Category: International College of Businessry and Managering

  • P = NP or The Battle of the Sexes

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    Actor Rex Harrison crooned in the 1964 movie My Fair Lady “Why can’t a woman be more like a man?” Today we would like to discuss the various reasons why they aren’t, and more importantly, why as a manager you wouldn’t want them to be. Before delving deeper into the topic of gender differences as… Read more

  • What Kind Manager are You?

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    The post-holiday season has a tendency to bring about a bad case of the “blahs” to almost everyone, so each spring the Frederickson clan engages in a spirit raising family tradition: we gather the great grandparents, parents, children, grandchildren and maybe even a few “great-grandchildren” on loan from the local orphanage. We build a fire,… Read more

  • Macro-Micro-Nano

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    I previous we have discussed macro-meetingnomics (the study of the larger meet-market) and micro-meetingnomics (covering the meet-market on a more individual level). What separates meeting-nomics from the more traditional dismal science of economics, other than better parties and a restraining order, is the the detail in which meeting-nomics can delve. Traditional economics is hamstrung by… Read more

  • Alumni Mailbag – Volume 1

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    At the International College of Businessry and Managering we like to keep in touch with our alumni and like to share our correspondence when we feel it will be helpful, instructive or inspiring to others. Here is an example that we believe is all three. Dear ICBM: I recently terminated my employment by a large… Read more

  • Ship-Ing?

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    Webster defines leadership as: (noun) a position as a leader of a group, when a person holds the position of leader, or the power or ability to lead other people. Read that definition again and notice that “leadership” is defined as a noun. Nouns are, if School House Rock is to be believed (and it… Read more

  • Self Help

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    Regarding self-help books I admit: I am NOT a big fan. While teaching several ICBM classes, I often have to deliver this disappointing news from the front of a classroom full of young self-help-book enthusiasts. Before the responses and book-club applications come flooding in, allow me a chance to offer a more-complete answer: While I… Read more

  • Managing Employee Retention with Quarterbacks, Interceptions, and Therapists.

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    In assessing football quarterbacks, one metric stands out more than any other as a predictor of greatness (or adequacy…or even failure) and that is the touchdown-to-interception ratio. In simple terms, over many drives-down-the-field, it is the most accurate measure of efficiency and predictor of success for a team. No measure is more accurate. How good… Read more

  • Back, to the Office

    Back, to the Office
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    It’s 2022, all your staff is vaccinated for, immunized against or apathetic about COVID and it’s many many variants. Do you know what that means? It means it time to round up all those work from home slackers and herd them back to the office. Unfortunately because it is no longer legal to round up… Read more

  • Great Resignation

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    Current headlines read like a menu for the coming managerial appocolypse: “The Great Resignation: Why Millions are Quitting Their Jobs“, “The Great Resignation Continues“, or even “Great Resignation, Literally Worse Than Hitler.” But as we’ve all come to know, and hopefully expect, headlines are meant to attract attention. And in each of these stories, not… Read more

  • Say ‘Nope’ to Hope.

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    In Corporate America, all hope is not lost, but it should be. We need to kill it while there is still time. — I just got out of a terrible leadership conference in Portland which broke one of my basic rules. Conferences must be engaging and inspiring OR they must have good coffee. Either/or is… Read more