• This speech was originally given at the University of Virginia on November 27th, 2007. The original slides from the lecture can be found here. Speech transcript Thank you, that’s very kind, but never tip the waiter before the meal arrives. Thank you, Gabe and Jim, I couldn’t imagine being more grateful for an introduction. These are two people that I’ve known a long time, I taught here at UVA, I love this school, it’s an incredible place filled with tradition and history and respect, the kind of qualities that I really admire, that I want to see preserved in American society.
  • Evan Williams cofounded Blogger in 1999, Odeo in 2004, Twitter in 2006, and Medium in 2012. This speech was originally delivered in September 2013 at XOXO, an arts and technology festival in Portland, Oregon. Speech Transcript Hi, friends. I want to talk to you today about the Internet just generally because I think I’ve figured it out. I have some theories anyway. I’m also going to need the clicker I think. You were ready for that. Thank you. So to tell you about my theories, I’m going to tell you how I got to my theories, which involves telling you
  • This speech was originally delivered as the commencement address at Harvard University on June 5, 2008. The full title of this talk is “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination”. Speech Transcript President Faust, members of the Harvard Corporation and the Board of Overseers, members of the faculty, proud parents, and, above all, graduates. The first thing I would like to say is ‘thank you.’ Not only has Harvard given me an extraordinary honour, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured at the thought of giving this commencement address have made me lose weight. A
  • This speech was originally delivered by Arno Rafael Minkkinen as the 2004 commencement address at the New England School of Photography. The full title of the speech is, “The Helsinki Bus Station Theory: Finding Your Own Vision in Photography.” Speech Transcript We are in the midst of sea change – a tidal wave might be more accurate – with the medium of photography. While the lens is still firmly fixed to the camera body, the body itself appears to have imploded. The inner workings, that is—the guts of the camera from Talbot’s days (when cameras were called “mousetraps” by his
  • This speech was delivered to the plebe class at the United States Military Academy at West Point in October 2009. Speech Transcript My title must seem like a contradiction. What can solitude have to do with leadership? Solitude means being alone, and leadership necessitates the presence of others—the people you’re leading. When we think about leadership in American history we are likely to think of Washington, at the head of an army, or Lincoln, at the head of a nation, or King, at the head of a movement—people with multitudes behind them, looking to them for direction. And when we
  • John C. Bogle is the founder of The Vanguard Group. He originally delivered this speech as the commencement address for MBA graduates of the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University in May 2007. Speech Transcript Here’s how I recall the wonderful story that sets the theme for my remarks today: At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, the late Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, the author Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch 22 over its whole history.
  • Albert E. N. Gray was an official of the Prudential Insurance Company of America. This speech is an adaptation of one of the most well-received of his many speeches. It was originally delivered to the National Association of Life Underwriters at their annual convention in 1940. Speech Transcript Several years ago I was brought face to face with the very disturbing realization that I was trying to supervise and direct the efforts of a large number of men and women who were trying to achieve success, without knowing myself what the secret of success really was. And that, naturally, brought me face
  • This speech was originally delivered as the baccalaureate remarks to graduates from Princeton University on May 30, 2010. This speech was published on the Princeton website Speech Transcript As a kid, I spent my summers with my grandparents on their ranch in Texas. I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially “Days of our Lives.” My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we’d join the caravan. We’d hitch up the Airstream trailer to my
  • This speech was originally delivered by Charlie Munger to an audience at Harvard University in 1995.Speech TranscriptI am very interested in the subject of human misjudgment, and Lord knows I’ve created a good bit of it. I don’t think I’ve created my full statistical share, and I think that one of the reasons was I tried to do something about this terrible ignorance I left the Harvard Law School with. When I saw this patterned irrationality, which was so extreme, and I had no theory or anything to deal with it, but I could see that it was extreme, and
  • Most of the procurement transformations FAIL and are unable to achieve the desired results, further creating chaos in the organizations. The failure to bring change to a function, process, or organization primarily starts with too large of a vision, botched execution, and a gamut of factors despite the best intentions. Due to the COVID crisis, there is a renewed focus on cost reduction, finding efficiencies, and putting the right payment controls in the place. Inefficiencies and financial leakages from the internal procurement processes have made the job of a CFO very difficult. Examining successful procurement transformations, there are few things