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This was originally posted on October 8, 2008. In celebration of HilaryTopper.com’s fifth anniversary, this post is a re-post from HilaryTopper.com. Please be sure to comment to be eligible to win a prize pack at the end of the month! Thanks for reading!

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When I was in graduate school at Baruch College, I wrote a thesis on comparing the management styles of Captain James T. Kirk of the U.S. Enterprise vs. Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S. Enterprise-D.

For those of you non-trekkies, both captains were on the TV show, Star Trek. Captain Kirk appeared on color TV in 1966. (I don’t remember that, because we had a black and white TV until the 1970′s.) Twenty years later, Captain Picard appeared on TV in 1986. (Neither show appeared in High Definition TV, which was a shame because it would have been so cool!)

Both captains had very different management styles. Captain Kirk was a great leader and very well respected among his crew. He was on his own. Some of his key cabinet members offered advice, but he made decisions on his own. He told the crew what to do.

Captain Picard, on the other hand, had a gentler style. He was a true leader who cared about his crew. They also had a great respect for him. The difference between the men — when there was a situation, Captain Picard would call his crew to order, ask their advice, listen to each person and then make a decision based on his input from those around him.

As I am sitting here remembering my paper, I think about how I truly admire Captain Picard. He is an influential leader and he certainly impacted my leadership abilities. Thank you Captain Picard for taking us where no man (or woman) has gone before!

“Space… the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before.”

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DISCLOSURE: NO CONNECTION, UNPAID, MY OWN OPINIONS
I have not received any compensation for writing this content and I have no material connection to the brands, topics and/or products that are mentioned herein. However, individual links could be associated with affiliate marketing sites and through the use of affiliate links contained herein, I may collect fees from purchases made.

Special thanks to BenBella Books for proving us with great content for book reviews and for participating in our celebration of HilaryTopper.com!  The publishing house will award up to six random winners who post on the site during the month of March a free book!

So please keep those comments coming in!  If you’re like me, you will love these books…

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DISCLOSURE: BASED UPON A REVIEW COPY
I have a material connection because I received a review copy (book, CD, software, etc.), or an item of nominal value that I can keep for consideration in preparing to write this content.

After spending this past weekend at South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, I had some suggestions for the sponsors:

1) Chevy — I loved the idea of having all the new Chevy vehicles at the conference.  I even loved having the opportunity to test drive the Volt, Chevy’s newest all electric car. What surprised me was the fact that the Chevy representative knew little about the actual car.  I questioned her on various things and she had no idea and didn’t provide me with an opportunity to find out elsewhere.

Chevy, don’t you think you should prep your people before sending them out?

2) Oreo Cookies — Oreo had dozens of pedicabs that circled around the town of Austin. When I first came into town, the one honest pedicab driver told me that the ride was sponsored by Oreos and there was no fee for me.  But, after that, I was asked to pay anywhere from $5 for a two block ride to $20 for a ride across the river.  I ended up spending $60 in pedicab rides.

Oreo, don’t you think you should have someone there policing these drivers?

3) American Express — Last year, American Express had a huge presence.  Actually, many of the sponsors had a bigger presence last year than this year.  If you asked me to name some of the other sponsors that were there, I couldn’t even name one.  As a matter of fact, I didn’t even know American Express was a sponsor until I typed up the SXSW sponsor list on Google.

Sponsors, don’t you think that if you’re going to spend major marketing dollars on being at the biggest conference of the year, you should get more bang for your buck?

I don’t like to be critical of the way other people spend their money but don’t you think that these companies should be aware of what’s going on?

What do you think?

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DISCLOSURE: NO CONNECTION, UNPAID, MY OWN OPINIONS

I have not received any compensation for writing this content and I have no material connection to the brands, topics and/or products that are mentioned herein.

South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive has been filled with old concepts re-defined and new ideas about the future.  Interestingly, futurist, Josh Clark, and former Vice President, Al Gore, talked about what’s likely to happen in the future, specifically addressing sensors and how they will be used.

One of the examples that they both gave was a cow farm in Switzerland.  They explained that these Swiss cows wear sensors.  When they are in heat, the sensors alert the farmer via text message.  Pretty cool stuff, huh?

They also both talked about Google Glass.  (For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Google Glass is a pair of glasses that you wear that connects you to the Internet. By verbal and touch commands, you can hang out with someone on Google Plus, you can surf the internet to find the nearest restaurant or gas station, and you can check out the news of the day.)  Obviously, Google Glass is the first step in placing sensors on humans.

Think about it, by having sensors on your body, doctors can detect where a disease may be.  That could be amazing, right?

So why are sensors so scary to me?

Is it the privacy issue?  With the right technology, anyone can detect where you are through your cell phone.

Is it the fact that by touching air, people will think you’re crazy?  At first everyone thought people where crazy talking on cell phones, when it looked like they weren’t talking with anyone at all.  So, I guess we’ll get used to touching air, figuring that the person is connected to a computer.

Or is it that we may be a controlled society like Captain Piquard when he was captured by the Borg?

What do you think?

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This was originally posted on March 5, 2009. In celebration of HilaryTopper.com’s fifth anniversary, this post is a re-post from HilaryTopper.com. Please be sure to comment to be eligible to win a prize pack at the end of the month! Thanks for reading!

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Have you ever heard of a Supermarket that is also a fancy restaurant, a chic cafe and a cooking school? If you’ve ever been to Upstate New York, then you know about Wegman’s!

Wegman’s is one of the most amazing supermarkets I have ever seen. The produce department is as big as a city block. Between the meat, the fish and the poultry, I have never seen such fresh proteins! They have a whole section for organic foods, a huge cheese section and even a Godiva area. I have never been impressed with a food store, but Wegman’s blew me away!

When I was up in HJMT’s Rochester office, Lisa Gordon, her husband and I decided to take a tour around Wegman’s. After that, we decided to eat in “Tastings,” Wegman’s “fancy” restaurant.

At Tastings, Lisa had sushi, Gordon, her husband, had short ribs and I had “Tuna, Tuna, Tuna.” After we finished our meals, which by the way were delicious, I asked Jen, our waitress, if we could meet the chef. She was more than happy to introduce us to the chefs and to tour the kitchen.”

Jen explained to us that the restaurant features all the food sold at Wegman’s and that it was originally supposed to offer patrons an opportunity to learn new recipes for the products.

After dinner, we had dessert. Gordon had the apple turnover, Lisa had the chocolate tart and I had a selection of three cheeses with a nice glass of port. Wow, it was wonderful!

Why can’t Wegman’s come down state???