Reflections

What would you
like to do now?

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Meeting Willie Nelson in the Desert: On one of his trips to Durango, Mick had crossed the back roads of Nevada and come into southern Utah on one of those dry summer days when the air is as hot as the pavement and the dust, fine as talcum powder, seeps into your pores. He rode into the only gas station in a place that would be a ghost town if the few people there had had the sense to leave. While he was gassing up, a pickup came to a stop on the other side of the gas pump. When the driver’s door opened, a dog jumped out and ran about a dozen steps and peed. Then the driver emerged. He wore old jeans and a pair of shit-kicker boots, a red cotton shirt, faded from too many washings, and a red bandanna wound tightly around his head. His face looked like it had been etched with a putty knife, and he had long braided gray pigtails. Damn if it wasn’t Willie Nelson. Here in this spit-in-the-road-of-a-town in southern Utah. Damn.
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Scott Thompson's Abrupt Exit

CEO Scott Thompson’s recent resignation from Yahoo—after only four months on the job—is a stark reminder that leadership legitimacy can be lost in a heartbeat if the leader’s integrity is called into question. Moreover, that breach of integrity does not have to be substantial. In Thompson’s case, it was the claim, in his biography, that he had dual degrees from Stonehill College in accounting and computer science (at the time he graduated, Stonehill did not offer a computer science degree).

Thompson, who was named Yahoo’s CEO in January 2012, came to the company with solid technology credentials and a long track record as a successful executive. Before joining Yahoo, he had been the chief technology officer and then president of PayPal and, before that, the executive vice president of technology solutions for Inovant, a subsidiary of Visa. Earlier in his career, he worked for Coopers and Lybrand, where he specialized in information technology solutions for financial services clients. In each of these roles, Thompson had demonstrated not only a grasp of technology but the ability to lead people and organizations successfully. He would appear to have been an ideal executive to turn around a struggling technology giant like Yahoo.

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Desperately Seeking Santorum: This year’s presidential campaign will be remembered principally for the Republican’s desperate search for ABR—anybody but Romney. As I write this in March 2012, the field appears to have narrowed to four: Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul. But it’s not really four. Ron Paul’s odds of winning the nomination are about as good as Jerry Sandusky’s odds at being named the next Pope. Which leaves us with three . . . but not really. In the polls, Newt has had more ups and downs in the past year than the DOW, and his star is fading fast. Republicans everywhere except in the Deep South seem to have realized that candidate Gingrich would carry more baggage than United Airlines. This is the guy who was railing against Bill Clinton for his Monica Lewinsky indiscretions while Gingrich himself was having an illicit affair. Moral hypocrisy doesn’t get more sordid than that. Pitting him against Obama next fall would be like conceding the election before it’s held.
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