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Posts under ‘business’

The good type of failure

“Shoot for the moon, even if you miss it you’ll land amongst the stars”
I have to admit when I first heard of the Canadian Olympic Foundation’s goal of “Owning the Podium” at the 2010 Olympics I was a bit taken back, it just didn’t seem very “Canadian” to me. And even though I [...]

The FriendDA or I promise not to be a moron

After writing my last post, I circulated it to a mailing list and had a bunch of nice responses. There was some interesting conversation and some interesting ideas, which is always a good thing. One interesting email came from a business school classmate of mine who’s working on an interesting concept to disrupt [...]

An MBA’s opinion on MBAs and start ups

There’s an interesting post on some dude’s (or dudette’s for that matter) posterous about MBA’s and start ups. The post starts off talking about a conversation that was overheard at some café in the valley where a couple of MBAs are going off about joining a start up and the fast lane to riches. [...]

Rewards, decisions and outcomes

I came across an interesting post from a couple of professors from London Business School today, the post talks about rewarding decisions not just the results they create. I’m not sure about this. I think there needs to be a mix of results and behaviour but rewarding decisions can cause a state of [...]

Microscopes versus telescopes

I’m a couple of pages into Guy Kawasaki’s “The Art of the Start”, it’s an easy read that’s giving me some decent food for thought. One of the concepts that I really liked was the idea that some people look through microscopes and some look through telescopes.
In a big company, which has [...]

Social media as a tool

I’m sorry it’s been a while. Not sure you missed me like I missed you, but being ill, travelling loads and doing my first speaking engagement in years (at Ecole Hotelier Lausanne, which went really well), not to mention continuing to try and be a better dad and husband have meant that you’ve had [...]

Being nice as a long term strategy

I’ve been lucky to work and meet some really smart people in the business world. Some people who are really creative, innovative, intelligent, analytical, strategic etc etc etc. But there’s a real differentiator that some of them have which others don’t, being nice.
My definition of nice is polite, making time [...]

Market share today doesn’t mean market share tomorrow

I’m really enjoying using the Amazon Kindle application on the iPod Touch. I’ve downloaded 3 books and read 1 full book and am halfway through the second. Reading books on an eReader is not something I thought I would really enjoy – at least not as much as I have so far. [...]

European company cultures

I’ve been reading Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a Thriving Organization (note I’ve started using Amazon Affiliate links on my blog posts as a trial) on my iPod this week, I’m really enjoying the book but I can’t help but think about where all the international examples of great companies/leaders/tribes are?
This is especially [...]

Some thoughts for 2010

Had an interesting back and forth this morning with my friend Natasja about best of versus prediction lists. I like being nostalgic, but my preference is for thinking forward. Natasja’s point about lists being based on the “now” and not saying anything new, is a good one. But still which trends are [...]