In this series, I will comment on the written feedback I received after my presentation. Also, I will answer the online questions asked by students I had no time to amply reply to during said presentation

Lehren für Unternehmensführer – das Leben, das Wissen, die Informatik und die Ethik

(Permanent Link to Lessons For Managing Directors – Life, Knowledge, Computer Science and Ethics)
„Innovative Entrepreneurs“ / Summer Semester 2010
Leadership in growth-oriented enterprises

Here is another item of feedback I also consider quite important:

“The speaker tends to put market leadership on the negative list among the enterprise goals”

In my opinion, the motto “An enterprise should aim at becoming the market leader” is based on an antiquated understanding of entrepreneurship. It sticks to the following doctrines:

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A Short Theatre Show

Time:
Friday (July, 23rd, 2010), rather early in the morning.

Place:
Basement garage at InterFace AG.

Actors:
Olivier (nice colleague from France at InterFace), Roland (yours truly).    
Plot:    
German-French dialogue between car-driver and biker.

Scenery:
In front of the open bike parking space in the basement garage. Roland pushes his bike into the bike parking space next to the exit. Olivier has just parked his car (an Audi). Outside, it is rainy (not too much, but still), in here, it is dark but dry.

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In this series, I will comment on the written feedback I received after my presentation. Also, I will answer the online questions asked by students I had no time to amply reply to during said presentation.

Lehren für Unternehmensführer – das Leben, das Wissen, die Informatik und die Ethik

(Lessons For Managing Directors – Life, Knowledge, Computer Science and Ethics)

„Innovative Entrepreneurs“ / Summer Semester 2010

Leadership in growth-oriented enterprises

One of the rarer comments I still found very important was:

“The speaker did not offer enough facts”

Now we are really into it. Is there really anything you can call “fact” when we are talking social or economical processes? Is there an ultimate truth?

Or is it more like we are only certain of some things because we developed a sense of truth for what our prejudices, our (limited) scope of view and our social conditioning made us believe?

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Here are my tweets of last week on

Blogging and Twittering – Wisdoms and Rules:

100729 Be courageous: there is nothing wrong with writing a tweet or blog about your nightmares. #Twitter #Blogging

100730 When twittering and blogging, you can strip totally once in a while. #Twitter #Blogging

100731 There are certain expressions you should not use when twittering and blogging. #Twitter #Blogging

100801 Allegedly, some marriages have already gone down the drain because someone kept twittering and blogging. #Twitter #Blogging #Marital Crisis

100802 Also when twittering and blogging, you have to make a small start and you should not have too high expectations. #Twitter #Blogging

100803 The stupidity of some politicians is particularly inviting for twitterers and bloggers. #Twitter #Blogging #Evidence of Incapacity

100804 Also when twittering and blogging, you should keep in mind: think first, write later. #Twitter #Blogging

There is a new tweet each day. See Twitter and “follow” RolandDuerre!

Enjoy!

RMD

(Translated by EG)

A short time ago, the following true story of this summer was related to me.

Two ladies share an office. It looks east and therefore starts getting hot quite early in the morning. Consequently, the curtain is drawn. Basically, there is still enough light in the office, but regardless, one of them “automatically” switches on the light. Which annoys the other, because she feels strongly about using energy in a responsible way.

I can sympathize with her. Whenever I get home after a day’s work and see that people have switched on the lights in all the rooms for no apparent reason, I, too, get annoyed. The same is true when I arrive at the office in the morning and see that people have switched on the light in the corridor for no apparent reason. Likewise when my children or colleagues leave the room for some considerable time and still do not switch off the light. However, I am hesitant about mentioning it, because I do not wish to sound bossy or niggardly. So I keep my mouth shut and once in a while, I get (a little) fed up with it.

That is how you build up frustration. One person hates wasting energy, while the other does not even notice it. Yet you never want to say anything, because you do not want to appear small-minded.

29 years ago, I suffered in my office for a totally different reason. Those were the days when smoking was still permitted in the office. I had just stopped smoking around a year ago. And I shared my office with a colleague who still smoked. Gauloise. Basically, I liked him very much.

Of course, he asked me if I minded his smoking while I was present. And, of course, I told him no, go ahead. To be sure, this was a lie, but I did not want to admit what an intolerant non-smoker I had turned into.

So he sat there and whenever he smoked, I got fed up. Frustration grew from day to day. Yet I did not want to say anything. Then came the day when I hit back psychologically. In self-defence. I started picking my nose unconsciously. Somehow or other, I seemed to have known that my colleague would not like that at all.

There was a wonderful escalation… and we had a discussion at the end of which we were even better friends than before. He stopped smoking in my office and I stopped picking my nose. Later we went our separate ways. When we met again by accident a few years later, he, too, had become a non-smoker .

But that is how frustration grows – and a bad atmosphere. In more than one meaning of the word!

RMD
(Translated by EG)

A short time ago, I wrote a comment about how the press deals with the events around Dominik Brunner’ death. It reminded me of a situation I witnessed more than once when using public transportation in the Munich S-Bahn or underground system:

A frustrated mother with her whining child sits near me. (As the mother sees it,) the child is being very naughty, not obeying the (allegedly) so important rules of good manners. The mother is annoyed and makes the child look small. The situation escalates.

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Thanks to the criminal proceedings now being under way, the story of Dominik Brunner is ever-present in the media. Again.

A short time ago, he was the national Bavarian hero. He had courageously protected children who had been threatened and pressed for money by some adolescents or young adults in a Munich S-Bahn train. He paid dearly for his courage by being ruthlessly and most brutally beaten to death.

I was horrified. It annoys me to hear about violence and pressure in the vehicles of public transportation. The eruption of irrational violence, the extreme brutality and the abrupt end of Dominik Brunner’s life give me pause.I got scared of the future and mourned Dominik Brunner. Also, I felt most empathetic towards the misery of his family.

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Here are my tweets of last week on

Blogging and Twittering – Wisdoms and Rules:

100722 Underground and subway trains are an ideal place for twittering and blogging. #Twitter #Blogging

100723 There is a lot of interesting stuff to write tweets and blogs about in theatre and cinema programs. #Twitter #Blogging

100724 Even the EC 85 from Munich to Verona is a good place for twittering and blogging. #Twitter #Blogging #Travels

100725 But you should not twitter and blog while eating. #Twitter #Blogging #Marital Crisis

100726 If you are bored, try twittering and blogging. #Twitter #Blogging

100727 When twittering and blogging, you also often meet “Duck Assholes” . #Twitter #Blogging #Fun

100728 Allegedly, some young men are no longer allowed to twitter and blog after their wedding day. #Twitter #Blogging #Wedding-Eve Party

There is a new tweet each day. See Twitter and “follow” RolandDuerre!

Enjoy!

RMD
(Translated by EG)

That is the title of a play written by Thomas Bernhard in 1984 (which is when InterFace AG was founded).

There is a simple explanation for the mysterious title: It has nothing to do with the play. In his inimitable way, Thomas Bernhard chose the title in order to honour three actors who were playing under the direction of Claus Peymann in Bochum: Ilse Ritter, Kirsten Dene and Gert Voss. Well, it was a great riddle for me, too.

It is a great 3-persons-play, excellently produced by Antoine Uitdehaag at the charming Cuvilliés Theatre in the “Residenz”. Ludwig (Stefan Hunstein) has an older sister (Ulrike Willenbacher) and a younger sister (Barbara Melzl). And it is a family saga: there are arguments, there are love, caring, discussions, fights, respect and hatred.

The play intrudes deeply into the sub-conscious. Basically, there should be a warning printed on the tickets:

Careful! Experiencing this play, especially sitting in the front rows, increases your tendency to have nightmares.

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