Surrogate reader.

• Author: Kristie, James
• Position: EDITOR'S NOTE - Editorial

WHEN PEOPLE find out how long I've been editor of Directors & Boards--I'm now starting my 27th year with this issue that you hold in your hands--a common reaction is, "Where do you get your ideas from?" or, "How do you keep coming up with ideas?"

It's never been a problem. I generally have more ideas than I know what to do with. I was trained well. One of my earliest bosses right out of journalism school gave me a piece of profound advice. He said to me, "Jim, you've got to give people ideas, because most people do not have ideas." And I've been in the idea business ever since.

Of course, I don't come up with all the ideas. Each issue of the journal is an idea melting pot. There are the articles on topics that I think our readers are interested in or need to be briefed on, for which I recruit experts to address. There are the articles that originate with a phone call or email to me asking if I'd be interested in a topic and author, and I give a thumbs up or down. And then there are a few articles that come in "over the transom"--unsolicited and, sad to say, off target for one reason or another.

Let's take a couple of examples from the pages of this very edition of how this works. In a random encounter at an investment industry conference luncheon in New York a few months ago, I learned from my seatmate on the right, who was in from Chicago, that he had just heard Harry Kraemer give a talk on what private equity firms look for in a CEO. That is an "aha" moment for an editor. I shot an email to Harry as soon as I got back to the office the next day, asking if he'd be interested in adapting his remarks for publication. Result: this issue's cover story, a...