THE SUITS (September 2, 2012)
I dreamt that I was giving a lecture about corporate strategy at some posh center for business studies. I was showing slides. One of them showed several businessmen in expensive suits. Out of the blue, I started talking about the suits. I argued that these were among the most dangerous signs of aberration in business. I used to have many, I boasted, but I chucked them away. The better the suits, the more destitute a company. One of the first things I do when consulting a company, I railed, was to advise them to get rid of the suits. They are an impediment to free thinking in corporate circles. Most important, they stifle change, which must be at the very core of corporate strategy. As I was getting more and more excited by what I was saying, I noticed that business people in the audience were getting increasingly uncomfortable. Many of them wore expensive suits, of course. Realizing that my lecture was going up shit creek, I unleashed my tongue ever more. The audience was ever closer to the point of kicking me out of the lecture hall. And then I woke up. Although I indeed hate seeing businessmen in suits, many of my views expressed at the lecture were still over the top even for my own taste. Besides, I still have one expensive suit left in my closet. It was too good to chuck away.