No Time To Think

Jack Trout, 07.16.07, 10:00 AM ET

This column could be titled, "A Tale of Three Meetings." It's a sad story about today's state of affairs. It's also a story that no one writes about, though they should. I've written about this problem before, but it is well worth repeating since I'm the only one writing about it.

The first meeting took place a while ago at Intel. I was there to discuss strategy with a conference room of middle-level executives. As the meeting began, everyone put an electronic gadget down on the table in from of them. What ensued could only be described as gadget envy as everyone began to comment on each other's gadgets. At this point, I broke in and asked them all what they did with their gadgets. Since I was without one, I felt I must be missing something.

After they all described their gadget activities, I commented that everything they mentioned, my assistant Ann did for me. My question was, "Why are you wasting your time on these unimportant activities?" Embarrassed, they admitted as such, but they pointed out the Anns were all gone at Intel, with one exception. Then-CEO Andy Grove had three such assistants. Their collective problem: They had no time to think. continue...