging for me as I tried to make parallels between my military experience and the positions for which I was applying. I found that it was extremely helpful to talk to someone who was in a similar position or field to help me find those parallels. I would simply talk to this person about what I had done in the past and s/he would say, “Oh, that’s just like what we do here.” I found that it was important to find those parallels and made sure to use the use the appropriate vocabulary so the hiring manager understood them immediately.

I also found that I had a better response rate to my resume when I put a very brief summary (two punchy sentences) at the top of my resume. This summary gave me the opportunity to properly frame my experience before the hiring manager started to look over it. The hiring managers whom I dealt with did not have military experience and (I’m guessing) that it is hard for people who don’t have military experience to conceptualize how your military experience is at all relevant to whatever field they are in.

The Cover Letter: I found that the response rate to my cover letters went significantly up when I sacrificed a bit of formality for direct language. The internet is littered with examples of ineffective cover letters, but because there are very few examples of good ones, there is little reliable guidance available for people like us.

I actually stumbled upon this lesson by accident. After not getting any responses to my cover letters, I kind of adopted this “I don’t care, I’m going to say it like it is” attitude. I dropped some of the formality (blandness) and wrote exactly what I could do for the company and why I thought I could do it. Of course I did so in a respectful manner but I did my best to ensure that the hiring manager had no questions as to why I thought I was great for the job. To my surprise, I started getting calls.

The Interview: As I mentioned earlier, this time around I interviewed with three different companies before receiving the offer I wanted – and I certainly got better with each successive interview.

Preparation is the key to success and by the time my last interview rolled around, I had spent a full day and a half preparing for it. I thought through the questions I knew would come up (tell me a little about yourself; why do you want to work at this company/in this position; talk about a time you failed; what’s your biggest weakness; etc.) but I went beyond that.

I first researched everyone who I was going to be interviewing with. A simple Google search will often times tell you how old someone is, where s/he went to school, if/how s/he is involved in the community, and the person’s work history. They have your resume so I think it’s helpful to have theirs, just so you know where the person is coming from and what their interests might be.

I also wrote down exactly what I would do during my first week on the job. Having this prepared not only provides answers to potential interview questions, but I think it shows that you are forward thinking and ready to hit the ground running; I think it demonstrates that you don’t need explicit direction to get started, which, in turn, shows that you really are qualified for the job.

The last, but probably the most important, aspect of interview preparation comes in the form of choosing and rehearsing your life stories that illustrate who you are personally and professionally. I received this piece of advice from Dr. Chase and I am very confident that it enabled me to effectively communicate the skills and ethos I proclaim to have.

For example, I have a 5-principle leadership philosophy that I strive to adhere to in any work environment. Principle 1 is “Lead from the front.” For us military folks, that is a familiar phrase and we know what that means in principle and in practice. But for someone who has never heard it before, it sounds interesting but the meaning is still kind of abstract.

Instead of trying to talk through the meaning of this principle, I prepared a story that demonstrated it. I had told this story to Dr. Chase a couple of days before my last interview as funny anecdote and he immediately told me that I need to work it into my interview because the story reveals more about me than I could otherwise explain.

The short version of the story is that after Hurricane Katrina hit, I went down to Louisiana and worked as a Red Cross shelter manager. People often forget that another hurricane, Rita, forced all of the Katrina victims who had fled to the coast of Texas to come back inland. This pushed our shelter to more than double our normal operating capacity.

One contingency that no one foresaw was that Rita would knock out our power and water. We had over 800 people and a total of 16 toilets, none of which were working for about two days. People had their needs, though, and they continued to use the toilets. Needless to say, after two days we had some cleaning up to do – and I was willing to lead the charge.

I made this story light and it really is kind of funny in retrospect, and it accomplished two very important interview goals. First, it effectively communicated what I mean when I say that I lead from the front. Second, when I walked out of my first round interview I overheard some people talking about it, which meant that I had left a lasting impression.

The story was effective because it eliminated the ambiguity of a concept that I was trying to communicate. In the military, we tell war stories for many reasons but it is rare that we use them as a way to explain our personal competency or our success. It is unnatural, and almost feels exploitative, to tell our stories in the pursuit of personal gain, but stories are more captivating, interesting, memorable, and revelatory than just about any other communicative device. Your stories are yours and they are, in large part, what has shaped and defined you – and there is no disservice in telling them when motivations are genuine.

These are only some of the lessons I learned during my job search but I am optimistic that they might help you. Transitioning from the military to civilian employment can be brutal, and that is what you should expect. Handshakes and pats on the back are plentiful when you get out but favors are few and far between. I firmly believe that my job search success was due to equal parts luck, determination, and applying the lessons learned from each failed application or interview to the next one.

The road ahead will likely be full of bumps, potholes, and a couple of accidents. But we’ve all experienced challenging times in the past and, like those, you will overcome these hard times as well.

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Thanks to Mike for his honest sharing about his journey. Feel free to forward this article to anyone you know who is contemplating a similar transition from military service.

Al

"If You Don't Know the Story, You Can't Lead. . ." General Mark Welsh, Commander, US Air Forces in Europe

2011-11-16T22:06:00.005-05:00

Earlier today, Dr. Scott Snook shared with me this incredible video of a recent briefing delivered to the cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

If you will invest 50 minutes of your time watching this video, you may learn something new about leadership. This is an extraordinary speech that was just given at that US Air Force Academy. You will be move, humbled and inspired.

"Why didn't I know about Laurie? If you don't know the story, you can't lead."

"Leadership is a gift; it is given by those who follow."

Will you make a difference?

(Click on the title to link tot he video on YouTube.)

http://youtu.be/hFBpxB5zgnY

Al

Review of "Dove Season" by Johnny Shaw

2011-11-15T22:13:00.001-05:00

Johnny Shaw teaches writing, which is altogether fitting and proper, since he really knows how to write. In the blurb on the back of the book, author Tana French captures the essence of Shaw's style: "Shaw is excellent at creating a sense of place with a few deft strokes . . . he moves effortlessly between dark comedy and moments that pack a real emotional punch, and he's got a knack for for off-kilter characters who are completely at home in their own personnel corners of oddballdom."

In "Dove Season," Jimmy Veeder returns to California's God-forsaken Imperial Valley to attend to his dying father, and then all hell breaks loose. Here is a sample of Shaw's style and view of the world:

"From far away these dinosaurs were roadside behemoths, but up close they were nothing more than shoddy construction, chipping paint, and exposed chicken wire. To be crystal clear, I'm not saying that when we look at monsters up close we find that they are truly fragile. And I'm not saying that strength from a distance can often revealed as a facade, protecting one's small weaknesses. What I'm saying is that those dinosaurs needed some spackle. Simplistic metaphors are for people who take fortune cookies to heart, need something to say to their book club, and believe that love conquers all. Things are never more than exactly what they seem. We all could use a little spackle." (Pages 3-4)

Enjoy this adventurous tragedy.

Al

A Beautifully Told Tale of English Manners and Intrigue - Review of "The Stranger's Child" by Alan Hollinghurst

2011-11-05T13:32:00.005-05:00

I love discovering for the first time authors who know how to wield the English language as a paintbrush. So I was thrilled to be introduced to Alan Hollinghurst, winner of the Man Booker Prize for "The Line of Beauty," who now offers up "The Stranger's Child." I loved the book.

One the reasons I so enjoy reading Dickens is that his place descriptions and vividly drawn characters pull me instantly into another world and an other time. Hollinghurst does the same thing with his latest novel. He clearly has been influenced by the best writing of E.M. Forster (he quotes Forster in the opening epigraph of one of the book's chapters). The mix of English countryside, convoluted plot, sexual intrigue and ambiguity, eccentric characters - "stylish but not fashionable" - made me feel as if this story would have made a wonderful Merchant-Ivory film. Throw in an odd vicar or two, and I might have felt I had been transported back to Tunbridge Wells. The feel of the story also is reminiscent of a touch of "Gosford Park" and "Upstairs/Downstairs." Much of the action takes place on two estates - "Two Acres" and the more grand and grotesquely Victorian "Corley Court." The narrative spans several generations of two families whose lives and loves are intertwined in a dizzying array of relationships and assignations. At the core of the story, an ambitious biographer digs beneath the surface to learn the truth about Cecil Valance, a young poet who was killed in France in The Great War.

The story is beautifully and lovingly told, while the author dips his satirical pen in the inkwell of British mannerisms and classism. He has whet my appetite to want to discover the others novels he has already published.

Enjoy!

Al

Wise Counsel from Seth Godin for Job Seekers - How to get a job with a small company

2011-10-31T12:09:00.002-05:00

Seth Godin can always be counted upon to offer succinct and practical wisdom - in his books, Blogs, websites, and personal appearances. Today's Blog posting offers some of the wisest advice I have yet seen on how to find a job with a small company. I am pleased to pass along his thoughts:

How to get a job with a small company

Most advice about job seeking is oriented around big companies. The notion of a standard resume, of mass mailings, of dealing with the HR department--even the idea of interviews--is all built around the Fortune 500.

Alas, the Fortune 500 has been responsible for a net loss in jobs over the last twenty years. All the growth (and your best chance to get hired) is from companies you’ve probably never heard of. And when the hirer is also the owner, the rules are very different.

1. Learn to sell. Everyone has sold something, some time, even if it’s just selling your mom on the need for a nap when you were three years old. A lot of people have decided that they don’t want to sell, can’t sell, won’t sell, but those same people need to understand that they’re probably not going to get a job doing anything but selling.

Small businesses always need people who can sell, because selling pays for itself. It’s not an expense, it’s a profit center.

2. Learn to write. Writing is a form of selling, one step removed. There’s more writing in business today than ever before, and if you can become a persuasive copywriter, you’re practically a salesperson, and even better, your work scales.

3. Learn to produce extraordinary video and multimedia. This is just like writing, but for people who don’t like to read. Even better, be sure to mix this skill with significant tech skills. Yes, you can learn to code. The fact that you don't feel like it is one reason it's a scarce skill.

Now that you’ve mastered these skills (all of which take time and guts but no money), understand the next thing about small businesses--they aren’t hiring to fill a slot. Unlike a big company with an org chart and pay levels, the very small business is an organism, not a grid. The owner is far more likely to bring in a freelancer or someone working on spec than she is to go run a classified help wanted ad.

And many small businesses are extremely bad at taking initiative that feels like risk. They’d rather fill orders than take a chance and go out prospecting for a person who represents a risk. And that’s your opportunity.

When you show up and offer to go prospecting on spec, offer to contribute a website or a sales letter or some sales calls--with no money on the table--many small business people will take you up on it, particularly if they are cash-strapped, profit-oriented and know you by reputation. (Please don't overlook that last one).

Hint: don't merely show up and expect a yes. It's something you earn over time...

The rest is easy. Once you demonstrate that you contribute far more than you cost, now it's merely a matter of figuring out a payment schedule.

This is probably far more uncertainty and personal branding than most job seekers are comfortable with. Which is precisely why it works.

Seth's Blog

AOCI - A New Facebook Community for Military Veterans

2011-10-31T11:57:00.003-05:00

My friend, Joe Rhyne, has taken the initiative to create a Facebook application that allows military veterans to network in a professional way. I see it as a "virtual Officers' Club." Here is how Joe describes the vision for AOCI:

America’s O’Club of Industry (AOCI) is an exciting new Facebook application for former and current U.S. military officers interested in professional networking. With a quickly growing membership base, the application offers a great way for officers to connect and interact. Members can:

Search user profiles by location, industry, company, education and more
Message other members even if you’re not Facebook friends
Read reviews of employers and graduate programs submitted by AOCI members
Join a variety of veteran message and job boards, and more…

This app is novel adaptation of the Facebook environment for the military community, and fills an important niche in the social media world. The apps founders have created a guest account for me and I've already invited a number of my Facebook friends who are current/former U.S. military officers. Membership is invite-only, so if you are a qualified friend and I have not invited you, please let me know and I'll send you an invitation.

I look forward to meeting you on-line at AOCI.

Up Close to the Pope - Review of "The Pope & The CEO" by Andreas Widmer

2011-10-30T09:33:00.002-05:00

Andreas Widmer stands in a unique position to comment on the leadership lessons that can be gleaned from examining the life and vocation of Pope John Paul II. A young Widmer served in the Swiss Guard as one of the Pope's personal body guards. In that role, he saw the Pope in many "unguarded" and intimate moments, and came away deeply moved by this rare man of prayer and action. Later in his life, Widmer has had opportunities to experience success in the business world, including stints serving as a CEO. He thoughtfully and prayerfully distills his recollections of the wisdom of John Paul II and applies those lessons to his business life - and by extension offers advice to readers who seek to combine business with faith.

It makes sense that the book's priorities reflect those things that Pope John Paul II emphasized in his teaching and in his practice. Widmer gives his reader an extensive discussion of the concept of vocation. Those already familiar with the Roman Catholic theology of vocation will instantly relate to the ways in which the author discusses his own deepening understanding of his business career as an expression of his vocation from God. Those who come to the book from other faith traditions will have to work a bit harder to fully apprehend the threefold concept of vocation, but it is work well worth doing.

This book is a welcome addition to the small library of thoughtful works that seek to seamlessly weave together deep faith and a passion for business.

Mini-Review of "The Garden of Last Days" by Andre Dubus III

2011-10-28T14:15:00.003-05:00

Ever since I was introduced to "The House of Sand and Fog," Andre Dubus III has been one of my favorite contemporary authors. As he made clear in his recent memoir, "Townie," (recently review in this Blog) he has spent the better part of his lifetime coming to grips with his own internal rage.

As a result, he is able to tap into the rage of the colorful characters he creates in his novels and short stories. "The Garden of Last Days" is tour de force page-turner. I sped through the book's 535 pages in just a few days because I could not wait to find out how all of the threads and characters would be woven together at the denouement

Dubus has pulled off a very difficult feat; he has created a cast of characters who are all perennial losers and are, for the most part, unlikeable. Yet I found myself caring about each one, and wondering if the end of the book would find them alive, dead, happy, bereft, lost or reconciled. Picture the cast of characters you might expect to encounter at 2:00 AM in a 7-Eleven at a desolate Florida strip mall and you have the crew that the author has created for this story. A stripper with a three year-old daughter is forced to bring the child to the club one night because the usual babysitter has been rushed to the hospital with a possible heart attack. The events that ensue, including the little girl's abduction and the stripper's encounter with a future 9/11 terrorist, show the underbelly of American life. One of the remarkable achievements is the author's ability to let each character speak with a unique and authentic voice that allows the reader to empathize - if not agree with - the character's view of the world.

I continue to work my way through all of Dubus' writing. I have yet to be disappointed with anything I have read that he has authored.

Enjoy!

Al

A Strong Follow-uo to "The White Tiger": REview of "Last Man in Tower" by Aravind Adigo

2011-10-27T14:52:00.004-05:00

Aravind Adiga made a splash with his Booker Prize-winning "The White Tiger." With his most recent novel, he solidifies that strong reputation. This complex story of a group of Mumbai inhabitants who stand in the way of an overly ambitious developer brings the reader deep into the sounds, smells and ethos of this bustling Indian metropolis. This is a story of greed, murder, community ties and community dissolution in the face of strong pressures. The story is beautifully told and resonates with the thoughtful reader both at a personal and a macro level.

Here is a vivid example of Adiga's distinctive writing style. It shows his ability to capture both personal and societal features with his keen eye:

"The other customer at the table - Masterji noticed him now - a gaunt, middle-aged man in a dirty blue shirt, looked Muslim because of his beard. Masterji guessed he was one of those who had been pulling carts on the road - he thought he could even identify the man's wooden cart resting against the door of the cafe. The labourer picked a biscuit from the stainless-steel plate and chewed. Gone with it, he breathed, picked a second biscuit, and chewed. Each movement of his bony jaws spoke of fatigue; the permanent fatigue of men who have no one to care about them when they work and no one to care about them after they work. The thin body broadcast a raw animal silence. Middle-aged? No. His hair was greying at the edges, but youth had only recently been exorcised from his face. Twenty-seven or twenty-eight at the most. Masterji watched this young man with sunken, shocked eyes and barely enough strength to lift one milk biscuit at a time. This is his daily life. Pulling that cart and coming here for these biscuits, he thought.

The tired Muslim man returned Masterji's gaze. Their eyes met like foreign languages, and the labourer, without moving his lips, spoke at last." (Page 301)

I plan now to read all of Adiga's novels. His is a voice worth listening to.

Enjoy.

A Story About Always Giving Thanks - Eddie Rickenbacker and the Seagulls

2011-10-20T09:53:00.003-05:00

Years ago when I was a kid and just beginning to devour books, I came across a biography of Captain Eddie Rickenbacker and the story of how he and his crew survived a plane crash in the Pacific. I have never forgotten the details of that story, and was thrilled when my friend Matt shared an update.

Read the vignette below, and give thanks!

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All,

A good story to keep life in perspective.

Matt

SERE story - Old Eddie

Old Eddie - a neat, inspiring story

This is a true story. I had never heard it before. Hope you appreciate it
and want to pass it along. See verification at the end.

It happened every Friday evening, almost without fail, when the sun resembled
a giant orange and was starting to dip into the blue ocean.

Old Ed came strolling along the beach to his favorite pier.. Clutched in his
bony hand was a bucket of shrimp. Ed walks out to the end of the pier, where
it seems he almost has the world to himself. The glow of the sun is a golden
bronze now.

Everybody's gone, except for a few joggers on the beach. Standing out on the
end of the pier, Ed is alone with his thoughts...and his bucket of shrimp.

Before long, however, he is no longer alone. Up in the sky a thousand white
dots come screeching and squawking, winging their way toward that lanky
frame standing there on the end of the pier.

Before long, dozens of seagulls have enveloped him, their wings fluttering
and flapping wildly. Ed stands there tossing shrimp to the hungry birds. As
he does, if you listen closely, you can hear him say with a smile, 'Thank
you. Thank you.'

In a few short minutes the bucket is empty. But Ed doesn't leave.

He stands there lost in thought, as though transported to another time and
place.

When he finally turns around and begins to walk back toward the beach, a few
of the birds hop along the pier with him until he gets to the stairs, and
then they, too, fly away. And old Ed quietly makes his way down to the end
of the beach and on home.

If you were sitting there on the pier with your fishing line in the water, Ed
might seem like 'a funny old duck,' as my dad used to say. Or, 'a guy who's
a sandwich shy of a picnic,' as my kids might say. To onlookers, he's just
another old codger, lost in his own weird world, feeding the seagulls with a
bucket full of shrimp.

To the onlooker, rituals can look either very strange or very empty. They can
seem altogether unimportant .... maybe even a lot of nonsense.

Old folks often do strange things, at least in the eyes of Boomers and
Busters.

Most of them would probably write Old Ed off, down there in Florida . That's
too bad. They'd do well to know him better.

His full name: Eddie Rickenbacker. He was a famous hero back in World War
II. On one of his flying missions across the Pacific, he and his
seven-member crew went down. Miraculously, all of the men survived, crawled
out of their plane, and climbed into a life raft.

Captain Rickenbacker and his crew floated for days on the rough waters of the
Pacific. They fought the sun. They fought sharks.. Most of all, they fought
hunger. By the eighth day their rations ran out. No food. No water. They
were hundreds of miles from land and no one knew where they were.

They needed a miracle. That afternoon they had a simple devotional service
and prayed for a miracle. They tried to nap. Eddie leaned back and pulled
his military cap over his nose. Time dragged. All he could hear was the slap
of the waves against the raft.

Suddenly, Eddie felt something land on the top of his cap.

It was a seagull!

Old Ed would later describe how he sat perfectly still, planning his next
move. With a flash of his hand and a squawk from the gull, he managed to
grab it and wring its neck.. He tore the feathers off, and he and his
starving crew made a meal - a very slight meal for eight men - of it. Then
they used the intestines for bait.. With it, they caught fish, which gave
them food and more bait......and the cycle continued. With that simple
survival technique, they were able to endure the rigors of the sea until
they were found and rescued (after 24 days at sea...).

Eddie Rickenbacker lived many years beyond that ordeal, but he never forgot
the sacrifice of that first life-saving seagull.. And he never stopped
saying, 'Thank you.' That's why almost every Friday night he would walk to
the end of the pier with a bucket full of shrimp and a heart full of
gratitude.

Reference: (Max Lucado, "In The Eye of the Storm", pp..221, 225-226)

PS: Eddie started Eastern Airlines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Rickenbacker

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FYI - for those of you not familiar with the writings of Max Lucado, he consistently tells these kinds of inspiring stories in his books on faith.

Enjoy!

Al

Boston-based Sales Opportunity - Finite Element Simulation Software

2011-10-17T14:06:00.005-05:00

Check out this interesting opportunity to pioneer the U.S. market for a Danish medical simulation software company.

Please forward to qualified persons in your network.

Boston-based Sales Executive for Danish Medical Device Software Company

Our client company has made a strategic decision to strengthen its presence in the US market and have set-up a US subsidiary in Boston. Until now we have primarily been servicing the US by traveling out of our office in Denmark. For this we are seeking the first full time employee for our US operation.

You will be the first full time employee in our US team. This requires that you have a high degree of self motivation and drive. We expect the office to grow with a couple more people in the coming year, but that will to a high degree depend on the results you can achieve. You will not be alone. We are a highly skilled and dedicated group of people, who has already achieved significant results in our field and we will of course support you in the effort. You will be expected to travel to Denmark for initial training and get to know our team.

The primary focus for you will be to win US based orthopedic implant and device company accounts, selling them the company’s simulation software. Therefore, a track record of successfully selling to these types of companies will be seen as a strong advantage. There will also be other relevant customers to sell to on ad-hoc basis. Prior success in selling simulation software will also be an advantage in this job. You will be presenting our technology to the customers and you find it challenging to translate technical features into customer benefits. An understanding of how musculoskeletal simulation adds value to the CAE market and a clear vision for the future role of it will absolutely be an advantage.

Most of all you get a kick out of getting the deal done.

Main responsibilities

Establish the company as the #1 vendor of choice for musculoskeletal simulation in the industry in US
Drive short-term and long-term market penetration
Identify and make contacts with potential customers
Run the sales process (software and projects) from start until final closing of the deal
You will have a personal revenue target
Participate in various sales related conferences
Identify and influence key opinion leaders in the industry

Personal qualifications

Ambitious and with a desire to make a difference for us and our customers
Comfortable with driving the sales process from the very first phase
Personal integrity
Strong presentation skills both in one-on-one and group environments.
Feels comfortable with selling on all levels in the customer’s organization.
Strong team spirit
A pragmatic approach in how to engage with the client and create value for him or her

Significant traveling in the US as well as occasional visits to the Company HQ in Denmark must be expected and seen as a plus to the job.

General qualifications

BS Degree required, advanced degree desirable
Five to 10 years sales experience required
Ability to travel internationally
Knowledge of finite element modeling software is a must have
Knowledge of medical devices and medical R&D is a plus

Compensation

We will offer the successful candidate a competitive starting base salary, with variable compensation tied to achievement of mutually agreed upon goals and other benefits to be agreed upon.

About The Company

Our customers are spread out over the whole world and are typically prestigious universities in our field of business and top tier commercial companies within the Automotive and the Orthopedic world. We are recognized as the market leader in simulation software for Musculoskeletal Analysis.

Qualified candidates only, send MS-Word resume and cover letter to:

Dr. Al Chase - achase47@gmail.com

In the cover letter, highlight the aspects of your career that directly match specific items in the job description, salary history and expectations, and openness to relocation to the Boston area.

The Good Ship Red Sox Is Taking On Water and Going Down Fast

2011-10-12T13:36:00.004-05:00

There are many reasons for choosing the motif of the Titanic sinking to capture the current state of my erstwhile favorite baseball franchise.

Fenway Park opened in April of 1912 - the same week that the doomed ocean liner met its fate at the bottom of the cold Atlantic.
Like the 2011 edition of the Red Sox, who were labelled entering the season by the Boston Herald as "The Best Team Ever," the Titanic was touted as "unsinkable."
The Titanic came to grief after encountering a physical object - an iceberg - that should have been anticipated; the Red Sox fell victim to a chilling series of physical injuries that better conditioning may have prevented.
Both "ships" foundered in large part because of the hubris of owners and designers who spent recklessly and failed to include enough lifeboats to deal with potential disaster. Theo should have done a better job shoring up the leaky bullpen and decimated starting rotation.

This morning's Boston Globe included a disturbing column by Bob Hohler:

http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2011/10/12/red_sox_unity_dedication_dissolved_during_epic_late_season_collapse

The current state of affairs is disastrous on more levels than I have time to enumerate. Here are a few bullet points that highlight some of the self-inflicted wounds:

The second highest payroll in MLB missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year.
The players stopped listening to Tito Francona, so he was the first sacrificial lamb to go after the historic September collapse.
The highly touted starting rotation let themselves get out of shape and had a collective ERA in September in the neighborhood of 6.00.
They abandoned the dugout during crucial games as the team was desperate to hang onto a playoff berth, retreating the the club house to play video games, drink beers and scarf down fried chicken. Animal House seems exemplary by comparison.
The General Manager, Theo Epstein, is decamping to Chicago to take over the helm of the long-suffering Cubs.
The owners and senior officials (read John Henry, Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino) have apparently decided to continue their scorched earth policy of leaking damaging details about anyone leaving the organization. Tito Francona is merely the latest victim of their despicable smear tactics.
The team has spent 10 years refurbishing Fenway Park and the Red Sox brand. In two weeks time, they have undone all of that hard work and turned the Sox once again into the laughing stock of major league baseball.

This lifelong Red Sox fan is officially disgusted and disgruntled. This band of rogues - those playing fast and loose with professional responsibility and integrity - on the field and in the offices on Yawkey Way have betrayed their fandom. They will now have to win back my trust, loyalty, mind share and love. I am not sure they even would know how to go about doing that, or would even acknowledge how much damage they have done and continue to do to the most rabid and loyal fans in baseball.

Shame upon them.

Go Sox - go away!

Sadly.

Al

Gladwell Does It Again- Mini-Review of "What the Dog Saw"

2011-10-12T11:26:00.002-05:00

Each time I read a book written by Malcolm Gladwell I find myself quoting him in conversations for the next several months. He finds topics to write about that intersect perfectly with concerns that my business associates and friends and I talk about. He has done it again with "What The Dog Saw," a compilation of his best columns from The New Yorker.

Here is a case in point. This week I received a frantic call from a friend of mine who is training to be a professional musician. He was stressing out over an upcoming recital in which he had to revert to a style of singing that he had not used for a while. In practice he did fine, but in preliminary performances for a small audience, he felt as if he was "choking." I was able to quote from one of the chapters of Gladwell's book in which he analyzes examples of spectacular failure, looking at the difference between "choking" and "panicking." Now that I have finished reading the book, I will be mailing it today to my friend. Once he reads Gladwell's word, I am sure he will be "singing a different tune"!

Enjoy!

Al

An Honest Look at the Aftermath of a Tragedy: Review of "Haiti After the Earthquake" by Dr. Paul Farmer

2011-09-30T13:58:00.003-05:00

Dr. Paul Farmer, Partners in Health and its sister Haitian organization Zanmi Sante, have transformed health care delivery in rural Haiti. When the earthquake shook Haiti to its very foundations in January, 2010, Farmer and his colleagues were jolted out of the "comfort zone" that they had established in and around rural Cange, and were confronted with the need to respond to the overwhelming acute medical needs that the earthquake had created in urban Port-au-Prince. This book represents Dr. Farmer's reflections one year after the earth-shaking event. His thoughts are supplemented beautifully by colleagues who were impacted in their own way by the ramifications of the earthquake.

Farmer speaks authoritatively from a variety of perspective - as head of a successful NGO, as the Deputy to Bill Clinton in the UN's Office of the Special Envoy to Haiti, as a expert in public health and epidemiology. The book sheds light on many of the decisions and actions that were taken in the hours and days after the earthquake, and the ongoing struggle to respond to what Farmer call an "acute upon chronic crisis" in helping Haiti move from rescue and recover to "building back better." For those of us who love Haiti and its people, this is a "must read" book, for it chronicles with great detail the ways in which the Haitian government, the U.S. government, the international community and NGO's interact with each other. The author has strong opinions about how things should work going forward, so the book is both descriptive and prescriptive. One would expect nothing less from a physician than for him to sign his name to a prescription pad to help alleviate Haiti's suffering.

Like the history of Haiti itself, this memoir is a mixture of despair and hope. I recommend it highly for anyone who wants a glimpses behind the curtain of what is happening (and not yet happening) in re-building Haiti.

Tim Wakefield's 200th Win Was Not the Best "Feel Good" Story at Fenway on Tuesday Night - The Real Hero in the House

2011-09-15T11:24:00.004-05:00

In the wee hours of Monday morning, the Red Sox came limping home after a disastrous road trip to Toronto and Tampa. The pressures of the pennant race had freshly squeezed the juice and the life out of them at Tropicana Field, where they were swept by the Rays. As the Sox prepared for a make-or-break-the-season home stand, they were in serious need of a transfusion of energy or a transplant of heart.

The home stand opened at Fenway on Tuesday evening with Tim Wakefield taking the mound for his eighth attempt to reach a significant milestone - his 200th major league victory. Twice he gave up leads, but the Red Sox bats finally came to life and eventually led to an 18-6 shellacking of the Blue Jays and the long-awaited victory by the veteran pitcher. The crowd roared its appreciation and love for their hero, the venerable knuckleballer, Tim Wakefield.

While most of the eyes and camera lenses at Fenway Park were trained on the baseball hero as he made his curtain call in front of the Red Sox dugout, another significant milestone was quietly being celebrated in Section 21 behind home plate. A gracious lady from Chattanooga, Tennessee was pointing to the man seated next to her, and proclaiming, "Here is the real hero."

Here is the short version of this wonderful feel good story of God's grace.

This lady from Tennessee had been battling leukemia, and was losing the battle. Her doctors told her that a bone marrow transplant was her only hope. Family members and friends were tested, but none proved to be a suitable match or potential donor. The family and their church family continued to pray, and finally, a man living in the Boston area was found to be a close enough match. The bone marrow transplant procedure took place, and did the trick. The lady's cancer went into remission, and she returned to health and the vibrant life she was accustomed to living.

Her son plays minor league baseball for the Colorado Rockies, and he had the idea that his family could thank the donor by treating him to a game at Fenway Park. He contacted the Red Sox organization, and they made the event possible, providing prime seats behind home plate for the bone marrow donor, the recipient and her baseball-playing son.

I was privileged to be sitting in the same area, struck up a conversation with the son, and learned of the special occasion that was quietly playing itself out. His mother and the donor were meeting face-to-face for the first time to celebrate this miracle. It was clear in speaking to the son and the mother that their strong faith had also played a key role in her recovery, along with the life-giving marrow.

While 38,000 vociferous fans were celebrating the remarkable exploits of someone who throws knuckle balls better than almost anyone in major league history, a few of us were celebrating what had happened when life had thrown a curve ball to a family from Chattanooga.

It was a special moment.

If you click on the link on the title of this piece, it will take you to the Dana Farber website that explains the procedures for registering to become a bone marrow or stem cell donor. Why not take a few minutes now to click and set yourself up to be added to the roster of those who may be given an opportunity to pitch in and save a life.

God bless.

Al

Re-post of New Logic Blog Piece on "Characteristics of Good R&D Leadership"

2011-09-13T11:31:00.004-05:00

John Cass of New Logic recently interview me about "Characteristics of Good R&D Leaders."

His summary of our conversation was just posted on the New Logic Blog:

New Logic Blog

Enjoy.

Al

A Lifeline for Aspiring Writers - Mini-Review of "The Forest for the Trees" by Betsy Lerner

2011-09-05T17:00:00.002-05:00

Betsy Lerner has recently updated and revised her acclaimed work that is subtitled: "An Editor's Advice to Writers." Lerner herself has worked as a poet, editor and literary agent, so she brings a 360 degree view to the task of advising aspiring writers.

This is not a "how to book," on writing, but rather a carefully written work full of pithy anecdotes about authors, editors, agents, publishers, publicists, booksellers and the rest of the pantheon of individual needed to put a well-written book into the hands of a reader.

The author lovingly and frankly shares with her readers the good, the bad and the ugly lessons she has learned first-hand and vicariously in several decades of inhabiting the publishing world. As someone who writes on a regular basis and who is intrepidly plodding along on writing a novel, I found her advice both practical and heartening. She does a wonderful job of describing the idiosyncrasies of writers of every stripe, identifying common obstacles - lifestyle-related and psychological - that can trip up an aspiring writer.

Her love for literature,for the written word and for the peculiar type of person who is compelled to write books comes across loud and clear. It feels that we writers have someone in our corner on an otherwise sometimes lonely and hostile planet.

Enjoy!

Al

"War Horse" at Lincoln Center's Vivian Beaumont Theater - Puppetry Raised to an Ineffable Art Form

2011-09-03T12:14:00.005-05:00

I recently had a chance to see the remarkable play, "War Horse," which was transported from London's West End to New York's Lincoln Center. I am going to continue quoting Ben Brantley, the New York Times critic whose words I borrowed in yesterday's review of "Porgy and Bess." He captures beautifully the essence of the sensation that is playing to sold-out houses at Lincoln Center.

"It takes a team of strong but sensitive puppeteers to bring Joey, a half-Thoroughbred who is sold into a World War I cavalry regiment, to life-size life. And it is how Joey is summoned into being, along with an assortment of other animals, that gives this production its ineffably theatrical magic. Steven Spielberg is working on a film version of “War Horse,” a 1982 novel for children by Michael Morpurgo. But nothing on screen could replicate the specific thrill of watching Joey take on substance and soul, out of disparate artificial parts, before our eyes.

This enchantment is the work of the designers Adrian Kohler and Basil Jones, for the Handspring Puppet Company, based in Cape Town. And the spell cast has been strong enough to turn “War Horse,” which originated at the National Theater in London, into a runaway West End hit. A show that might otherwise have registered as only an agreeable children’s entertainment has been drawing repeat grown-up customers, who happily soak their handkerchiefs with wholesome tears."

NY Times Review of "War Horse"

Steven Spielberg found this story, drawn from a children novel, so compelling that he is making it into a blockbuster film to be released in theaters this coming Christmas holiday season.

In my seat at the Beaumont Theater , I watched the puppets that represent the horses come to life. As the puppets began to breathe, suspension of disbelief occurred instantaneously, and for the rest of the evening, I thought of them and related to them emotionally as if they were real horses. Like Peter Shaffer's iconic play, "Equus," "War Horse" darkly explores the cruelty that we human beings are capable of perpetrating against these majestic beasts.

Tickets for "War Horse" are difficult to score, but it is worth the investment of time and money. I am sure the film will be memorable, but seeing the horse puppets come to life is well worth the price of admission.

Enjoy.

Al

A Refreshing New Production of "The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess" at the A.R.T. - Audra McDonald Soars!

2011-09-02T14:28:00.005-05:00

For the past few weeks, a firestorm of controversy has been whirling around the anticipated opening of the revisionist production of "The Gershwins' Porgy & Bess" at the American Repertory Theater. A.R.T. Artistic Director, Diane Paulus, who also serves as Director for this production of "Porgy," granted an interview to the New York Times. Paulus and her co-collaborators, Suzan-Lori Parks and Diedre Murray, along with 4-time Tony award winner, Audra McDonald, talked in depth about the creative process, and of "revising and excavating" Gershwins' iconic opera. That interview moved the controversy from the category of "tropical depression" on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale to that of a full-blown Category 4 Hurricane bearing down on the coast of South Carolina with landfall at Catfish Row in Charleston. Stephen Sondheim, venerable Broadway composer, huffed and puffed in a letter to the Times. The letter was in the form of a screed, excoriating Paulus et al. for their effrontery in presuming that they could improve upon the original version. Sondheim's high dudgeon act was offered without him having seen the piece. Sondheim, of all people, should understand the truth that "art isn't easy"! At least he could have given them time for "finishing the hat" before opining on the cut of the show's jib. The ensuing controversy ratcheted up the already feverish anticipation of the show, and so many journalists from around the country and the world asked for press credentials that the A.R.T. was forced to offer two Press Opening. I attended last night's second Press Opening.

So, having already been tried in the kangaroo court of public opinion and social media chats, the show finally presented its case this week to a jury of audience members and theater critics. The verdict was instantaneous: Not Guilty of the charges of Desecrating a Classic Work of Art. As soon as the curtain fell, a slowly-building wave of audience members rose to their feet like a tide being pulled to shore by the gravitational tug of the moon. By the time of the final curtain call, even the normally reserved critics were on their feet applauding what we had just witnessed.

What had we witnessed? Well, first of all, we had seen Bess fully realized as she must have been imagined by Dubose Heyward and the Gershwins when they created the tragic anti-heroine. Audra McDonald was simply transcendent. I cannot improve on the eloquence of Ben Brantley of the New York Times in describing Ms. McDonald's achievement in the role of Bess:

"Ms. McDonald’s performance is as complete and complex a work of musical portraiture as any I’ve seen in years, fulfilling the best intentions of Ms. Paulus and Ms. Parks. A four-time Tony winner for her work in both musicals and plays, Ms. McDonald combines the skills of a great actress and a great singer to stride right over any perceived gaps between the genres of musical and opera.

Though her emotion-packed soprano has rarely been more penetrating or (dare I add?) operatic, Ms. McDonald makes you forget whether she’s speaking or singing the words of the loose-living, terminally conflicted Bess, who improbably but persuasively falls in love with Porgy (a dignified but hamstrung Norm Lewis). You just know that you feel what she’s feeling at any given moment, and that it is often unbearably painful."

NY Times Review

Other cast members had their day in the sun. Nikki Renee Daniels as Clara opened the show with a stunning rendition of "Summertime." David Alan Grier of "In Living Color" fame was believable and entertaining as Sporting Life, avoiding the stereotypical buffoonery that the role has invited in the past. His renditions of "It Ain't Necessarily So," and "There's a Boat That's Leaving Soon." were highlights. Phillip Boykin is appropriately menacing and vocally powerful as Crown, Bess's bete noire and enslaver. Norm Lewis plays a quietly dignified Porgy. The choice to have him hobble on a cane rather than being pulled by the traditional goat cart worked well. In the age of the Americans with Disabilities Act, audiences can relate to someone struggling to get around with a cane; a goat cart would not have worked in this production. Andrea Jones-Sojola as Strawberry Woman offers a voice in "Street Cries" that was ethereal, beginning off stage and then moving gracefully onto the set with her basket of fresh strawberries for sale.

The creative team must have had fun inserting a line that gives a "wink wink, nudge nudge" to Broadway cognoscenti. Natasha Yvette Williams plays Mariah, the "Earth mother" of the Catfish Row community. The same actress had also played the role of Sophia on Broadway in "The Color Purple." In that show, she sings a show-stopping number entitled "Hell No!" By writing a line of dialogue that includes "Hell, no!" the writers of this production of "Porgy and Bess" simultaneously offer a nod to the "The Color Purple" and also signal to the audience that this show is as much musical theater as it is opera.

I must mention the set, and in so doing, humbly disagree with some of the critics. I applaud the choice to use an abstract minimalist depiction of Catfish Row. By refusing to recreate the realistic Gullah ghetto of previous productions, the director has uprooted the show from a specific place and broadened the application so that it tells the stories of many oppressed and struggling African-American communities. The action appears to take place within the bleached and rotting hulk of what could have been a slave ship - run aground on the shores of South Carolina. The implicit message is that all of these struggles- poverty, hopelessness, alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, denigration of women, con men and their games- is part of the detritus of the system of chattel slavery run aground in the days of Reconstruction. the Great Depression and beyond.

The ship's hull features a prominent gash that runs at an oblique angle. The angle of that gash exactly matches the angle of a scar that runs along Bess's left cheek. That scar is her back story, silently bearing witness to her years of abuse at the hands of men like Crow. Whether the matching of the angle of her scar with that of the ship's gash was an intentional artistic choice or not, the juxtaposition of the two blemishes ties Bess's personal pilgrimage to the larger journey of all the women of her ilk.

Many yearss ago, I sat through a four hour production of "Porgy and Bess." I think it was the Trevor Nunn production. I felt then that I should like it because of my love for Gershwins' music and my love for theater. But the pace of the show dragged and I never really felt connected to the characters who were more opera singers than true actors. I was unmoved. Last night, I saw and heard real people singing and dancing real songs about their real lives - and I was deeply moved. What a difference.

The show will be running in Cambridge through October, and then will move to Broadway in December or January. I hope you will have a chance to see it and make your own judgment.

A.R.T. Website

Enjoy!

Al

A Real Spy Tells a Tale of Espionage in the Field: Review of "The Maverick Experiment" by Drew Berquist

2011-08-30T08:19:00.003-05:00

In the tradition of Ian Fleming and John Le Carre, Drew Berquist is a former intelligence officer and contractor who has chosen to tell a tale of spy craft in Southwest Asia. It is clear that he is using this novel, and the entire Maverick series, to make a political point about the deleterious effects of bureaucracy and political correctness tying the hands of our intelligence community. His polemical bent notwithstanding, he tells a tale that is worthy of being read.

Derek Stevens is called out of early retirement to lead a Maverick team to do the black ops dirty work that the CIA cannot afford to have its own employees do. Berquist writes with the voice of one who has been there and understands the labyrinthine ways of the intelligence community and Special Ops. His well-told tale of the Maverick's team's exploits in Afghanistan and Pakistan kept me on the edge of my seat.

I look forward to the next book in this series.

Enjoy.

Al

Lithgow's Vivid Memoir - Review of "Drama: An Actor's Education"

2011-08-29T16:24:00.003-05:00

I have long appreciated and admired the acting of John Lithgow. I thought he was superb on Broadway in "Requiem for a Heavyweight." His role as the transgendered nurse in "The World According to Garp" was transcendent. And there have been many more memorable roles - onstage, TV and on the silver screen.

This memoir of his evolution as an actor and as a human being is a wonderful example of his skill as a story teller. John Irving gets it right in his blurb for the book: "John Lithgow's memoir is more than an insider's view of his craft. Lithgow likens acting to storytelling, and he's a wonderful writer. I loved this book."

The bulk of the book is taken up with Lithgow's early years at Harvard, New York and London. HE shares wonderful and transparent anecdotes of his relationships with Mike Nichols, Liv Ullman, Meryl Streep, Bob Fosse, Brian De Palma and many other luminaries of the entertainment world.

Lithgow's complex relationship with his father is a thread that weaves itself throughout thew narrative.

This book is a must-read for lovers of acting and storytelling.

Enjoy!

Al

Hitting Just the Right Notes: Review of "Wunderkind" by Nikolai Grozni

2011-08-29T12:53:00.004-05:00

Nikolai Grozni's dark novel is a revelation. Drawing deeply from his own experience as a concert pianist in Soviet era Bulgaria, he uses music as a metaphor throughout the book to show the bleakness of the life of a gifted music student under the oppressive thumb of an Eastern Bloc regime. Having spent considerable time in several for Communist nations, I can attest to the fact that Grozni hits just the right notes in painting vivid word pictures of characters, places and attitudes. The story is a heart-rending tale of the gifted young pianist, Konstantin. He struggles to make sense of his musicianship, the pedagogy and oppression of the Sofia Music School for the Gifted, the soul-dead apparatchiks, the crumbling infrastructure of his city and the wider world locked behind the Iron Curtain, and his myriad relationships with peers and older citizens.

The heart of the struggle is revealed in the quotation from Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" that opens the novel: "What is hell? I maintain that it's the suffering of being unable to love." The action of the novel unfolds like a Chopin etude, consonances and dissonances interwoven as Konstantin and his cohorts grope around in the dark to discover where love and meaning may be found. The tale is one of grayness with surprising interludes of beauty - emblematic of life in Sofia and beyond in those hopeless days before the end of the Communist era.

Grozni writes beautifully and evocatively:

"This was the temple of the robots, of science and reason, of empirical hallucinations and ideological hemorrhaging. This was where the smell of embalmed corpses and pickled contempt came from. The smell of never-ending war. The fact of the matter was, we were all still at war - only by now the battlefield had moved from the fields and the streets into our brains. We had been forced to dig trenches around ideas and big words. We had built fortifications to protect the permitted centers of thought. We had isolated our subversive tendencies with barbed wire. What a great time to be alive! Lunatics to the west, lunatics to the east. On both sides of the thought divide, people hid in shelters, clinging to their meager rations of reality. What should it be? The champions of greed or the harlequins of misery? The priests of selfishness or the heralds of the disposable soul? The grateful slaves of plenitude or the conniving experts of government-sanctioned kitsch? Take your pick." (Page 90)

I am not sure if Grozni is deliberately offering a nod to the writing of Robert Conroy, or if they have simply drawn inspiration from the same muse, but they both use a lovely metaphor to demonstrate the ineffable loveliness of music:

Conroy “The Lords of Discipline”: ". . . the window through which the bright, lovely petals of Mozart dropped into the garden.” (Page 21)

Grozni: ". . . the rose petals floating in Mozart's sonatas . . ." (page 151)

The novel is clearly overtly autobiographical. The author reflects his upbringing in Sofia, as well as his sojourns studying and living in Boston and India. Equally adept at keyboarding on his laptop or sitting at a Steinway, Grozni fingers both the white keys and the black with great artistry. The chords of his writing are major, minor, diminished and augmented. This is a book that will be appreciated by artists as well as by students of the human condition. I look forward to his encore.

Enjoy.

Al

Jimmy Breslin Brings to Life "Branch Rickey"

2011-08-28T17:57:00.002-05:00

I have always known of Branch Rickey as the genius behind the machinations that brought Jackie Robinson to the Major Leagues. Breslin always writes with a working class New York accent, and he does so in this intriguing biographical sketch that brings the colorful Rickey back to life. Breslin uses the investigative skills that won him a Pulitzer Prize to discover the forces that brought Rickey from the poor boy from Ohio with a strong personal faith and transformed him into the iconoclastic pioneer who changed the complexion and the trajectory of baseball for all time.

This is a book for anyone who has a love for baseball and a desire to understand an important chapter in our nation's history of race relations.

Enjoy!

An Anatomy of Rage: "Townie" by Andre Dubus III

2011-08-28T17:18:00.003-05:00

I became a fan of the writing of Andre Dubus III when I heard him read from his landmark novel, "House of Sand and Fog." So, I was excited to learn that he had penned a memoir. "Townie" is a remarkable achievement of transparency and vulnerability. I think of it as an anatomy of rage - how Dubus learned to harness the inchoate rage that burned within him as a result of his upbringing on the mean streets of Haverhill and Newburyport, Massachusetts.

His father left the family when Andre III and his brother and sister were still quite young. The small amount of money that the struggling writer and teacher was able to send to support the family ensured that they lived in affordable and rough neighborhoods along the banks of the Merrimac River. The fact that I also grew up along those riverbanks made the reading of Dubus' recollections all the more poignant for me.

Andree II lurks as a phantom character throughout the memoir, moving on and off the stage of the drama that was unfolding in the life of his namesake. The evolution of the son's handling his inner demons is the skeleton of this moving piece of literary reflections. Early on he expresses his rage through physical attacks - always spoiling for a fight. Eventually, he learns that writing is an effective and intoxicating substitute for fisticuffs.

The struggling family subsisted on Lime Street in the down-at-the-heels South End of Newburyport. It was not today's suburban Eden of shoppes and up-scale restaurants, but a hard scrabble town that smelled of the tannery that provided employment for many of the working class denizens of Joppa. A memorable chapter includes a fight in the playground of the Jackman School during recess. The fact that during my junior high school years on my way to the Jackman School I walked each day past the Lime Street house that would one day house Dubus and his siblings made the book very touching indeed.

This honest memoir explains a great deal about the "making of the sausage" that is often the ugly pilgrimage that a person undergoes in being transformed into a writer who work is worth reading. This set of literary jab and left hooks by this pugilistic writer is well worth the investment. I invite you to step into the ring with him.

Continuing the Saga - Mini-Review of "The Girl Who Played with Fire" by Stieg Larsson

2011-08-28T17:02:00.003-05:00

Having been drawn into the Stieg Larsson web when I read his first novel, I could not wait to read "The Girl Who Played with Fire." I was eager to see what additional adventures Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander might get themselves into. I was not disappointed. The author does a remarkable job of making the reader care deeply about the fate of an unlikely anti-heroine. Is she victim, victimizer or complete enigma?

Larsson uses his sensibilities as a reformer to ignite a firestorm that exposes social abuses and neglect of women who are victims of human trafficking. He channels his passions into creatively crafting a story that uses a fascinating plot to shine a glaring spotlight on this vital social issue. He does so in a way that is not at all preachy, but scintillating.

Jumping on the Stieg Larsson Band Wagon

2011-08-28T12:50:00.002-05:00

I am not one to readily jump on a populist literary bandwagon. I often snobbishly think: "How good can this book really be if that many people are reading it?"

How glad I am that I caved in and finally joined the Stieg Larsson entourage. Larson's ability to weave a gritty tale is eye-opening. His writing and plot devices are witty and plausible. His characters are quirky and memorable. The weaving together of the various threads of this saga is brilliant. I can't wait to read his other two novels.

Job Alerts - Boston-Based Crisis Response Company is Hiring

2011-08-19T14:43:00.003-05:00

One of my client companies is a Boston-based firm that provides best-in-class medical, security, advisory and evacuation services to individuals, corporations, government agencies, travelers and expeditions worldwide. Through an exclusive partnership with Johns Hopkins Medicine, members benefit from the advisory services of some of the world’s finest physicians. The company utilizes its worldwide network of personnel and assets to evacuate and extract its members from emergency arising from injuries, illnesses, natural disasters or security situations while traveling.

The company is looking to hire persons to fill two key roles:

Operations Director

Sales Director - Corporate and Government

For each position, ideal candidates will bring the following background:

IDEAL QUALIFICATIONS

Experience in the medical, security, military, law enforcement, intelligence or other related fields is required

Strong leadership abilities and experience

Highly energetic and motivated to succeed

Ability to thrive and stand out in a fast paced environment

Exceptional written and verbal communication·

Attention to detail and follow-through

Efficient time management and organizational skills; attention to detail and follow-through

MBA or equivalent graduate degree

Former special forces or intelligence officers who have worked in the private sector after military service would be ideal.

Location: Boston

Compensation: Competitive and dependent on experience; Salary + Bonus + Benefits

Qualified candidates only, send MS-Word resume and cover letter to:

Dr. Al Chase - achase47@gmail.com

Feel free to forward this to qualified and interested parties.

Mini-Review of "Among the Wonderful" by Stacy Carlson

2011-08-18T10:41:00.002-05:00

I have always been fascinated by the place of P.T. Barnum in American folk history. In her novel, "Among the Wonderful," Stacy Carlson has done a marvelous job of bringing back to life the wonders of Barnum's American Museum. the story is told through the dual narrative voices of Ana Swift, the world's only living giantess, and Emile Guillaudeu, the museum's taxidermist.

One review noted that Carlson, in her lovingly told tale, makes the "off ordinary and the ordinary odd." I agree. This is storytelling at its highest level. I found myself caring about the fate of even the most obscure member of Barnum's phantasmagorical menagerie off oddities and wonders.

Mini-Review of "My Dear I Wanted to Tell You" by Louisa Young

2011-07-31T07:29:00.001-05:00

The feel of this novel made me think of the Ingrid Bergman classic film "Intermezzo." Set in the midst of the turmoil of World War I, "My Dear I Wanted to Tell You." is a moving and evocative story of two couples whose lives intertwine in stunning ways. The working class lad, Riley Purfroy, meets and falls in love with Nadine Waveney, the aristocratic daughter of a world-class orchestra conductor. The obstacles that they must overcome to explore their unlikely love for one another frames a tale that moves the reader at many levels. Louisa Young writes knowingly of class struggle in early 20th Century Great Britain. This novel is not only a sensitively told love story, it is also a deep exploration of the manifold costs of war.

Mini-Review of "Jamrach's Menagerie" - A Novel of Survivor's Guilt and PTSD

2011-07-30T19:28:00.003-05:00

What a wonderfully inventive story. "Jamrach's Menagerie" struck me as containing elements that reminded me of the "Story of Pi," "Moby Dick" and "The "Odyssey." Carol Birch has concocted a mini-epic that follows the street urchin, Jaffy, from his chance encounter with a tiger on the teeming streets of London, to a search for a komodo dragon in the Indonesian archipelego. Shipwrecked, he and his companions confront the primal challenges of survival, sacrifice, and the true meaning of friendship and loyalty. This is a whale of a good story. I loved it.

The author raises some deep philosophical questions about survivor's guilt and post-traumatic stress that are very relevant to many of our warriors returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. After Jaffy has been rescued following several months adrift at sea, he confronts people wanting to know what it was like. The following encounter reminds me of tales I have heard from returning soldiers who have to face the thoughtless questions from those who wonder "Have you killed anyone?"

In order to survive, Jaffy and his fellow survivors were forced to eat the flesh of their boat mates who had succumbed. Those ashore had heard rumors of the cannibalism.

"'Mister, what was it like?'

I took my time, leaning back and blowing out a thin stream of smoke. . .

He wanted a story. a thing of horror. I have a story, a terrible one. But I'll tell no tales. He doesn't understand at all: it's not that kind of a story, not horror but grief I have to deal with. Too much to tell. What shall I do with it?

Live with it." (Page 276)

Mini-Review of "Sailors to the End" by Gregory A. Freeman

2011-07-29T14:12:00.001-05:00

I first learned of the tragic fire aboard the aircraft carrier USS Forrestal from my friend, Mark Dahl. Mark was a Top Gun instructor pilot, and he now uses the lessons learned from the Forrestal disaster to teach many leadership principles. One point that he makes very poignantly is that through the mechanism of thorough training, the U.S. Navy is able to take a group of raw recruits - teenagers who might otherwise struggle to get our "Super Size it" order correct at McDonald's - and turn them into a team of young men who would risk their lives to fight a fire that threatened to sink America's most powerful warship.

In his classic 2002 book about the deadly fire, Gregory a. Freeman does an excellent job of telling the story of the Forrestal, its crew and the events that led up to and followed the fire that was triggered by the accidental firing of a missile that created a fireball in the aircraft being piloted by future U.S. Senator John McCain.

"Sailors to the End" is an important addition to our understanding of what life aboard an aircraft carrier is like - in calm seas or in the midst of a general quarters emergency.

Mini-Review of "Anything You Want" by Derek Sivers

2011-07-29T13:28:00.003-05:00

CD Baby gained my undying loyalty when I received my first shipment from them - a Jake Armerding album. It contained the now iconic message from CEO Derek Sivers:

"Your CD has been gently taken from our CD Baby shelves with sterilized contamination-free gloves and placed onto a satin pillow. A team of 50 employees inspected your CD and polished it to make sure it was in the best possible condition before mailing. Our packing specialist from Japan lit a candle and a hush fell over the crowd as he put your CD into the finest gold-lined box that money can buy. We all had a wonderful celebration afterwards and the whole party marched down the street to the post office where the entire town of Portland waved 'Bon Voyage!' to your package, on its way to you, in our private CD Baby jet on this day, Sunday, March 30th. I hope you had a wonderful time shopping at CD Baby. We sure did. Your picture is on our wall as 'Customer of the Year.' We're all exhausted but can't wait for you to come back to CDBABY.COM!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! Sigh..."

In this tiny gem of a book, "Anything You Want," Sivers outlines how he became a reluctant entrepreneur, turning CD Baby into a force that changed the independent music industry. He is transparent in telling tales on himself and his staff - what they did right and wrong. The book is a refreshing and inspiring tale.

Enjoy!

Al

Reducing the Complex to the Comprehensible When Addressing Leadership and Management: Review of "The One Thing you Need to Know" by Marcus Buckingham

2011-07-03T09:20:00.004-05:00

Marcus Buckingham is a National Treasure! His writing is clear, concise and laser focused. In a way that differentiates him from the than many writers who pontificate about leadership, he presents a clear picture of the differences between effective management and excellent leadership. In a nutshell, he sees management as inwardly focused on getting the best performance in the present from the current team; he sees leadership as outwardly focused on the future of the entire enterprise.

In his book, "The One Thing You Need to Know - About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success," he offers the most compelling description I ave yet seen of what makes an outstanding coach or manager - teasing maximum performance out of those he or she is charged to motivate:

"In short, the state of mind you should try to create is one where he has a fully realistic assessment of the difficulty of the challenge ahead of him, and at the same time, an unrealistically optimistic belief in his ability to overcome it. The more skilled you are at creating this state of mind in each of your people, the more effective a manager you will be." (Pages 106-7)

I have heard my friend, Dr. Scott Snook of Harvard Business School, use this quotation to great effect in explaining the remarkable success of Coach K in the twin case studies that Snook teaches about the contrasting coaching styles of Coach K and Bobby Knight. IT seems counter-intuitive that a great coach or manager combines hyper-realism with hyper-optimism, but Buckingham and Snook both make an ironclad case that this is, in fact, true in the realms of business, athletics and warfare.

As he wraps up his argument in this powerful book, Buckingham offers a pithy summary of the contrast between managers and leaders:

"To excel as a manager you must never forget that each of your direct reports is unique and that your chief responsibility is not to eradicate this uniqueness, but rather to arrange roles, responsibilities, and expectations so that you can capitalize upon it. The more you perfect this skill, the more effectively you will turn talents into performance.

To excel as a leader requires the opposite skill. You must become adept at calling upon those needs we all share. Our common needs include the need for security, for community, for authority, and for respect, but for you, the leader, the most powerful universal need is our need for clarity. To transform our fear of the unknown into confidence in the future, you must discipline yourself to describe our joint future vividly and precisely. As your skill at this grows, so will our confidence in you." (Page 284)

These examples of Buckingham's insights offer the tip of the iceberg in terms of the wisdom and common sense that he proffers in this book. It provides practical guidance to anyone who aspires to manage well, to lead with integrity or to perform with consistent and sustainable individual excellence.

Enjoy!

Healing Through the Pages of Literature: Review of "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair - My Year of Magical Reading" by Nina Sankovitch

2011-07-02T17:07:00.004-05:00

Nina Sankovitch was almost paralyzed with grief after losing her 43-year old sister to cancer. Having tried to solider on with her "normal life" for several years without experiencing much relief from the wound in her soul, she determined to deal creatively with her besetting grief by devoting a year of her life to reading books. Not just any books, but works that she felt that she and her sister would have enjoyed sharing together had not death snatched her companion away. She determined, with the support of her family, to read a book a day for 365 days. She would not only devour all of these books, but would reflect upon what she had read and how the words were speaking to her. She has graciously chosen to share these insights with readers in the form of her book, "Tolstoy and the Purple Chair - My Year of Magical Thinking." Sankovitch was clearly inspired in her subtitle by the title of the book that Joan Didion penned in the wake of her husband's death.

My love for reading and my awe at the prospect of reading a book a day for a year is what initially drew me to this memoir. What kept me turning the pages was the author's transparency and vulnerability in opening up her heart and her thought processes as she dove into the sea of words from hundreds of authors. The final product of her year are reflections that are insightful, moving and mesmerizing.

"I was ready - ready to sit down in my purple chair and read. For years, books had offered me a window into how other people deal with life, its sorrows and joys and monotonies and frustrations. I would look there again for empathy, guidance, fellowship, and experience. Books would give me all that, and more. After three years of carrying the truth of my sister's death around with me, I knew I would never be relieved of my sorrow. I was not hoping for relief. I was hoping for answers. I was trusting in books to answer the relentless question of why I deserved to live. And of how I should live. My year of reading would be my escape back into life." (Page 31)

During her year of reading, Sankovitch found familiar themes returning - literary and emotional themes. She was also finding literary soul mates.

"Reading my book a day this year was clearing my brain the way my hard work had cleared the mess in my backyard. I had been caught in a bramble patch of sorrow and fear. My reading, sometimes painful and often exhausting, was pulling me out of the shadows and into the light. And I am not the only one clearing out weeds and poison ivy, or planting beauty, perennial flowers of hope. The world is full of us, digging and scraping, working for the day when the flowers come back like they are supposed to, blooming year after year." (Page 147)

In reflecting upon her reading of "The Laws of Evening" by Mary Yukari Waters, the author makes the following pithy observation:

"One of Waters's characters quotes a haiku by Mizuta Masahide, a seventeenth-century samurai and renowned writer of haikus. I seriously considered having the verse painted over our kitchen doorway:

'Since my house burned down/ I now own a better view/ of the rising moon.'

A better view: that is what I wanted my kids to have. Not to see the worst of what circumstances rendered for them in their lives, but the best. Resilience in the face of disappointment." (Page 172.)

That statement sums is up beautifully. All my reading and experience tell me that those who manage to succeed - and to soar - do so because of abiding and indefatigable resilience in the face of challenges and failures and disappointments. This gem of a book fuels that kind of resilience, and for that we owe the author a hearty word of thanks.

Enjoy - and reflect.

Al

Miracles and Mysteries in MIT's Media Lab - Review of "The Sorcerers and Their Apprentices" by Frank Moss

2011-07-02T16:10:00.002-05:00

My office is located a few short blocks from MIT's iconic Media Lab, so I have been vaguely aware of some of the magic that is conjured up there. Frank Moss, until recently Director of the Lab, has written a book that opens the portals of the lab and simultaneously opens up the worlds that are being explored and created there by its brilliant sorcerers and their apprentices.

In the opening pages, the reader learns about the prosthetic foot being developed by the Biomechatronics group. In describing the make-up of the members of this team, Moss also raises the curtain on the "secret sauce" that can be found in most of those who find their way to the Media Lab:

"We have yet to build a prosthetic foot that allows the wearer to feel the blades of grass beneath is or her feet or the grains of sand on a beach. However, the Biomechatronics group - which, in addition to Marecki and Elliott, consists of two mechanical engineers, two physicists, two machine learning experts, a material science expert, and an electrical engineer - is inching closer toward that goal every day.The team works at a dizzying pace, and although each member is assigned a different task, the reality is that everyone ends up doing everything. As Elliott, who has both a bachelor's degree in physics and a master's degree in electrical engineering, notes: 'To work in this group, you have to be a bit of a Renaissance person.'" (Pages 4-5)

There you have it. Leonardo da Vinci reaches across the centuries to imprint his spirit and ethos onto the fabric and DNA of the anti-disciplinary and intersectional culture that explains the Media Lab's remarkable success.

Moss expands upon this theme in explicating his own philosophy of innovation and discovery:

"Since joining the Media Lab, I've come to believe strongly that the key to coming up with game changing innovations lies not in finding novel solutions to known questions, but rather in posing novel questions. Only by breaking down the existing artificially imposed barriers between the disciplines can we 'completely change the frame' of the discussion and pose questions that no one has ever thought to ask before, including - maybe even especially - the so-called experts in that field." (page 42)

Reading this book made me want to run across the street, tour the lab and begin to ask questions - like a kid in an intellectual candy store. If you are curious about innovation and the future, this book is a "must read."

Enjoy.

Al

Join Us at the House of Blues - Remembering Amos Fleisher and Supporting the Fleisher Foundation

2011-06-09T11:27:00.004-05:00

Fleisher Foundation Summer Solstice Soiree

Don't miss the event of the season!

The Fleisher Foundation invites you to kick off the season with its Summer Solstice Soiree. Join us for the bluesy tunes of the Chris Fitz Band at the House of Blues Foundation Room. Enjoy an evening of live music, summer cocktails and tasty bites with great friends for a great cause!

Purchase tickets now until June 15 for $50/person or $65/person after June 15.

Please click link below to order tickets now!!

http://fleisherfoundationsummersolsticesoiree.eventbrite.com

If you cannot attend and would like to donate please visit us at:

http://www.fleisher-foundation.org

Sincerely,

The Fleisher Foundation

info@fleisher-foundation.org

Where:

The House of Blues Foundation Room

15 Landsdowne Street

Boston, MA 02115

When:

Wednesday June 22, 2011 6:30 PM to 11:00 PM

I plan to be there. Join us if you are able, and if not, join us in supporting this important cause.

Several Exciting Job Opportunities - Boston, Dallas, NYC and California

2011-06-07T13:37:00.003-05:00

The job market is heating up and several of my client companies scattered around the country have asked for my help. Please check out the highlighted searches below and forward to men and women in your network you think may be qualified and interested. I will be happy to provide them details. Many of the positions are particularly appropriate for military veterans.

Boston area - Segment Leader and Sales Lead for Armor Division of a leading manufacturing company providing cutting-edge tools to the special operations and intelligence communities. Knowledge of military procurement procedures and prior military experience required.

Boston area - Contract Research Organization (CRO) - Sales lead. Experience selling clinical trial assay services required.

Boston area - Order Fulfillment company needs a Dutch speaker with training as a Systems Implementation Engineer. Recent graduates preferred.

New York City - Major consultancy is looking to hire former JMO's with strong problem solving, analytical and communication skills. Midtown base of operations.

New York City - Funded start-up needs to hire both a Technology Lead and a Java Engineer. Competitive compensation. Union Square location.

New York area - Major hedge fund is looking for graduates of top schools - Ivy league or service academy - with consulting or Wall Street experience.

Dallas area - Major printing company is looking to fill two important positions:

C-Level Sales executive - 10+ years experience in building and leading innovative sales processes. Relocation a possibility.

Direction of Operations for Off-Set Printing - Former JMO preferred. Prior manufacturing exposure and knowledge of Lean or Six Sigma a plus.

California - Innovative Medical Device company - needs staff to run several territories in NOCAL and SOCAL. Leading edge medical device company is looking for a superb candidate to take over and grow existing territories. Best candidate will bring exceptionally strong conceptual skills and interpersonal skills for working collaboratively with physicians in OR/lab settings. Military veterans do well in this organization.

Feel free to forward this information to those in your network who may be qualified and interested in any of these opportunities.

In each case, please contact me for details. Send questions and MS-Word version of your resume to:

achase47@gmail.com

Thanks.

Al

Employing America's Heroes: Outstanding Job Opportunity in Boston Area - Sales Lead for Military Veteran

2011-05-30T12:53:00.003-05:00

SALES LEAD – MILITARY VETERAN PREFERRED

Boston Area

Company: Warwick Mills – New Ipswich, NH and Cambridge, MA

Warwick Mills is a leader in the engineering of technical textiles for protective applications. We develop and integrate complex fiber composites for the most challenging safety applications. Our cooperative development strategy relies on our core technologies in technical textiles, custom adhesives, and performance coatings, from research and development to testing and full-scale manufacturing. This strategy ensures customer confidence for every challenge.

Brand: TurtleSkin Protection

Product Line: Body Armor and Non-Traditional Armor

Position: Sales Lead

Product Line Description:

There are 3 components in the Warwick body armor product line:

The TurtleSkin Body Armor program includes products that are engineered for ballistic and fragmentation threats, and/or knife-spike threats which include both slash and stab protection. We work to exceed Certification Standards developed by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), US Military standards, EN/ISO norms and Home Office Scientific Development Branch (HOSDB).

The TurtleSkin Military program expands beyond packaged armor offerings and is based on a modular and configurable approach. The TurtleSkin mil system allows teams in the field to configure armor solutions to suit specific operations.

The Warwick Non-Traditional armor program includes products which address many of the performance criteria of above standards, however this equipment does not have a traditional vest configuration. These products offer personal protection that is unobtrusive, and in some cases non-attributable or covert. Performance levels and coverage are adapted to the customer’s specific application needs.

Senior Sales Lead Armor -- Job Responsibilities:

This position is responsible for oversight of entire sales effort for both Body Armor and Non-Traditional Armor, which includes management of relationships within US Military, US Intelligence community, US State Department, Federal and State law enforcement agencies, and international commercial and sovereign sales efforts.

The Senior Sales Lead will be required to manage the effort of the rest of the armor sales staff and direct and proportion this work. This entails setting the sales plan and budgets and managing results to the plan on a monthly basis.

The Sales Lead is a standing member of the product-design working group. In the product development process, the sales lead coordinates with product management to organize the “voice of the customer” input.

Indicators for Success

Demonstrated capacity to work with this customer base is required. Working knowledge of the various SOCOM and PEO procurement and fielding processes is necessary. Background in the armor market is not required.

Ongoing training and skills development history is a key attribute for this position.

This is a leadership position.

Background

· Ex military, technical or engineering back ground is required. 5 years of sales experience is expected.

· Ideal candidate will be knowledgeable about Special Operations.

· Successful candidate must be intellectually curious enough to be able to learn the technologies and to teach them to the customer base.

· Successful candidate will be a team builder, able to coordinate alignment among front office, back office and manufacturing teams.

Qualified candidates only, send MS-Word resume and cover letter to:

Dr. Al Chase - achase47@gmail.com

Another Way to Honor Veterans, Military and Their Families - TroopSwap

2011-05-30T11:09:00.002-05:00

My good friend, Matt Thompson, whom I came to know and respect when he served as a Co-President of the Armed Forces Alumni Association at Harvard Business School, has recently made a career move that will impact many veterans and their families. Matt left his secure job with Goldman Sachs to join his friend and fellow HBS grad, Blake Hall, in launching TroopSwap.

"The Web site launched this month as a daily deal purveyor, much like District-based LivingSocial or Chicago’s Groupon, only the discounts are tailored to military families."

Washington Post Article on TroopSwap

Matt's enthusiasm for his new mission comes through loud and clear in the e-mail he recently sent to me announcing the launch of TroopSwap:

"It feels SO good serving the military community, but you already knew that...."

Here are some additional details about the financing and structure of TroopSwap:

Yahoo! Finance Press Release

"Every day, TroopSwap features a different cool business in your community offering an exclusive deal to veterans, service members and their immediate families. Our local employees are all military spouses and we give 10% of our profits to the Wounded Warrior Project. Our goal is to reward a life of service. Currently, TroopSwap is only available in Hampton Roads, Virginia – the largest military community in the world -- but we will expand to more bases in the near future."

If you are part of the veteran or military community near Hampton Roads, you can begin taking advantage immediately of the deals offered by TroopSwap.

TroopSwap Website

Well done, Matt and Blake!

Enjoy!

Al

Remember - Always

2011-05-30T10:44:00.003-05:00

Here are four ways to remember those who deserve to be remembered always - not just on this Memorial Day holiday.

The first reminder that I offer is a view through the eyes of 1LT Rajiv Srinivasan, whose moving article, "A Soldier's Reflection for Memorial Day," appeared in Time magazine.

A Soldier's Reflection for Memorial Day

The second reminder is seen through my eyes as I attended the burial of Chief Warrant Officer Dennis Hay at Arlington National Cemetery.

The Resting Place of the Dead

The third reminder, again seen through my eyes, was the moving experience of family and friends sharing memories of 1st LT Rob "Sly" Seidel at the wedding of Socrates and Emily Rosenfeld.

In Memory of Robert "Sly" Seidel

A fourth way is to get behind one of the many excellent organizations that exist to support veterans and their families - by making a donation or donating time. Here are a few that I can personally vouch for:

The Wounded Warrior Project

Wounder Warrior Project Website

Team Red, White & Blue

Team Red, White & Blue Website

MyVetwork

MyVetwork Website

I am not sure how you and your loved ones and friends are spending your time on this holiday Monday. If you are reading this Blog, then you have an opportunity to pause and remember and offer prayers for those who gave their all - and for the families and comrades who live with the consequences of those sacrifices.

Remember - always.

God bless.

Al

Red Sox Welcome Their Cousins, The Chicago Cubs, To Boston - What It Was Like the Last Time They Came to Town

2011-05-20T12:51:00.006-05:00

In thinking about the Chicago Cubs' return to Fenway Park for the first time in 93 years, I was wondering how things have changed - and how they have stayed the same. In 1918, as is the case for each game today at Fenway Park, veterans who had just returned from war were honored by the baseball teams. Fans facing a time of economic crisis and unaffordable transportation struggled to pay inflated ticket prices. Players fought with owners about how much of a share of the gate receipts was fair. And so it goes.

I discovered a wonderful article written on the brink of the 2004 World Championship by the Boston Red Sox, written by Meredith Goad of the Portland Press Herald. On this weekend when the Cubbies return to the Fens, I find her article very timely and engaging.

In 1918, Different Time, Same Outcome

By Meredith Goad
Portland Press Herald
Thursday, October 28, 2004

The country was at war. People fretted about the flu. There was an election just around the corner.

Sound familiar? Actually, those headlines aren't from today's newspaper but from 1918, the last year the Boston Red Sox won a World Series.

The war was World War I, and it had a major effect on professional baseball that year. Many of the best players enlisted in the armed services, leaving their teams in the lurch. The government instituted a "work or fight" order that said men of draft age had to either join up or be working in a war-related job by Sept. 1.

Some baseball players got around the order by going to work for shipbuilding companies or munitions factories, then playing ball on the side for the companies' teams. The public looked on them as "slackers" who weren't doing their part to serve their country.

That attitude, along with the fact that games were held in the afternoon, began to affect attendance at ballparks. With everyone busy at war-related jobs, no one thought much about America's favorite pastime, and attendance - and ticket prices - plummeted.

"Some games were getting 100 people, 200 people," said Allan Wood, author of "Babe Ruth and the 1918 Red Sox," an account of Boston's last championship. "They just decided to cut their losses and end the season early, and play the World Series in early September."

The first game of the 1918 World Series was called off because of rain, and it began instead at 2:30 p.m. on Sept. 5 at Comiskey Park in Chicago. The top ticket price was just $3, slashed from $5 in 1917. Bleacher seats cost 50 cents.

Even such drastic cost-cutting didn't bring out the crowds, and there was no problem getting a good seat for this face-off between the Red Sox and the Chicago Cubs. A story in the Sept. 6 edition of Portland's Daily Eastern Argus noted that the crowd of 19,274 was one of the smallest ever for an opening day of the World Series. Out-of-town fans were kept away by high wartime railroad prices.

"The effect of the war was everywhere apparent, especially in the temper of the crowd which, largely local, saw the home team drop the first game without a protest," the newspaper said. "There was no cheering during the contest, nor was there anything like the usual umpire baiting."

The Red Sox won that game 1-0. The atmosphere changed at the second game, which Chicago took 3-1.

"The fighting blood of both teams was up from the beginning," the Daily Eastern Argus reported. "Umpires were growled at; the crowd grew partisan and way down in the depths of the Boston bomb-proof, Knabe, Chicago coach, and Wagner, ditto for Boston, got into a fight. The crowd learned of it when players and umpires dived into the dugout and separated them."

Boston bounced back and took Game 3, also held in Chicago, 2-1.

THE BABE

The shortage of players that season had been good to Babe Ruth. The slugger was eager to play more often and play other positions, Wood said, but had been limited to pitching by Sox management. During the 1918 season, Ruth started playing first base and left field in addition to his pitching duties.

"Pitchers playing the field or fielders pitching wasn't entirely uncommon then, but to do it as much as he did it and as well as he did it was something that had never happened before," Wood said.

Ruth went back to pitching for the World Series, however, and threw a shut-out in the first game. He also pitched Game 4 at Fenway Park and had a big hit to win the game 3-2.

"That titanic triple of Ruth's was the outstanding thrill of the game," the Evening Express & Advertiser reported. "... The stands burst into unrestrained applause, for all the world as they did when the big things happened in before-the-war sports."

In the fourth game, Ruth didn't allow a run until the seventh inning and set a record for consecutive scoreless World Series innings that wasn't broken until 1963.

"Ruth said a few times that that scoreless inning record was the record he was most proud of having," Wood said. "He was a big factor in the series."

Many Maine Red Sox fans made trips to Boston to see Ruth play even though travel was somewhat risky because of the danger of being exposed to the flu. The Spanish flu pandemic, which ultimately killed more than 20 million people worldwide, was raging at the time.

The Portland Sunday Telegram carried the obituary of John O'Meara, a Biddeford man who went to Boston just to see Ruth in the series: "He was accompanied by a number of Biddeford young men with whom he chummed, and they returned home on the Pullman train, and shortly after Mr. O'Meara was taken down sick and was never able to leave his bed."

The Evening Express noted that many Red Sox fans in Portland skipped voting in a state election so they could go to Boston to watch Game 4 at Fenway Park.

With no on-the-spot radio or television coverage available, newspaper stories about the 1918 series consisted mostly of play-by-plays of the games. Fans also followed the action on contraptions that looked like board games at newspapers, arenas and other establishments that had direct wires to the games. The Evening Express promised readers "an inning by inning bulletin service with the big baseball board."

The 1918 series almost ended with Game 5 on Sept. 10, when the game was delayed an hour so the players could decide whether to go on strike.

Typically both teams playing in a World Series were paid a portion of the gate receipts from the first four games. But the low ticket prices and low attendance at the 1918 games were poised to cut into their profits in a big way.

"Without consulting the players, the owners voted to lessen the players' shares and also to contribute 10 percent of the players' shares to charity," Wood said.

'PLAY BALL'

On game day, the players refused to come onto the field until the three baseball commissioners dealt with the issue. But the commissioners showed up at Fenway Park drunk, Wood said, and were in no shape to negotiate.

The crowd of nearly 25,000 grew restless, and there were repeated cries of "play ball," according to newspaper accounts. Police reserves were rushed to the ballpark for fear there might be a riot. The atmosphere shifted somewhat when a large detachment of wounded soldiers arrived in the grandstand.

"The entire grandstand and bleachers rose en masse while the band played 'Over There' and gave the heroes three lusty cheers, the loudest and the most heartfelt that have yet been given in the series," according to the Evening Express.

Harry Hooper, right fielder for the Sox, was the first player to emerge on the field.

"We will play," he said, speaking for both teams, "not because we think we are getting a fair deal, because we are not. But we'll play for the sake of the game, for the sake of the public which has always given us its loyal support, and for the sake of the wounded soldiers and sailors who are in the grandstand waiting for us."

When the players finally came out on the field, they were greeted with mingled boos and cheers.

Chicago kept the Sox from the championship that day by winning 3-0.

Rumors of a strike held down attendance at Game 6, but those who stayed away missed an historic moment. It was the Sox in six, with a score of 2-1. Eighty-six years later ...

Original Portland Herald Article

Enjoy the weekend festivities at Fenway. Go Sox!

Al

Mini-Review of Bill Bryson's "In A Sunburned Country"

2011-05-16T14:06:00.001-05:00

I recently have been on a reading jag involving inhaling as many of Bill Bryson's books as possible. The latest milestone is his tour de force of Australia entitled "In a Sunburned Country." Any travel writer - and Bryson is far more than a "mere" travel writer - who is able to make me want to book the next flight on Qantas is someone worth reading. As he does in all of his books, Bryson uses his travels through Australia to feed the reader delicious and gritty morsels of history, culture and human interest.

The reviewer for the New York Times said it perfectly: "If there is one book with which to get oriented before departure or en route to Australia, this is it.

Allow me to share a brief excerpt from this work to give you a small taste of Bryson's style as he reacts to the antipodian continent and culture:

Driving in a remote part of the Outback, Bryson found that the only radio station whose signal he could now receive was broadcasting an interminable cricket match. The author's send-up of the commentator's dialogue had me howling with delight.

"'Pritchard begins his long run in from short stump. He bowls and . . .oh, he's out! Yes, he's got him. Longwilley is caught leg-before in middle slops by Grattan. Well, now, what do you make of that, Neville?'

'That's definitely one for the books, Bruce. I don't think I've seen offside medium-slow-fast-pace bowling to match it since Baden-Powell took Rangachangabanga for a maiden ovary at Bangalore in 1948.'

I had stumbled into the surreal and rewarding world of cricket on the radio.

After years of patient study (and with cricket there can be no other kind) I have decided that there is nothing wrong with the game that the introduction of golf carts wouldn't fix in a hurry. It is not true that the English invented cricket as a way of making all other human endeavors look interesting and lively, that was merely an unintended side effect. I do not wish to denigrate a sport that is enjoyed by millions, some of them awake and facing the right way, but it is an odd game. It is the only sport that incorporates meal breaks. It is the only sport that shares its name with an insect. It is the only sport in which spectators burn as many calories as players - more if they are moderately restless. It is the only competitive activity of any type, other than perhaps baking, in which you can dress in white from head to toe and be as clean at the end of the day as you were at the beginning." (Pages 105-6)

And so it goes for 300 rollicking pages. If you have not yet been exposed to the mind and pen of Bill Bryson, I invite you to take the plunge. Come on in; the water is fine. If you are already a fan, then add this to your long list of treasured Bryson titles.

Enjoy.

Al

Boston Area Client Company Is Hiring Web Software Engineer / Director of Engineering

2011-05-16T11:12:00.005-05:00

This is a great opportunity for a Boston area Web Engineer. Please pass the word to those in your network who may be qualified and interested.

Web Software Engineer / Director of Engineering - Boston area Web Search company

Full-time in Wellesley, company may be moving to Cambridge

Overview: Web guru, linux, php/mySQL

Hiring immediately:

Must have:

1. Linux (A+)

2. PHP ( A+)

OO concepts knowledge (php 5.3)

3. MySQL or Postgre knowledge (A)

4. HTML/CSS (A)

5. Javascript/Ajax/JQuery (A)

Plus:

1. Version control: subversion (svn), git, mercurial, bazaar
2. C, C++, Perl, Python, Ruby
3. NOSQL (mongo, cassandra, ...)
4. HPC systems
5. distributed computing: Hadoop and alike
6. in-depth Linux knowledge
7. in-depth Linux administration knowledge
8. in-depth ip network knowledge

The ideal candidate will have +/- 10 years’ experience, and will have been part of at least one web venture, as a engineer/contributor, and who now wants to lead software development efforts, with 8 ppl under him/her. (There is currently a senior CTO in-house, but he is transitioning day-to-day responsibilities.)

Qualified candidates only, send MS-Word resume and cover letter to:

Dr. Al Chase - achase47@gmail.com

In the cover letter, highlight the aspects of your career that directly match specific items in the job description, salary history and expectations, and openness to work in the locations indicated.

GaggleAmp Update - A Wonderful New Tool to Get Your Message Out

2011-05-11T10:12:00.003-05:00

Since I first shared with readers of The White Rhino Report the news of the launch of the Beta version of GaggleAmp, the company has begun to explode in terms of its reach and customer base. The Founder and CEO, Glenn Gaudet, recently shared some very helpful and practical tips on how to use GaggleAmp as a messaging tool and amplification platform:

Here are some messaging tips for you.

How to message with GaggleAMP:

Keep in mind that messages are going to be shared by people that are not you! Using personal pronouns like I or we are not appropriate in most cases and will lower your share rate. (Unless you Reweet)
Messages should be value-add to the reader. Traditional sales copy does not work well with social media. Consider using fun and informative content with links back to specific pages on your site that further explain your key message that you posted.
If you are repeating messages, change up the copy. While repetition is good in general, sending the same message with the same words can turn people off in social media.
Expire your messages often. Remember that when a new Gaggle member joins, they see all messages that have been posted to the Gaggle that are not expired. Don’t overwhelm them. Keep no more than 3-5 messages active in the Gaggle at any one time.
Use our URL shortener with your messages, that way we can track the performance and click-thru rates for your messages.

Come to GaggleAMP by visiting http://gaggleamp.com

GaggleAMP is designed by marketing folks for marketing folks. We are grateful that you are giving us a chance. We add new features regularly, so please give us your feedback.

Thanks,

Glenn

Glenn Gaudet
President & Founder
GaggleAMP
http://gaggleamp.com
Office: 617.682.0777

+ + + + + + + + + +

Joining the Gaggle is totally free and takes just a few moments. GaggleAMP will notify you whenever there are new messages to share.

I encourage you join my White Rhino Herd Gaggle. Click here: GaggleAMP Link

I also encourage to consider creating your own Gaggle. If you have questions, Glenn Gaudet and his team will be happy to help you to decide if GaggleAmp is for you.

Best of all GaggleAMP is FREE, fun and easy to use. I am looking forward to having you on board. Join today!

Enjoy!

The White Rhino – Al Chase

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