Some important Brain Functions Improve with Age according to findings presented in HBR’s Conversation blog.
In areas as diverse as vocabulary and inductive reasoning, our brains function better than they did in our 20s. As we age, we more easily get the “gist” of arguments. Even our judgment of others improves. Often, we simply “know” [...]
We’ve all seen it where lots of information compiled to make a decision did little to suggest an obvious course. And that was 20 years ago, when it took leg work to gather that information, not just a few keystrokes in your browser. Getting stuck in analysis was a problem thousands of years ago and [...]
In The Carbon Productivity Challenge, McKinsey & Company focuses on two objectives — stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases (GHGs) and maintaining economic growth — and proposes the world has 50 years to increase the GDP per unit of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) tenfold. A task the authors equate to the productivity improvement delivered during the 100 [...]
Is the world smaller? Maybe so or maybe good ideas stick regardless of the time and distance they travel to their location. In any event, you can find the latest business thinking in far away places. If you follow Robert Cialdini, then you will want to read this story about a rug business in Turkey [...]
The folks at Pragmatic Marketing have put together a great book describing their process for creating products and services that customers want and more importantly will buy.
Tuned In is a quick read and should prove to be a valuable reference guide as you turn to your potential customers to define the products and services someone [...]
“Why do people feel pressure to have an answer for every question?” Even when they don’t know Jack, they make it up on the fly. Ten years ago our training courses included a short video clip of college students at some of the more prestigious universities speaking at length with great confidence about [...]
No, it’s Conviction and Discipline according to Fred Wilson, “Conviction and discipline are two sides of the same coin.” I like the view. Similar to a great strategy with weak execution, conviction without discipline will often lead you into the ditch and will never get you to the mountaintop.
Berkshire Hathaway’s Shareholder Letter
is a must read and this one is no exception. Continuing last year’s scolding of the sub-prime mortgage banking industr, my favorite lines included these:
John Stumpf, CEO of Wells Fargo, aptly dissected the recent behavior of many lenders: “It is interesting that the industry has invented few ways to lose money when [...]
Another high profile company going public has decided to maintain control while selling a majority of the economic stakes in the company to the public. This time it is Al Gore as a founder of Current Media.
I certainly agree, the company’s shareholders have a right to decide the control structure they want to have [...]
Speaking of the TXU purchase, Mr. Bonderman said the company was adept at running a profitable company and equally bad at politics from price increases to ecology to labor relations. These shortcomings lead tothe opportunity which focused on addressing these public concerns.Opportunities for private equity include exploiting public investorsfocus on short term focus, their dislike [...]
The 4 hour work week is an interesting and educational book, even for those who would not choose to work only half a day each week. It pushes you to think about different ways to get your job done and to think differently about which activities you keep inside and which you push to others. [...]
Day two included another round of interesting speakers. We began with a horse of a different color as Paul Orfalea, Founder of Kinkos, shared his store, advice and leadership style (close the door and let the kids run the store). Then we moved on to customer satisfaction and the Net Promoter Score as described by Fred Reichheld, [...]
The annual Gazelles Growth Summit began today in Las Vegas with a host of interesting speakes. Robert Bloom was first at the podium to discuss his new book Inside Advantage. It is a good read and I will write a separate post on it soon. Bloom is full of real life examples [...]
Stowe Boyd, author of /Message, presenting today at the Enterprise 2.0 Conference identified a model for designing Web 2.0 applications. Build for the individual first, then for groups of like minded people and then focus on the money making activity for a “market”.
Stowe claims the Internet is increasingly becoming the Third Space, our primary place [...]
Even though the most likely outcome for a successful technology company is via an acquisition, I have never liked the idea of planning for it. Plans and actions then often go away from what will help our customers and help us succeed in the market to what would ABC Inc. like to see in an [...]
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