I am reading two new books these days. One is Doris Kearns Goodwin's latest book called Team of Rivals: The Political Genious of Abraham Lincoln. Looks like there might be some team lessons in it for us. After Lincoln's election he assembled his disgruntled opponents and created "the most unusual cabinet in history, (marshalling) their talents to the task of preserving the Union and winning the war. I am doing you a big favor on this one, since it is nearly a thousand pages. The other book I am reading is by Tom Friedman and is titled The World is Flat. It is a brief history of the 21st Century focusing on " the convergence of technology and events that allowed India and China and so many other countries to become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two biggest nations and giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization." Friedman just published a revised addition of this book (just after I bought the first one) which gives some advice and suggesions for us regarding what to do about all this. That is where my next BVC Opinion will focus.