Educators talk about ABCs. Nonprofit leaders talk about sustainability. Policymakers talk about getting bang for the buck. CEOs talk about being built to last. It’s all about the infrastructure. I’m just back from a quick road trip that took me zipping along the...
I've been watching a team underperform for months. When the team assembled in the preseason, the manager proclaimed “championship or bust.” The pundits marveled at their skill and the depth of the talent. And the players looked around at how awesome they all were....
By now you've probably heard that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is purchasing the Washington Post. It's always noteworthy when a major media company changes hands--and often, in my opinion, this has not turned out to be in the best interest of journalism, readers, or an...
The blog is back! Not that it really went anywhere. My Fourth of July holiday weekend started off great—and then I got sick. Not seriously-ill, in-the-hospital sick; just miserable enough to spend 10 days in bed and almost totally offline—and another two weeks...
There's a show on ESPN called Numbers Never Lie. As part of the brand, ESPN has done a series of short illustrated videos talking about sports figures (or sports events) and numbers. Simple numbers. Ratios. Statistics. Data. Numbers matter. I was at an event recently...
The Wall Street Journal's At Work blog has an interesting post on recruiters who use location-based apps to find prospects. The author points to a recruiter who drives around New York in a cab looking for Highlight users, and she asks: What’s your take on...
Are you a specialist or a generalist? My friend Kellye Crane asked me to lead a discussion on this topic at the Solo PR Summit later this week. She's an advocate for vertical integration--picking your industry or sector and drilling down (for clients) from there. I...
Did you know that the average person spends 40 percent of his or her job on sales? That works out to 24 minutes per hour. In a fascinating conversation with Jonathan Fields, Daniel Pink said that "the technology that was supposed to obliterate sales has turned more of...
Edelman's 2013 Trust Barometer came out earlier this month, and it has some interesting takeaways for companies and how they do business. The survey identifies five "trust performance clusters"--engagement, integrity, products and services, purpose, and...
Have you ever had someone you don’t know contact you about a project? People think this is good fortune—but it’s not. Work doesn't just drop into your lap. Good fortune comes from doing all the little things right. Successful business development is far more about...