Monday, August 23rd, 2010
You can call me “Don”
One recent Tuesday (June 29th) first thing I got a very excited e-mail from my marketing colleague and friend Professor Plum. “Did you see the thing in the [NY] Times about the Russian spies who were arrested?” (Indeed, I had read it earlier with great interest.) “I know one of those guys, Don Heathfield…he works with a business development firm I’m also working with.”
Interesting coincidence. Being the research guy I am, I looked up Heathfield and found that his company had a product FutureMap that sounds similar in some respects to a product we’ve been working on at TKA—something to monitor trends and events that could affect a company. I emailed my futurist colleague and friend Colonel Mustard a link with a “Check this out!” subject line.
Within five minutes Mustard called me back. “You’re not going to believe it, but I know one of these guys—Donald Heathfield. I met him through the World Future Society. He was always asking me for introductions, and to have my clients try out his software.” We had a rollicking conversation during which Mustard pointed out the many things in Heathfield’s story that didn’t quite add up.