Through the MassChallenge Mentoring Program, I’ve been spending three hours each week advising RelayRides, a company with a great idea – peer-to-peer car sharing – that’s smack in the middle of a strong new movement, Collaborative Consumption as written about in The Economist and by Leigh Buchanan in Inc, Clive Thompson in Wired, and Jenna Wortham in The New York Times.
Late on Tuesday, the founder, Shelby Clark said, “Instead of just advising me, why don’t you just join us to accelerate our growth?” After a handshake agreement, I started that day as part-time interim COO. By 9 PM I was reminded that what it takes to turn a great idea into a successful company is (more…)
David Brooks’ NY Times Op-Ed piece, 
During my first day of each interim CEO / COO assignment, inevitably I’m invited to what I’m told is an important meeting. And often I refuse. Agreeing with the points made by University of Chicago professor Reid Hastie in his NY times article, 
The approach I use is simple; I usually refuse the very first meeting to which I’m invited – no matter how important the subject may appear – by stating that I’ll only accept meeting invitations that include three things. 1. The objective we will achieve by the designated end time; i.e., the purpose of the meeting 2. The agenda we’ll follow during the meeting. 3. And the homework required of each attendee before the meeting starts.
Change Agent 