Since 37.843% of all statistics are made up, how do you know what you should be measuring? (grin) This is a rant on numbers. Not just any number but one particular item and how it impacts your world. These are the days of eliminating the number of commas in your world. What? Commas. You know those nifty little period symbols with a tail. They, the coma, will allow you, and anyone else, to write sentences, and those, with independent clauses (OK . . . so I only got 6 commas in this sentence.) I have a problem with commas when
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Archives for Creativity
Hugging a Wind Gust – How Smart Business People Do IT.
Like any hang glider knows, it is hard to control the wind. What about Reed Hastings and Netflix? A decade ago he was embarrassed to tell his wife about late fees on a video rental he forgot to return. A trip to the gym had him thinking, “why can’t I make renting a DVD video like my membership at the gym? You pay a flat rate per month and use it all you want.” Does Blockbuster wish they could turn back the clock and not charge this one guy a late fee? Here comes a wind gust. Now Mister Hastings
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What Should YOUR Business Look Like In a Speedo?
Mike Vance is, in my opinion, one of the greatest business speakers in the last 100 years. His work on developing creativity is cornerstone. He introduced the three methods to create something. Those were: Invention Invention (i.e. the light bulb) Invention Extension (i.e. the flashlight) Invention Devention (see below) An old Nike T-shirt had a saying plastered across the front that read, “The older I get the better I was!” That is me. Believe it or not, there was a time when I was the captain of the swim team -many, many, many pounds ago with the svelt torso to
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IKEA – Which is Swedish for "Great Customer Experience" – big grin
One quarter TRILLION catalogs a year and over 600,000,000 customers makes IKEA of Sweden big. But not so big that they can’t pay attention to customers. Recently I was eating lunch with family in one of their stores (the famous Swedish Meat Balls with mashed potatoes.) I noticed a young man a few feet away from me with his back turned toward me. He walked away and there was a Microwave. Right in the middle of the cafeteria. A microwave. How many restaurants would even consider allow YOU, the lowly customer, the choice of reheating your food when it
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Listening to the Customer – The Secret At DeWALT and Black & Decker
Having heard him speak before, I was somewhat hesitant to go. Previously he was less than electrifying. But this time he was different. He was talking about something that he had a passion about. Last night we got to listen to Nolan Archibold, the CEO of Black & Decker. He told the story of being a self conscious student who was oozing self doubts and insecurities while attending Harvard Business School. Later he found out that 80% of those who were at school had the same challenges. Each found themselves wondering why they were in this prestigious school and
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