By kelly | November 20, 2008
In a recent episode of the Podcast HBR IdeaCast titled “Authenticity”a comment was made relating consumer buying habits with authenticity:
“Consumers buy in their own self-image.”
I feel a parallel can be drawn from the concept of Authenticity to Product Design. I have been in the website business for years. Over and over Management struggles with [...]
By kelly | August 20, 2008
After a fun day in Boulder attending the TechStars Investor Day, I thought I would share some thoughts on why I would sacrifice a vacation day to drive to Boulder and listen to a bunch of presentations by startups run by people I’ve never met.
Motivation
Your career can be 2 things: a job that you go [...]
By kelly | August 12, 2008
Joel on Software writes a great article about Starbucks and how they have developed customer services “systems” and “procedures” that are failing.
“If you’re planning to expand your business to a certain scale, you must first establish procedures and build systems to get predictable outcomes so that your employees can produce decent results even when they’re [...]
Gen. Michael Hayden was interviewed on Meet the Press about the Iraq War. He used the term “Natural Break” to describe circumstances that create change or opportunity.
“So I knew if I got to mile 22, there was a natural break that would begin to turn things into my favor.”
We need to look for Natural [...]
Strengths are exploited
Weaknesses are isolated and alternatives sought
Opportunities identified
Threats identified, isolated and alternatives sought
Sometimes terms are used in a meeting, everyone nods their heads in agreement (including me), but then I walk away feeling like I did not understand perfectly what was being said. I have often times seen this as a sales technique….people are afraid to ask questions so the sales person uses terms they realize the [...]
By kelly | April 15, 2008
As I listened to Venture Voice #48 with Frank Addante I thought about how successful people always seem to understand their market incredibly well.
This is, of course, an obvious statement. I wonder though, is this understanding in part due to hindsight? Maybe they got really lucky and can now justify their decisions…when really at the time [...]
This excerpt from Henry David Thoreau’s Walden offers great advice on Business:
Not long since, a strolling Indian went to sell baskets at the house of a well-known lawyer in my neighborhood. “Do you wish to buy any baskets?” he asked. “No, we do not want any,” was the reply. “What!” exclaimed the Indian as he [...]