Morning Advantage: The Revolution Will Be Organized

Even in this digital age, argues Hugo Dixon in his Reuters column, rebellions still need strategy, and to get a strategy, you must have leaders. While the "Twitter revolutions" of the Arab spring have us all a-chirp about leaderless movements, Dixon points out that those movements have struggled to get the results the participants want. From Occupy to Syria to Egypt, media attention and even, in Egypt's case, regime change, has not resulted in activists' desired goals. But does that mean that a charismatic leader — a Mahatma Gandhi or a Martin Luther King, Jr. — is what such movements require? As Dixon points out, leadership teams provide more stability, and greater diversity of strengths. For instance, even King had a strategist (Bayard Rustin) to complement his oratory. My own two cents: if you want to be the charismatic leader, choose a lieutenant who doesn't mind staying in the shadows. Despite his profound influence on the Civil Rights movement, there's no Bayard Rustin national holiday.

THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING

What Happened to Disintermediation? (INSEAD Blog)

With the rise of the internet, notes Niraj Dawar, many folks predicted the death of intermediaries, since producers of goods, arts, and services now able to directly reach their customers. Instead, what hath the web wrought? Powerful new intermediaries like iTunes and Amazon. This happened because scale and brand still matter, and also, Dawar argues, because "stultified," "oligopolistic" firms like, uh, publishing companies didn't realize the size of the opportunity they'd missed.

GO AHEAD, HIT THE SNOOZE BUTTON

Why Bosses No Longer Care if You're Late to Work (Mashable)

According to a new study, 73% of bosses have a relaxed attitude about their staff showing up late, thanks to the rise of smartphones. And indeed, even though employees still feel guilty about coming in late to work, most of them are checking their work email by 7:42 am and don't stop fully working until 7:19 pm. There are interesting cultural differences here, too; U.S. bosses are much more lenient than their British counterparts when it comes to employees taking 9-to-5 time for personal tasks.

BONUS BITS:

Summer e-Reading

In e-Book War, Independent Publishers Strike Back (The Atlantic) Hotel Replaces Printed Bibles with Kindles (CNN) Could Oracle Ruling Lead to Used e-Book, Music Sales? (ZDNet)