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...
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...
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...
Years ago, my friend Ellen* confided in me that she wasn't sure whether to accept a promotion because it would put her in the role of supervising her friends. My question to her: If you don't take it, will one of your colleagues snag the job? She accepted the...
This is what I found when I popped over to Google the other day. Obviously not every company can customize its logo for its customers. But what about: Sending a "happy birthday" postcard (as did one of my doctors)? E-mailing a "happy birthday" greeting (race...
I had a conversation with my mom recently about an apparel retailer that is going out of business. She had attributed their fate to a declining economy. My own take: the clothing was staid--and there's a limited market for boring. The company never took a risk. It...