JOHN CADY

I am a second career librarian with two decades of experience managing small businesses. For the past eight years I’ve been a database jockey in the library at BusinessWeek.

Things I find interesting in business:
How economic entities respond to structural changes caused by technology and media shifts. The topic I feed most regularly on the Business Exchange is Digital Cinema. My favorite story there so far is the impact of digital distribution on rural Indian movie houses. Will our small town cinemas return to Main Street? A story I’m looking forward to reading: What will be the impact if we can buy cable channels à la carte?

Employee motivation. I grew up in a business that shared half its profits with employees and allocated the share by length of service. Companies that share profits with executives rather than share them with workers for helping the executive don't know what a motivated worker looks like. Our motivation schemes, which we have allowed to be direct reflections of the egocentrism of our executives, are our biggest failing; changing them is our biggest opportunity.

Marketing. The inefficiency that is marketing exists as we know it due to consumers’ unwillingness and inability to communicate their needs, desires and fantasies. Will consumers use technology to organize and start communicating directly for a price, cooperatively negotiating access to themselves with every click?