Simple Strategies

How to put your money where your mouth is

You’ve heard the cliche.

We all have.

But you don’t know what it means until you feel it.

I’ve only experienced it a few times, but I’ve put my money where my mouth is twice in the past year.

First, I’ve bought 14 copies of Eric Greitens’ remarkable book Resilience. Twelve were gifts to people who would appreciate the message–or who needed the message. In that experience, I realized a feeling of…

Your Non-Compete Contract Destroys Innovation

Imagine this.

You have an idea that might be with tens of millions of dollars to your company. You devise a simple, low-fidelity test that you execute yourself. The test indicates you may be on to something.

So you write up a pitch and present it to your management. They agree it’s a great idea. But they don’t want to move on it. “We have other priorities.” Your idea, which passed at least one…

Why Corporations Have No Leaders

I left the Navy in December 1994. Twenty-one years later I finally figured out why there are so few real leaders in corporate America.

I was brushing my teeth. I was thinking about a lot of things: work, clients, the economy, the lies companies tell the world and the lies the world asks companies to tell it.

And it it hit me.

There’s one reason why corporate America has few leaders. It was so…

The Rush to Global Is Over

For most of my adult life, the globalization of everything was taken for granted.

We talked of “world economy,” localization, internationalization (aka I18N), and globalization. Indeed, almost every RFP for the last 20 years has asked about internationalization and localization and multiple currencies.

Yet, beginning in about 1997, a lone voice warned us that the march toward globalization would…

There’s Nothing Wrong With Being a Vendor

What’s wrong with being a vendor?

Sometime during my working life every business that sells to other businesses decided they wanted to be partners, not vendors.

Being in partnership with the companies you sell to is a great idea. Partners exert much greater influence than vendors. They also stand to reap great rewards.

What partners incur that vendor do not is risk. Shared risk.

Vendors get paid…

I Wish Drucker Never Said It

Who doesn’t have a dozen favorite Drucker quotes?

“Drucker” is, of course, Peter Drucker the legendary management guru who lives on in quotes.

And that’s the problem.

A lot of business people know all the great Drucker quotes, but they’ve never read the books. Or they read the books years ago and forgot the points, remembering only the quotes.

What’s worse, people actually run companies and…

These 9 Principles Will Help You Avoid Lenovo’s Error

Slate calls the Lenovo hack one of the worst customer betrayals ever.

The PC manufacturer Lenovo sold hackers the keys to your checking account for a few dollars. Put another way. Lenovo installed code that effectively disabled every form of security, anti-virus, or encryption you could possible put on your computer. Lenovo installed this malware on every computer it produced for several years.

A…

How to Handle Critics Like Don Draper

“A critic is someone who enters the battlefield after the war is over and shoots the wounded.”

― Murray Kempton

Ever been tempted to respond to your critics? To explain yourself? To educate the public on the real story, the thorny details your critic left out?

I know how tempting response can be. We want to set the record straight, clear our good name, put them in their place. Calling it…

Do police officers have monthly ticket quotas?

Answer by India L. J. Mitchell:

There is an old joke among police officers.

Citizen: "Do you have a quota of tickets you have to write?"

Officer: "No, I can write as many as I want."

And this is true to some extent. But it is also true that there is an unwritten policy that if you do not write any citations, you must not be doing your job. Some officers just do not like writing citations. They…

Are You The Best Person For The Job?

Your 22-year-old daughter asks you where she should take her car to get the brakes fixed.

If you’re a father or mother, you probably just felt your pulse quicken. Your eyes opened a bit wider. Those are natural physiological responses to danger, and bad brakes in your daughter’s car are certainly a threat.

How do you go about answering her?

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All Sucks That Ends Sucky

Shakespeare was sort of right. All’s well that ends well.

But the opposite is true, too. If the ending sucks, it all sucked.

At least, that’s how everyone will remember it. Sucky.

Remember that when you’re putting together a presentation, a pitch, or a meeting with a client. The whole event, minute by minute, needs to be good and attention-worthy. But you MUST stick the landing if you want to be…

14 Steps to a Purpse-Driven Company

This story is about big companies who provide services to other businesses. If your business is different, you might still learning something.

The Scenario

Maybe this has happened to you.

You’re on the phone with a client. The client asks you to perform some fairly basic task, like replacing a couple of images on a website with new images the client just emailed.

“When can you have this ready for…

How Much Should You Spend Protecting Your iPhone?

How much should you pay for iPhone protection? There’s formula for that.

If you don’t want read all of this, just multiply the cost of a new phone by 30%. I’ll explain later.

Risky or Phonophobe?

For years, I used the slimmest, most minimal case I could find for my iPhone 4. The only time that bit me was when my phone fell out of my pocket as I was getting into my car at a mall. It was raining. I…

4 Incredibly Simple Questions To Make Any Company Successful

CD Baby founder and brilliant business strategist Derek Sivers. Clipped from http://www.inktalks.com/talks/creativity/3

Here’s my favorite story from Derek Siver’s brilliant tiny book Anything You Want. Sivers was in Las Vegas talking to his cab driver. The cabbie told Sivers he misses the mob. Sivers asked why:

“When the mafia ran this town, it was fun. There were only two numbers that mattered:…

Here’s a Vintage Coke Commercial That I Always Think Of This Time of Year

My wife teaches kids with special needs.

She started back to school this week, getting her room ready for the little ones who arrive next week.

Until I got to 8th grade and discovered girls, I hated the end of summer. That’s why this vintage Coke commercial depressed me.

Then, once I started looking forward to fall, Coke stopped…

The One Question That Could Save Your Dying CompanyT

Is your biggest business headache finding enough quality people to handle your massively growing customer base?

Then you can stop here. But I think you should keep reading, anyway. Someday, your company will feel like a neglected swimming pool turning green in the hot August sun.

In fact, even if you don’t need this story today, bookmark it. You’ll need it soon enough.

The Sunk Cost Fallacy Is…

How To Become A Conference Call Hero

Have you ever tried dialing into a conference call from a smart phone?

I know—that sounds rhetorical. But seriously, it’s a pain, isn’t it?

You look up the number in calender. You try to memorize the 9-digit conference id, then press on the hyperlinked phone number to start the call.

You listen to annoying “Welcome to the Meeting Place. Please enter your meeting id at the beep, followed the pound…