Friday Donuts

Dear Members and Constituents, You can be anything you want (within reason), but you can’t be everything you want. Your time, energy and focus are limited resources which, if applied towards a narrow set of goals, can get you quite far in that direction. It’s a natural temptation –and a common mistake– to try to do it all. Like butter on toast, it is possible to spread yourself so thinly no perceptible flavor is left. This is true of any endeavor where resources are limited –arguably, everything in life. Whether it’s career choices, IT projects or weekend activities, you can only do so many… well. A strategy to decide what to do (and, perhaps more importantly, what not to do) is of utmost importance. I think you know what I’m talking about. We’ve all, at some point in our lives, agreed to attend three parties the same night –and enjoyed none of them. Granted, you must beware of false trade-offs (but that’s a topic for another day) Anything worth doing is worth doing well. Which, in tur

Dear Members and Constituents, What do you fear? Is it unemployment, rejection, spiders or the dark? Perhaps you have a fear of heights, death or outhouses… As I look back on my formative years, my biggest fear was that of obscurity or, worse, mediocrity (with vampires a close second – I was an adult before I stopped wrapping my sheets around my neck to prevent midnight bites). Back then, I fancied myself becoming a renaissance man; a Leonardo DaVinci for our times. That dream has drifted over time, going from renaissance man to successful entrepreneur, to corporate executive, to… mmm… (hopefully not an acronym for Mediocre Middle Manager). To be clear, the mediocrity I feared was synonymous with “ordinary” or “average” –not “inferior” or “poor”. On my report card, I figured “B” stood for “blemish” (which, by extension, meant “C” was for “cringe” and “D” a “disaster”). The problem is, of course, that the odds are stacked against you. Even if you’re one-in-a-million, there

Dear Members and Constituents, What a week. I’ve been to Ecuador, tested the limits of how little sleep I can have and still be operational and managed to get back in time for Donut Friday (okay, okay so I’m defining my timeliness loosely –it is, after all, 8:23- but I’m here!). My, how time flies when you’re trying to break a new record on how thinly you can spread yourself. Today marks the debut in the Friday Donut Club of another person notorious for allowing little time for very long trips. Suffice it to say she recently traveled to South Africa to watch a cricket match. I’m talking about Sneha, who delights us today with a delectable selection of delicious LaMar’s donuts. Come and get them before they all fly away. Happy Friday!

Dear Members and Constituents, Back in mid-June, I tipped my hat to a product team ( the Voice and Stuff girls ), in recognition for the valuable work they perform. My singling-out a product team was a likely occurrence. You see, the majority of FDC members (56%) are in the Product Management organization. This should come as no surprise, after all, 32C is a pod dominated by product-types. The organization with the second largest representation, however, is not as intuitive: nearly one in every five FDC members (19%) is in Offer Management. These die-hard fans of the donut travel from the far reaches of our campus (mostly 34C) to get their Friday fix. Within this broad category, one group in particular stands-out: Carrier Markets. 5 members of this 7 person team are of the donut persuasion. Not only are these folks able to get into the heads of our largest customers, they are also able to handle the largest Friday morning donut commutes. It does not matter whether it’s a PTT or a Kripy