Speaking of Following your Leader

I wrote that last piece on Brian Mueller and, with all the good stuff I’ve been hearing about him as our new CEO, I can’t resist posting a link to this video of Steve Ballmer doing the “Dance Monkeyboy” thing, some of his own special breed of motivation. This has been the legacy of Microsoft for some time now, easily since 2000, and you have you ask yourself: is he like this … on a dare?

Technorati Tags: Brian Mueller, Leadership, Microsoft, Steve Ballmer

Brian Mueller Appointed to Apollo Group Board

This isn’t a surprise to anyone by any stretch, but it’s an interesting reminder of just how dramatic the changes around this place are right about now.

PHOENIX–(BUSINESS WIRE)–March 29, 2006–Apollo Group Inc. (Nasdaq:APOL) announced that Brian Mueller has been appointed to its board of directors.

Mueller has been with the company for 19 years and is currently its president. In his career with Apollo Group and University of Phoenix he has held many positions, most recently as CEO of the University of Phoenix Online campus.

Dr. John Sperling, acting executive chairman of Apollo Group, said, “We are pleased to appoint Brian to our board of directors. He is an excellent complement to our board and we look forward to the contributions and guidance he will provide as we continue to grow and expand.”

Members of the company’s current board of directors are John Sperling, Peter Sperling, John Norton, John Blair, Hedy Govenar and Dino DeConcini.

The campus directors and regional vice presidents just got back from a meeting in Phoenix discussing the future of the organization with Brian and his team as we all move forward with this long-overdue integration between Online, the ground campuses, and Axia College (come April 1). These are shake-up meetings, designed to make people feel just uncomfortable enough to take action, to force change in the way we perceive the delivery of eduction. He — Brian — comes to the table with an interesting reputation. From people who’ve worked for him directly I’ve heard the following:

“If he wakes up with a brainstorm, it better be implemented by 1:00.”

“He’s a mercenary…. Very good, but very determined.”

“Tough love. Exhastive, tough love. If he doesn’t love you, tough.”

But the real response came from a campus director I trust and respect dearly, who hasn’t had much contact with Brian and was skeptical about his role in the organization, She came back from the meeting and said, “I don’t care what you say about this guy. I don’t care what people call him. This time around, people are following him. He’s a leader, and we’re following him. We’ll get through this.”

Makes me want to do that much more today. Nice feeling.

Technorati Tags: Apollo Group, Brian Mueller, Education, University of Phoenix

Al Gore = Human After All

Here’s a wonderful Spike Jonze mini-doc on Al Gore and family. It’s only 13 minutes and worth watching in its entirety. It paints just the right picture of the Gores, albeit a few years too late.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-29385328971143264&q=al+gore

“A Meditation on the Speed Limit”

Having spent many years in New Jersey, I completely sympathize with the filmmakers of the following. These guys got together and obeyed the speed limit in Atlanta and brought a major highway to a standstill. Danger, potential loss of life and limb, damage to property, everything you look for in a sound traffic system. This is five minutes long and worth a watch!

“A Meditation on the Speed Limit”

Public Relations and the Power of Podcasting

The marketing world is abuzz with the notion of blogging and podcasting as tools for greater saturation, visibility, touch, whatnot. We’ve been hasing out some of those concepts around here and I thought I’d take a minute to outline them.

I started experimenting with podcasting last month for a public relations course I just wrapped up. It was a small class, a good one full of guinea pigs for my tech machinations. The course is offered as a hybrid — on ground one week, online three weeks, on ground one week — so I pitched to the students that it might be a fun experiement to try podcasting my online lectures for the three weeks we’re not together.

Technorati Tags: Education, Marketing, PR, Public Relations, University of Phoenix

[Read more]