Friday, January 9, 2009

Pay Attention to Bill Blass...Not Me


First, I hope that everyone had a great holiday season and that the New Year is finding you favorably. If you are like me, I think the New Year is finding you busier than ever.


I know this has been a constant rant for me but I am sorry, please allow me to start the year on my soap box. As I left for my X-Mas in San Diego I retired to small corner of the house, away from the craziness of wrapping paper and was reading the New York Times. This Sunday edition had two articles that I think are worth mentioning together. The first one, again outlined the need for nonprofits to borrow techniques and ideas from the for-profit community. It was pretty standard jargon of how the business community is all-knowing and the nonprofit community is walking around scraping its knuckles on the ground.


In the same newspaper, in a Business Section filled with stories of bad business decisions, was the story of the demise of Bill Blass clothing line. In a nut shell, it basically folded after the clothing house failed to do proper transition management, going from CEO to CEO until ultimately the organization finds itself past the point of no return. The cae, as written by the Times, shows how Transition Management was inproperly done. I am excited to use this as a case study....


As with the Harvard example written about earlier, I think it is about time for leaders to sit down from each side and discuss management...maybe someone will learn something. Now I have to look for the discount rack for a Bill Blass shirt.

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