“I look to the future because that’s where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.” George Burns offered that insight as a comedy line. But it applies to strategic planning more than he likely ever imagined. Business people everywhere are struggling to recover from disruptions and tensions caused by a perfect storm of…
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Decisions. Decisions. Decisions. We make hundreds of them every day. Most are relatively fleeting and inconsequential. What difference does it really make whether you poach some eggs or opt for a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast? Some people seem to struggle with even the most simple decisions. From the movie You’ve Got Mail you may…
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Steve Jobs, the genius behind much of Apple’s ramp-up to become one of the world’s most profitable companies, said innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity, not as a threat. Another really smart guy named Steve has plenty to say on the subject. He’s Steve Brown, the author of The Innovation Ultimatum:…
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There’s a lot of talk nowadays about “uncertain times.” It’s a phrase often denoting the harsh and burdensome changes wrought by a global pandemic. But “uncertain times” seems to imply a lack of control. I prefer the term “unscripted times.” To me, that conjures up images of the people we see in business, science, medicine,…
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“Put first things first” is one of those self-improvement prescriptions with a very high “Oh, duh!” factor. As in “Oh, duh! Everybody knows that.” Trouble is, almost everybody ignores the prescription. Sure, most people know that family is (or at least should be) more important than work. Sure, most people know that physical exercise, good…
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What do you do if you feel you’re getting ripped off by a service that’s crucial to your business? And what if you’re sure a lot of other people are equally disadvantaged and disgusted? If you’re Jim McKelvey, you start a new company that not only solves the problem but blossoms into an industry-changing phenomenon. …
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MacGyver, you probably thought, was a television show from 30 years ago. And it was. But MacGyver is also a verb, now officially recognized as such by the Oxford English Dictionary. The title character from the TV series was a secret agent who always managed to improvise his way out of critical situations. MacGyver’s extraordinary…
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For some people, “culture” is little more than soft and fuzzy stuff like beanbag seats and foosball tables in the employee lounge. But it’s much more than that. An organization’s culture includes all the values and “rules”—both written and unwritten—that affect people’s behaviors. It includes the way people interact, how they make decisions, how they…
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Late every year it’s college football’s championship bowl season. One more chance for the players to strut their stuff. And another round of post-game interviews with the coaches. Soaked in celebratory Gatorade, the coaches often sound as though they use the same crib sheet of clichés: “Our guys came to play.” “We managed to overcome…
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