When we stop playing nice

July 30, 2011

The other day at a CEO roundtable we talked about leadership and corporate culture.  Startup executives tend to put a premium on collaboration.  Working together.  While not to be discounted, talk of “collaboration” and “trust” is standard fare in these kinds of chats.  Everybody plays nice. Big companies are a different story.

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How old are you… anyway?

July 27, 2011

How old are you? Over the past few years I’ve been asked this a lot. It never used to come up but now it happens several times a week. In some cultures it’s routine to ask perfect strangers direct, personal questions like “how old are you?” or “what’s your salary?” Yet without realizing it I’d grown accustomed to [...]

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Business Jargon Generator

June 17, 2011

Need random verbage for a slide presentation?  Want to impress the boss?  Want to toss out a tough question in your next meeting, even if you’ve been playing Angry Birds under the table the whole time?  Want to sound like you have an MBA… or if you already have one, want to sound like you got your money’s worth?  [...]

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Mutual Exclusivity Kills Innovation

May 5, 2011

Mutual exclusivity.  It’s when two things can’t happen at the same time.  It’s when two propositions can’t both be true.  It can also be when a business unit is told to both extend its parent company’s core franchise while also being a new growth effort.  You’ve been warned.

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5 Top Trends in Venture Capital Today

April 27, 2011

For a quick check on how the US venture capital industry is doing, here are 5 Top Trends:

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Beware of Core Competence

March 22, 2011

“Core competence.”  We’ve all heard about it.  The idea of core competence is one of the most sacred in business.  It’s standard in every MBA playbook.  It can also be so fundamentally misunderstood that it’s a trap for the unwary.  Beware!

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Intuition is for Scoundrels

February 21, 2011

Whenever you hear the words “intuition” and “decision” in the same sentence… run.  Don’t just run, sprint like a third-grader.  Sometimes this will make you look odd, but that’s a risk worth taking.  To warp a line from Bob Dylan – intuition is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings.

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The Subtle Art of Strategy Vol. 3

February 3, 2011
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The Subtle Art of Strategy Vol. 2 (3 Min Video)

January 27, 2011
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The Subtle Art of Strategy (1 Min Video)

January 27, 2011
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