We face it everyday. Typos.  Those terrible fumbling mistakes wrought by rapid-firing fingers on our keyboards. Typo is literally short for “typographical error.”  But, it can mean a mistake, a misprint, a spelling error, and is usually unintentional.

Typos exist everywhere.  You see them in newspapers everyday, in books, in magazines, on billboards, on those news headlines that crawl across the bottom of our TV screens. They are ubiquitous.

Sometimes, they show up in important policy papers or scientific reports and unless corrected quickly, can wreak huge misunderstandings that have the potential of lasting for years.

Take this case in point:  You’ve most likely heard of the recent outcry among environmentalists to rid our grocery stores and other retail outlets of plastic bags because of their proposed harm to our environment. It turns out that a “typo” in a report by the Australian government in 2002 “mistakenly attributed the deaths of hundreds of thousands of marine mammals to plastic bags.”  This was based on a 1987 Canadian government report which stated that the large numbers of marine mammals’ deaths “were due to discarded nets.”  

That mistake has resulted in environmentalists using the numbers to “demonize plastic bags.”  Companies and governments have begun making monumental economic decisions based on this kind of information.

Fortunately, scientists and environmentalists are now drawing attention to the flawed science. While other plastic particles, dumped in the sea have caused problems, plastic bags have not been an issue.

If you intend to advance your cause nobly, take tender watch over your typos. They could create more of a misunderstanding than you ever imagined.

Z.J. Czupor is principal/owner of The InterPro Group, a Denver-based strategic public relations and marketing firm. Human and by no means perfect, he’s been known to miss a few typos in his lifetime.

The December 2007 issue of Chief Executive magazine interviewed several executives and asked them what issues they were facing in the coming year. Throughout the interviews several themes kept re-emerging -- no matter what sector the executive represented -- and they included captains of industry from high technology, food, chemical, utility, financial services, media and publishing, airline, and imaging solutions for other industries.

The language they used interestingly revolved around concerns for "inward" issues related to their businesses, and "outward" issues related to the marketplace.

Outwardly, they expressed concern for: delivering affordable health care, managing climate change, dealing with uncertainty on the political landscape and the changing marketplace, and remaining agile in a competitive global environment.

While inwardly, they face issues impacting their businesses in such area as: controlling and managing costs, investing in innovation, protecting and promoting their brands, maximizing investments in technology while reducing energy costs related to technology, and attracting and retaining the best people.

I found the "inward looking" language interesting because each of these issues could be expressed by an executive at any time, in almost any era. These are not business issues endemic only to 2008. Meanwhile, the "outward looking" concerns aren't that cosmic shaking either. Rising health care costs have been with us for as long as I can remember. Climate change is what it is and the impacts of weather on how we live and do business have been with us since the first cave man found shelter from a thunderstorm. Dealing with "uncertainty" in politics and changing market conditions can be traced as far back as the founding of our nation. And, remaining "agile" well, that's important to any business leader in any time frame.

These executives are all well-intentioned, no doubt, and these are real issues demanding their time and attention. And, with their eye on the ball, they all speak of good business and goodwill sense.

So, what gives here? What's missing for me is a lack of perspective and break-through thinking. These are all cliched hopes and without an expression of how they will solve these problems.

Each of these executive missed a great opportunity to disrupt the status quo and drive their stake in the ground with a leadership position. Since everyone else is doing and saying the same thing, and worrying about competition, why not change the rules and nobly advance your cause with your position? Then next year, you can take "competition" off your list of things to worry about.