Actually, it’s not. It could of course be a Worst of ‘06 List, the usual contrarian alternative. But it’s not that either, because I really hate those kind of lists regardless of their focus: our industry, entertainment or dogfights.

Here’s why:

1) They always miss something of value that hasn’t been in the spotlight in the last quarter of the year.
2) They always include something truly ephemeral, that has already absorbed too much of our attention.
3) They always include something unpleasant about a celebrity, competitor, business or personality.
4) They are non-predictive and historically useless as they are outdated before January 15th.
5) They foster the trend to base analysis on the short term rather than a broader, more reliable context.
6) In an effort to reach the number 10 or 20 or 100, they include less important or lesser entries that dilute the value of the entire list.

Lists are great to figure out what to do or not to do. They aren’t so hot for celebrating the accomplishments (good or bad) of a year. But they are all we’ve got.

Kathy Sharpe, CEO

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