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Depicting Dot-com Disasters
In attempting to identify entrepreneurship fables, one place to look is the dot-com boom that began in the Nineties. If the dominant fable is the entrepreneurial success story, as most recently depicted in The Social Network, then the counter-fable would be the disaster story. The disaster story looks at a dot-com startup that began with…
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Cinematic Defenders of the Free Market Faith
At the end of “Wall Street and Vine,” his essay published in 2005 attempting to explain why he feels Hollywood is critical of business, University of Illinois law professor Larry Ribstein concludes that “the best way to counteract [Hollywood] films’ misleading message about business is to let business speak for itself.” The Acton Institute, a…
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The Pursuit of Happyness: Guess Who’s Coming to the Brokerage
As I work on Enterprising Fables I will be writing posts about the texts I’m watching or reading. My approach is to write about a group of texts in a particular subgenre, and the first subgenre is entrepreneurship. While I posted about The Social Network after it came out (see my posts of Oct. 26,…
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Stephen Denning and Management Narrative
In writing the literature review for Enterprising Fables, one name that demands serious attention is Stephen Denning, who has written several practitioner-oriented books about how managers can enhance their persuasiveness through the strategic use of simple stories. Denning’s own story is a compelling one. Initial success as a lawyer – winning a case for an…
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Film in Management Education
I’m now starting to work on a sequel to Governing Fables that will deal with narratives about management in a private sector context. To emphasize its symmetry with Governing Fables, I’m planning to title it Enterprising Fables: Learning from Private Sector Narratives. I will be writing chapters that discuss private sector management in a number…
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Why a Great Self-financed Park is an Absurdity
I had two official responses to my blog post about the Canadian Air and Space Museum. Lisa Hastings, who I assume works for Downsview Park in some sort of PR capacity and who likely was alerted to my post by her bot, and local MP Mark Adler, to whom I sent a message, both made…
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Why the Canadian Air and Space Museum Should be Saved
Building another hockey rink or preserving a unique aviation heritage site – which matters more to the Harper Government? In the federal government’s Downsview Park, the answer appears to be the additional hockey rink. Last September 20, Downsview Park gave a notice of eviction in six months to the Canadian Air and Space Museum. The…
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The Ides of March: Cynical Politics Again
In Governing Fables, I outlined three American political fables: the cynical (Primary Colors), the pragmatic (The Candidate, City Hall), and the idealistic (Seven Days in May, The West Wing). The cynical fable – and I take the liberty to quote myself – includes candidates and their handlers who are “cynical power seekers, loyal to no…
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Could the Liberals have Won Bigger?
The October 6 election gave the Liberals a surprising near-minority. We can find lots of reasons for it. First, Premier McGuinty projects himself as an experienced hand in troubled economic times. In addition, after eight years of governing, he still appears fresh and enthusiastic. That’s no small feat; long-time incumbent governments often defeat themselves because…
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Did Stories Prevail in the Ontario Leaders’ Debate?
Watching the leaders’ debate in the Ontario election, I noticed that New Democrat Andrea Horwath and Progressive Conservative were making considerable use of story-telling. The stories Horwath told were of named individuals, including her son, whom she claimed had been badly served by the Ontario health care system, in particular hospital emergency wards. The stories…
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Tim Hortons Crowd-Sourced Narratives
I recently saw a “based on a true story” ad for Tim Hortons that aired during a Blue Jays game. That led me to the Tim Hortons website, where the company is now running a competition (with a grand prize of $ 5000 in Tim Cards) for stories about “special Tim Hortons coffee moments.” The…
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Governing Fables is Now Available
This post is to announce the publication of my latest book, Governing Fables: Learning from Public Sector Narratives. The book can be ordered from Information Age Publishing at its webpage: http://infoagepub.com/products/Governing-Fables. It can also be ordered from online booksellers such as www.amazon.com. Governing Fables advocates the importance of narrative for public servants, exemplifies it with…
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In Praise of the Indispensable “Utility” Player
— this post written jointly with my wife Beth Herst — At a time when Toronto Blue Jays fans are honoring legendary former second baseman Roberto Alomar’s induction to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, I’d like to celebrate two of Toronto’s so-called utility players, John McDonald and Mike McCoy. Unlike Alomar, they are…
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Heather Robertson Does it Again
Not long after my previous post, I received an email from Access Copyright (www.accesscopyright.ca) informing me that the Ontario courts have approved a settlement for Heather Robertson’s second class action on behalf of freelance writers, this one against Torstar, Rogers, the Financial Post/National Post, all other Canwest publications, and the database Proquest. After paying legal…
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And here’s to you, Heather Robertson: Heaven Holds a Place for those who Sue
Some years ago I regularly published freelance op eds in The Globe and Mail. Recently a sitter for our children told me she was excited to see one of my articles appear in her composition text, a book entitled Thinking Through the Essay. On one hand, I was delighted that my work was being used…