Brad Rourke

Brad Rourke’s Blog

  • Nonprofit Challenges: Waste

    This is the last of my three-part video series on challenges and pitfalls facing nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations. This segment focuses on the problem of waste: As an independent consultant with no real apparatus to speak of (which is by design), it’s easy to spot expenditures in organizations that simply don’t need to be…

  • On My Radar: * What Will Apple Build? * Fiji Pres Disbands Govt * CIA Prisons Closed * D&D Dad RIP * Rove Vs. Biden

    * What Will Apple Build? * Fiji Pres Disbands Govt * CIA Prisons Closed * D&D Dad RIP * Rove Vs. Biden __________ These are the stories I am most interested in this morning: A recent very large order of memory chips from Apple has many in the tech world guessing what’s next. AAPL has…

  • On My Radar: * What Will Apple Build? * Fiji Pres Disbands Govt * CIA Prisons Closed * D&D Dad RIP * Rove Vs. Biden

    * What Will Apple Build? * Fiji Pres Disbands Govt * CIA Prisons Closed * D&D Dad RIP * Rove Vs. Biden __________ These are the stories I am most interested in this morning: A recent very large order of memory chips from Apple has many in the tech world guessing what’s next. AAPL has…

  • Nonprofit Challenges: Wanting To Live Forever

    I am in the middle of a three-part video series on challenges and pitfalls that nonprofit organizations face. This second challenge is (like all these pitfalls), not unique to nonprofits, but it does afflict many. That is the tendency to begin to confuse the health of the organization with the effective pursuit of the mission.…

  • On My Radar: Captain Still Hostage * Kim Jong Il Back * Yahoo Over Facebook? * New DOJ Ethics Chief * Pinko Nation

    * Captain A Hostage * Kim Jong Il Back * Yahoo Over Facebook? * New DOJ Ethics Chief * Pinko Nation __________ These are the stories I am most interested in this morning: Hijacked Maersk ship: Crew safe but captain offered himself as hostage; U.S. warships on scene. Captain still held. Hillary Clinton condemns “scourge…

  • Nonprofit Challenges: Too Inward

    I am doing a three-part video series on challenges and pitfalls that face nonprofits and other mission-driven organizations. The first pitfall is “inwardness,” as I discuss here: This is not a new idea. Indeed, one of the drivers of the whole strategic planning movement of the late 1960’s was the notion that businesses needed to…

  • On My Radar (Wed 4/8/09)

    * US Power Grid Infiltrated * Fred Hits 1M Subs * Hiding Earmarks * Fewer Hurricanes In 2009 * Kumar To White House __________ These are the stories I am most interested in today: The U.S. power grid has been extensively mapped and compromised with leave-behind software. Says Dennis Blair, national intelligence director:  “A number…

  • The Barber Shop Is Closed

    As I left Dayton last week after a series of meetings at the Kettering Foundation, I walked by this sign: “The Barber Shop Is Closed.” It was taped to a covered-over window just inside security at Dayton airport. Tip’s was gone. I’d always wondered about Tip’s. It was a large barbershop with two chairs, behind…

  • Strategy Vs. Tactics

    I was reminded of the howls from some pundits after a McCain-Obama debate in which the subject of “strategy” came up. The refrain from the left was: “This guy doesn’t even know the difference between ‘strategy’ and ‘tactics.’” The truth is, people have been arguing about the difference between strategy and tactics for centuries and…