Charlene Li, one of the brightest lights in social media , has announced that after nine years she is leaving Forrester Research where she is the most senior member of the West Coast team. She recently co-authored Groundswell, a superb book that demonstrates how social media can be used to achieve business objectives.
I often deceive myself into thinking I know Charlene better and for longer than I do. It is in part, because I have been reading her blog since before I started blogging and because her frequent public talks have greatly influenced my thinking. He perception in 2006 that "geography has become irrelevant" was a seed that grew into my concept of Global Neighbourhoods.
Charlene also had the wisdom to hire Jeremiah, who has done a good job of filling a Forrester void that will become large when Charlene departs on July 18.
Charlene writes that she is leaving because of the difficulties of balancing family and professional issues, a proclamation often used by departing executives. In her case, I absolutely believe it to be true. An analyst's life is grueling, filled with more travel than most people want, facing a public expectation of being always right which is of course not possible. Every time I've had the pleasure to chat with Charlene, over the past couple of years, she has talked about the challenges of balancing family and career.
Since she's a neighbor of mine in the world where geography is indeed relevant, I'm hopeful that this will give me the opportunity to actually spend more time with her, perhaps at a more leisurely pace.
