Jim Collins, author, teacher, athlete and leading member of the Boulderati is profiled in today’s Sunday Business section. It’s a flattering piece for the most part.
This little passage certainly got my attention:
Companies also ask him to consult. But he mostly declines, agreeing only if the company intrigues him and if its executives come to Boulder to meet him. Over two half-day sessions, for $60,000, he will ask pointed questions and provide very few answers.
“I am completely Socratic,” he said, “and I challenge and push; they come up with their own answers. I couldn’t come up with people’s answers.”
I’m not Jim Collins. I don’t climb; I don’t run a stop watch on my day-to-day activities and enter the data into spreadsheets; I don’t have teams of researchers help me get to the truth; and so on. However, I am perfectly willing (and some might even say able) to lovingly grill any marketing exec., brand manager or agency owner interested in meeting with me in Portland. As a bonus, I’d even be willing to point to an answer or two.
