In the early 1980’s, shortly after George Harvey became the Chairman and CEO of Pitney Bowes, I asked a more senior colleague why he thought George was the best candidate among those who vied for the CEO position.  He talked about George’s wisdom and track record, but he also said: “Unlike many adults who collect a paycheck, he actually makes tough decisions.”  He went on to explain that many highly-paid, well-credentialed people are afraid to put themselves at risk by making difficult decisions, but that no leader of a major organization could afford to be afraid to take the risk of being wrong or pretend to be taking certain actions.

That comment has not only stuck, but seems more astute than ever.  I have been both more admiring of people who stick their neck out, and more frustrated with those who should, but do not, when tough situations occur.  In the last few years, we have moved into the most difficult economic environment since the 1930’s.  It has effectively “smoked out” whether people want to embrace tough decisions and engage others in constructive conflict, or whether they will develop even more elaborate ways to avoid those decisions.  I have seen more of both kinds of people in the last three years than ever before, especially the non-performers who have learned to survive by “pretending” to perform.

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Catherine Rampell of the New York Times wrote an article that, unfortunately, reports on an all-too-common problem, the increase in the long-term unemployed population, on December 2, in a story entitled “Dwindling Prospects.” I know people who fit her description. In fact, I have spoken to a local support group of individuals who are part of the long-term unemployed population, in one of the wealthiest communities in the world, Darien Connecticut.

I was effectively unemployed once in my life, for about a 4-month period  (January, 1979, through May, 1979) between my second law firm job and my hiring by Pitney Bowes.  I was told in October, 1978, that I would not be offered a partnership, was given a few months to look for a job while on the payroll, and then was put in an “of counsel” status, meaning that I would be hired only for hourly project work. I had a little work, but nowhere near enough to support my family.  It was initially scary, and I felt all the self-doubt that Ms. Rampell described in the people she profiled.  When I became unemployed, despite a Harvard Law degree, I did not know when I would be hired to work again.

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In the Saturday November 21 New York Post, reporter Michelle Malkin writes a scathing op-ed piece on the Service Employees International Union,  entitled “The Union That Hates the Boy Scouts.“.  The major point of her piece is that the SEIU strongly opposes volunteer work in many communities, because they believe that volunteer work takes paid work away from union members.

Her description of certain union positions rings true to me because I recall that the Stamford Youth Foundation (Stamford, Connecticut) could not staff the variety and volume of after-school activities that it would have liked because union contracts required it to pay every teacher for the extra hours worked after the regular school day.  This deeply bothers me.

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During the course of determining whether I should invest in a documentary film about dogs, I gained some quite interesting insights into the potentially new role dogs can play in our health care system.  Because dogs have a sense of smell that is 40 times as acute and discriminating as that residing in humans, some researchers have explored whether dogs can detect diseases as accurately and reliability as much more expensive technologies, with no need for invasive and time-consuming diagnostic processes.

Two organizations, the Pine Street Foundation in California and the Sensory Research Institute at Florida State University, have each done reported studies which have concluded that dogs can reliably detect various kinds of cancers, such as prostate, breast and skin cancers, because tumor cells give off different odors from regular cells.  It will be quite interesting to determine whether their reliable detection is such that they can detect the presence of these diseases even earlier than more high-tech alternatives like 64-slice CT scans or MRI’s or nuclear magnetic resonance systems.  Dogs apparently have demonstrated as well that they can detect the imminence of an epileptic seizure minutes before the individual subject to the seizure has any symptoms.

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In the September 7, 2009, issue of the New York Times, reporter Michael Lud wrote an article entitled “Out of Work and Too Down to Search On,” which essentially made the point that the economic environment is so bad that many people stop looking for work.

Unemployment is psychologically devastating.  I know: I was unemployed for several months in early 1979, when I left my law firm and was trying to secure another legal position.  I was asked to look for another job because I was told I would not be made a partner.  My stay on the unemployment rolls was brief, but terrifying.  As a result, I empathize with anyone who has lost his or her job.

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Our country has spent hundreds of billions of dollars over many decades to reduce or eradicate poverty.  Governments at all levels have been part of the effort.  There are many explanations as to why these efforts have succeeded, if at all, only marginally.  As a member of the National Urban League board, and its former chairman, and as a person who has worked closely with many community-based non-profit social service organizations in Southwestern Connecticut, I have some thoughts on the subject.

The National Urban League, which will celebrate its 100^th anniversary in 2010, is a wonderful social services and civil rights advocacy organization, which has developed its programs through the benefit of rigorous research, experience from nearly 100 years of service delivery at its nearly 100+ affiliates, and incredible insight from leadership teams headed by great leaders like Whitney Young, Vernon Jordan, John Jacaob, Hugh Price, and the League’s current brilliant and accomplished leader Marc Morial.

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On March 18, I spoke at a retirement party for one of the members of my executive assistant staff, Connie Telesco, an event that was truly one of the most special I have ever attended.

Retirement parties are a great tradition at Pitney Bowes.  They celebrate the career and life of the person honored in ways that recognize the person’s contributions to the company, enable friends and family to come together and strengthen relationships, and reinforce company values.    Connie’s party, through the superb leadership skills of my former executive assistant MaryJane McDonough, had all of those elements.

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Recently, I had a pair of experiences that opened my eyes to a whole new set of opportunities for philanthropy as it relates to emerging markets.  The first of these experiences took place a month ago when I was trying to clear out our garage after we renovated our home.

I called the President of our town baseball program and offered to donate a box of baseball equipment my younger son had outgrown, including metal bats, small-sized baseball gloves, and some other odds and ends.  At the bottom of the box were two torn baseball gloves, one of which was what I used when I was growing up.  To my surprise, he wanted everything, including the torn gloves.  When I asked about the torn gloves, he informed me that the program shipped torn gloves to Polish micro-businesses that repaired and resold them.

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