Tuesday, July 17, 2007

The Obsession with Penguins

Everywhere I go - Penguins. Club Penguin, iPenguin, books about Penguins, Happy Feet, March of the Penguins. The way my generation had trippy cartoons about robots and animals like Voltron, Scooby Doo, Thundercats and others, kids - and apparently adults - today are up to their eyeballs in penguins. To take it further, possibly to capitalize on the popularity of the penguin, Harvard business professor and author of management books, John P. Kotter wrote "Leading Change," a book about organizational change and leadership with penguins as the central characters. Penguins are now metaphors for corporate life. There's an entire article about this in the NY Times.

I enjoy reading leadership books. So while the rise of penguin popularity still confuses me, I'll likely buy this (when it's discounted on Amazon). Meanwhile, I'm happy that my high school mascot - the Auk - is finally enjoying its heyday.

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