Category: Business

I've seen a surprising number of negative things written about Seth Godin's new book All Marketers Are Liars. (the most recent, that spawned this post, is here.) I think the people that are saying these things either a)didn't read the book or b)don't understand it. Let's back up for a minute. Remember all those cognitive […]

The phone rang Friday and despite the fact that it was a number I didn't recognize, I answered it. It was a telemarketer for Discover Card. (They need to get their information systems in sync – I already have a Discover Card) My mind began to wander, thinking if I should tell her the truth […]

This is interesting. Shortly after stepping down as chief executive officer of IBM Corp. in 2002, Louis V. Gerstner addressed MBA students at Harvard Business School. "The thing I have learned at IBM," he said, "is that culture is everything." That's no insignificant statement coming from the outsider who joined the ailing computer company in […]

Dr. Jeff Cornwall has an excellent post about the importance of self-reflection for entrepreneurs. Beyond understanding if entrepreneurship is the right path, self-assessment helps entrepreneurs better define the ideal size and scope of the business before it even begins, by integrating their personal financial, family and other personal goals into the mix. I even find […]

Twenty-five percent of bankrupt entrepreneurs planned to start another company immediately. We all know entrepreneurs are supposed to be risk takers. But this is off the charts. An SBA-sponsored study of 3,400 entrepreneurs whose companies had actually driven them into bankruptcy found that 25% planned to start another company immediately. When asked, "If you were […]

This piece by Wayne Dunn asks an interesting question…why is there no auto-insurance crisis? Is there something special about health insurance that makes it crisis-prone? I mean, we never hear about the horrible "house insurance crisis" or the "spiraling cost of auto insurance." It wouldn't be too hard to create such a crisis though. In […]

Jeff Cornwall has the latest on tax myths. Interesting stuff, so be sure to check it out.

Psychoanalyst Kets de Vries offer insights into the mind of a leader. Leadership is the global obsession. Thousands of recent books—many of them best sellers—have dissected the leadership styles of great leaders from Jesus to Jefferson. Business writers, too, have joined the frenzy. The trouble is, much of the business literature on leadership—unlike the broader […]

Here is a story that warms the heart of businesspundits like myself. It is about a guy who has never applied for a real job – just invented things and sold off companies. John Osher holds out his battery-powered toothbrush. It's encased in clear plastic as if it has just been pulled from the rack […]

This article makes some really good points about the way companies have to compete today. Well, here it is. A simple Theory of Everything in Business: in an oversupplied economy, customer feelings drive purchase decisions and profitability. Are you competing in a market category oversupplied with interchangeable products or services? Can customers easily (remember, this […]

Unfortunately, this article from The Econmist is available to subscribers only. But it is really interesting, so at the risk of getting in trouble, here is the good part: In his book "Why Innovation Fails"*, Carl Franklin quotes an intriguing study by three academics, Donald Lehmann at Columbia University in New York, and Jacob Goldenberg […]

They do slightly, according to this study at Northwestern. The meta-analysis showed that women are more likely than men to use leadership styles that other studies have shown produce better worker performance and effectiveness in today's world. Specifically, women were more likely to be transformational leaders, defined as those who serve as role models, mentor […]