The assignment of co-writing and project-managing Cooking with My Sisters has moved into the completed column, making room for more recent gigs.  Yet the comments of colleagues who have read the book and are using the stories and recipes remind me — almost daily — of the synergy that abides between every endeavor.

Take meatballs.  My mother’s and grandmother’s meatballs-and-sauce have been known to change lives.  I am not exaggerating.  Folks who have dined at their tables report that this dish forges a connection between the old world and the new.  And it prompts not just compliments but questions.  How my mother learned to make the dish from her mother-in-law, what role it has in the family cuisine, whether they make it differently from other women in the family, the secret ingredients [there are none — the secret is cooking the meatballs and the sauce together — we don’t make the meatballs without the sauce and vice versa].  The answers given by my mother and grandmother are the factors that distinguish our family from the folks next door.

As a result, meatballs really did change one life.  Mine.

In working with my family to articulate the recipe that had never been written down, I came full circle to the realization of where and when my professional life began.  The support and counsel I’ve been offering to great clients have always been centered in helping them discover and deploy what is authentically, richly their own — in the way of intellectual capital as well as product or service features.  Along comes this book project, and I am reminded that the theme of differentiation played in my life long before I shepherded some slides for Michael Porter and my boss, Victor Millar, through the audiovisual department at Andersen Worldwide.  It began in the family kitchen, watching my mother concoct the sauce while absorbing her guidance to "be different — don’t try to be like everyone else — show them who you are — everyone will be better for it."

So it was satisfying when a colleague in the M&A sphere reminded me that when he backs a company or combines organizations, he is looking for the secret sauce [see May 31 post, too] that will sustain the new entity.  And he’s not even Italian.

Is anyone really shocked that a PR manager got the brilliant idea to communicate with his internal audience along the lowest common denominator?

The denominator itself is disgusting.  Don’t even need to dignify the interests of the PR guy’s audience or his apologists with any discussion.  The critical issues — and of great significance to any business — are to be found in the back story.

If it’s true that the team’s owners and managers only took action when threatened with public exposure, to the media and the league, after knowing of the tape’s existence for months, more than the PR manager’s judgment is in question.

If the PR manager’s counsel on the question of the coach’s effectiveness outweighed that of professionals with some expertise in leading teams on the field, playbooks and talent, more than the PR manager’s power is in question.

If with all the PR expertise out there this is all the 49ers could find to advise them on visibility — and teach the players something about what constitutes a positive image — more than the PR manager’s credentials is in question.

Businesses and their leaders must realize that in claiming the bully pulpit they have a responsibility to elevate discussion and push standards of behavior ever higher, not lower.  They must retain professionals who aid them in accomplishing this objective, not convince them that the content of a video like this is effective, much less funny.  And they need people who focus the outbound messages and inbound training for the organization on the business at hand, not themselves and their apparent desire for stardom or coziness with the other employees.

Of course, maybe this is just about the pugilists taking their Neanderthal-ic field rules and trying to get the rest of us to play by them.  I hope the new PR manager can figure out a better way to make that happen, if that is indeed the strategy.  We’ll take that on as well.

At the end of this day of unplanned Andersen reunions and impromptu alumni meetings,  the positive elements of this entire episode are clearer than ever.  Not just for the lives upended by the indictment and the conviction nor for the empty rejoicing of a reputation less tarnished but for those affected by the churn.  That means all of us who conduct business.

Four good things.

Sarbanes-Oxley and the daylighting of the back office, the back room and maybe even the university club.

Less self absorption and more introspection on the topics of accountability, responsibility and personal motivation.

A higher — and more specific — burden of proof in the prosecution of actions as well as intent.

Andersen values alive and well.

Despite the betrayal and the missteps, the benign neglect and deliberate upheaval, the achievements, performance, competitiveness, work ethic and service orientation of thousands were not lost.  These things never are.  Instead, they are imbedded in organizations the world over.  Companies and governments and foundations and schools are the beneficiaries of a professional energy that has long been the secret sauce of the Andersen alum.  Fabu, I say. 

What a way to start the day here on the west coast.  News that the Supreme Court has unanimously overturned the conviction of Andersen in the Enron case.

This is an enormous vindication of the majority of the people who embodied the vision and values of the venerable organization — but not of the few managers who enabled Andersen’s destruction.  Would that the last teams of managing partners had the dedication to the principles that guided Andersen for decades.  Their interpretation of legacy extended only to what they naively believed was the measure of success:  belonging to the same club of clout their avaricious clients had erected and whose membership they controlled.

I wrote about this two years ago in a short piece published by HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW.  The fact that the managers whose mismanagement brought Andersen down will soothe their wounded psyches with this reversal of the conviction is the only downside of today’s events.  Had they seen fit to act as stewards of Andersen’s focus on professional standards, Enron never would have happened to Andersen.  Like the other clients whose antics and shenanigans were uncovered by Andersen, Enron would have been fired as a client and its leaders exposed for who they were long before Enron imploded and Andersen exploded.

One more thing before the next blog:  this verdict is no indictment of the noble effort to prosecute white collar crime.  It is, however, a word of warning about persecuting the innocent and making scapegoats when the prosecution of a few individuals will do.  We should identify the truly guilty and learn from their mistakes.

It’s terrific that marketing experts are devoting time, attention and serious discussion to the return on the marketing investment.  I’m chiming in.

First, marketing is not advertising.  Advertising is a component of the marketing effort, and any agency that tells you the two disciplines are one and the same — or that advertising must drive the marketing bus — is simply trying to sell you a big campaign.  Which might be the same as trying to sell you a well-known bridge or monument. 

Somebody had to say it.

Second, to measure marketing ROI, and therefore the various functions — like advertising, media relations, executive communications — that constitute or integrate with Marketing, let’s try something new.

• Think of Marketing as a profit center.  Your measurements include:  does the sales force think that Marketing has helped it generate leads, open doors and/or close a sale?  If the answer is yes, then find a way to measure the cost — yes, cost, not "investment" — as well as the yield of Marketing’s effort by each sale won.  And, make sure Marketing gets credit as a member of the team that makes the sales happen.  If the answer from the sales force is no, then Marketing is in deeper excrement than you thought.
• Think of Marketing as a results center.  As many experts assert, there’s going to be some part of the Marketing cost that you just can’t measure in hard numbers.  Enter leadership and effectiveness.  Your measurements include:  when you go to a Marketing functionary, you get help; at the end of the "day," you have an ad campaign that sings or a brochure that rings or a website that pings; and, every marketing activity sends the same message across multiple channels to multiple buyers.  Service, potency and consistency are elements you can evaluate, and a "yes" answer means that your time and insight aren’t being wasted, they’re being leveraged.  That is ROI.
• Think of Marketing as a thought center.  When it comes down to it, the most powerful marketing has a personal touch — and not just on the customer/receiving end but on the delivery end.  Your measurements here include:  are we passionate about what we are selling; and, does what we say convey the power of a unique thought about our product or service?  Marketing functionaries should be helping you expose what you love and believe about your company or product just as much as they are helping you reach the touchpoint on the audience’s side.