Network

Readers react to articles in Inc. Technology #2, 1999, including "The Great Games of Business," by Leigh Buchanan and "Antiques Road Show," by Jeffrey L. Seglin. Plus: Web design.

The Play's the Thing

In response to Leigh Buchanan's question about finding business lessons in strange places [ User's Guide, June], I find business lessons about teamwork, division of labor, allocation of resources, communication, and strategies for attacking or defending against opponents in National Geographic Society programs that focus on big cats, insect cultures, and wildlife adaptability. I also learn a great deal from children, who tend to be much more observant of the world around them than adults are. Those who disagree with me are encouraged to take a long walk in the woods with several five-year-olds. It is amazing how much there is to see if only we are willing to look.

Robert Morris
Management Consultant
Dallas

Thanks for a delightful "brain dump" and a new way to look at "the ordinary." As an advertising and marketing consultant, I often use the Creative Whack Pack, by Roger von Oech, to stimulate new thinking. This clever card deck--with its accompanying book, A Whack on the Side of the Head--pushes your mind in new directions. For a long time I have felt that every business book published should be shorter by a half and accompanied by a deck of cards to further cement the author's ideas.

Erin Thomas Palmeter
President/Owner
The Palmeter Group
San Diego

Up until about two years ago, I worked at a research company, SRI International. As I was a business-development guy, I often found myself translating science-speak and engineering talk into understandable terms for our clients. Why not say plastic if that is what you mean, rather than elastomeric polymeric substrate?

While directing the research staff in such endeavors, I came up with the idea for a book that focuses on how much humans operate according to the laws of physics. Here are some of those laws: 1) People will continue in a constant speed and direction until acted upon by some external force or dynamic, and 2) Resistance to change is a fundamental force in nature and in human behavior.

John B. Parkinson Jr.
Cofounder
Envision
Larchmont, N.Y.

Business Unplugged

Let me get this correct: someone let you out of the office without a cell phone, a pager, a personal digital assistant, and a laptop? [" Antiques Road Show," by Jeffrey L. Seglin, June.] Heck, better watch yourself. Without all the normal disruptions from the E-world, you might concentrate on the job and close more business.

I love my gadgets but enjoy traveling without them for a break from the office and the chance to conduct truly single-focused tasks.

Bob Ballantyne
President
Genesis Laboratory Systems Inc.
Grand Junction, Colo.

Jeffrey Seglin points out so well one of the oddities of the electronic age: many things are easier and faster with just pen and paper--or a typewriter.

Greg Hager
Consultant
Microage Computer Centers
Jamestown, N. Dak.

Look Who's Traveling

I used to have a job that required I travel four to five days a week covering 16 states, so you can imagine the stress level at home. I tried to take the kids with me about five times a year. Having them with me was great, and my clients and associates agreed. In fact, they soon arranged to bring their kids, too. As long as the hotel had a pool, we were all set.

The kids got an idea of what Dad does and were able to see sights they wouldn't normally see. One time, for example, I had to cover a meeting on my daughter's birthday, so the president of the company agreed to let me and my kids tag along with him on the corporate jet. The kids got spoiled by the pilots and saw some sights, and we all made it home in time for the family birthday party. Best of all, we got the account.

Thomas F. Green
Agency Principal
Green Insurance Associates
Bedford, N.H.

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Sticks, Stones... and a Challenge

In his Web Wise column in the June issue, Web marketing consultant Jim Sterne took to task the home-page design of a small carpet-cleaning company called Krystal Kleen Karpet Kare. Krystal Kleen's owner, Mark McNutt, responded to Sterne with an E-mail admitting that he had neglected the site and promising to redo it. But he also chastised the columnist for unnecessary harshness. "I have been trying to run three different businesses and overextended myself," McNutt wrote. "I was caring for my ailing father, who passed away on Thanksgiving in 1998. Dealing with employee problems. I am a damn good carpet cleaner. Maybe you can review that."