Word: ax
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...long ago, Jack Benjamin Grubman was on top of the world. The Salomon Smith Barney telecommunications analyst was pulling down $20 million a year, and every big investor knew Grubman was the "ax," the one man who could make or break any stock in his industry with a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. Today Grubman is in the gutter. WorldCom was one of his favorite stocks. Investors are livid, and regulators are looking into whether he violated professional ethics by touting telecom stocks for the investment-banking fees they would earn for his firm...
Strengths: Character, courage, a frightening proficiency with the ax...
Talk about divine inspiration. Twenty-eight army recruits stood at attention at a swearing-in ceremony on May 6, each holding his weapon - a combination of spear and battle ax called a halberd - and listening intently to the boss' pep talk. "I hope that despite the heaviness of your service you will live this time of mission as a deepening of your faith," he said. Of course, not many armies can boast that their commander is Pope John Paul II, the peace-loving head of the Roman Catholic Church. And in an era of drab, utilitarian uniforms, few recruits start...
...Trained in skydiving, demolition and weapons handling, they were taught to kill with an ax and to hit an enemy in the eye with a knife from 10 meters. They learned to live off raw snakes and rats. Before each drill, they were made to bellow: "If you're caught, blow yourself up." Anyone who fell behind faced a beating from their guard-trainers. One recruit died in swimming endurance training, another fell off a cliff. The guards took one laggard into the ocean and nearly drowned him. Later they buried him on the beach with his head sticking...
...workers opt to be independent contractors or to job hop at will, managers will also have to work harder than ever to retain people and develop all of them--not just standouts--to their fullest potential. Rather than dampening the rush toward free agency, many observers believe the recent ax wielding will only encourage it. "It's not that everybody is dying to be a free agent," says Bruce Tulgan, author of Winning the Talent Wars (W.W. Norton & Co.). "It's that people are realizing they have no choice." And companies will soon have no choice but to accept that...