I am now of legal age to take advantage of those wonderful senior citizen discounts at Denny’s. So this subject is one I am intimately familiar with, as a student of the workplace and as one of the many individuals who represent the biggest demographic segment of the American population. And just how many are we talking about?
“If we can get two other customers to add 10 million units annually, that will raise our profitability to a level that would make us an attractive acquisition target,” Jeremy explained, as the rest of us listened intently. Jeremy is the CEO of a manufacturing company that has been struggling to reach a sustainable rate of business for several years. He continued.
“Dear Stan,
I’m Chairman of the Board of a large private company. I was recruited for the specific purpose of ensuring that proper governance was applied to the decisions regarding the strategic future of the organization. There are strong-willed shareholders who were having disproportionate influence on the company’s management and there was no independence on the board. I agreed to the role on the stipulation that the company, its board and all shareholders would ‘play it by the book’.
I had thought that the kanji symbol for “crisis” was a combination of two separate symbols, one meaning “danger” and the other “opportunity”. I had intended to use this as an introduction to this piece, as a justification for optimism in the face of great threats. And while I am convinced that hard times bring with them undeniable opportunities, I have discovered that the conventional description of the kanji character for “crisis” is, well, wrong.
