As good as it looks...this month's product spotlight features DLU's newest MR16 LED, the Nerolume. Its powerful 7 watts will easily replace a 35 watt halogen FMW. With a lifetime of 40,000 hours and a 5 year warranty, the Nerolume will brighten any corner of your world for a long time to come. 

Anyone who saw the recent broadcast of The Men Who Built America on the History Channel had to be impressed and maybe a little surprised to discover that we in the lighting business owe as much of our livelihoods to J.P. Morgan as we do to Thomas Edison.

            The story of Thomas Edison finding two thousand ways not to invent a light bulb before hitting on the right way is hardly new to any of us. But not many of us were aware that J.P. Morgan even played a role in the success of Edison's invention, much less a pivotal and critical one.

            Anyone who creates, whether he or she is an inventor, or playwright, or painter, needs support from a business partner of equal or greater vision. Shakespeare's plays would never have seen the light of day without a Philip Henslowe or Richard Burbage to produce them. Microsoft and Apple could never have left the garage without the support of investors who saw their possibilities. And Edison's light bulb might never have been more than an interesting curiosity without the much larger vision of the world's greatest financier.

            It was the Morgan residence that became the first--and for a brief time, the only--house on planet earth to be lit entirely by electric light. When Morgan complained that the generator in the basement was too loud, Edison responded that with a central power station there would be no need for a generator in the house at all. It was then that Morgan could clearly envision an entire world powered by electricity and he set about making it happen. After all, if there could be a power station for his neighborhood, why not neighborhoods everywhere?

            Left on his own, Edison could never have patented his hundreds of inventions and then used them to change the world. He needed Morgan and other visionaries to help lift his inventions to their highest potential. And for that vision, we who earn our livings and support our families in the lighting industry, owe J.P. Morgan a debt of gratitude.

Is there a difference between a manager and a leader? Yes and it is exactly the same as--but not restricted to--the difference between a ship's captain and its executive officer. 

The captain is in command. He decides on the ship's mission and its course. However, the execution of the details of the mission belongs to the executive officer. There a good reason for this. If the captain bogs himself down with the ship's minutiae, he will lose sight of the mission as a whole. He will be doing someone else's job at the expense of his own and the mission itself.

            It is not very different ashore. The leader or CEO or president sets company policy, but once that is done, handling it should be left to somebody else. Nothing should take the leader away from his or her concentration on the company's direction.

              More important than that however, is the way that the leader is viewed from below. If the leader's vision is clearly defined, that is how the troops will view it. But, if the leader is caught up with minor details that should be in the province of a subordinate, it will confuse his or her people and affect the way they do their jobs. Once that happens, morale begins to suffer, which will then lead to hampered performance.

              Leaders are well paid because they lead, not because they manage. Leaders are followed because people want to follow them. Managers are followed because people have to follow them. As long as both sides stay within their respective roles, the corporate ship will remain on a steady course.