Category: Leadership

Reading Time: < 1 minute One of the hardest things for CEOs to get right is how to pay people….but most of them would agree that variable commissions are essential to properly incent sales people.  An Inc Magazine article looks at incentive compensation for sales people and suggests that in companies with good cultures that Sales

Reading Time: < 1 minute It can be hard to give the young people in your life advice because of the age difference.  So here’s some advice from a younger person for his peers that I wish someone had given me.   Pass on 20 things I Should have known at 20  to someone with more years ahead than

Reading Time: < 1 minute The aviation industry has always been cutting edge when it comes to developing and using new technology, most notably the autopilot function in aircraft.  But there are no unmixed blessings in life and technology is no exception.  The Hazards of Going on Autopilot.” from the New Yorker begins by looking at the use

Reading Time: < 1 minute Henry Ford once remarked that he didn’t do market research because if he asked people want they wanted they would have said a faster horse!  He trusted his instinct as to what the customer would want even if they themselves could not articulate it today.  He built it and they came. (Though

Reading Time: < 1 minute It’s amazing how a small change in how we ask a question can lead to a big difference in the answers. Researchers compared the impact on creative problem solving when a question we ask everyday  was altered ever so slightly; in fact by changing only one word.  A very short article summarizes their findings and

Reading Time: < 1 minute Making the shortlist is more important than ever in world of increasing competition and “make or break” contracts. In an era dominated by a short term mentality, Marketing Guru Seth Godin has some quick common sense for getting on this list that will not only serve you and your team well, but the

Reading Time: < 1 minute Strategic intent is key to the success of any business.   A great (and cautionary) literary exposition of this is Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.”  In this timeless classic, the CEO  (Captain Ahab) clearly had the requisite strategic intent to succeed;  but in the end failed utterly not only in his quest

Reading Time: < 1 minute Malcolm Gladwell’s book “Outliers”  posits that Bill Gates, the Beatles and other very successful persons attained that status by adhering to the “10,000 Hour Rule” of committing at least that much time to honing their skills.   This brief but important article from the Smithsonian takes issue with Gladwell’s claim and holds that

Reading Time: < 1 minute Most C-level executives find themselves besieged by those with a vested interest in changing things.  Often consultants, new hires, academics and others often seem to be proposing change for change’s sake before looking at the reason why existing processes, institutions, traditions and protocols came to be in the first place.

Reading Time: < 1 minute We know Warren Buffet can pick stocks…but how does he pick the  people who help him make the picks?  Buffett is well known for doing his homework on stocks with a focused, disciplined approach on getting the right data.  He does the same when he hires; focusing on intelligence, energy and integrity.