New EPA rules will help propel the HCV/MCV industry out of the "nuts and bolts" era.

From a technological implementation standpoint, this is a very good time for the Obama administration to implement upgraded standards on fuel efficiency and CO2 in the HCV/MCV market. In the past, this sort of "high-bar" target could have only been achieved through sustained, large-scale mechanical engineering. Technological advances in the passenger fleets along with fuel company re-alignment of priorities (e.g., to protect proven reserve revenue levels) conspire to make this relatively painless to the fleet owner with a nice ROI. The real question is will the OEM's focus on their core competency of building the best vehicle and leverage existing solutions to achieve these targets from an intelligent management approach (IT and Operations) rather than full mechanical re-designs. Link to EPA release: http://yosemite.epa.gov/opa/admpress.nsf/d0cf6618525a9efb85257359003fb69d/9b3706622f4ac560852577c7005ea140!OpenDocument

Sage Advice for Meetings--Reject the prescriptive agendas

Excellent, concise description of how to hold effective meetings. It seems that the market for business/management advice is so over "bullet-pointed" that common sense is lost in a checklist. HBR's Justin Fox provides a solid overview of how to supplant bullet-point agendas with meaningful conversations to actually generate value from meetings.:

http://bit.ly/cKYNGX

Commander's Statement of Intent--so necessary and so underused in business. Excellent article from HBR

http://bit.ly/cXtgrU

Why is there still support for fixed infrastructure solutions around fuel management? It serves the fuel depot, but does it serve the truck owner?

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20101018005327/en

Asymmetrical training problems--labor report yields glaring problem in stimulus strategy

Stimulus problem--Where are the re-training programs? Talent is extremely constrained in many areas: [Sept. Jobs] http://bit.ly/91sZbP