Last week, TheDropTimes (TDT) was able to publish two interviews. In one of those interviews, Holmes Consulting Group founder Robbie Holmes mentioned a concept.
Many management professionals might know and practice it. But for me, it was new. I am not a management guy, and such concepts seldom graced my reading list. Listening to what others say has helped me, and I can also say the same about watching Alethia’s interview with Robbie.
The concept he shared is not new. Isaiah Berlin proposed it in his 1953 essay, ‘The Hedgehog and the Fox: An Essay on Tolstoy’s View of History’; later, Jim Collins developed it in his book, ‘Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap, and Others Don’t.’ The core theme of this book is that greatness is not primarily a function of circumstance but largely a matter of conscious choice and discipline.
How Jim Collins describes the hedgehog concept intrigued me. He begins with Berlin’s adaptation of the ancient greek parable, “The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.” Jim tries to teach us how to find that one big thing. It is by placing your business in the intersectional area of three thought circles:
- What you are deeply passionate about.
- What you can be the best in the world at.
- What drives your economic or resource engine.
Jim explains that transformation from good to great comes about by a series of good decisions made consistently with a Hedgehog Concept, supremely well executed, accumulating one upon another over a long period.
Pardon my audacity in pushing this concept again. But what I saw after going through it is that we at TDT can excel in creating more and more good-to-great interviews with the fantastic people working around Drupal and related projects with your active help. Also, we urge the Drupal agencies to find their one big thing and excel in it.
As I mentioned, you can watch our interview video with Robbie Holmes here. The other interview we published last week was with Chris Wells, the co-lead of Project Browser Initiative. Chris is the founder of Redfin Solutions. You can read the interview here. We made both conversations as part of DrupalCamp NJ.
As for other stories from last week, here are a comprehensive list:
Drupal Developer Days Vienna has started accepting session proposals. MidCamp is happening next month, and here is how you can help organize the camp. OpenSource North Conference has announced the lineup of speakers. Drupal Netherlands opened the sale of early bird tickets for Drupaljam 2023 in June. You may submit sessions to DrupalCon Lille until April 24. Drupal Camping Wolfsburg treats all sponsors as gold sponsors. DrupalSouth Wellington has put out a call for volunteers. You can submit sessions for DrupalCamp Asheville 2023 until April 25. Both DrupalCamp NJ and NERD Summit are over. DrupalCon Pittsburgh is looking for a launch sponsor or co-working space sponsor.
Drupal Community Working Group has asked Drupalers to nominate candidates for Aaron Winborn Award 2023, and you have only five more days to do that. Kanopi and Pantheon have announced a joint webinar on Drupal 7 to 10 migration. Salsa Digital has started a blog series on ‘Rules as code insights.’ SFDUG is hosting a Technical Writing Workshop on April 13. We revisited a blog post from HTML Panda from May 2022, comparing WordPress and Drupal. A Drupal distribution focussed on the publishing industry, ‘Thunder CMS 7’ based on Drupal 10, published its beta release. Von Eaton, Director of Programs in Drupal Association, addressed the ‘Back to Work for Women’ program conducted by ICFOSS and supported by Zyxware.
That is for the week, folks; thank you.
Sincerely,
Sebin A. Jacob
Editor-in-Chief
