Following my post earlier today about organizations needing to shake themselves out of an inward-looking perspective and focus more on delighting their customers, I happened to stumble across an interesting description of what really happens inside large organizations today. The description of a pharmaceutical company comes from Sims Wyeth whose website has a wealth of wonderful suggestions on how to improve presentations. In this post, he describes the dilemma that his presenters face: A bunch[...] read »
Google has been a wild success. In a decade Google has emerged as one of the biggest business winners at leveraging the internet. With that great success comes risk, and opportunity, as Larry Page resumes the CEO position this year. read »
The iconic lighter company looks for opportunity unrelated to tobacco.
What makes someone an employee and not just an independent contractor? The answer is unfortunately less than simple. Yet, failure to get it right could result in significant liability and expense. Despite good intentions, many business owners make wrong turns in their efforts to comply with complex employment laws. Others make the ‘mistake’ quite knowingly, engaging in this practice to save money. After all, employers who can get the work done without having to offer all the ‘bells and whistles’[...] read »
Here’s a question sure to stump your dinner guests and water-cooler colleagues: when was the first automated teller machine (ATM) put into use? Hint: John F. Kennedy was in the White House and the price of gas was $0.31 per gallon. read »
“Where does the profit motive fit in with these ideas of outside-in innovation and delighting the customer?” a respondent asked on Twitter (@vadhrivenkat) in response to my post “The Alternative to Top-Down is Outside-In.” read »
Being that my chosen work practically has me preaching, goals + alignment = success, it never ceases to amaze me how easy it is to “preach” and the awareness it takes to “walk your talk” in both your personal life and in your career. read »
We all read blogs to get a sense of what is going on with the world. We read informational blogs, entertainment blogs and solely news related blogs. Never has it been easier for an individual to have his or her voice published. read »
In any negotiation you are communicating over two channels – verbal and nonverbal – resulting in two distinct conversations going on at the same time. While a well-designed bargaining strategy is obviously important, it’s not the only important message you send. Communication research shows that in a thirty-minute negotiation, two people can send over eight hundred different nonverbal signals. If you focus on the verbal exchange alone and ignore the nonverbal element, you stand a high chance of coming[...] read »
In last week’s post, I explained how complacency can create a dangerous inward focus in an organization that has been successful for awhile, and offered two actions you can take now to bring the outside in. Today I explain two more things you can do to help ward off an inward focus and start recognizing new opportunities. These will also help you identify hazards that may come from competitors, customers, or changes in the regulatory environment. read »