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    Mundane May: Autumn hues

    Accountability Effectiveness Leadership Mundane May Productivity Societal Wellbeing

    May 24th–31st: As Autumn sets in, a new palette of colours becomes dominant.

    May 24th: making a bold [mauve] statement.

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    May 25th: Deciduous conifers painting a [rusty] calm

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    May 26th: A sanctuary, to enjoy the vista, quietly.

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    May 27th: These feet are made for walking. Thanks Merrell.

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    May 28th: Framing Fall (as in, Autumn 😎)

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    May 29th: bureau sans frontières

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    May 30th: Before the trail fades... AKL–SCL from below.

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    May 31st: In the end, we all return to the ground.

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    Now, the 31 days of May have passed. My project, Mundane May, is complete. The idea was simple: Take a photograph of an object or scene every day in May—nothing special or flashy—post them with an open mind and see what happens.

    • What did I observe?
    • What did learn?
    • Am I any different as a person?

    Watch for a new muse, with my reflections, on these and other questions, sometime in the next seven days.

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    Mundane May: NZST, all week

    Boardcraft Chairman Change Corporate Governance Director Development Effectiveness Leadership Mundane May Productivity Speaking Engagements

    May 17th–23rd: Familiar territory—living on the land of the long white cloud.

    To see earlier pictures: May 1st–2nd, May 3rd–9th, May 10–16th.

    May 17: Left, only.

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    May 18: Announcing one’s arrival.

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    May 19: Afternoon [de]light

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    May 20: An early-morning chauffeur-ride to client engagements, for the third day in a row.

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    May 21: Autumnal hues

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    May 22: Ah, those long white clouds…

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    May 23: What picture are you in: Life? Work? Play?

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    Mundane May: one week in

    Change Decision Making Leadership Mundane May Rules

    May 3rd–9th: A week characterised by movement and thought. What drives you?

    To see earlier pictures: May 1st–2nd.

    May 3: On the move, under a watchful eye

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    May 4: No, just no.

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    May 5: My name is …?

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    May 6: For what purpose, and when?

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    May 7: Cables and converters … “life support” while travelling

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    May 8: Taxi!

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    May 9: Even disguised, the answer is apparent, n’est-ce pas?

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    Who’s looking at you?

    Accountability Boardcraft Corporate Governance Effectiveness Leadership Monday Muse Performance Research Speaking Engagements Value Creation
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    Have you ever wondered who is looking at your website, and why? My new website was published seven days ago (well, a very similar website), so I decided to look at the analytics, to get an idea.

    To my astonishment, some 40,600 total visits (page hits) have been recorded over the past seven days, from just over 8500 unique visitors. Extrapolated, that points to over two million page hits per year.

    This sounds impressive. I’m not convinced, and closer inspection shows the numbers are not quite what they seemed at first glance. When ‘include Crawlers/Bots’ is de-selected, a clearer picture emerges: the total visitor count drops to 10600-odd. That about three quarters of the traffic to petercrow.com is not by or from real people is good to know. That they are AI-tools and other systems, hoovering around collecting data justifies our investment in appropriate security. That one-in-five visits is from a mobile device suggests our selection of a tool that provides desktop-, tablet-, and mobile-friendly display options—automatically—was a good decision too.

    Turning to the ‘real visitors’ now. If one-in-four Unique Visitors are not bots, about 2100 people visited the some part of the site over the past seven days. Some (most?) will have been curious about the new site. But others looked at one or more Musings articles; and some have checked some other aspect of the capabilities and credentials material.

    Even if one or two per cent of these ‘real people’ are genuinely interested (20 per week), and ten per cent of these get in touch, my decades-long quest (to provoke candid conversations to help boards can govern with impact) has, probably, been worthwhile. Onward.

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    Mundane May: underway

    Boardcraft Decision Making Leadership Mundane May Societal Wellbeing

    Mundane May, a project I decided upon a few weeks ago, is underway. The idea is simple: Take a photograph of an object or scene every day in May—nothing special or flashy—post them with an open mind and see what happens.

    • Will I become more observant?
    • Will I become more patient?
    • Will it help me become a better advisor, husband, or member of society?
    • And, will anyone even notice?

    I do not know, but let's see what captures my attention over the month, and go from there.

    Each Saturday after today, I'll drop seven pictures.

    May 1: onset of Autumn

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    May 2: life in <64 litres

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    On founder-led businesses and governance

    Accountability Corporate Governance Family Business Leadership Monday Muse Tough Questions
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    Do founder-led businesses always need governance, as many consultants, advisors, and governance professionals assert? ​
    My response is straightforward: It depends.
    If, for example, the founder owns all the shares of the company, and is the only director, and runs the business day-to-day, then probably not. But, if the founder wants to grow the company further, and/or they do not want to make all the decisions themselves, and/or they lack some expertise to make good decisions, then it can make sense to gather some people around, appoint them as directors, and get the basics (of corporate governance) underway.

    I made the comments recently, during a wide-ranging conversation with Charlie Meaden, CEO of eccuity. If you are curious about where our 35-minute conversation went, grab a coffee and listen in. And, if you have any questions or feedback (critical or otherwise!), please get in touch. I would be glad to hear from you.