I wish you and the other folks involved in this effort every success. It is discouraging that people commenting here and at the Portfolio site have already declared your work a worthless failure—only 24 hours after you kick off the effort.

As for me, my wife and others I have talked to reducing the amount of sports of 1A would be a great reinventing step.

Lou Alexander

The Merc is looking for ideas. The more people participate, the more ideas will be generated.

Committees are important for other reasons too.

The speed of change at most businesses is relatively slow for varied reasons. But, a large part of employees slow response is a lack of understanding behind the ideas, and possibly, moreover, a disagreement over the ideas or implementation.

Getting ideas will likely be the Merc’s easiest endeavor. Execution is often more difficult and mistakes are costly – not only in terms of monetary value, but also to morale and the company’s future.

If done right, smaller groups will conduct SWOT analysis to determine the attractiveness of each idea. Ideas will be prioritized. Six Sigma black belts and CMS techies will be brought in to help determine integration, implementation and operations.

The costs of consultants is less than the cost of a failed great idea.

Good luck to the people of the Merc.