Decisions at the Fulcrum

A bottle of flavored water appears unassuming until somebody needs to select where it goes. In this last part of the Bai series, I explore beverages that transcend the boundaries of water, flavor, energy, and wellbeing. Bai's expansion indicates that a category is never only a label on a shelf. It is also a description of what individuals expect a product to do in the remaining hours of their day....

A chilled bottle of Bai in a Costco cooler contains a few calories, 55 milligrams of caffeine, recognizable fruit flavors, a coffee fruit extract, and a question: What kind of beverage is this? I start in the aisle, looking at how one bottle can take on an appearance of flavored water, an energy drink, a fruit beverage, and a functional drinking water item. Each category alters the competitors a r...

Today, I look at health campaigns. I look at how to design them, refine them, and how they could even be effective.  Campaigns that neglect access realities (timing, trust, media, healthcare) frequently seem optimal for those already in a position to benefit, exacerbating the realities of people who they intend to reach.  Campaign planning is a research problem primed for investigation. I discuss...

In the second episode of this series, I look at a period marked first by escalating violence, heightened international attention, and a growing complexity that made resolution through force increasingly elusive for both sides. The initial mediation efforts of 2000 established a delicate humanitarian opportunity; however, the issues surrounding sovereignty, autonomy, disarmament, and political auth...

In this first episode of a two-part series, I trace the long account that made the Aceh conflict more than a dispute over territory. From the Dutch invasion of 1873 to Aceh’s early support for the Indonesian republic after 1945, the story follows a region whose identity was shaped by resistance, religious life, political authority, and the expectation that its distinctiveness would receive meaning...

At 8:47 p.m., 8,742 steps may feel like a minor accusation rather than a measurement. This episode looks at how Fitbit turned everyday activity into a readable daily tale, complete with data, objectives, badges, leaderboards, and the weirdly compelling notion that a last stroll around the block may restore moral order. Using the COM-B model of capacity, opportunity, and motivation, Dr. William Hof...

Bangladesh encountered one of the most formidable electrification challenges globally. The interplay of rivers, wetlands, seasonal flooding, and dispersed rural communities rendered the extension of a conventional electrical grid both prohibitively expensive and agonizingly slow. Instead of resigning itself to decades of waiting for transmission lines, the nation embarked on one of the largest off...

In this episode, I look at Hastings Entertainment, which started as a regional bookstore in Amarillo, Texas, and grew into one of the most distinctive media merchants.  From there, I examine Hastings from two influential perspectives on organizational communication. The "Garbage Can Model", or the model of decision streams, explains why businesses frequently make decisions based on converging prob...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I explore Kahtoola, a specialized outdoor brand tackling a deceptively simple challenge: navigating a world where the ground is perpetually frozen. The interplay of ice, packed snow, refrozen slush, shaded hardpack, pavement, trails, slopes, and varying speeds shapes the complex connection between foot and surface. Their offerings, including MICROspikes...

I travel to Idaho to look at how Idaho Central Credit Union (ICCU) grew from a small credit union with 22 members and less than $300 in assets to the largest credit union in Idaho. The appealing story is that ICCU discovered one clever maneuver, but the more useful and more authentic one is that ICCU established a culture capable of duplicating itself over and over...and over. I examine ICCU using...

At Iowa 80, the world’s largest truck stop, visitors immediately see vastness. The expansive parking lots seem to stretch endlessly, while an array of signs beckons from every direction. The fuel lanes, gleaming chrome, vibrant lights, diverse food options, showers, repair bays, and retail aisles can initially feel like a sensory overload. This episode takes a juncture to hit the brakes and explor...

On October 30, 2025, a significant disruption unfolded for YouTube TV subscribers as the entire Disney suite of networks disappeared from their screens. Iconic channels like ABC, ESPN, FX, and National Geographic were suddenly inaccessible, following a breakdown in negotiations between Disney and Google over a new carriage agreement. This two-week standoff left viewers unhappy and placed immense p...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we explore the intriguing journey of chili crisp and the brand Fly by Jing, which has made a delightful Sichuan chili crisp available in U.S.-American kitchens, transforming a simple jar into a vessel of cultural storytelling. More than just a condiment, chili crisp embodies the rich flavors and memories of Chengdu, inviting us to explore how a distinct...

If a smartphone company asked you to do something incredibly unexpected, they would exclusively urge you to maintain your phone. In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we look at Fairphone, a Dutch smartphone company that developed its brand around repairability, modular design, replaceable parts, and a subtle disruptive premise: a device does not have to be treated as disposable when the ba...

World War II is frequently taught within a clear framework: democracy defeated fascism, justice accompanied victory, and the conflict ended with surrender and trials. However, the history of the Asia-Pacific battlefield confuses the story being given. In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I talk with Jenny Chan, Director of Pacific Atrocities Education, about stories that are still underrep...

What happens to a package after you are finished with it? A bottle, a cardboard sleeve, a mailer, a charger box: all of these seem minor independently, until we enter the maze of bins, collection systems, producer obligations, recycling markets, municipal capacity, and public behavior. In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I visit Sweden 🇸🇪 to look at the Extended Producer Responsibility sy...

In this episode, I look at two management-leadership approaches while visiting the grocery store. Beneath the florescent lights, right next to the bakery display, and between the BOGO beverages and cart return, I want to test one often cited framework in an applied setting.  Using the managerial grid developed by Blake and Mouton, this episode compares and contrasts "country club management" with...

Part 2 shifts from the Macondo well to the public narrative explaining the crisis . The crisis split into two halves as soon as oil started to flow across the Gulf: communicative and industrial.  How the well collapsed became as important as making sense of what sort of crisis was unfolding. Was the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe a rare occurrence, a technical malfunction, a safety culture failing,...

In the first part of our Deepwater Horizon episode, I delve into the disaster prior to its emergence as a public narrative. I start by recalling the Exxon Valdez incident, then transition to the Gulf of Mexico, where offshore drilling has ventured into deeper waters, navigating more intricate technical landscapes and grappling with a challenging interplay between expertise and uncertainty. On Apri...

Coffee is a bean, a stimulant, and a social routine. It is also a global commodity that becomes meaningful only when people give it rituals, tools, prices, places, and habits. In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I explore Vietnamese coffee culture and Starbucks’ careful entry into Vietnam. I begin with the phin filter, condensed milk, coconut coffee, egg coffee, robusta beans, and the eve...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I explore the neon logic of today's supermarket aisle, where food has become a continuous commentary on societal unease. Nestlé's Vital Pursuit, aimed at those who use GLP-1 drugs, seems to be another neat health launch: fewer portions, extra this, more of that buzzword, and happy-sounding reassurance on the container. This episode investigates how a fo...

In this interview episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, Dr. William Hoffman speaks with founder and CEO of Mightylicious Carolyn Haeler about the decisions that emerge when necessity, taste, and enjoying food are immediate and abrupt. What began with a celiac diagnosis became Mightylicious, a quest to make the best gluten-free cookie consumers ever tasted.  Carolyn Haeler reflects on her path from...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, we trace Slice from its 1984 debut inside Pepsi’s lemon-lime strategy to its slow disappearance from the American soda aisle. We begin in the fluorescent chill of the cola wars, where Pepsi decides that Teem no longer has enough force in the market and launches Slice with a sharper promise. It would have fruit and offer a contemporary vocab for soda. Fr...

What makes a smooth, thoughtful, and worthwhile experience? In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I speak with Vance Morris, who has expertise in customer experience consulting, Disney tourist attractions, and entrepreneurship. Together, we examine the choices that determine what visitors truly recall: the greeting, the wait, the script, the recuperation, and the sense of being respected. W...

In this episode of Decisions at the Fulcrum, I zoom into Zoom and go from the train station platform to the teleconferencing platform that became ubiquitous during the early 2020s. This episode opens in Logan, UT, at Utah State University, and I cover early interest and delivery of distance education by train. From there, I cover Zoom during the COVID-19 crisis, a series of fulcrum points in which...