Dear Dave and Aneel,
A great admirer of Workday's since its beginnings, for various reasons you will find summarized in several of my blog posts, the global and European person I am was more than gratified to see that you have decided to open an office in Germany. However, this cannot hide the fact that before you open a new market, you should make sure the previous ones are up and running.
The Frenchman in me cannot therefore understand why you are expanding in Germany when you have yet to make France work. It was exactly three years ago that you opened the French office and in that period of time you have only signed up two French customers: Lafarge and Sanofi. Even Oracle has managed to sign up more Fusion customers in France, which is the ultimate insult. With France being...
Lifestyle
Dear Sir/Madam,
We may not have met, but I’ve got your back. I’m on your side when it comes to using effective HRM practices and business rules to drive improved business outcomes in your organization.
I know how hard it is to draw those lines of sight from needed business outcomes, like faster time to market, lower costs of higher quality customer service, greater insight into customer profitability by market segments, and greater organizational capability to support global growth, to the specifics of what HR does to improve HRM. And I know absolutely that information technology is not the answer but rather just one of the critical tools in your arsenal when it comes to attacking your toughest challenges.
Technology is not always the answer
Information technology can be a...
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Dear Ben:
May I ask you something? How long did you spend on BuzzFeed before deciding to invest $50m? I’m not talking of Jonah Peretti’s PowerPoint deck or spreadsheets, which, I’m sure, must be quite compelling. But did you sample the real thing, the BuzzFeed site?
And how many times a day do you log in? Please, don’t tell me it’s part of your mandatory media diet, I’ll have to struggle not to express polite disbelief.
Frankly, your investment leaves me bewildered.
Judging by your blog and your remarkable book (I energetically proselytize both), you embody a mixture of vista, courage, combining focus on details with broad systemic vision, all supported by deep hands-on experience.
In addition, you are of the generous type and I was even happier to buy two copies of your...
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Dear readers,
Today I want to address the recent changes at The New Republic on our own pages. It is important to me to outline the vision for this critically important institution.
I joined The New Republic as Chief Executive Officer in mid-October after lengthy discussions with our owner, Chris Hughes. We both agreed that we wanted to take the writing, the ideas, the argument, the heterodoxy that have always been at the heart of The New Republic, and find it a broader audience.
I started my career in journalism. My first job out of college was as a junior editor for a small publication in Dublin, Ireland. When I moved back to the United States, I worked as a copy editor for a company many do not remember today called Bridge News. At the time, Bridge was one of the largest...
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Dear Science,
I'm writing to inform you that you have less than two years.
If I'm flicking through the latest issue of a technology magazine or tech Web site in 2015 and don't see a hoverboard, I'll be mighty disappointed.
And it won't just be me. Thousands, perhaps millions, of others, all waiting patiently for hoverboards. And you only have three years.
While you're at it, you wouldn't mind rustling up some flying cars, would you?
Actually, scratch that. People have enough trouble on tarmac, so God forbid you give them an extra dimension in which to travel. Can you imagine? There'd not be a house in the land without a 17-year-old's flying Vauxhall Corsa embedded in the roof.
No, I've got a better idea.
How about an electric car that we'd actually want to buy, with...
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Dear Ms Hynes,
We are writing this open letter to you on behalf of the growing number of people in Ireland who object to the addition of Hydrofluorosilicic Acid to the public water supply. This practice is carried out purportedly for beneficial health reasons and justified on ethical grounds. It is designed to increase the level of fluoride in all of our drinking water so that it reaches a small number of children who may otherwise be at risk of an increase in dental carries. Manufacturing our drinking water in this way directly results in an increase in the fluoride intake of all individuals reliant on public water supplies. You will all be aware that there is a growing body of public and scientific opinion that seriously questions the ethical and health grounds advanced to justify...
3,682
Dear Drunk Driving Episode of Saved by the Bell,
You made me grow up faster than I was ready to. You threw morality in my face without simple consequences and taught me to dismiss all ethical dilemmas unless they involved alcohol and showed me that even a man as untouchable and unaffected by lying, stealing, and a splash of date rape as Zack Morris was still just a mortal man – and you did all this as a "Tori episode."
I forgive your haphazard attitude toward Screech's feelings and responsibility with the group, letting them drive home drunk while he was sober, and even your racist attitude toward Lisa finally winning homecoming queen and stripping the crown from her within minutes, but all at the dark, mysterious hand of Tori? Have you no shame or empathy?
Let us step back for...
2,413
Dear Andrew Luck,
You and I have almost exactly the same names, though we certainly don't share the same lives. I was always convinced there was a lot in your name: Luck, the coolest name possible, ready-made for an NFL gunslinger who was probably dropping long bombs for TDs straight out the womb.
Surely, had my own name, Luecke, come with two fewer "E's," confusing, uncool Germanic vowels that they are, my life would be so much better I long thought.
But now, Andrew Luck, I've seen your puberty 'stache, I understand that I'm the lucky Andrew here, man.
I stood by you through your neckbeard (you said you hated to shave because of your sensitive skin) and even your brutal 24–13 beating of my beloved Denver Broncos in this year's AFC Divisional playoff game. Now that I've...
2,647
Dear Mr. Hastings,
You and I go way back, Mr. Hastings. I'm a HUGE fan of your service and the countless number of films and TV shows you have beamed into my house over the last few years. I was the first person in my circle of friends to sign up for your DVD service, the first to jump into the streaming game, and I'll probably be the first to implant the Netflix Streaming chip into my brain whenever you guys decide to roll that out inevitable piece of technology (I'm willing to be a guinea pig if you need test subjects).
For someone like me who is absorbing content on an almost constant basis, Netflix has been a tremendous asset and/or destroyer of productivity and being the loyal consumer that I am, it will take a mighty force to push me away from the Netflix brand.
As such, I...
2,382
Dear Ms. Swift
I write to urge you to drop your endorsement of Diet Coke, which contains the artificial sweetener aspartame. I am glad that you are not promoting full-calorie Coca-Cola, which promotes diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and other health problems. But Diet Coke and other sodas sweetened with aspartame may raise consumers' risk of cancer.
A prominent laboratory conducted three major studies of aspartame and found that it caused cancer in both rats and mice. In the two tests on rats, aspartame caused lymphomas, leukemias, kidney tumors, and breast cancer. A study in mice found that it caused liver and lung cancer. Scientists generally accept that if a chemical causes cancer in lab animals it likely increases the risk of cancer in humans.
While the Food and Drug...
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