I recently received my new BlackBerry. I could no longer pretend that having one of the original clunky, black devices was retro chic and was delighted to get my slimmer, shiny silver model.

In a rare victory for grammarians, the new BlackBerry keyboard now features a semi-colon. Dependent clauses everywhere are rejoicing now that they may be properly joined in a sentence. There is a dollar sign now as well. Its omission on earlier models seemed odd given how indispensable PDAs quickly became to the capitalist class. Perhaps they didn’t want to offend those who trade in Pounds, Euros, Yen, and the rest. The front-mounted trackball that has replaced the side-mounted wheel for navigation (the latter of which also disconnected calls and was located exactly where my thumb wanted to be while I talked) and it is a joy to use.

But there is a larger trend at work: the desire of makers and users of mobile devices to have ever more features and ever smaller hardware profiles while our hands and eyes long for simpler and larger interfaces. It’s a well-documented fact that the population is aging. Europe is 10 years ahead of the U.S. and Asia is about 10 years behind, but overall the average population of the planet is aging. With age comes a little less dexterity, a few more pounds, a little less clarity of vision, a memory that isn’t quite as sharp -- all of which make it harder to operate smaller devices with smaller keyboards and more features that require the navigation of multiple menus.

Makers, however, seem fixated on the younger end of the market. Yes, they tend to be early adopters and view their devices as fashion accessories to be changed with the season. But the largest part of the market is squinting to see the tiny backlit keyboard. I’ve seen the accuracy of my typing go down by about a third because I am fat-fingering keys. I will use, at best, 25% of the features on this powerful little tool because I haven’t the time or expertise to figure them out.

Barry Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management and I discussed this topic briefly at a conference last spring. Barry has a lot of insight on innovation and he told me I was crazy to think that devices would get larger to accommodate our physical limitations; I argued back that playing toward rather than against demographics would seem the smarter bet. Perhaps a new iPhone-like interface will make us both right. But please, before I need my next eye exam.

Note: This is my last weekly column. I'm moving to occasional contributor status. Thanks to you who have read regularly. I would like to leave you with three bits of must-reading:

Ben Stein’s “Everybody’s Business” column in the Sunday New York Times Business section. Ben is eloquent and insightful on the rewards and responsibilities of life as an executive and investor. He is unapologetic about the benefits of capitalism and this gives him authority he uses well to point out that tomfoolery such as the back-dating of stock options is just that. You should read his column and it should be required reading in every business curriculum. Unfortunately you have to pay to read his old columns.

“How to Have an Honest Conversation About Your Business Strategy,” by Michael Beer and Russ Eisenstadt (yes, you have to pay for this one as well). Power needs truth told to it more often and this article from Harvard Business Review lays out a practical method for accomplishing this without committing career suicide. The process works well beyond strategy, too. If your management won’t embrace this simple method, ask yourself some hard questions about why and what it means for you.

Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World, the new book by Bill Clinton. Whatever you think of his politics and peccadilloes, Clinton’s examples illustrate that there are no excuses for not taking action for change right now. Ghandi gave us inspiration with the exhortation to be the change you want to see in the world; Clinton has given us a field guide to getting started.

Be well. Make a difference.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Defeating Feature Fatigue (HBR Article)
Smart Product Design (HBR Article)
Principles for User Design of Customized Products (CMR Article)

I read the recent BusinessWeek special issue on “The Future of Work” with interest as we are holding an event on the links between education and the competitiveness of the next generation workforce in Boston in November. The issue had articles on globalization, connectivity, the changing relationship between employer and worker, and of course the inevitable article on prospering in this chaotic futurescape by branding yourself.

The notion of individual as brand started about ten years ago with a Tom Peters article, “The Brand Called You.” It sounded sexy and logical all at the same time. At the fork in the Porterian road, each of us has to choose a strategy of differentiation or low-cost just like businesses do. Since virtually no one wants to be the low cost provider of labor when you have to worry about a mortgage, repaying college loans, a new car, and all of life’s other necessities, differentiation is the way to go. BW gives several role models: Jim Cramer (a signature saying -- “Boo ya!”, Donald Trump (yes, the hair), and Angelina Jolie (saving the world) to name just a few.

But not everyone wants to scream in the office or can afford a really bad coiffure. Nor can we all hop a plane to a developing nation and adopt a village. What are you to do? You could run out and buy one of the many books on the topic or attend a seminar led by the authors of those books (That’s them selling brand “you” to you and building their brand in the process). First, however, you have to understand your market -- the context for your brand -- so that you can position your brand properly.

I have a simple model for this. Let’s call it the McNulty Model (I have to build a brand, too) and it goes like this: all organizations and the managers in them fall into one of three categories -- Show Up, Suck Up, or Study Up.

“Show up” is the classic industrial model where seniority has great value. Get there on time, do what you’re told, don’t screw anything up, and you’ll march slowly up the ladder until it is time to collect your gold watch and retire to Sun City. BW’s comment on show up in the Brand You world: “quietly doing a good job is…pathetic.”

“Suck up” is less often a firm-wide model in our hyper-competitive, results-driven world but virtually every organization has microcultures that fit the model. We all know manager whose star rises as she spends more time managing up than actually doing any work. We’ve seen promotions accrue to the golfing buddies of a senior manager more quickly than to those who don’t share his passion for the links. BW’s take on suck up: “the top guy’s taste in ties is always worth a second look.”

“Study up” puts value in continuous learning. These organizations have liberal tuition reimbursement policies, love to send you to conferences, and have more extensive training resources relative to their peers. They may have world-class facilities like GE’s Crotonville management training center. In this environment, BW says that “smart brand builders…join a reading club that the vice president favors.”

Now that you understand the McNulty Model, place yourself and your organization -- honestly -- in it. Alignment is critical. If you are a show up person in a study up organization, you’re in as much trouble as when you signed up for Calculus 504 because the hottie you met at the campus coffee shop was taking it. If you are a study upper in a suck up unit, you’ll be frustrated beyond belief when your boss gives barely a glance to the articles you keep dropping off. Make a move if you have to because if you don’t control your brand, your brand could control you.

Come on, get started. There isn’t a moment to lose. Stop working -- and start branding.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Firing Back: How Great Leaders Rebound After Career Disasters (Hardcover)
Managing Your Career (Paperback)
Employee Development: Helping People Grow in Their Careers (Book Chapter)
Managing Yourself for the Career You Want: The Results-Driven Manager Series (Paperback)

As summer comes to a close I thought I would look back over some of the posts from the past few months and see what updates might be called for.

The Chinese Risk. You can say you heard it on “Heard in the Suite” first and the groundswell around the dangers of products manufactured in China continues to grow with recent recalls by Mattel and others. One of my colleagues reported to me just today that a Vermont-based wooden train maker has seen spikes of traffic on their Web site similar to the holiday period. Watch for more consumers to demand “Made in the U.S.A.” or other trusted countries until manufacturers can ensure that products made in developing markets are safe.

Gonzales v. Wolfowitz. Well, I blew this one. In April I predicted that U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be shown the door before World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz because Wolfowitz publicly expressed regret for what angered his critics while Gonzales would cede nothing more than the obtuse “mistakes were made.” So much for my insights on leadership. Wolfowitz was sent packing from the World Bank just a few short weeks after my column while Alfredo Gonzales is just now stepping down as head of the Justice Department. It just goes to show how long one can last with the backing of one’s boss no matter how many people think you are doing a lousy job. Of course it helps when you boss runs the country. But even that defense can’t last forever.

Is it Easy to be Green? Back in May I chastised the Web site Sprig for saying that 95% of consumers only want to be 5% green. Sprig is still in business but the trend toward “clean and green” seems to be growing like a naturally occurring native plant (or weed). The jury is still out on which of us is right. My greenbacks are still on those companies that make a greater commitment to addressing environmental concerns and consumers who will demand more than token moves in that direction.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
It's Time to Rethink What You Think You Know About Managing People (HMU Article)
Taking Charge Fast (HMU Article)
Harvard Business Review on Green Business Strategy (Paperback)

One of the great joys of vacation is the time to actually read the papers. Yes, those old-fashioned, un-hip, finger-dirtying newspapers. It is glorious to page through not one but two or even three before setting about in the day’s activities. Gone is the skim through the front section of The Wall Street Journal and the business section of The New York Times over gulps of coffee before launching into my accumulated e-mails. Replacing it is the ritual of starting with Dining In or Arts or some other section that would ordinarily be deemed “interesting but not essential.”

I have read about the American Cheese Society conference in Shelburne, VT, possible treasure recovered from what might be the wreckage of a pirate ship that sank off the coast of Wellfleet, and a salon in New York where I can get my shoes shined for free with my haircut (the cut, however, is $175 -- I think that my barber would cut my hair and buy me a new pair of shoes for that). I’ve discovered a best value champagne (Drappier Signature Brut NV, $27) for my next picnic. I’ve read in-depth coverage of how the Democratic presidential candidates are wooing big labor.

This languorous newspaper reading is an activity I looked forward to in my retirement until media pundits informed me that newspapers will soon be gone. They aren’t making enough money and aren’t attracting younger readers. If only I could retire now so that the papers and I could slide off into the sunset together.

While the diatribes in the media have focused on business models and the shift of advertising from off-line to on-line media, most have missed the true importance that newspapers play in our collective lives.

On-line media are faster and more immediate, but they are generally reporting on something someone else – often a newspaper – has already reported. They don’t have newsrooms, and reporters, and all of the other news gathering apparatus required to dig out and report an original story. No organization save an established newspaper like The Washington Post could have unearthed the horrible conditions at the Walter Reade Medical Center. It took reporters months to build that story and few, if any, Web sites or television stations will invest resources like that.

Second, context takes space and context is important. The mantra on-line is shorter, snappier, more “user-friendly.” News has become kibbles-and-bits. Compare that with the long, thoughtful stories filed by Linda Greenhouse in The New York Times each fall and spring when the Supreme Court first hears cases and then delivers its decisions. The decision is just one piece of the story. The reasoning behind it and the alliances that created the majority opinion, the nuances of the dissent -- all of these are equally important and you can only a seasoned reporter with space to write can deliver insightful pieces like this.

Finally, there is the serendipitous joy of finding a story that I never would have found on my own. I had no idea that there was an American Cheese Society or that it had a conference but it was a delight to read about. I learned new things and was stimulated to seek out some new cheeses. I would never have found this in my normal ramblings on the Web. Only because it was on the front page of the Food section of The Boston Globe did this particular window on the world get opened for me.

I write for both old media and new and next week I’ll be back in the fray. But for now, I am luxuriating in paper and ink, soaking in the beauty of old-fashioned newspapers.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Fairly Timeless Insights on How to Manage Your Time (HMU Article)
Where to Get Your News and Information: The Digital Disruption (Case Note)
Reading Disruption's Fine Print (Strategy & Innovation Article)
The Personal Side of Time: Mastering Work-Life Balance (HBS Press Chapter)

Recently I spent several days at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, where we held a workshop with Marcus Buckingham. It’s one of the hippest hotels in the country, I’m told. My colleagues spotted a pre-rehab Lindsay Lohan, Sean Penn, and Prince on the premises though my days were celebrity free. I was more likely to run into the group of sales managers from a car company with their shiny name badges pinned to their golf shirts.

The Roosevelt has a great history and retains some of the old-school glamour of 1920s Hollywood with its luminous tile floors and ornate pillared archways. My room was spacious and the bathrobe among the plushest I can recall.

But it has all the hallmarks of a tragically hip property. The staff looked great doing what they did, but that didn’t translate into actually doing it well. Everyone was pleasant -- except for the waiter at lunch who could barely manage a nod or a grunt in response to any communication from us. But they didn’t seem particularly well-trained or invested in their positions. It took two calls and more than an hour to locate a suit I’d had pressed. Servers were hard to find during our breaks. Two notable exceptions: Jacqueline, our Conference Services Manager, and Mike from Security are both top notch.

And, like all tragically hip hotels, the Roosevelt cherishes darkness. The walls and woodwork are a blackish brown that simply absorbs all available rays of light. The tables in the Dakota restaurant were covered in dark leather. Even in the daytime, many of the common areas felt subterranean. Murky shadows dominated. The attempts at sophistication lose their charm after the third time you bump into a piece of furniture. The Roosevelt embraces this inky aesthetic to such an extent that the in-room coffee packets have black type on a dark brown background—virtually impossible to read. Why do so many hotels aspiring to coolness think that the solution is to light corridors as if they were the VIP sections of night clubs?

As I checked out at 6:30 a.m. I wondered why it was necessary to have a throbbing house beat in the lobby. Do we have to be in the groove 24/7? Surely Prince wouldn’t shun the place if they played jazz into the breakfast hours.

A lot of attention has been paid to some details -- the frosted glass automatically opening door leading to the pool area makes one feel a bit special -- but the glass door on my shower swung freely from its tracks, the carpet in the room was frayed, and finding an open outlet by the desk requires crawling on the floor or unplugging a lamp.

But maybe celebrities never have to plug in their own laptops.

Side note -- two great restaurant finds in Hollywood: Magnolia on Sunset is fun, reasonable, and the service was great. The Larchmont Grill is comfortable, also reasonable, and has a good neighborhood vibe. The food at both was delicious without being fussy.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Understanding Customer Experience (HBR Article)
My Week as a Room-Service Waiter at the Ritz (HBR Article)
Westin Hotels and Resorts: Operations of a Lifestyle Experience (Case)
The Profitable Art of Service Recovery (HBR Article)

Ah, vacation. Just around the corner. As I clean off the desk, tidy the files, and delegate tasks for the week ahead I come to one of the more challenging pre-holiday tasks: preparing Outlook.

Of course I’ll set my Out of Office Assistant to let people know that I’ll be away and not checking e-mail. I’ve taken a public pledge to leave the BlackBerry behind. I may even try some of those special rules gizmos to automatically route some messages to the appropriate person (or the trash). But I’ll have to do a serious cleaning to enable my in-box to handle the 400-500 messages I’ll receive next week without exceeding its size limit. We’re running a pool on the exact number. Write your guess on the back of a $20 bill and mail it to me. (Note to any of my readers in law enforcement: I'm kidding).

All of this preparation makes me long for an old-fashioned In Office Assistant. An actual person who could keep things moving along in my absence: answer questions, direct inquiries, follow up on correspondence, set up my fall travel, and even solve the odd problem or two. A person who, in my father’s day, would have been known as my secretary. Someone who would have neat folders ready for my return -- mail to be answered, decisions to be made, approvals to be signed, etc. -- thus making my reentry smooth and efficient.

Fewer of us have administrative assistants in today’s leaner, flatter organizations. We have laptops and “user-centric” applications that let us create our own shipping documents, help desk requests, airline reservations, and handle hundreds of the other routine tasks without which business can’t function. I’m sure there is a spreadsheet somewhere that shows that each of these is more efficient in microeconomic terms (I can’t find it because there’s no one around who is actually trained and skilled in the fine art of filing), but I wonder if anyone has looked at the overall economic impact of managers and executives busying themselves with these tasks. A couple of hours on expense reports, 45 minutes trying to apply a credit to a future flight reservation, an hour cutting-and-pasting language in a contract: multiply that across your organization and you’ll see that pretty soon we’re talking about real time here.

Equally important, we don’t know the value of the loss of the informal network and institutional memory of the old administrative class. They may not have been high on the official totem pole, but they knew how to get things done, where the skeletons were buried, and how to find things in the files. They were skilled contributors to the overall efficiency of the organization. No one could get a new manager up to speed faster than a good admin. However we undervalued their contributions and made theirs the work that few wanted to do. Even if you could find someone who wanted to do the work, if your organization is like many it is easier to get approval to hire a vice president than an administrative assistant.

Perhaps I’m thinking too hard about this. Our laptops let us work in the evening and on the weekend to keep up with our jobs. Hence we are working more hours than ever before. My Outlook Out of Office Assistant doesn’t require benefits and will stand ready to serve 24/7 in my absence. I just need to file the 410 items in my In box before I head to the beach so that your message won’t bounce back as undeliverable.

HARVARD BUSINESS ONLINE RECOMMENDS:
Harvard Business Essentials: Time Management (Paperback)
What Companies Can Do to Help: Ideas for Improving Employee Time Management (HBS Press Chapter)
Managing Time: Pocket Mentor Series (Paperback)