On My Mind: Behaviors of corporate executives are interesting to observe this time of year. I visited several companies recently, but two stand out from the crowd. I’ll name them “Frantic” and “Chill.” The executives at Frantic were panicking because their year-to-date numbers were well below target levels and they only have four weeks before the year-end close. Stress levels were high and nerves were on edge. There wasn’t a lot of discussion about 2020 because their attention was on achieving target levels that were set a long time ago. Chill executives were relaxed, jovial, and spending considerable time fine-tuning the company’s five year plan. They were already at-or-above their target levels for the year – and the targets were aggressive. Needless to say, Chill has an excellent strategic planning system and executes effectively. The mood and behaviors were clearly different in the two companies. Time will tell how these two companies perform in 2020, but organizational performance does affect a leader’s emotions and the ability to effectively plan for the future. Best wishes as you finalize your strategic plan for 2020. Interesting Stories: I read two books recently by Niall Ferguson on The House of Rothschild (Money’s Prophets: 1798 – 1848 and The World’s Banker: 1849 – 1999) which describe in detail the origin (in Frankfurt, Germany) and development of the Rothschild business empire. Mayer Amschel Rothschild began his business career with modest means and eventually created a vast multi-national business empire bearing his last name. The “Rothschild Group” eventually consisted of several houses managed by five sons: Amschel in Frankfurt; Nathan in London; James in Paris; Carl in Naples; and Salomon in Vienna. Rothschild business entities still exist today with family and non-family executives. Company News: I presented on Managing Big Data Analytics Risks at the Minnesota American Society for Quality (MN ASQ) Quality Conference on November 13, 2019. This was an outstanding conference and next year it will be a two-day event in early November. The next public Strategic Improvement Systems, LLC courses are the following: Strategic Improvement Green Belt starts January 7, 2020; Innovation Techniques & Tools will be held February 4-5, 2020; and Strategic Improvement Black Belt starts in April of 2020 (dates TBD). The brochures for the first two courses are available on the PUBLIC SEMINARS page of this website. Intriguing Reads: Many companies are moving fast in developing big data analytics capabilities, but these efforts are not without significant risks including stricter government regulations, customer privacy complaints, cyberattacks, and data breaches. Digital and big data analytics strategies are now routinely discussed by senior executives during strategic planning sessions. The book by Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne titled Tools and Weapons: The Promise and the Peril of the Digital Age describes in great detail the current state of the global information economy. Every section is excellent, but I especially liked the Introduction on the Cloud and the chapters on Surveillance; Cybersecurity; The Talent Gap; and AI and Facial Recognition. If you want to understand a phenomenon that is changing our lives forever, then give this book a try. This book is a must read for any CEO who plans to move aggressively on big data analytics.