Are you the David or the Goliath in Your Fight? DeMarco Banter

I keep returning to Malcolm Gladwell’s book: David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants.  This morning, reading a devotional on 1 Samuel 17:37…David said moreover, The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of …

Leadership and Social Innovation—neoDeMarcoian Thought

Social innovation is basically the process of securing support for and implementing novel solutions to social needs and problems.   The question is do we see a place for social innovation given the world’s new challenges – such as new markets in emerging nations and increasingly urban, interconnected and dangerous societies? Further, the US has …

The Platonic Academy and “Leadership” School

I am always fascinated by the concept of philosophical schools--especially when applying that philosophy to leadership.  The last school we looked at was the Jedi Praxeum, I am sure no one will have any trouble connecting the Praxeum to Plato's Akademia. THE SITE The Akademia was a school outside the city walls of ancient Athens. It …

Leadership is… (simplicity?) [Leadership Quotes] DeMarco Banter

I spend a lot of time pondering the question: "What is leadership?"  It's really not that complicated, until we spend time to really think about it.  A friend of mine Steve Cockram of GiANT Worldwide talks about how a leader's responsibility is to take the simple, understand and acknowledge this "simple" in all it's complexity, and distill the complexity back …

Disruptive Thinking, 6 Innovative Microclimates, and Leadership for Strategic Change

by J. William DeMarco Walking Montparnasse in Paris one Christmas--I caught the ghost of Hemingway sipping a cafe au lait at the Dôme. I was struck by all the great minds that had walked the streets of the Left Bank.  I recall having the same thoughts walking the streets of Florence Italy, eating Thai with the boys in Mountain View CA or …

Wondering Where The Lions Are/Putting Leadership Back into Strategy: Chapter 1

By J. William DeMarco DeM Banter:  For those tracking with the last 4 weeks--we've resisted a strategy and leadership paper I worked on in 2008.  In typical DeMarco fashion--we are posting the first chapter last.   Chapter 1 “Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.” –Sun …

Wondering Where The Lions Are: Quantum Look, A National Strategy?

DeM Banter:  As mentioned in the ABSTRACT POST, Chapter 1, 2, 3 and now in Chapter 4 in 2007-08 I was fortunate enough to be selected a a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  An outstanding year spent with some of the foremost personalities in National Security on both the Right and the …

Wondering Where the Lions Are: American Grand Strategy

DeM Banter:  As mentioned in the ABSTRACT POST, Chapter 1, 2, and now in Chapter 3: in 2007-08 I was fortunate enough to be selected a a National Security Affairs Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  An outstanding year spent with some of the foremost personalities in National Security on both the Right and the …