Today every esoteric and business approach is just one YouTube video away. Frameworks like ITIL and DevOps, once sequestered in the back corner of a degree program, are free for the taking.  Esoteric practices such as Tipping Point or The Secret no longer require a month retreat in a Tibetan monastery. However, every strength exposes […]

There is a great article in Fortune 500 titled “Can IBM ever be cool?” which if read between the lines confirms IBM’s misstep. Basically after leading with IBM has had 9 consecutive quarters of losses, the article more or less praises Ginni Rometty’s plan to turn IBM into Apple. The article, like IBM, completely ignores […]

Like most Americans I am an adrenaline junkie. I am drawn to bailing out organizations and playing the role of the tactical hero.  However, after many string of successes, I was surprised at the number of organizations that faltered and folded after I left and that all the tactical changes I made were fleeting at […]

People sometimes ask me, where do you come up with the villains in your stories? The unfortunate answer is all around us. Sometimes villains are individuals. Other times villains are entire industries. My most recent “real life” villain encounter was with the moving industry as I moved my family from Austin, Texas to the rain-shadow […]

My mission as both a high-end consultant and a writer is the same. It is the same mission shown in every story ever told – the Hero’s Journey. That journey is the human condition. While a small number of us came in as the Bill Gates of the world, that really is just the 2%ers […]

Life isn’t fair. I think this reality was as daunting to me then as it is to my teenager today. As a young consultant do we ever work less than a 70 hour week? No, because the professional services manager doesn’t want to bother the sales team with a change order to extended the scope […]

The Terminal Connection, a techno-thriller, Kindle version is FREE May 8th-9th http://bit.ly/TerminalConnection Three AUTOGRAPHED paperback copies will be given away May 8th-11th via Goodreads – http://bit.ly/TCgiveaway1 Good Reads’s Listopia – http://bit.ly/GoodReadsListopia #1 Indie Technothriller #2 Best Science Thriller #4 What to Read Over and Over Again Part of the proceeds will be contributed to an […]

Ok I lied. I promised to shift gears from the emotional sphere to the mental sphere after providing one measly emotional tactic – tapping into fear. But can you really take over the world with this tactic alone?  Sure, along with the tactic, I did provide the example of 911 and how the terrorists “owned” […]

The prior blog discussed real secret government conspiracies and how most of them are “headless.”  As a practicing Cith, this article teaches you how to create your very own secret government conspiracy through fear mongering. In practice, there are many tactical moves that can kick a headless conspiracy into existence. These tactics oddly resemble Jedi […]

I am asked this question often, and the simple answer is “life.”  That is, I cheat. As an independent high end consultant in information technology, my job has me roaming the world, wheeling and dealing with: fortune 500 companies, large government agencies, and secret military projects.  At home life has forced me to come to […]