Hamza Kahn is an award-winning marketer, successful entrepreneur, and keynote speaker. We watched a TED talk of his wherein he talked about Theory X vs. Theory Y. To be honest, we weren’t familiar with either one of these theories. But Theory X, he explained, holds that employees are lazy, can’t be trusted, and dislike work.
“When was the last time you did something for the first time?”
George Romney once said, “There is nothing more vulnerable than entrenched success.” In other words, we get a little success under our belt and there’s a risk that we become fat, dumb, and happy . . . in short, complacent. Hubris sets in and some rigor leaves. We take our foot off the gas a
“I do not believe you can do today’s job with yesterday’s methods and be in business tomorrow.”
For most of us, when we think about innovation, we think about companies like Apple, Microsoft, or Google. We think about breakthrough, disruptive technologies like the GraphicalUser Interface which took access to the Worldwide Web from the hands of a few geeks who could write computer code and gave it to the masses. In other
“Much of what we call management today consists of making it difficult for people to work.”
Noted business author and keynote speaker, Dan Pink, talks about motivation . . . a lot. He talks about what motivates us and what does not. He talks about which motivators work and which do not. One of his favorite topics is “if-then” motivators. “If you do this, then you’ll get that.” Those motivators grew
Solve Problems with Ignorance, Not Experience
“When you’re a little bit dumb and naïve, things get done that no one believed could be done.” We don’t know who said that, but it’s true. Consider the new, fresh-faced young salesman who marches into an account we wrote off long ago as a waste of time. We all laugh at his innocence and
“How High Is Your XQ?”
Earlier this year, Eliza Gray, a staff writer for Time magazine, wrote an article about the “era of optimized hiring.” In it, she explains that many companies today are requiring job applicants to submit to personality tests. And we’re not talking about just applicants for upper management jobs, we’re talking about everybody from the executive
What’s your New Year’s BHAG?
At the start of the year, everybody ought to have a BHAG. For the uninitiated, that’s a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal or bee-hag. And why does everyone need a BHAG? Well, if you’re one of those rare businesses that blew the doors off last year and all you want to do is let the good
Does fear of failure motivate or paralyze you?
There was an interesting article published recently in the Chicago Tribune. In it, a member of Chicago’s iconic business clan, the Pritzkers, talked about failure and the role it has played in shaping his life. While we have discussed failure here in the past, it’s a subject worth revisiting from time to time, if only
Don’t sell goods or services. Sell solutions.
It’s always been tough to differentiate ourselves in the marketplace, to give customers reasons they should do business with us instead of our competitors. And now thanks to the internet, it’s gotten even tougher. At one time, there was some mystery, some mystique about what we did and how we did it. No more. People
Oh, and another thing (about showing initiative)
Our last posting talked about the oft-heard complaint, “Why doesn’t anyone ever show a little initiative around here?” In it, we suggested that a company’s culture needs to make it “safe” for people to take some risks, be creative, and “show some initiative.” We also noted that a company’s values, that collectively make up its
