How: Why How We Do Anything Means Everything, Expanded Edition

Part III

HOW WE BEHAVE

INTRODUCTION: HOW WE DO WHAT WE DO

A friend of mine since law school, David Ellen, is the senior vice president and general counsel for cable, telecommunications, and programming at Cablevision Systems Corporation, a leading telecommunications and entertainment company. In 2005, David and I had a conversation about what LRN was doing and, subsequent to that conversation, I prepared and sent him a personalized packet of information about the solutions I thought might support Cablevision's journey, including the card of one of our sales executives responsible for David's area. In mid-2006, Cablevision hired a new senior vice president of corporate compliance, Adam Rosman, to establish and develop a new compliance initiative. In the course of getting the lay of the land, Adam reached out to David. “David had good things to say about the company in general,” Adam said when the three of us got together to recount this story, “and he was candid and up-front about his relationship with Dov.”¹ During their conversation, David reflected on the work we were doing at LRN, and he gave Adam the packet I had sent him the year before.

On David's recommendation, Adam called me and left a message with my temporary assistant, which for some reason I never got. “When I got no response, I thought it reflected poorly on the company,” Adam said, leaving no doubt that he thought something quite a bit stronger. Nonetheless, he was impressed by the materials I had put together specifically ...