CEO Column

Our friend, Jim Sullivan–and he was a friend to everyone who knew him– left us on May 4th of this year. Jim lived a full life. He was a football star, playing at Ole Miss. He was a successful businessman in the family furniture business. He was President of the Alabama Public Service Commission for 25 years. In that role he established a logical formula for utility service that is still used today. He served as President of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) and guided that organization for a number of years. He was an adviser to many energy companies and a leader in the electric industry.  

John Hughes’ 1985 fantasy comedy film, Weird Science, is about two unpopular teenagers who create Kelly LeBrock, the perfect woman with a weird science application on their computer. Of course, the experiment leads them on unexpected adventures and gets them in a number of tight spots before the expected happy ending.

I refereed high school basketball games while attending the University of North Alabama (UNA) in the mid-1970s to help pay my way through school. Rogers High School, just north of Florence, didn’t have the best basketball teams, but it was always a good environment to call games. I also played baseball at UNA with two

Burdened by a Mississippi public school education, my vocabulary has never been particularly deep. As a high school senior, we had a six-week course study in Literature named Thirty Days to a Stronger Vocabulary. We learned a new word every day. However, a short fifty years later I can’t remember a single one.

Unless you have avoided political news and social media, you know the cornerstone of every Biden Administration initiative is the transition to “Net Zero” by 2050. The Administration has mandated that every government action must be evaluated upon its carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions and its contribution to reducing emissions to net zero by 2050. It is no longer good enough for government actions to help people, provide jobs or build infrastructure – these actions now must contribute to the net zero goal.

Today’s availability of electronic information and social media is a blessing and a curse. I have trouble processing all the information available to me each day. And, I don’t do social media. All that constant information leads to a problem of retention and, more importantly, remembering the messages in the details.

Let’s Make A Deal was one of the most popular television programs of my youth. It ran for almost thirty years – first as a daytime program and later in evening prime time slots, as it became more popular. It made Monty Hall, the host, a household name and celebrity.

I receive Chief Executive, a quarterly magazine that addresses management and leadership issues for business leaders. The summer issue contains an interview with Chester Elton about he and Adrian Gostick’s book, Leading with Gratitude, which I found interesting and will comment on this month.

For those of you who don’t know me, I am the father of three daughters and grandfather of seven grandchildren. Watching grandchildren is different than raising children. However, there are some parallels between children and grandchildren. One is the call I hate to hear: “Pops, watch this.”

Last month I wrote about the Fourth of July, the sacrifices so many people have made to gain and keep our freedom, and the importance of the holiday other than BBQs and cookouts. This month I will continue with the Fourth of July theme but from the angle of BBQs, cookouts, and hamburgers.