Ken, we met a while back--'94 or so--when I was editor of Fortune. It's in
my current incarnation, though, as Editorial Director for the Harvard
Business School Publishing Co. and head of its publishing division--we
publish the Harvard Business Review, HBS Press books (including Leading the
Revolution from your friend and skiing companion Gary Hamel), and the best
selling management newsletter in the country, among other things--that I
wanted to put a proposition before you to see if we might interest you in
what I think may be an important idea-development and publishing
opportunity.
HBSPC has become quite interested in the subject of corporate venturing, of
how companies can invest in innovation and new organizational forms (but you
know all about that) in a transformative way, so much so that we're planning
to put on a couple of conferences on the subject next year. (The purpose of
our conferences, in general, is to push ideas ahead and advance the thinking
on a particular topic.) They will be smallish, half-day affairs--we're
looking at an audience of perhaps 75 senior executives at each--one in New
York in January, the second in San Francisco, probably the first week in
February. As with the authors of the books and HBR articles that we publish,
we're committed to having only top-flight experts on the program, mostly on
panels. (For instance, we're talking with the Harvard Business School
professors who teach the executive education course on corporate venturing
about their serving on and putting together one of the panels.) And we, of
course, thought of you and Enron--who knows more about the subject? As we've
designed the conferences, we've concluded that a great way to begin the
program would be to have a sort of a keynote from a CEO grounded in the
real-world experience of making this happen. But we don't want to impose on
your time, or that of your staff, to put together a speech. Our thought was
to have the session be more like "A conversation with...", wherein an
interlocutor (probably me, but maybe assisted by a couple of others) would
put questions to you, and draw you out on the points you thought important.
We could confer on the questions beforehand as much or little as you'd like.
Ken Chenault of American Express has agreed to play this role at the New
York conference. We'd wondered if there were any possibility of interesting
you in it for the San Francisco conference? Enron has the best record of any
company on this front, and my secret hope is that the conversation might
serve as the basis of an article (or even the first step toward a book?)
that HBSP might eventually publish. We know, too, that you have endless
demands on your time, and if it would help you to think more favorably of
using it in this way, we'd be happy to provide an honararium for the charity
or charities of your choice.
I'm sure you're besieged with emails on your return from vacation,  but if
you have a moment to marinate on this, we'd welcome the chance to answer any
questions you might have about the event. I have two offices and two phone
numbers (New York, Monday, Tuesday, and most Fridays, at 212-872-9281,
Boston the rest of the week at 617-783-7535) but the most efficient way for
your office to schedule a conversation might be to have them be in touch
with Maria Carnevale here in New York at 212-872-9285) or just shoot me back
an email.
Thanks for taking the time for this overlong email. Our eyes are beginning
to open here to the landscape shaking, transformative possibilities of
corporate venturing, as became clear to you long ago. We'd be grateful for
the opportunity to help you share some of your wisdom with others.
All the best,
Walter Kiechel