By Shawn Coyne | Published: February 17, 2012
A friend of mine is a business consultant. A damn good one too.
About ten years ago we went out for a couple of beers so that he could ask me my opinions about the state of the book publishing business. He wanted to know where I thought it was heading. What global strategic initiatives would I recommend he investigate for a “blue sky” presentation he was putting together? He and his partner had been put on retainer by a very powerful figure in the business (the head of one of the big six publishing companies) and were asked to look at it from the outsider’s point of view.
The Big Kahuna wanted to know what my friend would do if he were thrust into the position as head of a privately held book publishing behemoth? He was told to plan as if he wouldn’t have to worry about kowtowing to shareholders and he’d have the full support of the conglomerate’s board of directors. Assuming he could do anything he wanted, what course would he set? What would he do to a) increase profit margins b) secure the foundation of the business from the publisher’s point of view and c) prepare the company to take a leadership position in the inevitable digital revolution? (more…)
By Callie Oettinger | Published: February 10, 2012
“You need to tighten your boots
“They hurt.”
“They’ll loosen once you get going.”
“No they won’t.” (more…)
By Shawn Coyne | Published: February 3, 2012
So I’m at the health club the other day. And like most health clubs, there is a ceaseless barrage of aural and visual input.
Rob Gronkowski of the New England Patriots. Is it "pain" or injury?
Grunts reminiscent of a maternity ward come from a beer bellied guy who wants everyone to know that he’s just bench pressed 112.5 pounds. A personal trainer checking his cell phone, halfheartedly beseeches for “just one more” Russian tea kettle swing from an elderly lady wearing a leotard circa 1973. The screams and strained cheerfulness all awash in the pulse pounding club music pouring out of the gym’s suspended speaker pods.
But what really catch my attention—despite the fact that I have my own pre-programmed playlist streaming into my cerebral cortex from my own personal listening device—are two 42 inch plasma televisions above my head. One is ten feet to the right of me and the other about three feet to the left. The one directly in front of me is running a new daytime show called The Daily Chew, which from what I can tell is an hour long of carefully orchestrated food pornography. Lots of sizzling meats and sugar coated confections, followed by ecstatic expressions from the show’s five hosts as they sample the in studio prepared fare.
I’m not a foodie, so it is ESPN2 to the left and CNN to the right that distracts me from the horrors of maintaining an elevated aerobic heart rate for forty five minutes. ESPN2 is running a story about the condition of the New England Patriots star tight end, Rob Gronkowski. “Gronk” is the perfectly sculpted protoplasmic beast who broke a number of NFL receiving records this season. But in the AFC Championship game against the Baltimore Ravens, he “sprained” his ankle and had to be helped off the field.
While I pant, the network keeps running the slow motion injury footage. It’s gruesome. Not on the level of Lawrence Taylor’s tackle of Joe Theismann on Monday Night football in January 2008, but at least on a par with Pittsburgh Steeler quarterback Ben Roethlisberger’s experience in Cleveland this season, which effectively knocked the black and gold out of the Super Bowl hunt. Calling the collapse of Gronk’s lower tibia and at least a rubber band stretch of his posterior tibial tendon an “ankle sprain” is like saying Donald Trump has a slightly receding hairline. After three replays and three winces—one view never seems to be enough, two is too voyeuristic and three somewhat shameful—I shift my eyes to the CNN portal. (more…)
