• Uncertainty and (Maybe) A Paradigm Shift

    By Samuel B. Bacharach on 02/04/10

    Paradigm shifts aren’t easy. As Thomas Kuhn pointed out, it may take a crisis to bring on a change. Academic ideas can be stuck in inertia in the same way organizations can be. The movement beyond inertia implies leadership, the capacity to take risks, and the ability to look at something differently.
    Sometimes this may mean looking at something that’s been staring you in the face and suddenly saying to yourself, “I never realized what it …

  • The Quest for the Foundations of Mathematics Or How to Push New Ideas

    By Samuel B. Bacharach on 02/03/10

    Recently, I read a new comic book entitled, Logicomix by Apostolos Doxiadis and Christos Papadimitriou, that shines light on the world of philosophy, mathematics, and….organizational leadership. Logicomix is first and foremost a story about the search for the foundations of mathematics. While the book takes a studied look at many mathematicians and logicians it focuses on the life of Bertrand Russell. The drama of the story stems from the seemingly inevitable madness of 20th century …

  • Don’t Kill Entrepreneurship with the Cost-Cutting Sword

    By Samuel B. Bacharach on 02/01/10

    One of the challenges in higher education is to rekindle or maybe even reformulate the entrepreneurial spirit.  The challenge that administrative and academic leadership faces is to create organizations with an entrepreneurial culture. Organizational leadership must become proactive and individuals must be rewarded for their proactive activities.
    In an age of cost-cutting, where centralization has become the answer to the economic turbulence, the challenge for organizational leaders is to think about not what the organization will …

  • Coalition Critics, Skeptics, & Doubters

    By Samuel B. Bacharach on 01/29/10

    Some people want to see you fail. They want to see you stumble and they want to see you make the wrong decisions.
    When you are proposing a new idea, agenda, or plan you will face what I like to call the “got-you game.” Like we’ve said on this blog before, the “got-you game” starts when you try to build support around your idea. People will say, “You’re idea is not good enough!” or “Can you …

  • Juggling Three Balloons: NBC & Decision Theory

    By Samuel B. Bacharach on 01/14/10

    So here’s the problem: How do leaders juggle three balls at one time?
    You have three options in front of you–three distinct variables, but you’re not quite sure what the calculated value of each one is. You know what the costs are, but you don’t know how to maximize your return. What complicates the situation even further is that if you drop one of these options your opponent will pick it up and use the very …

  • Google & China at High Noon: Making Difficult Decisions

    By Samuel B. Bacharach on 01/14/10

    According to Google the Chinese government mounted a cyber-attack against them (and 20 other companies) in order to steal intellectual property and gain access to Gmail accounts held by vocal human rights activists.
    Google lashed back by un-censoring their Google.cn site. This means that Chinese citizens, as of right now, can log on to Google.cn and find links to information that the Chinese Communist Party wants blocked (i.e. anti CCP sites, porn, etc.) If Google doesn’t …

  • I, Claudius & The Key to Effective Leadership

    By Samuel B. Bacharach on 01/13/10

    Taking your time, not hurrying, and waiting for things to happen in just the right way can seem like a herculean challenge, especially for impatient types like myself. Yet, a little patience can pay off in big ways.
    Cynics and anxious types should read Robert Graves’ classic novel, I, Claudius, for proof that the waiting game can really be a winning game.
    I, Claudius tells the story of the rise and fall of the Roman Emperor’s Augustus, …

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