who Is Michael Finley?

Mike is available to write for your organization or publication. 
Call him at 651-644-4540

Mesothelioma

Remenbering Michael Finley

I think of Mike as having the soul of a newspaper columnist, the kind we used to have lots of -- big-hearted, curious, quick to laugh, knowledgeable, but just this side of scholarly. He's the kind person who was born to write. If only he had been born a few years earlier!

For 30 years, while plugging away trying to earn a buck, Mike has written about whatever fancied him. the columns he wrote for a raft of newspapers and magazines are an abedeiary of odd knowledge. He has written about mastodons, negative ions, salesmen, and snakes. He has written about children, and dying, and sickness, and love.

Mike thinks he's a poet, and he thinks that's very fine. I think he's better than that. Poets have their place, but Mike is a human being who charges out of the gate time and time again putting his honor and his dignity on the line.

Some time ago, over drinks, Mike confided to me that he knew he'd never make it as a writer.

"I'm a hack," he shrugged. "It's OK. The world needs decent hack writers more than poets."

It's not worth weeping about, but it was a poignant bookmark in a life of many words. Good on you, Michael Finley, and good on your many works.

- Jack Maguire

BOOKS

THE NEW WHY TEAMS DON'T WORK, with Harvey Robbins, Peterson's/Pacesetter Books, 1995

Transcompetition, with Harvey Robbins, McGraw-Hill, 1998

Why Change Doesn't Work, with Harvey Robbins, Peterson's/Pacesetter Books, 1996

Turf Wars: Moving from Competition to Collaboration (with Harvey Robbins, PhD), Scott Foresman, 1989

Techno-Crazed,by Michael Finley, Peterson's, 1995

AWARDS

  • Winner, Best Management Book, The Americas, 1995, Financial Times/Booz Allen &Hamilton Global Business Book Award, 1995
  • "Correspondent of the Year" American Reporter, 1999
  • "One of the Best Business Books of 1995," Soundview Executive Summaries
  • Nominee, Best Feature, New York Business Publishers & Editors Awards, 1993
  • Nominee, Best Column, Computer Writers of America Awards, 1991
  • Pushcart Prize for Writing, Pushcart Press, 1985
  • First Place Newspaper Editor's Award, Minnesota Associated Press, 1979
  • First Place, Inland Sea Awards, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University, 1979

COLUMNS

  • "Back Page," Presentations
  • "On the Edge," St. Paul Pioneer Press
  • "The Virtual Life," Maximize
  • "Future Shoes," Albany NY Times Union
  • "Future Shoes," American Reporter
  • "Future Shoes," ComputerUser Online
  • "Human Business," Minnesota Monthly
  • "Early Stages," Corporate Report Minnesota
  • "Diversions," Computer User
  • "Market Ideas," Business Minnesota
  • "Deep Thinking," Many Corners

SELECTED 
MAGAZINES  

 Across the Board
Advertising Age
Association Management
Best (Pillsbury)
Beyond Computing (IBM)
The Business Journal
Business Computing
Business Ethics
Business Today
Catalyst
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Commercial West
Communication World
Consumers Research
Corporate Computing
Corporate Report
Datamation
Entrepreneur
Esquire
Harvard Business Review
Harvard Business Review
HR Magazine
H R Reporter
Industry Week
Knowledge Management

 Marketing News
Marketscan Europe
MarketWatch
Minnesota Management Review
Minnesota Monthly
NASA Activities
Paris Review
PC Week
Personnel Administrator
Preseentations
Public Relations Journal
Quality Progress
Rolling Stone
Salon
Saint Paul Pioneer Press
San Francisco Examiner
Society & Association Manager
Success!
Successful Meetings
Strategic Health Care Marketing
Superconductivity World Report
Training
Vietnam Now
Wise City

 

"A masterpiece of explanatory journalism!" - New Orleans Picayune
 "Fast, funny, and highly stimulating!" -Business Book Review

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