Category: Innovation

Reading Time: < 1 minuteGold Rushes occur throughout history.  In 1849, thousands made a mad dash to California when gold was found at Sutter’s Mill.  Most returned home even poorer than they arrived.   In the mid-1800s, the railroad boom made a few rich but destroyed many more.   Remember the late 1990’s and the Internet bubble?  

Reading Time: < 1 minuteApple made history this week by becoming the first company to achieve a trillion dollar market cap.  Given Apple’s success in recent years, you might not be surprised that it passed this milestone, but it’s 40 year history has not been a straight upward sloping line. There was a time

Reading Time: < 1 minuteIt seems almost ironic that an industry that specializes in the most  tangible of assets, land and buildings, is being disrupted by something that is not tangible at all. Yet, one residential real estate company has grown to 12,000 agents (doubling from 6,000 agents since January 1 of this year alone) and achieving

Reading Time: < 1 minuteOur culture is youth obsessed in many ways, not the least of which is the perception that twenty-something’s have an edge in entrepreneurship over older (Boomers) business people despite the latter’s broader and deeper experience. Several researchers decided to test the conventional wisdom and took a look at entrepreneurial success

Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn the late 1700s, Captain James Cook made history by being the first European to discover Hawaii, circumnavigating the globe in the process. During these long sea voyages, a disease created by lack of Vitamin C known as scurvy was very common among the crews and very difficult to treat

Reading Time: < 1 minutePeter Drucker once remarked that the best business in the world was a mailbox to which people sent money. While this may be ideal, most businesses require some intermediate steps; such as lead generation. Historically, lead generation required many outbound activities by sales and marketing.  Social media has turned that on its head and

Reading Time: < 1 minuteMicrosoft Founder Bill Gates not only revolutionized, some say invented, the personal computer industry as we know it, he is also making a significant impact on the world through the Gates Foundation run by him and his wife Melinda. Whatever his endeavors, he has learned to rely on facts. To

Reading Time: < 1 minuteThe founder of Ikea, Ingvar Kamprad passed away on January 31. His extraordinary success (he was number 10 on the world’s richest persons list) by bringing a new business model to an old category is the stuff of business legends. What was so different about his offering? Vistage’s premier speaker

Reading Time: < 1 minuteMicrosoft paid $26 Billion for LinkedIn.  The following will help C-Level execs understand why.  Many CEOs and direct reports have a personal or company page on this site but know little about the power that LinkedIn offers them, so they don’t challenge their teams to use it to its fullest. 

Reading Time: < 1 minuteIn the Middle Ages, Alchemists labored mightily, but in vain, to turn lead into gold.  One Vistage member, speaker and author suggests that CEOs can be modern-day alchemists and achieve a transformation that yields even more value; turning employers into owners. Scot Hunsaker is a ten year plus Vistage member and award-winning 2016 Vistage