My father makes his students write one-page briefing memos for the Secretary of State. He also dings them for typos. Being concise (and accurate) is a business asset. And it can be the difference between selling your idea (or initiative, or product, or service) and...
Does your corporate culture make sense? There was a terrific interview with Evernote founder Phil Libin recently in which he said, in part: We always try to ask whether a particular policy exists because it’s a default piece of corporate stupidity that everyone...
I went swimsuit shopping the other day. (Stick with me, I promise this post is not really about swimsuit shopping.) The first store specialized in utilitarian swimsuits, which on paper made sense as I was looking for something to actually swim in. But many of the...
There is an interesting study on big retailers and their Facebook pages. STELLAService tested how 20 top retailers handle "general service questions." The results: "Of the 20 retailers measured, five failed to respond to a question posted on their wall within two...
Let's talk about perks and perception. My 5-member condo board voted 2-0, two abstaining, to have a 2-person pilot project to test the process for allowing co-owners to install small washer/dryer machines in their units. Now, a lot of co-owners have been pushing hard...
I listened to the TED talk. I sat through a Webinar on the topic. And, last week, I finally read Drive, a book that's been sitting on my shelf for a while. In Drive, author Daniel Pink examines the research and concludes that business has it all wrong when it comes to...
I had the pleasure of talking with author Phil Simon this morning. His latest book, The Age of the Platform, looks at four 21st-century powerhouse companies (Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google) which have managed to grow big while keeping their competitive edges and...
@dariasteigmanIt's an amazingly small world sometimes, isn't it? — Lawrence Fox (@TheWizardGuy) March 1, 2012 It is a small world. But maybe not in the random way that Lawrence Fox was thinking. I met Fox via LinkedIn when he answered a...
Pricing is one of the trickiest elements in consulting. Whenever I talk to newly minted independents and small business owners, the biggest challenge they face is understanding how much to charge for different services. One colleague told me that the response she...
I wrote recently about the gap between empowered customers and many sales and customer service teams. That post dealt specifically with the disconnect between what a company is offering online and what they're telling you when you call them. And that doesn't even...