Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Christopher Lee just might have been the most typecast actor ever. He was, perhaps, the most phenomenal villain of all time and rarely played anything else.

He also out-Kevin-Bacon’ed Kevin Bacon as the center of the Hollywood universe as computed by The Oracle of Bacon.

Not to compare myself with Sir Lee, but I’ve been feeling typecast for several years now.

My consulting “specialty” is generalist, but always in and around IT and business integration and organizational effectiveness. What I’ve been doing is application portfolio rationalization (APR) and nothing but APR.

No, no, don’t cry for me Argentina. Or, if your name is Brad I still don’t want you to cry for me, although I might manage to muster some interest in how you’d make the lyric scan.

Now that I’ve successfully buried the lede (not “lead”), I hereby announce my return to private practice, effective, appropriately enough, April Fool’s Day, when, (I hope), enlightened KJR subscribers (I trust you’ll forgive the redundancy) and like-minded souls might want to engage my services in an advisory capacity.

Will this change KJR?

We’ll see. I figure the more clients I have and the more diverse the nature of the engagements, the more topics I’ll feel qualified to write about. On the other hand, if this turns out to be just a gentle transition to retirement, you might find yourself reading more re-runs than before.

I’ll probably scribe more “A Consultant Reads the Newspaper” articles than I used to – interpretations of current events through the lens of what I know about organizational dynamics, providing commentary the mass-market pundits seem to be missing.

But not a lot of them, on the grounds that just because I have an opinion doesn’t mean I have an opinion worth sharing. That is, as someone once said, the first amendment guarantees me the right to speak. It doesn’t confer the obligation.

Bob’s last word: Most weeks, when writing KJR, I try to avoid the word “I” as much as possible, on the grounds that it isn’t all about me.

I promise that this week is an exception, not a change in direction.

Bob’s sales pitch: You knew this was coming, didn’t you? If you’re interested in engaging my services … from advice offered a day at a time through something more deep and organized … here’s how to contact me.

If you aren’t interested, that’s okay, but I still do ask that you let me know what you think of each week’s missive, and that you’ll acquaint your acquaintances with Keep the Joint Running. I continue to think of us as a community. My job is to suggest and disseminate ideas. Recruiting new members is up to you.