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After living in this coastal condo complex for a few months, I was asked to serve on the condo board. If you've ever served on such a board, you know it is not entirely a delightful experience.

How many times have you attended a networking function, been engaged in a conversation that was going nowhere, saw someone on the other side of the room you wanted to talk to but didn't know how to make a graceful transition?

Some time ago, I offered up in these pages a few guidelines to follow when attempting to gain access to executives. The gist of that piece was that you'll have more luck if you think about executive access in terms of "confirming alignment" more than "making the decision."

These are indeed strange and turbulent times. Health care reform has ushered in a whole new generation of unknown government policy. Unemployment remains high and isn't likely to subside anytime soon.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democratic candidate for governor, says Harley-Davidson executives told him that the company wants to resolve its cost issues with its employees internally and does not want the process to be "politicized."

The recent revelation by Milwaukee-based Harley Davidson Inc. that it needs to reduce costs at its Wisconsin operations by $54 million a year has sparked an intense debate about the state's combined reporting law.

When he was a college student at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE), Jesse Daily, now a partner at Thiensville-based Core Consulting LLC, suffered an injury to his foot. The injury left him on crutches for 18 weeks.

Watching Warren Buffett on CNBC try to give a clean slate to Goldman Sachs stirred a number of thoughts. First, I was surprised the "Sage of Omaha" was willing to spend his personal good will to try to help Goldman, but then again, his company has a $5 billion primary investment and options on another 5 billion shares, so maybe it makes economic sense.

If you are even vaguely thinking about buying or selling a company in the next five years, you owe it to yourself to attend the "BizTimes M&A Forum: Buy? Sell? Hold?" at the Pfister Hotel, 424 E. Wisconsin Ave., Milwaukee, on Wednesday, May 19.

Many people feel comfort in numbers, and knowing that their investment advisor or mutual fund manages several billion dollars with thousands of other investors can be comforting to some investors.