There is a famous book by a flight attendant called Coffee, Tea, or Me. If you pre-order my new book, you get copy, e, and me: a copy of the book as soon as it comes out (on September 15), an e-version of the book immediately, and an invitation to a webinar where you can ask me anything you like about this book on my other writings. All you have to do is order the book from Amazon or your…
Coop-Sapporo, May 2025 (Originally published in Coop News, January 2026) Coop-Sapporo is not a traditional cooperative so much as an affiliation of social enterprises that it has organized to serve a range of community needs on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, from cradle to grave. This suggests a new model of the social economy: how communityship in the plural sector can play a consolidating role…
Ever had a chance encounter that sparked a great opportunity. In my new article, Is Serendipity Serendipitous? (2025), I dive into why serendipity isn’t just random luck—and how you can make it work for you, by turning chance into opportunity. From an elevator pitch to IKEA’s flatpack revolution, I share stories of how serendipity shapes lives and organizations. Discover why coffee machine chats…
William Butler Yeats wrote famously that “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold…” Accordingly, opinion writers, left and right, have been writing about the center holding or not. What center? Mostly it’s been folding, not holding. Why do we tolerate the linear politics of left, right, and center? Has not two centuries since two groups happened to sit on the left and right sides of the French…
Originally posted 5 April 2017. Reposted here with only minor changes necessary, mostly deletion of a few dated examples. Dear Mr. President, As a neighbor in Canada who has long worked with businesses and governments around the world, I have some important news for you. America is not suffering from too much government so much as from too much business―all over government. Please understand this…
Illustration: Chat GPT and S. Brovkin. This is a modified version of a blog posted years ago, in anticipation of the American government being torn apart by efficiency. Efficiency is like motherhood. It gives us the greatest bang for the buck. We decide what benefits we want; efficiency gets us them at the least possible cost. Who could possibly argue with that? Me, for one, masses of American…
Picture found long ago but don’t know the source. Would be pleased to give credit if someone knows who. In 2021, I posted this blog. It seems appropriate to repeat it now, with no editing. ----- Some years ago, when visiting a colleague at Harvard, after I had made a comment critical of the United States, he retorted that “Canada is a pipsqueak country.“ ! In the early 1990s, as the European…
Illustration:: Stable Diffusion of Grant Woods and S. Brovkin. Winston Churchill reportedly claimed that the Americans always gets it right…after they’ve exhausted all the alternatives. Let’s hope that the recent election will exhaust the last alternative, so that the country can finally get it right, for the sake of survival. Anger, affluence, and angst—this is America today. Donald Trump was…
From my 50-page collection of quotes, developed over the past 50 years or so, here are some of my favorites about humor, a few inadvertently so. --- The funniest person I know claims he saw his tombstone in a dream: “Here lies RR. He kept his options open.” --- “He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse, and rode madly off in all directions.” - Stephen Leacock, McGill economist…
After all, rising tides don’t trickle down. Greed is good, Markets are sufficient, Governments are suspect. Economists mix two metaphors to promote this dogma, that a rising tide lifts all boats, rich and poor alike, and that the wealth of the rich trickles down to the rest. Go tell that to the poor and the rest, such as a beleaguered family that can’t pay its mortgage. These win-win promises may…