By Michael Willard
Three decades ago in Washington, D.C., my boss looked across the table and asked: “How would you like to lead a large USAID market reform program in Ukraine?”
I asked, “Where’s Ukraine?”
“Heck, if I know,” he replied. “Somewhere near Russia.”
Today, almost everyone with a radio…
By Michael Willard
I looked up at the portrait of Maria Sosiura, surrounded as it was by a menagerie of tributes to her husband, Vladimir, a poet of the Russian revolution.
In my thoughts, I embraced the stillness and whisperings of the writer’s cavernous study.
Maria looked pleasant enough but…
By Michael Willard
I doubt you have heard the story of the four-year-old tyke who looked up at his father and said with sincerity, “I want to be a PR guy when I grow up.” It would fail the suspension of disbelief test.
However, with shrinking newspapers these days, the…
By Michael Willard
It came to my attention decades ago that a metaphor for life was a silver cylinder in a pinball machine. While on occasion, I lit up the board, most events — success or failure — came about by happenstance.
Because of this, I can’t claim second sight…
By Michael Willard
It came to my attention decades ago that a metaphor for life was a silver cylinder in a pinball machine. While on occasion, I lit up the board, most events — success or failure — came about by happenstance.
Because of this, I can’t claim second sight…
By Michael Willard
I once suggested to my wife that given the certainty I will slip earth’s bonds someday, she should, at the proper time, hold auditions for her next husband.
She’s younger than my favorite guitar, and I am old enough to remember 29-cent gasoline.
She didn’t object, which…
By J. Michael Willard
Dr. Samuel Johnson — yes, that 18th Century literary chap — taught me my greatest lesson in leadership: “Nothing will ever be attempted if all possible objections must first be overcome.”
The inscription was noted on a laminated card that was proof I had, indeed, graduated…
Living a Nuclear Childhood
By Michael Willard
When I was seven, I vividly remember the evacuation of the entire Whitehaven Elementary School in Memphis because Soviet nuclear missiles were headed our way.
Of course, it was a test, but the school principal announced over a tinny intercom later that day…
If the FBI, Europe’s Interpol, Scotland Yard, or the Russian FSB tracked the footprints of my Google searches, I would imagine they would classify me as “a person of interest,” and my dossier would be two-inches thick.
Though I have never fired a pistol, I can describe a 9 mm…
In marketing, brand loyalty is nirvana.
It is what every brand produced aspires to achieve. Once on that plateau, it takes more than a nudge — more like a colossal shove — to dislodge customer preference for a particular product or service.
Coca-Cola had it, but almost lost it in…
