I love to read. And I love to read Fortune Magazine. Why? The voice, the tone, the integrity of its articles and the scope of business covered.
The September 6, 2010 issue is now torn apart. Not out of frustration or anger. It is torn apart because as I went through the issue, I tore out a single page of an opinion piece, seven pages of a profile, etc. Right now, you may be asking yourself, “Why do you tear out articles?”
I inherited the gene from my mother. I remember that she tore out and referenced articles from at least two if not three newspapers to share with her children or neighbors. I continue this habit. A habit that I know could be eased by going to the www.fortune.com website, reading the article online and sharing the article electronically.
I like paper. I like that I can sort the articles into five “destinations” or folders: 1) MGT 3300—“A Management Approach to Organizational Behavior”—the undergraduate class I teach in the Management Department at the Zicklin School of Business within Baruch College, part of the City University of New York; 2) “Ideas” that can help my business; 3) “Writing” that inspires me to be a better writer; 4) “Investments” that can help my bottom line; and 5) “Other” which includes “Technology” articles to reread and then maybe discard.
For instance, this is the beginning of a new semester and I’ve filed the following in MGT 3300:
The cover story, “Trader Joe’s: America’s hottest retailer is also notoriously hush-hush. Fortune uncovers the secrets of its success” will be used to illustrate organizational culture.
“Why J&J’s Headache Won’t Go Away: Once praised for setting the standard in management crisis, the health care giant is battling a stream of drug recalls. Fortune investigates what went wrong—and why it isn’t getting any better.” This can be of interest in the leadership, communications, or other sessions; my corporate communications majors will find this of interest.
“Chrysler’s Speed Merchant: CEO Sergio Marchione is racing to fill a dry product pipeline; his unorthodox methods aren’t for everyone” by Alex Taylor III will be discussed in class tonight. The assigned reading in the textbook for the session is “Foundations of Organizational Structure.” The chapter starts with a picture of CEO Sergio Marchione (in the very same clothes he is wearing in the Fortune photo) and an overview of “Restructuring Chrysler.” Good timing!
The next article will eventually go into “Writing,” a bulging folder that has more than one article by the excellent Wall St. author William D. Cohan. His latest for Fortune is, “Dick Fuld in Exile: Already lampooned and vilified, the former Lehman Brothers CEO now faces investigation and maybe a cash crunch. Now wonder he’s working so hard.” Fuld will be discussed during the chapter “Personality and Values” or “Emotions and Moods.”
There are too many technology articles that I’ve saved to mention. Technology is defining our culture and determining our future. I want to keep up-to-date and I also want to provide my students rational anticipation of how their “technical future” will evolve by 2020. Actually, writing about the impact of technology on the future of business is going to be part of their term project. And I’m ready to share with them the articles in my files that I tore out from Fortune!
