October 3, 2011 issue, completed August 19, 2012

This issue’s best articles seemed to revolve around a career in marketing, which is what I selected for myself many years ago when I decided on my university major. The article about how products are named, using the now-ailing Blackberry product as its example, was fascinating. I would love to have a company that names things. It reminded me of a process I went through at a company I used to work at, where we hired an ad agency to help us name a new show. It was a horrible process – all the thoughtful, creative ideas that the braintrust at the agency came up with were shunned by the artistic director (who also happened to be the company’s founder, president, and resident micromanager of all things). I left that company before the decision had been made, but long after the critical date for having a name had passed. Many months later I saw they had decided on the name that the agency (and I) had preferred all along.

The unappealing side of the culture of a company founded by one man who thinks the world of himself was also explored in the article about IKEA. Everyone loves IKEA, but the idea of having to learn IKEAspeak and the Founder’s dicta to work there smacked of the experience of working at a theme park like DisneyWorld. Still, someone is still allowed to think for him/herself at IKEA, otherwise they would not have such innovative designs. The article afforded a very interesting insight into the history and making of an international success story.

Most of all, I liked the article by Atul Gawande (as I always do) about applying the concept of professional coaching to his profession, surgery. His goal is to become the best surgeon he can be, even after he himself felt that he had stopped improving. It’s an appealing thought, especially as I am making efforts to be the best that I can be, and to improve my life and attitude in general. Although I don’t have a coach, putting myself in the coaching role of my own life from time to time has given me another perspective from which to evaluate things I’ve done and things done to me, and to learn from those experiences.