Drazdany, Nagasaki, Hirosima

Pustil jsem se do komentovani nekterych ne uplne nejhezcich aspektu nasi historie. Inspiroval me, pokolikate jiz, Petr Koubsky.

Somewhere along the way...

...I felt something in the air...

"Many companies start out with a clear rationale for any particular transaction. But somewhere along the way, the deal takes on a life of its own—and can keep moving forward even when it doesn’t make sense." - it is a quote from an article on M&A by D&T nevertheless the feeling of "something" went wrong is pretty well described. Something went wrong even though many dedicated and intelligent people worked so hard.... And it actually doesnt matter whether you talk about some failed M&A deals, the financial crises or for instance the Challenger catastrophe.

Holesovice district, 15 February

Last week I spent three days at a motivation and communication skills training. I enjoyed that - not only because of the two trainers who were really good and experienced (an HR director of an automotive company employing some three thousand workers and one of Czech first headhunters) but also because of the other "students". Two of four were CEOs, one CEO-2 level manager from a large Czech bank. Experience in the air. We, of course, discussed the current economic downturn. Somehow our discussions turned to war several times. Strange feeling - usually big things start as small ones. Hopefully this is not the case.

Petr Koubsky, one of my favourite bloggers, wrote: "A water pipe broke somewhere underground. This is how the end of the world will look like: we will be waiting for someone to repair it. And looking for the number of a free of charge customer care."

And Vaclav Cilek (Letat s ptaky), one of my favourite authors, says: "I've always felt that there are two tendencies beside each other - a creative one and a destructive one. Both are big unpersonal powers - ancient Greeks would call them "gods" whereas modern people rather speak about darwinian strenghts of natural selection. Most of the old societies understood well that destruction is not a lack of positive deeds or a mistake, but a real power of its own following its own logic."

Pigs unlimited

You could hardly guess what a company called Pigs Unlimited produces.

Expecting sophisticated crimes

In general - being a person full of doubts and sometimes even enjoying doubts - I dont like people without doubts. Mainly because they are not open to discussion - or they may be open to discussion, however I believe discussion deserves being called a discussion only if there is a potential of changing ones views. Without doubts this usually cannot happen. And discussion is something what allow us to adapt to changing environment and uncover new features of our world and lifes.

Zdeněk Sýkora: Nudná (Boring), 2006, source

It is interesting that even people who are supposed to challenge assumptions daily, people who are paid for thinking "out of the box", sometimes overlook their own mental boxes and what's more are unable to accept this fact. People without doubts... One of the good examples is probably represented by the roots of the current financial crises - many assumptions have not been challenged. Most likely because people who were paid for doing so were pretty successful - and success usually is not the point of your life which would make you think deeply.
The recent article (Resisting the Seductions of Success) by Harvard Business School faculty explores a situation of successful people. It may make you think. Enjoy.