Monday
I check into the 57th Street Clinic (a.k.a. NYC's Four Seasons Hotel) and later hail a taxi to meet Rolf at the Campbell Apartment inside the upper reaches of Grand Central Terminal. Campbell's is a bar that prefers to think of itself as a club, which makes it an ideal watering hole for Rolfie, who's a headhunter who prefers to think of himself as a McKinsey partner. Rolf likes the place because it's across the street from the Yale Club, and the first port of entry on Yalie martini crawls. Tonight's crawl thankfully never arrived, but neither did Rolfie. I spend an hour arguing the benefits of global economic integration with an unemployed techie, who last served as CIO for a plus-sized brokerage concern. When the geeky one becomes a tad agitated, I confide that I too have recently parted with an employer, and quickly order a near-shore beer for my protectionist friend.
Tuesday
I watch CNN's Carol Costello interviewing Mitt Romney, while I have a prebreakfast jog. It's been a month since Bain and I parted. Having had time to replay my chutes and ladders career, I know now that we should have ended it long ago. But then I had to see Romney, the former Bain czar. Grrrr. Romney. No matter. Bain and I are through. My portfolio of C-level clients remains almost entirely intact. Within 12 months, any or all of my Bain POWs should be paroled. In the meantime, I will work on my book. Hence my visit to New York, where I was invited to have dinner with some of Deloitte's financial rainmen (as well as lunch with my publisher). I do so like those Deloitte guys. They're neither pretentious nor too conspicuously practical. They're paying for this trip.
Wednesday
I fear that my trip to Fun City has been in haste. It seems that my publisher, Nell Listerbaum, is no longer my publisher. (NL's golf cart went belly up at Trump National, and she landed in a bed of Donald's roses, literally.) Her replacement is some 30ish pimpled book hawker by the name of Jonathan Slavin. Before summoning an encampment of saki to our table, Jon tells me that he has recently helped Adrian Slywotzky hatch his next book concept. Supposedly, he sat next to Mercer's big-browed one on a flight to Chicago and together they picked apart every management treatise from Henderson on Strategy on forward. It is with such ample schooling that Jon Jon now feels qualified to impart his publishing wisdom to ol' Rayne. Says Jon: "It's all about business novelty. We need to package it like ChapStick. Think of Tuesdays with Morrie! Ca-ching! Ca-ching!" Note: Send Nell get-well roses (thornless). Jon Jon continues: "I've got it! The Five CEOs You'll Meet in Heaven!
Thursday
Back at the Campbell Apartment, Rolf and I pull into port. As we approach the bar, Rolfie grabs my elbow and says: "Don't move another inch. Bomb meters is here." Not knowing what exactly a bomb meter is, I cut loose with a minor rant on bomb meters in the age of terror, Grand Central Terminal, and the joint's subpar gin rack. Rolf interrupts: "Not bomb meters! I said 'Tom Peters'!" Alas the Yalie crawl has obviously arrived. Rolf quickly engages the man he claims to be Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence — the high-bar best-seller of business publishing's last two decades. As I maneuver into their duet, I hear Rolfie strumming his familiar McKinsey tune (e.g., "The firm" really hasn't had a real leader since Ron Daniel). After schmoozing Peters a while longer, Rolfie turns and introduces me as a former Bainie turned author. Peters (if it was Peters) offers his well-polished boilerplate analysis on book publishing. Not knowing quite how to respond to His Excellency's critique, I experience a bout of conversational doubt, and blurt out Jon Jon's concept. Peters takes pause, pupils enlarged. Ca-ching! For the next two hours, we whittle away at a list of CEO prospects.
Friday
Back at home. Theo has chickenpox. Tom Peters has agreed to give me a cover quote for the book.
Only problem is, we could only come up with one CEO, and even Buffett is suspect. I fill out an expense report and find a pleasant and practical thank-you card for my friends at Deloitte.
Rayne Maker, a chief architect of ground breaking theory, tools, and processes happens to be traveling at the moment
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.